Terms of Service

These Terms are a binding agreement between you and MuffinBiter (“MuffinBiter,” “we,” “us”). By creating an account or using MuffinBiter, you accept them. If you don't accept them, don't use MuffinBiter.

Read section 3 carefully. It describes real-world risk, and it includes an assumption of risk and a release of claims. Section 12 requires most disputes to go to individual arbitration and waives class actions — you may opt out of that within 30 days.

1. Who may use MuffinBiter

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter a contract. One account per person. You're responsible for everything that happens under your account, so keep your password to yourself and tell us promptly if you think someone else has access.

You must also be legally entitled to control the dog or dogs you bring — as owner, or with the owner's permission.

2. What MuffinBiter is (and isn't)

MuffinBiter is a coordination tool. It lets you post a “beacon” — a public park and a time — and lets other members join. That's the whole service.

MuffinBiter is not:

a supervisor, chaperone, trainer, or veterinary service;
a verifier of anyone's identity, vaccination records, or dog's temperament;
a party to, participant in, or insurer of any meetup;
the operator of any park. Parks are run by cities, counties and other public agencies with their own rules, hours and closures.

3. Dogs, parks, and real-world risk

Dogs are animals, and interactions between them carry inherent and unavoidable risk. Bites, injuries, illness, escapes, fights and property damage happen at dog parks, including between dogs with no prior history of it. You are solely responsible for your dog, your own conduct, and your own safety at any meetup.

Your obligations

Keep your dog's vaccinations current, including rabies, and comply with your city's licensing requirements.
Represent your dog honestly — size, energy, play style, and any reactivity, guarding, or health issue that another owner would reasonably want to know.
Meet only in public, legal off-leash areas, and follow all posted park rules and local leash laws.
Supervise your dog directly and continuously. Remove them if they or another dog is uncomfortable.
Don't attend if your dog is sick, coughing, in heat, under quarantine, or recovering from surgery.
Don't bring a dog with a history of aggression toward people or dogs to a group meetup.
Clean up after your dog.

Assumption of risk and release

You knowingly and voluntarily assume all risks arising from meetups arranged through MuffinBiter — including risks arising from other members, their dogs, park conditions, and your own dog. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you release and discharge MuffinBiter, its operators, officers and agents from any and all claims, demands and damages arising out of or relating to any meetup, any interaction with another member or their dog, or your use of any park.

You are responsible for any injury or damage your dog causes. Under California law, dog owners are generally strictly liable for bite injuries — that liability is yours, not ours.

Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by our own gross negligence or willful misconduct. California Civil Code section 1542 provides that a general release does not extend to claims a creditor does not know of at the time; to the extent permitted by law and with respect to claims arising from meetups, you waive section 1542.

4. Community conduct

Be a decent human. The Community Guidelines are part of these Terms. In short: no harassment, threats, hate speech, spam, impersonation, sexual content, or using MuffinBiter to meet people under false pretenses. Chat exists to coordinate playdates.

We may remove content, and suspend or terminate accounts, that violate these Terms or make the community unsafe. Where it's reasonable and lawful to do so, we'll tell you why.

5. Your content

You keep ownership of the photos and text you post. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce and display that content solely to operate and provide MuffinBiter — for example, showing your dog's photo to members of a beacon you joined. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies already in routine backups, which age out on our normal cycle.

Don't post content you don't have the right to share, and don't post other people's photos or personal information without their permission.

6. Copyright and the DMCA

If you believe content on MuffinBiter infringes your copyright, send a notice to hello@muffinbiter.com with: your contact details, an identification of the work, the URL of the material, a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorised, a statement under penalty of perjury that your notice is accurate and that you're authorised to act, and your signature. We remove infringing material and terminate repeat infringers. You may submit a counter-notice if you believe material was removed in error.

7. Paid features

The core of MuffinBiter — finding, posting, joining and chatting in beacons — is free and will remain free. Optional supporter contributions (“Founding Member”) are processed by Stripe; we never see or store your card details. Prices are shown before you're charged. Contributions are voluntary support for the project and are generally non-refundable, but if something went wrong, email us — we'd rather fix it than argue about it. We will never charge you without your explicit, informed consent.

8. Availability and changes to the service

We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of MuffinBiter. We'll give reasonable notice of material changes where we can. The service is provided on an “as available” basis and may have downtime, bugs, or data loss.

9. Termination

You can delete your account at any time from your profile. Deletion removes your account, dogs, beacon memberships, messages and photos as described in the Privacy Policy. We may suspend or terminate accounts that breach these Terms, create risk for other members, or where required by law. Sections 3, 5 (as to the licence for already-shared content), 10, 11, 12 and 13 survive termination.

10. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, MuffinBiter is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any information about a park — hours, rules, fencing, closures — is current or accurate. Park information is provided as a convenience; the sign at the gate is the authority.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, MuffinBiter and its operators will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, goodwill, or personal injury arising from your use of MuffinBiter or any meetup.

Our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to MuffinBiter is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) US$100.

Some jurisdictions don't allow certain exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless MuffinBiter and its operators from any claim, loss or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of MuffinBiter, your content, your dog's conduct, or your breach of these Terms.

13. Disputes — informal resolution, then arbitration

Talk to us first

Before starting any formal proceeding, email hello@muffinbiter.com describing the problem and what you'd like. Most things get resolved here. Give us 60 days.

Arbitration and class waiver

If we can't resolve it, you and MuffinBiter agree that any dispute will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered under the rules of a recognised arbitration provider, seated in Los Angeles County, California or, at your election, remotely or in your home county. You and we each waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action or class arbitration.

Exceptions. Either party may bring a claim in small claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief for intellectual-property misuse. Nothing here prevents you from filing a complaint with a government agency.

30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing hello@muffinbiter.com with the subject “Arbitration Opt-Out” within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out costs you nothing and doesn't affect anything else in this agreement.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Where arbitration doesn't apply, the courts located in Los Angeles County, California have exclusive jurisdiction.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. If a change is material, we'll notify you in the app or by email at least 14 days before it takes effect, and update the version number at the top of this page. Continuing to use MuffinBiter after that means you accept the new version. If you don't, delete your account — that's always an option and it costs you nothing.

16. General

If any provision is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Our failure to enforce something isn't a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor in a merger or acquisition. These Terms plus the Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines are the entire agreement between us.

17. Contact

MuffinBiter, Los Angeles, California, United States.
hello@muffinbiter.com

Plain-language note. These documents are written to be readable rather than impressive. If anything here is unclear, email hello@muffinbiter.com and we'll explain it — and probably rewrite it.

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