Thinkbase - Terms of Service

Effective Date: May 5, 2026

Last Updated: May 5, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Thinkbase mobile application ("App," "Service"), operated by GROUNDING LLC, a Texas limited liability company headquartered in Houston, Texas ("Company," "we," "us," "our"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Eligibility

1.1 Minimum Age

You must be at least thirteen (13) years of age to create an account or use the Service. By creating an account, you represent and warrant that you are at least 13 years old. We collect your date of birth during registration and verify your age both on the device and on our servers. If we discover that a user is under 13, we will terminate the account and delete all associated data in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

1.2 Parental Consent

If you are between 13 and 17 years of age, you represent that you have obtained the consent of a parent or legal guardian to use the Service and that your parent or guardian has read and agrees to these Terms on your behalf. Parents or guardians may contact us to request deletion of a minor's account.

1.3 Authority

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

1.4 Restricted Persons

You may not use the Service if you have been previously banned from the Service, if you are located in a jurisdiction where use of the Service is prohibited by law, or if you are on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

2. Account Registration and Security

2.1 Account Creation

To use the Service, you must create an account by providing a valid email address or signing in through Apple or Google. You must provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and update such information as necessary.

2.2 Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to notify us immediately at the contact information in Section 19 of any unauthorized access to or use of your account. We are not liable for any loss arising from your failure to safeguard your account.

2.3 Username

You may select a unique username (3-30 characters, alphanumeric and underscores only). We reserve the right to reclaim, reassign, or disable any username at our sole discretion, including usernames that infringe on trademarks, impersonate others, are misleading, or violate these Terms. Username changes are limited to once every 30 days.

2.4 One Account Per Person

Each individual may maintain only one account. Creating multiple accounts for the purpose of evading bans, manipulating opinions, inflating engagement, or any other deceptive purpose is prohibited.

3. User-Generated Content

3.1 Your Content

"User Content" means any arguments, replies, debate submissions, profile information, and other text materials you upload, post, or transmit through the Service. You retain ownership of your User Content, subject to the license granted below.

3.2 License to Us

By posting User Content, you grant GROUNDING LLC a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, distribute, display, and perform your User Content solely in connection with operating, providing, promoting, and improving the Service. "Sublicensable" means we may grant this license to our infrastructure and service providers (e.g., cloud storage, AI analysis services, embedding generation) as necessary to deliver the Service. This license persists for the duration your content remains on the Service and terminates when you delete your content or account, except:

Where your content has been quoted or referenced by other users prior to deletion;
Where copies exist in encrypted backups that are purged within 30 days;
Where retention is required by applicable law.

3.3 Content Representations

By posting User Content, you represent and warrant that:

You own or have the necessary rights and permissions to post the content;
The content does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights.

3.4 Content Standards

You agree not to post User Content that:

Is unlawful, defamatory, libelous, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, harassing, threatening, abusive, or hateful;
Promotes discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or age;
Infringes any patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, or other intellectual property right;
Contains viruses, malware, or any harmful code;
Impersonates any person or entity or misrepresents your affiliation;
Exploits, harms, or attempts to exploit or harm minors in any way;
Promotes violence, self-harm, terrorism, or illegal activity;
Contains personal or confidential information of another person without their consent;
Is deceptive, misleading, or constitutes misinformation intended to cause harm;
Is designed to manipulate debate outcomes or opinion distributions through deception;
Violates any applicable law, regulation, or third-party right.

3.5 Content Moderation and Removal

We reserve the right, but are not obligated, to review, monitor, remove, or disable access to any User Content that we determine, in our sole discretion, violates these Terms, applicable law, or is otherwise harmful or objectionable. We may do so without prior notice. We may also use automated tools, including artificial intelligence, to assist in content moderation and quality assessment.

3.6 No Endorsement

The presence of User Content on the Service does not constitute our endorsement or recommendation of that content, the user who posted it, or any views expressed therein.

