Terms of service

These terms are a work in progress. We are a small team still shaping Forktales, and this page will change as the product does. When it does, we update the date above and, for changes that matter, let you know.

1. Who we are, and agreeing to these terms

Forktales is a recipe box you share only with your friends. It is made and run by a small team based in British Columbia, Canada ("Forktales", "we", "us"), reachable at hello@forktales.app. The app lives at eat.forktales.app and this site at www.forktales.app.

By creating an account or using Forktales you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy and community guidelines. If you do not agree, please do not use Forktales.

2. Eligibility

You must be old enough to agree to terms like these where you live. If you are a minor, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms for you. If you are using Forktales on behalf of someone else, you confirm you are allowed to.

3. Your account

• You sign in with an email magic link or with Google. There are no passwords, so anyone who can read your email can get into your account. Keep your email account secure and tell us at once if you think someone else has used your Forktales account.
• One account per person. Do not share your account or use someone else's.
• Your handle is 3 to 30 characters of lowercase letters, digits and underscores. Pick one that does not impersonate another person or brand and that is not offensive. We may reclaim a handle that breaks these rules.
• You are responsible for what happens under your account.

4. Invites

Every member has a friend link to share, by email or any other way. Anyone who signs up through it is recorded as invited by that member.

When you join through an invite you arrive already friends with the person who invited you, so they will see your posts and you will see theirs until either of you unfriends the other. Do not sell invites, post them publicly or send them to people you do not know.

When someone who joined through your invite adds their first recipe of their own, you each receive 5 credits, as described in section 7. You can receive at most 200 credits this way in a calendar month. We may take back credits earned through an account created to collect them, from both people, and delete that account.

5. Your content

You own the photos, captions, recipes and comments you post (your "content"). We do not claim them.

So that Forktales can work, you give us permission to host, store, resize and display your content to you and to the friends you choose to share it with, and to make the copies needed to run backups and deliver the service. This permission is worldwide and free of charge, and it lasts as long as your content is on Forktales.

When a friend saves (forks) one of your recipes, they get their own copy to make their own. If you later delete the recipe or your account, your original goes, but copies your friends already saved stay with them, attributed to "a deleted user".

Only post content you have the right to post. Do not post other people's photos or recipes as your own, or anything that would break the law or someone else's rights.

6. Acceptable use

Be kind, be honest and keep it about food. The community guidelines spell out what is and is not welcome. In short: no harassment, no impersonation, no illegal content, no spam and no attempts to break, scrape or overload the service or get into accounts or data that are not yours.

7. Free features, credits and paid features

The core of Forktales is free, and we intend to keep it that way. Posting, asking for and sharing recipes, writing, saving and forking them cost nothing, and so does cook mode. We may change the limits that apply to accounts, for example how much you can store. If a change would affect your existing account, we will tell you first.

Credits. Features that use an AI model spend credits: a recipe scan, a link read by AI and a nutrition estimate each spend one credit when they succeed, and nothing when they fail. You receive 5 credits once when you join. You can earn more through invites (section 4) and through the daily quiz on our website, which pays 5 credits for a perfect round saved to its leaderboard, at most once a week. Credits do not expire, however you got them. They have no cash value and cannot be transferred to another member or exchanged for money. They are deleted with your account (section 8). We may change which features spend credits and how many, and we will tell you before a change that affects you takes effect.

Credit packs. A pack is a one-time payment for a set number of credits. If a pack is refunded, the credits remaining from it are removed.

Forktales Plus. Plus is a subscription, paid monthly or yearly, that renews at the end of each period until you cancel. While you have Plus, features that use an AI model spend no credits, up to 300 uses in a calendar month. Past that they spend your credits. You can cancel at any time from the Plus page in the app. Plus then lasts until the end of the period you have paid for, and that period is not refunded. If a renewal payment fails and cannot be collected, Plus ends.

Prices are shown in Canadian dollars in the app before you pay. Payments are processed by Stripe under its own terms, and we never see your full card details. Nothing in these terms limits a right to a refund or cancellation that the consumer law where you live gives you.

8. Ending your account

You can delete your account yourself from your profile page at any time. Deletion takes effect straight away. It removes your profile, your recipes, your ratings, your favourites, your friendships and your credits, signs you out and frees your handle. Copies of your recipes that friends already saved stay with them, attributed to "a deleted user". Nothing is refunded.

If you have a Plus subscription, deleting your account cancels it at once. The rest of the period you paid for is not refunded, and you are not charged again.

We may delete an account that breaks these terms or the community guidelines, including abusive behaviour towards other members or accounts made to collect credits, or where we are required to by law. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond first.

9. Availability and changes to the service

Forktales is a young product made by a small team. We work hard to keep it running, but we do not promise it will always be available, error-free or unchanged. We may add, change or remove features, and we may pause or stop the service. If we ever shut Forktales down we will give you reasonable notice and a way to get your recipes out.

Please keep your own copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.

10. Disclaimers and limits on our liability

Forktales is provided "as is". Recipes and comments come from other members, not from us. We do not check them for accuracy, safety, allergens or dietary suitability, and you use them at your own risk. Always use your own judgement when cooking, especially around allergies, food safety and children.

The core of Forktales is free, so we ask for this in return: to the fullest extent the law where you live allows, we are not liable for indirect losses, lost data, or losses caused by things outside our reasonable control, and our liability to you for anything arising from these terms or the service is limited accordingly. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, and nothing in them removes rights you have as a consumer that cannot be excluded.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, and disputes go to the courts of British Columbia. If you live somewhere else and your local law gives you extra consumer protections, you keep them.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. When we do, we will post the new version here with a new date at the top. If you keep using Forktales after a change takes effect, you accept it. If you do not, you can delete your account.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email hello@forktales.app or see the contact page. We are a small team and we read every message.