Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Vortex Enterprises (a registered trade name; not a separately incorporated company) ("Vortex," "we," "us," or "our"), the operator of Vortex (the app, website at vtx.chat, Discord bot, and related services, together the "Service"). By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Community Guidelines, which are incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you are using the Service on behalf of a guild, organization, or other group, you represent that you have authority to bind that group to these Terms, and "you" refers to both you and that group.

2. Eligibility & Age Requirements

You must be at least 13 years old to create a Vortex account. This is a floor set by U.S. law (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, "COPPA"), not a target age - if the minimum age where you live is higher, you must meet that higher age instead. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may only use the Service with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, and they are responsible for your compliance with these Terms.

We ask for your birthdate during account setup and use it to enforce this minimum age. If our records show you're under 13, your account is automatically locked until our records show you've reached the minimum age - you cannot bypass this by changing your listed birthdate. Knowingly providing a false birthdate to circumvent this restriction is itself a violation of these Terms. See Children's Privacy in our Privacy Policy for how we handle information collected during this process.

You also may not use the Service if you're barred from doing so under the laws of the United States or any other applicable jurisdiction, or if we've previously terminated your account for a violation of these Terms or our Community Guidelines.

3. Accounts

• You must provide accurate registration information and keep your email address current - we use it for account security, verification, and required notices.
• You're responsible for everything that happens under your account, whether or not you authorized it, except to the extent it results from our failure to maintain reasonable security. Keep your password confidential and enable available security features (passkeys, multi-factor authentication) if you want stronger protection.
• Tell us immediately at admin@vortexos.net or via a support ticket if you believe your account has been compromised.
• One account per person. Creating additional accounts to evade a suspension, ban, or platform restriction is prohibited and may result in all linked accounts being suspended.
• You may link a Discord account to your Vortex account. Doing so lets Vortex read the limited Discord profile information needed for linking (such as your Discord ID) and lets certain Vortex actions (like staff moderation commands) apply to your Vortex account from within Discord. You can unlink your Discord account at any time from your settings, subject to any active restriction preventing it.

4. Acceptable Use

Our Community Guidelines set out detailed rules for behavior and content and are part of these Terms. At minimum, you agree not to:

• Violate any applicable law, or these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or our Privacy Policy;
• Upload, send, or otherwise distribute any child sexual abuse material, or any content that sexually exploits or endangers a minor - this results in an immediate permanent ban and a report to NCMEC and/or law enforcement as required by law (see Privacy Policy and our Law Enforcement Guidelines);
• Harass, threaten, dox, or incite violence against any person or group;
• Upload or transmit malware, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other users' accounts, or our systems;
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service, including through excessive automated requests, denial-of-service attempts, or circumventing rate limits, filters, or moderation tooling;
• Reverse engineer, scrape, or build unauthorized clients or bots against the Service except where an official API or integration is provided for that purpose;
• Use the Service to send unsolicited bulk messages, spam, or engage in fraud, phishing, or deceptive commercial activity; or
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service or your account without our written permission.

5. Your Content & Our License

5.1 You own what you create

You retain ownership of the messages, images, files, and other content you submit to the Service ("Your Content"). We don't claim ownership of it.

5.2 License you grant us

To operate the Service, you grant Vortex a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, cache, reproduce, transmit, display, and process Your Content solely as necessary to provide, secure, and improve the Service (for example, delivering your messages to their recipients, generating thumbnails, and running automated safety scans described in our Privacy Policy). This license ends when you delete Your Content or your account, except where a copy reasonably persists in backups, security logs, or as required by law or our Law Enforcement Guidelines.

5.3 Automated content screening

Images and files you upload are automatically screened by a content moderation system for policy-violating material - including sexual content, graphic violence, and content that appears to depict child sexual abuse - before they can be viewed by others. Messages and shared links may be automatically screened against third-party threat databases (such as Google Safe Browsing) for malware and phishing. Automated screening is a first line of defense, not a guarantee; we also rely on human review and user reports to catch what it misses. See our Privacy Policy for details.

5.4 Responsibility for Your Content

You're solely responsible for Your Content and the consequences of posting it. You represent that you own it or have the necessary rights and permissions to post it, and that it doesn't violate these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or any law or third-party right.

5.5 Our content

The Service itself - including its software, design, logos, the Vortex name, and all associated branding - is owned by Vortex or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property law. Nothing in these Terms grants you rights to it beyond what's needed to use the Service as intended.

5.6 Feedback

If you send us feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Service, you agree we can use them without restriction or obligation to you.

6. Copyright Infringement / DMCA

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you believe content on Vortex infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our designated agent that includes:

1. Your physical or electronic signature;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed;
3. Identification of the material claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to locate it on the Service (e.g. a link, channel, or message);
4. Your contact information (address, phone number, email);
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you're authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Send notices to our designated DMCA agent: Copyright Agent, Vortex Enterprises, 240 N Broadway, Denver, CO 80203, or by email to admin@vortexos.net with "DMCA" in the subject line.

If you believe content was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notice with your identification of the removed content, a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief it was removed by mistake, your consent to the jurisdiction of the applicable federal court, and your contact information. We may restore the content within the timeframe required by the DMCA unless the original complainant files a court action.