4. Debates and Predictions

4.1 Nature of Debates

Debates are structured questions with multiple answer options, created by the platform or submitted by users. Debates have defined lifecycles (open, closing soon, closed, resolved) and may be featured or categorized.

4.2 Predictions and Virtual Points

The Service uses a virtual point system. Points are not real currency and have no monetary value. You cannot purchase, sell, exchange, or redeem points for real money, goods, or services. Points exist solely as a gamification mechanism within the Service. We reserve the right to modify, reset, or adjust point balances at any time without notice or compensation.

4.3 Voting

You may cast one vote per debate on your preferred answer option. You may change your vote until the debate closes. Vote changes are tracked as engagement signals.

4.4 Placing Predictions

You may commit virtual points to opinions on debate outcomes. Opinions are settled when debates are resolved. Points are awarded or deducted based on outcome accuracy. By placing an opinion, you acknowledge that:

The outcome is uncertain and you may forfeit your committed points;
Settlement decisions are made by the platform and are final;
Points have no real-world monetary value.

4.5 Arguments

You may post arguments supporting specific answer options within debates. Arguments support threaded replies and upvoting. Arguments that trigger vote changes are tracked for engagement metrics.

4.6 User Submissions

You may submit debate questions for review. Submissions are analyzed by AI for clarity, toxicity, subjectivity, and duplication. Submissions may be approved, rejected, or require modification. We have no obligation to publish any user-submitted debate.

4.7 Virtual Points Disclaimer

The Service uses a virtual point system for skill-based opinion tracking. Virtual points are not currency and have no monetary value. Points cannot be purchased, sold, exchanged, or redeemed for real money, goods, or services. The Service does not constitute a financial exchange, opinion market, or any form of real-money trading platform.

5. AI Processing and Automated Systems

5.1 Consent to AI Processing

By using the Service, you acknowledge and consent to the AI processing described in this Section. This processing is integral to the core functionality of the Service.

5.2 Recommendation System

The Service uses an AI-powered recommendation system that personalizes the debates you see. This constitutes automated decision-making as defined under certain privacy laws. The system considers factors including:

Semantic similarity between your preference embedding and available debates;
Engagement quality (votes, opinions, and engagement score);
Recency of the debate with exponential decay;
Urgency (debates closing soon receive a boost);
Exploration (a portion of recommendations includes content outside your typical preferences to promote discovery).

You may influence your recommendations by voting, predicting, posting arguments, and browsing categories that interest you.

5.3 Preference Learning

The Service builds a mathematical representation ("preference embedding") of your content preferences based on your engagement behavior, including: votes cast, opinions placed, arguments posted, categories selected, and debates viewed.

This representation is stored in your profile and is used exclusively to personalize your experience on the Service. It is recomputed approximately every 8 hours. We do not use this data for purposes unrelated to the Service.

5.4 Argument Ranking

Arguments within debates are ranked using vector similarity (semantic relevance to the debate context) and engagement signals (upvotes, vote changes triggered). This ranking is automated and may not always be accurate.

5.5 Semantic Search

The Service uses AI-generated vector embeddings to enable semantic search across debates. Your search queries are converted to embeddings and compared against debate embeddings to find relevant results, even when exact keywords don't match.

5.6 Content Generation Pipeline

The Service uses AI to:

Identify debatable topics from publicly available online discussions (e.g., Reddit);
Generate structured debate questions from identified topics;
Assign relevant emoji icons to answer options;
Review user-submitted questions for clarity, toxicity, and duplication.

AI-generated debates are reviewed and may contain errors or biases inherent to automated content generation.

5.7 Duplicate Detection

When debates are submitted, the Service uses two-stage duplicate detection: first comparing vector similarity of embeddings, then using an AI language model to confirm whether debates are substantively identical. This prevents redundant content on the platform.

5.8 Automated Notifications

The Service uses automated priority-based delivery to determine which push notifications to send you:

Immediate (P0): Critical account and security notifications;
Batched (P1): Activity notifications delivered within a 5-minute batch window;
Windowed (P2): Non-urgent notifications delivered during your timezone's active hours.

