Terms of Service Agreement for OBENA

Last updated: 7 May 2026.

Welcome to OBENA. We are building a digital community forum to foster unity through mutual understanding, empathetic connection, and constructive dialogue — a place to connect, reason, and collaborate on some of the harder questions facing all of us. These Terms of Service (the “Agreement”) explain the rules of the road for using OBENA: what you agree to, what we agree to, and how we work things out when something goes wrong.

By accessing or using OBENA, you agree to be bound by this Agreement. If you do not agree, please do not use the platform.

In this Agreement, “OBENA,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the operators of the OBENA platform. The legal entity that operates OBENA is identified in the Contact & legal notices section. “You” and “your” refer to you, as a user of the platform.

Some sections of this Agreement (especially Section 13 (Disclaimers), Section 14 (Limitation of liability), Section 15 (Indemnification), and Section 16 (Dispute resolution & arbitration)) limit your legal rights — including, in many cases, requiring you to resolve disputes through individual arbitration rather than in court, and waiving the right to bring or participate in class actions. Please read those sections carefully. You can opt out of arbitration as described in Section 16.6.

1. Acceptance & eligibility

By accessing or using OBENA, you affirm that you are at least 18 years old (or older, if your jurisdiction requires it). If you are using OBENA on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to this Agreement, and “you” refers to both you and that organization.

You agree to comply with all applicable laws and regulations when using OBENA, and you are responsible for that compliance.

2. Changes to these terms

OBENA may update this Agreement from time to time. We treat changes that adversely affect your rights or that expand how we use your data as “material” changes. Examples include narrowing your rights, broadening the license you grant us in Section 6, expanding our liability limits, or changing how disputes are resolved.

For material changes, we will give you at least 30 days’ advance notice by email (if you have provided one) and through an in-app notice or banner. The change becomes effective on the date stated in the notice.
For non-material changes (typo fixes, clarifications, formatting, broken-link repairs), we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this document and post the new version.

If you keep using OBENA after the effective date of a change, you accept the revised Agreement. If you do not agree to a material change, your remedy is to stop using OBENA and, if you wish, delete your account before the effective date.

3. Your account

To access most of OBENA, you will need an account. By creating one, you agree to the following:

Account security: You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential. Tell us right away if you suspect any unauthorized use or security incident involving your account.
Accurate information: You agree to give us accurate, complete, and current information when registering, and to keep it up to date.
One person per account: Each account is for a single person (or, if expressly permitted, an organization). You may not let anyone else use your account or share credentials.
Closing your account: You can close your account any time through your account settings or by contacting us. When you close your account, we delete or anonymize your personal information consistent with our Privacy Policy, subject to backup-cycle and legal-hold exceptions.
Suspension or termination by us: We may suspend or terminate your account for violations of this Agreement, prolonged inactivity, threats to the platform or other users, or misuse. Where it’s reasonable to do so — that is, where it isn’t a serious or repeat violation — we will give you notice and a chance to address the issue first.

4. Community guidelines

OBENA is a community built on trust, respect, and collaboration. To keep this place worth being in, you agree to follow these guidelines:

Respect others: Treat people with dignity and respect, regardless of background, beliefs, or opinions. Personal attacks, hate speech, harassment, and discriminatory remarks are not allowed.
Engage constructively: Contribute thoughtfully. Avoid trolling, inflammatory language, and disruptive behavior.
Follow the law: Don’t post content or do things on OBENA that are illegal, infringe on someone’s rights, or violate applicable regulations.
Protect privacy: Don’t share personal, sensitive, or confidential information about yourself or others without explicit consent. Doxing is not allowed.
No spam, no manipulation: No unsolicited advertisements, repetitive content, coordinated inauthentic behavior, or vote/engagement manipulation. Limited self-promotion is fine in designated areas, within the rules of those areas.

We may moderate, edit, label, hide, or remove content that violates these guidelines, and suspend or terminate accounts that don’t follow them. We try to do this fairly, with proportion, and with as much transparency as we can manage at our stage.