We terminate accounts of users determined to be repeat infringers where appropriate.

7. Purchases, Subscriptions & Virtual Items

7.1 What you can buy

Vortex offers optional paid features, including subscription ranks, store items, and gifting of ranks or upgrades to other users, along with a virtual credit balance and redeemable codes used within the Service.

7.2 Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. We don't store your full card number. By making a purchase, you also agree to Stripe's terms for the payment itself. You represent that you're authorized to use the payment method provided.

7.3 Subscriptions & auto-renewal

Subscription ranks automatically renew and charge your payment method at the end of each billing period until you cancel. Pricing and billing frequency are disclosed before you complete a purchase. You can cancel auto-renewal at any time from your account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep access until then. We don't provide partial-period refunds for cancelling early.

7.4 Refunds

Purchases of virtual items, credits, redeem codes, and delivered subscription periods are generally final and non-refundable once delivered, except where required by law (for example, statutory consumer withdrawal rights in your jurisdiction, or where a purchase was unauthorized or resulted from a billing error). If you believe you were charged in error, contact admin@vortexos.net or open a billing support ticket.

7.5 Virtual currency & items have no cash value

Vortex credits, store items, ranks, badges, and redeem codes are a limited, non-transferable license to use a feature of the Service - they are not currency, property, or a stored-value instrument, have no real-world monetary value, cannot be redeemed for cash, and cannot be sold, traded, or transferred outside the Service's built-in gifting features. We may modify, discontinue, or adjust the availability, pricing, or balance of virtual items at any time, including on account termination.

7.6 Chargebacks

Disputing a legitimate charge with your bank or card issuer while keeping the associated benefit is treated as fraud under our Community Guidelines and may result in the benefit being revoked and the account being suspended or terminated, independent of any outcome of the chargeback itself.

8. Third-Party Services

The Service integrates with and relies on third-party providers, including Discord (account linking, bot functionality, and optional message bridging), Stripe (payments), and content delivery for uploaded images and shared links. Some features (for example, the music bot) retrieve content from third-party platforms like YouTube at your request. Your use of those third-party platforms through Vortex is also subject to their own terms, and we're not responsible for their content, availability, or practices. If a linked Discord server or third-party integration is not made available by us, we're not responsible for what happens there, though our Community Guidelines still apply to your conduct as it relates to Vortex.

9. Moderation, Suspension & Termination

We may remove content, restrict features, or warn, mute, suspend, or permanently ban accounts that violate these Terms or our Community Guidelines, at our discretion and based on severity and history as described there. We may also suspend or terminate access to protect the Service, other users, or comply with a legal obligation, with or without prior notice where notice isn't practical (for example, active fraud or an imminent safety issue).

If your account is suspended, you may generally appeal through the in-app appeal flow or a support ticket, except for the zero-tolerance violations described in our Community Guidelines, which are not eligible for reinstatement.

You may stop using the Service and request deletion of your account at any time through account settings or a support ticket. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 5, 6, 7.5, 10, 11, 12, and 13) continue to apply after your account is closed.

10. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DON'T WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE, THAT CONTENT-SCREENING SYSTEMS WILL CATCH EVERY VIOLATION, OR THAT ANY DEFECT WILL BE CORRECTED. YOU USE THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Some jurisdictions don't allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of these exclusions may not apply to you.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VORTEX AND ITS OPERATOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE'VE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE, OR (B) USD $50. Some jurisdictions don't allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for certain damages, so some of these limitations may not apply to you.

12. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Vortex, its operator, and their agents from any claims, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: your use of the Service; Your Content; your violation of these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or applicable law; or your violation of any third-party right.

13. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles, except where a mandatory consumer-protection or data-protection law of your own country or state gives you rights these Terms cannot override. Any dispute arising from these Terms or the Service will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Colorado, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. This section does not currently include a mandatory arbitration or class-action-waiver clause; if one is added in the future, it will be presented to you as a material change under Section 14.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service evolves. If we make a material change, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and make reasonable efforts to notify you (such as an in-app notice or email) before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms. If you don't agree, stop using the Service and, if you wish, close your account.

15. Legal Review Status & Good-Faith Compliance

These Terms, our Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, and Law Enforcement Guidelines were prepared without review by a licensed attorney, as a good-faith effort to reflect applicable law as of the Effective Date above. This status does not reduce our obligation to comply with applicable law, and nothing in this section limits or waives any right you have under law that cannot be waived by agreement.

If you believe any provision of these Terms, or of the Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, or Law Enforcement Guidelines, fails to comply with applicable law, tell us at admin@vortexos.net with "Legal Compliance" in the subject line. We will review your notice and respond within 10 business days, and will correct any confirmed deficiency promptly.

These documents will be reviewed by counsel and updated accordingly as that review happens; material changes are handled under Section 14.

16. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Community Guidelines are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service, and supersede any prior agreements on the subject.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remain in full effect, and the unenforceable provision will be interpreted to best reflect its original intent.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision isn't a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, or by operation of law.
• Force majeure. We're not liable for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, including outages of third-party providers we depend on.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to admin@vortexos.net or submitted as a support ticket from Contact Us.