Related notifications may be coalesced (e.g., multiple upvotes grouped into a single notification). You may disable notifications at any time through your device settings or the App's notification preferences.

5.9 Trending and Engagement Scoring

The Service computes trending scores for debates using: engagement events (votes, opinions, arguments), recency with exponential decay (48-hour half-life), and urgency boosts for closing debates. These scores determine debate visibility in feeds and recommendations.

5.10 No Guarantee of Accuracy

All AI-generated outputs, including recommendations, argument rankings, semantic search results, content quality assessments, debate generation, and duplicate detection, are automated and may contain errors, biases, or inaccuracies. We make no warranty regarding the accuracy, completeness, appropriateness, or reliability of any AI-generated output. You should not rely on AI-generated content for factual accuracy.

6. Privacy and Data Collection

6.1 Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of data:

Information You Provide Directly:

Account information: email address, username, display name, bio, date of birth, profile photo
User Content: votes, opinions (including point amounts committed), arguments, replies, debate submissions
Location data: when you grant location permission (coordinates, reverse-geocoded location name)
Notification preferences, privacy settings, interest categories
Reports submitted against content or users

Information Collected Automatically:

Device push notification tokens, platform type (iOS or Android), and timezone
Session analytics: start time, duration
Engagement behavior: debate impressions, dwell time, votes, opinions, argument upvotes, search queries, scroll patterns, category browsing, profile views, share actions
Diagnostics: app performance timing data, crash reports, error stack traces

Information We Do Not Collect:

Advertising identifiers (IDFA, GAID)
Clipboard contents
Health, financial, or biometric data
Cross-app browsing activity

6.2 How We Use Your Data

We use the data we collect to:

Provide, maintain, and improve the Service;
Personalize your debate feed and recommendations;
Process votes, opinions, and point settlements;
Compute credibility scores, accuracy percentages, and leaderboard rankings;
Deliver push notifications you have opted into;
Analyze usage patterns to improve the user experience;
Detect, prevent, and address fraud, abuse, and security issues;
Comply with legal obligations;
Communicate with you about the Service.

6.3 Third-Party Service Providers

We share data with the following categories of third-party service providers, solely for the purposes described:

| Service Provider | Data Shared | Purpose |

|---|---|---|

| OpenAI | Debate text, argument text, user-submitted questions. No user identity attached. | Content analysis, debate generation, quality review, duplicate confirmation |

| Voyage AI | Debate text, argument text, user preference data (without user identity) | Generating vector embeddings for semantic search, recommendations, and duplicate detection |

| Cloudflare (R2) | Uploaded media files (profile photos) | Cloud media storage and delivery |

| Expo (Push Notification Service) | Device push tokens and notification content | Push notification delivery |

| Supabase (Database Infrastructure) | All application data | Database hosting, authentication, and real-time subscriptions |

| PostHog | User ID, screen views, and feature usage events | Product analytics |

| Sentry | User ID, crash reports, and error stack traces | Crash reporting and performance monitoring |

| Resend | Email address | Transactional email delivery (waitlist, invites, account notifications) |

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party. We do not share your data with advertising networks, data brokers, or any entity for purposes unrelated to operating the Service.

6.4 Legal Disclosures

We may disclose your information if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to:

Comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request;
Enforce these Terms, including investigation of potential violations;
Detect, prevent, or address fraud, security issues, or technical problems;
Protect the rights, property, or safety of GROUNDING LLC, our users, or the public as required or permitted by law.

If we are compelled to disclose your data by legal process, we will attempt to provide you with prior notice (e.g., via email or in-app notification) unless prohibited by law or court order.

