Terms of Service

Effective April 10, 2026

Merrie ("we," "us," "our") operates the website at merrie.co and related services. By creating an account or using Merrie, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use Merrie.

What Merrie is

Merrie is a publishing platform for people who enrich social life in their communities. Curators share editorial picks about local events. Groups organize gatherings and manage their communities. Venues share their programming. We provide the tools; you provide the content.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use Merrie. If you are under 18, you represent that a parent or guardian has reviewed and consents to these terms.

Your account

You need an email address to create an account. You're responsible for the activity on your account. One account per person. Don't share your login credentials.

Your content and our two-layer model

Merrie distinguishes between two categories of content. Understanding this distinction matters because they have different rules.

Event data (open, permanent)

Event data — titles, dates, times, locations, descriptions — represents public facts about things happening in the world. When you create or contribute event data through Merrie, it is published to the Neighborhood Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.

This is permanent and irrevocable. Event facts are public knowledge. They don't become private again because you close your account, and they can't be recalled from the Commons. Other applications and services can use this data with attribution. This is how Merrie works — it's a contribution to shared infrastructure for community life.

Editorial content (yours, not open)

You own what you write on Merrie. Blurbs, essays, collection commentary, posters, newsletters — this is your editorial voice, and it is not released under an open license.

By publishing on Merrie, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide license to display, distribute, and promote your editorial content as part of the service. This license exists so we can operate — show your page, deliver your newsletters, include your collections in browse results, surface your picks in the Fiber app. If you delete your content or your account, this license ends (except for copies already distributed through the service, such as newsletters already delivered).

Your representations

By using Merrie, you represent that:

  • Content you publish is yours or you have the right to share it
  • Event data you contribute is accurate to the best of your knowledge
  • Subscriber email addresses on your list were given to you with consent
  • If you manage a page for a group or venue, you have authority to act on its behalf

What you can't do

Don't use Merrie to:

  • Post content that is illegal, threatening, harassing, defamatory, or obscene
  • Promote violence, hatred, or discrimination against any person or group
  • Spam, phish, or distribute malware
  • Impersonate another person, business, or organization
  • Scrape, crawl, or programmatically access the service in ways that degrade it for others
  • Upload content you don't have the right to share
  • Import email addresses of people who haven't given you permission to contact them
  • Use the platform to promote events or activities whose primary purpose is to harm, defraud, or endanger others

Content moderation

Merrie exists to serve communities with positive social value. We reserve the right to remove content or suspend accounts at our sole discretion if we determine they don't align with that purpose.

We commit to notifying you before or at the time of moderation action whenever possible. If we remove content or restrict your account, we will tell you what we found, which provision it falls under, and how to reach us if you believe we got it wrong. The only exceptions are cases involving imminent harm, legal obligation, or spam at a scale that makes individual notice impractical.

We aren't obligated to monitor all content, but we may review content that is reported or that comes to our attention.

Copyright and DMCA

We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe content on Merrie infringes your copyright, send a notice to [email protected] with:

  • A description of the copyrighted work
  • The URL of the infringing content on Merrie
  • Your contact information
  • A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized
  • A statement under penalty of perjury that your notice is accurate and you are the rights holder or authorized to act on their behalf

We will remove or disable access to infringing content promptly. We will notify the contributor whose content was removed and provide them with the opportunity to submit a counter-notice if they believe the takedown was in error.

Newsletters and email

When you send newsletters through Merrie, you are the sender. You are responsible for having proper consent from every subscriber on your list. Subscribers can unsubscribe at any time with one click. We enforce a send limit per contributor per month.

If you import email addresses, you represent that every person on that list has given you explicit permission to email them. Misuse of the email features — including importing purchased lists or emailing people without consent — will result in immediate suspension.

How content surfaces elsewhere

Content published on Merrie may appear in other applications that consume the Neighborhood Commons data layer or the Merrie content API. Event picks may surface in the Fiber app or in third-party applications built on the open data standard. Your editorial voice (blurbs, commentary) travels with the event data it annotates, through authorized channels — not the open data layer.

Event data accuracy

Event information on Merrie is provided by contributors. We do not independently verify event times, locations, descriptions, or whether an event is still happening. If accuracy matters to you (and it should), check with the organizer.

Anti-lock-in pledge

We will never hold your data hostage. You can export your profile, collections, editorial content, and subscriber list from your workspace at any time.

If we ever shut down Merrie or discontinue the service, we commit to providing at least 60 days notice and a working export tool so you can take everything with you. Event data in the Neighborhood Commons survives independently — it doesn't depend on Merrie existing.

This isn't a courtesy. It's a structural commitment. Platforms that trap your data don't respect you. We'd rather you stay because Merrie is good than because leaving is hard.

Open data commitment

The Neighborhood Commons is designed to outlast any single product. Event data contributed through Merrie is published under CC BY 4.0 and stored in infrastructure that is independent of Merrie's operation. If Merrie ceases to exist, the Commons persists. The public record of community life does not depend on us.

We will not retroactively change the license on data already published to the Commons. We will not restrict access to Commons data to favor our own products. The open data layer is open permanently.

Transparency

We intend to publish an annual transparency report covering: the number of content removals and account suspensions, the number of government or law enforcement data requests received and how we responded, and the number of DMCA takedown notices processed. We believe accountability requires visibility.

Termination and account closure

You can close your account at any time by emailing us at [email protected]. When you do:

  • We'll complete removal of your account data within 30 days
  • Your editorial content (blurbs, essays, posters, newsletters) will be removed from Merrie and will no longer surface in partner applications
  • Your subscriber list will be deleted from our systems. Export it first if you want to keep it
  • Event data published to the Neighborhood Commons remains. It's open data. This is explained at signup and throughout these terms

We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these terms. If we do, we will follow the notification process described in the Content Moderation section.

Availability and changes

We'll do our best to keep Merrie running, but we don't guarantee uptime. We may change, suspend, or discontinue features. For significant changes, we'll give at least 14 days notice by email.

We may update these terms. If we make material changes, we'll notify you by email at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after changes means you accept them.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Merrie and its operators from claims, damages, or expenses arising from: your content, your use of the email features, your violation of these terms, or your violation of any third party's rights. This is standard protection so that if your content causes a problem, the problem stays with the person who created it.

Limitation of liability

Merrie is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We are not liable for any damages arising from your use of the service, including but not limited to lost data, lost revenue, or reputational harm. Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the amount you've paid us (which, since Merrie is free, is zero).

We are not liable for the accuracy of event information, the behavior of other contributors, the delivery or non-delivery of emails, or the availability of the service at any particular time.

Disputes

If you have a dispute with us, email [email protected] first. We'll try to resolve it within 30 days. If we can't, these terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and any legal action will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

Nothing in this section prevents you from bringing a claim in small claims court if your claim qualifies.

General

If any provision of these terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force. We may assign these terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. You may not assign your rights under these terms without our consent. These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Merrie.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Email us at [email protected].