5. Acceptable use

In addition to the Community guidelines, you agree not to:

access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the platform, OBENA’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of OBENA’s providers;
probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or network, or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measures;
access or search the platform by any means other than the interfaces we publicly provide (for example, no scraping, no headless-browser farms, and no automated tooling that ignores robots.txt, rate limits, or in-product controls);
use any robot, spider, crawler, scraper, or other automated means to access the platform, except in accordance with publicly published OBENA APIs and these Terms;
collect or harvest any personally identifiable information from the platform, including account names, without authorization;
use the platform to send unsolicited communications, promotions, or spam, or to phish, deceive, or impersonate;
forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any posting or message, or use the platform to send altered, deceptive, or false source-identifying information;
interfere with or disrupt the access of any user, host, or network, including by sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, or mail-bombing;
reverse-engineer, decompile, or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the platform, except to the limited extent applicable law expressly prohibits restricting this;
frame, mirror, or otherwise replicate the platform without our prior written permission, or remove any proprietary notices; or
encourage or enable anyone else to do any of the above.

We may investigate suspected violations and cooperate with law-enforcement authorities when we believe in good faith we are required or permitted to do so.

6. Your content

OBENA is a community, and a community needs people willing to post things. The terms in this Section apply to anything you post, share, or otherwise transmit through OBENA (your “content”).

You own your content. You keep ownership of the content you create. Posting on OBENA does not change that.
License you give us. By posting content, you grant OBENA a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, cache, reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, modify (only as reasonably necessary to format, resize, translate, or otherwise present your content), and create derivative works of your content for the limited purpose of operating, providing, securing, and improving OBENA and the Services. This license is what lets the platform actually show your post to the people you want to show it to. It does not include using your content in paid advertising or external promotional materials without your separate consent, except for incidentally showing the platform itself in a manner that includes publicly posted content (for example, screenshots of the product or community testimonials you have publicly shared).
What happens when you delete content or your account. When you delete a piece of content or close your account, the license you gave us for that content terminates within a commercially reasonable period, except for: (a) copies retained in routine backups until they are overwritten in the ordinary course; (b) copies that other users or services have already received, downloaded, or shared (which we do not control); (c) anonymized or aggregated data that no longer identifies you; and (d) content we are required to retain by law, legal hold, or to enforce this Agreement. We do not promise to remove your content from copies that have already left our systems.
You are responsible for what you post. You represent that you have the rights to post your content and that doing so does not violate someone else’s intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights, or any law. The Community guidelines and Acceptable use sections also apply.
Our right to remove or moderate. We are not required to pre-screen content, but we may remove, hide, label, or modify content at our reasonable discretion (for example, where it violates this Agreement or applicable law). Where reasonable, we try to explain why.

7. Our intellectual property

The OBENA platform, including the software, designs, logos, brand, copy, and the look and feel, is protected by intellectual-property laws and is owned by OBENA or its licensors. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use OBENA for personal, non-commercial use, in accordance with this Agreement.

Nothing in this Agreement gives you any rights in OBENA’s trademarks, logos, or brand. Please don’t use them in a way that suggests endorsement or affiliation that doesn’t exist.

8. Feedback

We love feedback — bug reports, feature ideas, design critiques, the lot. If you send us feedback, you agree we may use it without obligation, attribution, or compensation, and that the same broad license in Section 6 applies to it. We will not publicly attribute feedback to you without your permission, unless the feedback is itself something you have already posted publicly.

9. Privacy

Your use of OBENA is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, and share information. By using OBENA, you agree to those practices.

We do our best to protect the data you share with us, but no system is perfectly secure. Please use discretion when sharing sensitive information, and tell us if you suspect a security incident.

10. Third-party services & links

OBENA may contain links to, or integrations with, third-party services and websites (for example, identity providers, embedded media, or external content posted by other users). Those services are not part of OBENA and are governed by their own terms and privacy notices. We don’t control them, we don’t endorse them by linking to them, and we’re not responsible for their content or practices. Your use of any third-party service is at your own risk.