6.5 Data Retention

Analytics events (engagement signals, session data): Automatically deleted after 90 days
Read notifications: Automatically deleted after 30 days
Orphaned system records (e.g., push tokens for deleted accounts): Cleaned up automatically on a daily basis
Active content (debates, arguments, votes, opinions): Retained until you delete your account
Preference embedding: Recomputed every 8 hours; retained for the lifetime of your account
Debate and argument embeddings: Retained for the lifetime of the associated content
Crash reports: Retained for 90 days by Sentry
Reports: Retained for moderation purposes; deleted upon account deletion
Block relationships: Retained while the block is active; deleted upon account deletion
Date of birth: Retained for the lifetime of your account for age verification purposes
Prediction outcomes: Retained for credibility calculations for the lifetime of your account

6.6 Account Deletion

You may request deletion of your account at any time through the Settings screen in the App. Upon receiving your deletion request, your account enters a 30-day grace period during which you may restore it. After the grace period, we will within 45 days:

Delete your profile, username, display name, bio, avatar, date of birth, and preferences;
Delete all arguments and replies you authored;
Delete all vote and opinion records;
Delete all engagement records (upvotes, impressions);
Delete all block relationships and reports;
Delete all analytics events, push tokens, and notification records;
Delete all media files you uploaded from our cloud storage systems;
Delete your authentication credentials and invalidate all active sessions;
Request deletion of your data from third-party service providers (PostHog, Sentry).

Residual copies of deleted data may persist in encrypted, automated backups for up to 30 days before being purged. Data that has been anonymized or aggregated such that it can no longer be associated with you is not subject to deletion.

6.7 Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data, including:

Encrypted data transmission using Transport Layer Security (TLS);
Encrypted credential storage on-device using platform-native secure storage (iOS Keychain, Android Keystore);
Row-level security policies on database tables;
JSON Web Token (JWT) based authentication with automatic session expiration;
Rate limiting on all API endpoints.

Despite these measures, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security. In the event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and applicable authorities as required by law.

6.8 Children's Privacy

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Our registration process includes an age gate that blocks account creation for users under 13, with both client-side and server-side enforcement. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will promptly delete the account and all associated data. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account on the Service, please contact us immediately at the address in Section 19.

6.9 International Data Transfers

The Service is operated from the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your data to the United States and its processing in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction. We rely on data processing agreements and infrastructure-level safeguards provided by our service providers for international data transfers where required by applicable law.

7. Your Privacy Rights

7.1 All Users

Regardless of your location, you have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you;
Delete your account and all associated personal data (see Section 6.6);
Correct inaccurate personal information through your profile settings;
Opt out of push notifications through your device settings or the App's notification preferences;
Control the visibility of your opinion history and leaderboard presence through privacy settings.

7.2 California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

Right to Know: You may request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources, the business purpose for collection, and the categories of third parties with whom we share your information.
Right to Delete: You may request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
Right to Correct: You may request correction of inaccurate personal information.
Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing: We do not sell or share (as defined by the CCPA/CPRA) your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. No opt-out is necessary.
Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights.

To exercise these rights, contact us using the information in Section 19. We will verify your identity before processing your request and will respond within 45 days.

7.3 European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland (GDPR)

If you are located in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

Legal Basis for Processing: We process your personal data on the following legal bases:

- Contract: Processing necessary to provide the Service you requested, including account management, vote and opinion processing, argument delivery, AI recommendations, and feed personalization. These are core features of the Service that you request when creating an account.

- Legitimate Interest: Processing for abuse prevention, service improvement, crash reporting, and aggregated analytics, balanced against your rights. You may object to processing on this basis at any time.

- Consent: Processing of location data for personalization, which you may revoke at any time by disabling location access in your device settings.

Right to Access, Rectification, Erasure, and Restriction: You may request access to, correction of, deletion of, or restriction of processing of your personal data.
Right to Data Portability: You may request a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
Right to Object: You may object to processing based on legitimate interest at any time.
Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for location-based processing at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
Right to Lodge a Complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in your jurisdiction.

To exercise these rights, contact us using the information in Section 19.

8. Leaderboards and Public Rankings

8.1 Leaderboard System

The Service maintains leaderboards ranking users by credibility score, opinion accuracy, total opinions, and points earned across weekly, monthly, and all-time periods. Leaderboard calculations are refreshed periodically.

