Terms of use.

1 · This agreement

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of bluelearn.org and the Bluelearn platform (the "Service"), operated by The Bluelearn Project, which is in the process of incorporating as a California nonprofit public benefit corporation. By using the Service or creating an account, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.

2 · What Bluelearn is

Bluelearn is a free, open-source, nonprofit education platform: one global prerequisite graph of community-written, community-verified guides. Reading is free and does not require an account. There are no paywalls and no behavioral advertising. These are binding commitments in our governance principles, not just current practice.

3 · Your account

• You need an account to contribute, vote, or take part in editorial review. You're responsible for keeping your credentials secure and for activity under your account.
• You must meet the minimum age in your jurisdiction (generally 13, or higher where local law requires).
• You agree to provide accurate information and not to impersonate others or misrepresent your affiliation.
• You may close your account at any time. See Termination for what happens to your contributions.

4 · Acceptable use

To keep the commons usable for everyone, you agree not to:

• Post content that is illegal, infringing, or that you don't have the right to share.
• Upload child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery, or content promoting violent extremism. These are prohibited absolutely and handled under our content-hold policy.
• Harass, threaten, or target other contributors; our Code of Conduct applies to all participation.
• Vandalize guides, spam, manipulate votes or rankings, or attempt to capture editorial or governance processes.
• Probe, scrape abusively, overload, or attempt to breach the security of the Service.
• Misrepresent verification, claiming expert review or a verifier badge you weren't granted.

5 · Your contributions

When you write or edit a guide, propose a method or alternative, open a pull request, or otherwise contribute, you confirm that:

• The work is yours to share, or is properly attributed and compatibly licensed.
• You grant the licenses described in the next section, and you understand contributions are recorded in a public, append-only revision history.
• Code contributions are made under a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off, affirming you have the right to submit them.

You retain ownership of your contributions. You're simply granting everyone, including Bluelearn, the right to use them under an open license.

6 · Licensing

Bluelearn exists so knowledge stays free. To guarantee that, contributions are openly licensed:

• Content (guides, methods, alternatives, edits) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Anyone may reuse it with attribution, provided derivatives stay under the same license.
• Code is licensed under GNU AGPL-3.0-or-later, which keeps modified versions open even when run as a network service.

These licenses are how we make "free forever" enforceable rather than aspirational. The full knowledge base also remains downloadable, by design.

7 · Review & removal

Editorial quality is maintained by the community, not by us unilaterally. New and edited guides pass a pre-publish verifier review (a rubric covering hierarchy soundness, obvious errors, duplication, and scope) and ongoing post-publish moderation driven by community votes and evidence-backed disputes. Verifiers don't judge style, ideology, or author identity.

Separately, we may hide, restrict, or remove content and suspend accounts where required by law or these Terms, for example in response to a valid legal order, a copyright claim, or prohibited content. Where the law requires preservation of specific material, we hold the minimum required for the minimum time.

8 · Copyright & DMCA

We respect intellectual property and expect you to as well. If you believe content on Bluelearn infringes your copyright, send a notice with enough detail to identify the work and the material, to legal@bluelearn.org. We will review and, where appropriate, remove or disable access to the material, and we support counter-notice where a removal is disputed. Repeat infringers may lose access.

9 · No warranties

The Service and all guides are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind. Bluelearn is community-written educational material; while we work hard on accuracy through verification and review, it is not a substitute for professional advice: medical, legal, financial, safety, or otherwise. Rely on it accordingly and verify anything consequential with a qualified professional.

10 · Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, The Bluelearn Project and its maintainers and volunteers are not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the Service. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

11 · Termination

You may stop using the Service or close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access for violations of these Terms or the law. Because votes and edits affect a shared graph others depend on, closing your account anonymizes your graph-affecting contributions rather than deleting them outright. Your name comes off; the openly-licensed contribution stays in the commons.

12 · Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. This section will be confirmed against the final incorporated entity and its registered jurisdiction.

13 · Changes

We may update these Terms. If we make material changes, we'll update the date above and, where appropriate, notify the community. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

14 · Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email hello@bluelearn.org, reach us in #site-feedback on Discord, or open an issue on GitHub.