11. Copyright & DMCA

OBENA respects intellectual-property rights and complies with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. § 512.

How to send a copyright notice. If you believe content on OBENA infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to act for, please send a notice that includes the elements required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3): your physical or electronic signature; identification of the copyrighted work; identification of the allegedly infringing material with enough detail for us to locate it; your contact information; a good-faith statement that the use is not authorized; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and you are authorized to act on the rights-holder’s behalf. Send it through our contact channel marked “DMCA Notice.”
Counter-notification. If your content was removed and you believe the removal was a mistake or that you have the right to use the content, you may send a counter-notice meeting the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3) through the same channel, marked “DMCA Counter-Notice.” Filing a counter-notice may make your contact details available to the original complainant.
Repeat-infringer policy. OBENA terminates, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat infringers.
Designated agent. Notices and counter-notices should be sent through our contact channel, marked “DMCA Notice” or “DMCA Counter-Notice.” OBENA will publish on its website the name and postal address of its designated agent registered with the U.S. Copyright Office under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(2) as soon as registration is on file. Until that publication, we acknowledge qualifying notices sent through this channel without undue delay and route them to our copyright intake.
Misuse warning. Knowingly sending a materially false notice or counter-notice may make you liable for damages under § 512(f). Please be careful and accurate.

12. Termination effects

You may close your account at any time as described in Section 3. We may suspend or terminate your access for the reasons described in that section.

When your account is closed or terminated:

Your right to access OBENA ends immediately.
We delete or anonymize your personal information consistent with the Privacy Policy, subject to the exceptions in Section 6 and applicable law.
Sections that by their nature should survive — see Section 19 (General provisions) → Survival — keep applying.
We do not refund any amounts already paid (if any), unless required by law or expressly promised in a separate agreement.

13. Disclaimers

OBENA is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law:

We disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
We don’t guarantee that the platform will be error-free, secure, available without interruption, free of harmful components, or that any defects will be corrected.
Content posted by other users reflects their views, not ours, and is not vetted by us. Please don’t treat user-generated content as professional, legal, medical, financial, or other expert advice.

Nothing in this Section excludes or limits any warranty or liability that the law of your jurisdiction does not permit us to disclaim or limit. Some jurisdictions don’t allow the exclusion of certain warranties, in which case those exclusions apply to the maximum extent permitted, and you may have additional rights this Agreement doesn’t affect.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

No indirect damages. OBENA is not liable to you for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost goodwill, or business interruption, even if we knew or should have known the damages were possible.
Aggregate cap. Our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to this Agreement or the platform is limited to the greater of (a) US $100 or (b) the total amounts you have paid OBENA in the twelve (12) months before the event giving rise to the claim. This cap is consistent with the limits used by other consumer social platforms; we have noted it as an item to revisit with counsel before any change to OBENA’s risk profile (for example, before introducing payments or handling sensitive data).
Allocation of risk. You agree that this allocation of risk is a fundamental part of this Agreement, and that we wouldn’t be able to offer OBENA on these terms without it.

Carve-outs. This Section 14 does not exclude or limit liability that the law does not permit us to exclude or limit. In particular, nothing in this Section excludes or limits liability for: (i) gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud; (ii) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; or (iii) any other liability that the law of your jurisdiction (including any applicable consumer-protection law) does not permit us to disclaim.

Some jurisdictions don’t allow the limitation of certain damages. To the extent your jurisdiction is one of those, the limits in this Section apply to the maximum extent permitted, and you may have additional rights this Agreement doesn’t affect.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless OBENA, its affiliates, employees, contractors, and partners from any third-party claims, damages, liabilities, and reasonable expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) to the extent arising out of:

your breach of this Agreement;
content you post or transmit through the platform;
your willful misconduct or violation of applicable law in connection with your use of the platform; or
your infringement of a third party’s intellectual-property, privacy, or publicity rights.