8.2 Visibility Controls

You may opt out of appearing on public leaderboards through your privacy settings. Opting out removes your profile from leaderboard displays but does not affect your internal ranking or credibility calculations.

8.3 Credibility Score

Your credibility score is computed from your opinion accuracy and engagement quality. This score is displayed on your public profile (unless your account is set to private). The algorithm may change over time; we are not obligated to disclose the specific formula.

9. Intellectual Property

9.1 Our Intellectual Property

The Service, including its design, user interface, features, functionality, algorithms, software, source code, text, graphics, logos, and trademarks, is the property of GROUNDING LLC or its licensors and is protected by United States and international intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, sublicense, reverse engineer, decompile, or create derivative works of any part of the Service without our prior written consent.

9.2 Trademarks

"Thinkbase," the Thinkbase logo, and all related names, logos, product and service names, designs, and slogans are trademarks of GROUNDING LLC. You may not use such marks without our prior written permission.

9.3 Feedback

If you provide us with suggestions, ideas, or feedback regarding the Service ("Feedback"), you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, modify, and incorporate such Feedback into the Service without any obligation or compensation to you.

9.4 Copyright Infringement (DMCA)

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that User Content on the Service infringes your copyright, you may submit a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to our designated agent:

DMCA Agent

GROUNDING LLC

17350 State Hwy 249, Ste 220 #31862

Houston, TX 77064

Email: daniel@decisivemachines.com

(All inquiries including DMCA, legal, privacy, and general support)

Your notice must include:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized representative;

2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;

3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing, with sufficient detail for us to locate it;

4. Your contact information (name, address, telephone number, email address);

5. A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;

6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owner.

9.5 Counter-Notification

If your content was removed pursuant to a DMCA takedown notice and you believe the removal was in error, you may submit a counter-notification to our DMCA Agent containing:

1. Your physical or electronic signature;

2. Identification of the material that was removed and the location at which it appeared before removal;

3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief the material was removed by mistake or misidentification;

4. Your name, address, and telephone number;

5. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or Harris County, Texas if outside the United States) and that you will accept service of process from the party who filed the original DMCA notice.

Upon receipt of a valid counter-notification, we will provide a copy to the original complainant and restore the material within 10-14 business days unless we receive notice that a court action has been filed.

10. Third-Party Services and Links

10.1 Third-Party Services

The Service integrates with third-party services as described in Section 6.3. Your use of these third-party services is subject to their respective terms of service and privacy policies. We are not responsible for the practices, content, or availability of any third-party service.

10.2 External Links

User Content may contain links to external websites or services not operated by us. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services. Accessing external links is at your own risk.

11. Electronic Communications

11.1 Consent

By creating an account, you consent to receive electronic communications from us, including:

Push notifications (which you may disable at any time through your device settings or the App);
In-app notifications about activity related to your account;
Service announcements, updates, and administrative messages sent to your registered email address.

11.2 E-SIGN Disclosure

By agreeing to these Terms electronically, you acknowledge and agree that your electronic acceptance constitutes your signature, acceptance, and agreement as if you had signed these Terms in writing, pursuant to the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN Act), 15 U.S.C. 7001 et seq.

12. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to:

Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law or regulation;
Access or use another user's account without authorization;
Interfere with, disrupt, or place an undue burden on the Service, its servers, or connected networks;
Use automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers, spiders) to access, collect data from, or interact with the Service without our prior written permission;
Circumvent, disable, or interfere with any security, rate-limiting, authentication, or access-control features of the Service;
Attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or derive the source code of any aspect of the Service;
Harvest, scrape, collect, or store personal data of other users without their explicit consent;
Use the Service to distribute spam, unsolicited messages, or commercial solicitations;
Create multiple accounts for deceptive, abusive, or manipulative purposes;
Bypass or attempt to bypass the age verification requirement;
Upload or transmit content that contains malware, viruses, or other harmful code;
Engage in any conduct that restricts or inhibits any other user from using or enjoying the Service;
Use the Service to stalk, intimidate, or harass any person;
Manipulate opinion outcomes, vote distributions, or engagement metrics through artificial, coordinated, or deceptive means;
Exploit bugs or vulnerabilities in the points system for artificial gain;
Use the Service as a real-money trading, financial exchange, or opinion market platform.

