The deal, in plain words.

Hackyard (hackyard.tech) is operated by Matthew Hixon ("Hackyard", "we", "us"), an individual based in Pennsylvania, USA. These terms, together with the rules & FAQ and the privacy policy, are the whole agreement between you and us.

Hackyard runs small, capped hackathons called Yards. It's free. There's no paid tier, no entry fee, and nothing you have to buy to compete. How a Yard works, spots, voting, badges, what's enforced and what isn't, is spelled out in the rules & FAQ, which is part of these terms.

You need to be at least 13 to use Hackyard. If you're under 18, you need a parent or guardian's permission first. You also need to be able to form a binding agreement and not be barred from using the service under the laws that apply to you. When you sign up, the details you give us should be accurate and yours.

You need an account to claim a spot, submit, or vote. Keep your login details to yourself, you're responsible for what happens under your account. One account per person. Extra accounts made to vote more than once will be removed along with their votes.

You own everything you build. Hackyard claims no ownership of your project, your code, or your idea. We don't take equity, revenue, or a licence to commercialise your work.

So that we can actually show your build, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, and feature what you submit, your screenshot, writeup, repo link, and demo, and your public profile, on the site and to promote it, including on our social accounts and in a champion writeup. That's the only reason the licence exists, and you can ask us to stop featuring you at any time.

Yards require a public repo, so what you submit will be open to everyone under whatever licence you choose. Don't submit anything you're not free to make public.

Don't do these:

• Submit work that isn't yours, or that you can't open-source
• Post anything that infringes someone else's copyright, trademark, or other rights
• Make extra accounts to vote for yourself or to pad a count
• Post anything hateful, harassing, sexual, or illegal
• Post intimate images of anyone without their consent (see below)
• Upload malware, or anything designed to harm other users or their machines
• Harass other builders, on the site or about the site
• Attack the site, scrape it, or try to reach data that isn't yours

Some rules we enforce in the database and some we trust you on. The FAQ says exactly which is which, so nobody has to guess.

If you believe something on Hackyard copies your work without permission, tell us through the contact page and include: what's yours, a link to where it appears on Hackyard, your contact details, and a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use isn't authorized and that your notice is accurate. We remove infringing material when a valid notice checks out, and we remove accounts that infringe repeatedly. If your work was taken down by mistake, you can send us a counter-notice and we'll take a look.

This is never allowed on Hackyard, and US law requires us to act fast. If an intimate image of you (including a fake or AI-generated one) has been posted here without your consent, report it right away through the contact page or to @HackyardSocial. Tell us where it is and enough for us to identify it. We will remove reported non-consensual intimate imagery within 48 hours of a valid request, and make a reasonable effort to remove any copies.

Most Yards are played for the badge, the win, and the recognition, no prize of monetary value. Entry is always free and never requires a purchase. Winners are chosen on merit by the community vote, not by chance.

When a Yard offers a prize (for example a sponsored Yard), that Yard will post its own official rules covering who's eligible, what the prize is, how the winner is picked and notified, and any deadlines. Prizes are void where prohibited, eligibility may be limited by your location or age, and any taxes on a prize are the winner's responsibility. The Yard's posted rules control if anything there differs from this page.

We can remove a submission, a build note, or an account, for the things listed above. If it's a judgement call rather than something obvious, we'll say publicly what was removed and why.

This power exists for conduct only. It is never used because of who is winning, and it is the single exception to the rule that Hackyard doesn't interfere in outcomes. There is no judging panel and no organizer override of a vote, the top vote-getter wins, whoever they are. If we ever removed a build to change who won, the whole thing would be worthless.

You can stop using Hackyard whenever you want, and you can ask us to delete your account (see the privacy policy). We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, using the conduct-only limits described above. If your account ends, the parts of these terms that should reasonably survive, like the ownership, liability, and legal sections, still apply.

Hackyard runs on Supabase, Vercel, and Brevo, and links out to things like your GitHub repo and demo. We're not responsible for those third-party sites or services, or for anything you find by following a link someone posted. Your use of them is between you and them.

Hackyard is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind. It's a free service run by one person, things may break, a Yard may be delayed, and we can't promise the site is always available, error-free, or secure. Back up anything you care about; your code should live in your own repo, not only here.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Hackyard and Matthew Hixon won't be liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for lost data, profits, or opportunities, arising from your use of the site. Because Hackyard is free, our total liability to you for any claim is capped at USD 100. Nothing here limits liability that can't be limited by law, or removes rights you have that can't be waived.

If your use of Hackyard, or something you post, causes a claim against us, for example because it wasn't yours to post or it broke these terms, you agree to cover the reasonable costs we face as a result, to the extent the law allows. In plain terms: you're responsible for what you put here.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. If we ever disagree, let's try to sort it out directly first, reach out and we'll do our honest best. Anything that can't be resolved that way belongs in the state or federal courts located in Pennsylvania, and you agree to that venue. There's no forced arbitration here.

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands. Not enforcing a rule once doesn't mean we've given it up. You can't transfer your account or these terms to someone else; we may transfer them if Hackyard's operation ever moves, and we'll say so if that happens. These terms, the FAQ, and the privacy policy are the entire agreement between us.

If these terms change in a way that affects you, we'll say so rather than editing quietly. Questions: @HackyardSocial or the contact page.