Fresh TACOS

We have made our first update to our Terms & Conditions of Service in over a year, moving from version 1.0.4a to 1.0.5. As the version number suggests, it’s a minor update, but as we have done in the past, we’re making an announcement about it just because we don’t want there to be any ambiguity about it. (This is our “attempt to notify you through reasonable means when the TACOS change.”)

As with previous updates, the changes are noted at the bottom. I’ll include them here:

6/26/2007 1.0.5

• Split the CONDUCT AND CONTENT section into CONDUCT and CONTENT sections since they really have nothing to do with each other.
• Renamed the CONTENTS section to INGREDIENTS so it would not be confused with the new CONTENT section.
• Reword the thou-shalt-nots in the CONTENT section. Nothing about our implementation of this section or our views on what content is or is not acceptable is changing; this is just our annual effort to stay ahead of would-be-evildoers looking for loopholes in the wording.
• Add to the CONDUCT section a couple of things from the should-have-been-obvious department. (Don’t give out your login info and do not taunt happy fun tech!)
• Still chasing XHTML compliance.
• A couple of minor spelling and grammar fixes.

As far as policy changes, there really is not much to speak of. We will be thumping people slightly more vigorously in the future for giving out their login and password to others, because there is just no reason to do so and we always end up cleaning up the messes that result. Similarly, we can take the occasional criticism, and we know and use words from all spectrums of the English language, but the anti-taunting provisioning has been added so we have the appropriate ammunition to address the once-a-year-or-so case where somebody goes completely fruit loops. Like this person, who did not appreciate being asked to read the FAQ:

(bleep) you and your inadequacies turned vindictiveness. for real (bleep), (bleep) you cause you’re gonna (bleep) with my (bleep) cause you’re inept. i hope you get hit by the (bleep)ing bus (bleep).

(The full email from which this excerpt was taken, which was only one in a series, set the all-time single-email record for profanity and went on to a place of glory as the number two entry in our “Top Ten Funniest Support Emails” hall of fame.)

On a more serious note, I hate revising the TACOS. I hate how long they are already, and that every revision makes them a bit longer. I know in my heart that a lot of the world’s longest and most outlandish Terms of Service got that way one sentence at a time and that we must not let that happen here. I also know that as the length goes up, the number of people who read the TACOS goes down and members who don’t read the TACOS but agree to them anyway are letting the terrorists win.

So here’s hoping we can make it another year without touching them again, and that any change that would make them longer and more restrictive gets hit by the (bleep)ing bus, (bleep)!

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1. Thanks for the heads up. Keep up the fantastic work guys and gals!

   Comment by Teknorat — June 27, 2007 #

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