13. Termination

13.1 By You

You may terminate your account at any time by using the account deletion feature in the App's Settings screen or by contacting us at the address in Section 19.

13.2 By Us

We may suspend or terminate your account or restrict your access to the Service if we reasonably believe that:

You have violated these Terms;
Your conduct poses a risk of harm to other users, the public, or the Service;
Your account has been used for illegal activity or opinion market manipulation;
Continued provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable;
We are required to do so by law, regulation, or legal process.

Where practicable, we will provide you with notice and an opportunity to address the issue before termination, except where immediate action is necessary to protect the safety of users or the integrity of the Service.

13.3 Effect of Termination

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. We will process account data deletion as described in Section 6.6. The following sections survive termination: 3.2 (License to Us), 3.3 (Content Representations), 9 (Intellectual Property), 14 (Disclaimers), 15 (Limitation of Liability), 16 (Indemnification), 17 (Dispute Resolution), and 19 (Contact Information).

14. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT: (A) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS; (B) ANY CONTENT, INCLUDING AI-GENERATED RECOMMENDATIONS, ARGUMENT RANKINGS, DEBATE GENERATION, SEMANTIC SEARCH RESULTS, OR DUPLICATE DETECTION, WILL BE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, COMPLETE, OR CURRENT; (C) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS; (D) ANY ERRORS IN THE SERVICE WILL BE CORRECTED; (E) PREDICTION OUTCOMES OR POINT SETTLEMENTS WILL BE ACCURATE OR FAIR IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES.

WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONDUCT OF ANY USER, WHETHER ONLINE OR OFFLINE. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY USER CONTENT POSTED ON THE SERVICE. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE AND RELIANCE ON ANY CONTENT IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.

THE VIRTUAL POINTS SYSTEM IS PROVIDED FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND GAMIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY. WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE VALUE, UTILITY, OR PERMANENCE OF VIRTUAL POINTS.

15. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL GROUNDING LLC, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, MEMBERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AFFILIATES, SUCCESSORS, OR ASSIGNS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO:

YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE;
ANY CONDUCT OR CONTENT OF ANY USER OR THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE;
ANY USER CONTENT OBTAINED FROM THE SERVICE;
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO, USE OF, ALTERATION OF, OR LOSS OF YOUR DATA OR TRANSMISSIONS;
ANY AI-GENERATED CONTENT, ANALYSIS, RECOMMENDATION, RANKING, OR PREDICTION OUTCOME PROVIDED THROUGH THE SERVICE;
ANY LOSS OF VIRTUAL POINTS, CREDIBILITY SCORE, OR LEADERBOARD POSITION;
ANY INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, OR TERMINATION OF THE SERVICE;
ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, OR OTHER HARMFUL CODE TRANSMITTED THROUGH THE SERVICE BY ANY THIRD PARTY.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS (USD $100.00) OR THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU HAVE PAID US, IF ANY, IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

THE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION APPLY REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY (WHETHER CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE) AND EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES. IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS, OUR LIABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

16. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless GROUNDING LLC, its officers, directors, members, employees, agents, affiliates, successors, and assigns from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and court costs) arising out of or related to:

Your access to or use of the Service;
Your User Content, including any claims that your content infringes a third party's rights;
Your violation of these Terms;
Your violation of any applicable law, regulation, or order;
Your violation of any third-party right, including any intellectual property, privacy, or publicity right;
Any dispute between you and another user of the Service.

We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which event you agree to cooperate with our defense.

17. Dispute Resolution

17.1 Governing Law

These Terms and any disputes arising out of or related to them or the Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

17.2 Informal Resolution

Before initiating any formal dispute resolution proceeding, you agree to first contact us at the address in Section 19 and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least thirty (30) days. Most disputes can be resolved without formal proceedings.

17.3 Mandatory Arbitration

If informal resolution fails, any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service (except as provided in Section 17.5) shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect. The arbitration shall be conducted in English, in Houston, Texas, unless you and we mutually agree to a different location or virtual proceedings.

17.4 Arbitration Fees

For claims under $10,000, GROUNDING LLC will reimburse your AAA filing fees and pay the arbitrator's fees and expenses. For claims of $10,000 or more, the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules govern the allocation of fees. We will not seek attorneys' fees from you in arbitration unless the arbitrator determines your claim is frivolous.

17.5 Exceptions to Arbitration

The following disputes are exempt from mandatory arbitration:

Claims that qualify for small claims court in your jurisdiction;
Claims for injunctive or equitable relief related to intellectual property infringement or unauthorized access to the Service;
Claims that applicable law prohibits from being subject to arbitration.

17.6 Class Action Waiver

YOU AND GROUNDING LLC AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF, CLASS MEMBER, OR PARTICIPANT IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

17.7 Opt-Out

You may opt out of the arbitration and class action waiver provisions of this Section 17 by sending a written notice to GROUNDING LLC within thirty (30) days of the date you first accept these Terms. Your notice must include your full legal name, Thinkbase username, email address associated with your account, and a clear, signed statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. Send your opt-out notice to the mailing address or email address in Section 19. If you opt out, you and GROUNDING LLC agree to submit disputes to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Harris County, Texas.

17.8 Survival

This Section 17 shall survive any termination of these Terms or your use of the Service.

18. Waitlist and Invite System

18.1 Access

Access to the Service may be gated behind a waitlist or invite code system. Receiving a waitlist position or invite code does not guarantee access to the Service or any specific timeline for access.

18.2 Invite Codes

Invite codes are non-transferable and may be revoked at our discretion. Selling, trading, or publicly distributing invite codes is prohibited.

19. Contact Information

For questions, privacy rights requests, DMCA notices, counter-notifications, arbitration opt-out notices, or any other inquiries:

GROUNDING LLC

17350 State Hwy 249, Ste 220 #31862

Houston, TX 77064

United States

Email: daniel@decisivemachines.com

20. General Provisions

20.1 Modifications to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the App, by email, or by other reasonable means at least thirty (30) days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any modification constitutes your acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you must stop using the Service and delete your account.

20.2 Modifications to Service

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service (or any feature thereof) at any time, with or without notice. We shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation of the Service, including modifications to the virtual points system, leaderboard calculations, or debate resolution processes.

20.3 Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with any Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, or other policies incorporated by reference, constitute the entire agreement between you and GROUNDING LLC regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements, representations, and understandings, whether written or oral.

20.4 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. If modification is not possible, the provision shall be severed, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

20.5 Waiver

Our failure or delay in enforcing any right or provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision. A waiver of any right or provision shall be effective only if made in writing and signed by an authorized representative of GROUNDING LLC.

20.6 Assignment

You may not assign, delegate, or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may freely assign our rights and obligations under these Terms, in whole or in part, without notice or consent, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets.

20.7 Force Majeure

We shall not be liable for any failure or delay in the performance of our obligations under these Terms due to circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, acts of God, war, terrorism, riots, pandemics, epidemics, government actions or orders, power failures, internet or telecommunications disruptions, or failures of third-party service providers.

20.8 Headings

The section headings in these Terms are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.

20.9 No Third-Party Beneficiaries

These Terms do not create any third-party beneficiary rights in any individual or entity that is not a party to these Terms.

21. Acknowledgment

BY CREATING AN ACCOUNT, ACCESSING, OR USING THE SERVICE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF SERVICE. IF YOU ARE ACCEPTING THESE TERMS ON BEHALF OF A MINOR BETWEEN THE AGES OF 13 AND 17, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU ARE THE MINOR'S PARENT OR LEGAL GUARDIAN AND THAT YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS ON THEIR BEHALF.