This indemnity does not apply to the extent any claim arises out of OBENA’s own gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, or breach of this Agreement.

If we seek indemnification from you, we will: (a) promptly notify you of the claim; (b) give you reasonable cooperation in the defense; and (c) allow you to control the defense and settlement, provided that any settlement releasing us must be approved by us in writing (which we will not unreasonably withhold). We may participate in the defense at our own expense and choose our own counsel.

16. Dispute resolution & arbitration

We want to resolve disputes quickly and without going to court when we can. This Section sets out the steps for that. For most disputes, this Section requires individual arbitration instead of going to court. You can opt out of the arbitration and class-waiver provisions within 30 days of first agreeing to this Agreement, as described in Section 16.6.

Informational notice (not part of the Agreement). OBENA is building toward wider availability. Section 16 reflects commercially typical consumer arbitration terms (administration by the AAA under its Consumer Arbitration Rules; seat in New York County, New York). Before inviting the general public, OBENA expects outside counsel to review this Section; any outcome that materially changes your rights will be handled under Section 2, and you will receive a fresh opportunity to opt out under Section 16.6. Regardless of that review, your opt-out right in Section 16.6 applies from when you first accept these Terms.

16.1 Informal resolution first

Before starting an arbitration or filing a lawsuit, you agree to first contact OBENA via our contact channel with a written description of your claim and the relief you are seeking, and to give us at least 30 days to attempt to resolve the dispute informally. We will do the same before bringing a claim against you. We mean this — most disputes can be sorted out in a single conversation, and we would much rather have that conversation than a process.

16.2 Binding individual arbitration

Except for the carve-outs in Section 16.4 and unless you opt out under Section 16.6, you and OBENA agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to this Agreement, your use of OBENA, or any communication or interaction between us, will be resolved exclusively through final and binding individual arbitration.

There is no judge or jury in arbitration, and review of arbitration awards by courts is limited. The arbitrator can grant any remedy that a court could grant under applicable law.

16.3 Administrator, rules & procedure

Administrator: The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, available at adr.org. If AAA is unable or unwilling to administer, the parties will agree on another reputable administrator (for example, JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules), or, failing that, a court will appoint one.
Rules: AAA’s Consumer Arbitration Rules govern, except as modified by this Agreement. If there is any conflict between those rules and this Agreement, this Agreement controls (to the extent permitted by the rules and applicable law).
Arbitrator: A single arbitrator, selected per the chosen administrator’s rules.
Seat & format: The arbitration is seated in New York County, New York. You may participate remotely (by telephone or video) where the rules allow. If your claim is for US $25,000 or less, you may elect a documents-only arbitration at your option.
Language: English.
Threshold issues: The arbitrator decides all questions of arbitrability, including the validity, enforceability, and scope of this Section 16 — except that a court (not the arbitrator) decides whether the class- and representative-action waiver in Section 16.5 is enforceable.
Fees. Arbitration fees are governed by the chosen administrator’s consumer-fee schedule. If a fee allocation under those rules would be substantially more expensive for you than going to court, OBENA will pay the difference (other than your filing fee, which the rules may require you to pay).
Confidentiality. Each party may share information about the proceeding to the extent reasonably necessary to prepare for arbitration, comply with law, or enforce the award.
Record. The arbitrator must issue a written award setting out the essential findings and conclusions. The award is binding and enforceable in any court of competent jurisdiction.

16.4 Carve-outs

The following claims are not subject to arbitration:

Small claims. Either party may bring an individual claim in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction.
Injunctive relief. Either party may seek emergency or injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction (for example, to stop ongoing IP infringement or unauthorized access).

You don’t need to complete the informal-resolution step in Section 16.1 before bringing a claim under these carve-outs, although we appreciate it when you try.

16.5 Class & representative action waiver

To the maximum extent permitted by law, claims must be brought in your individual capacity, not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, mass, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims and may not preside over any form of representative proceeding.

If a court decides this waiver is unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim must proceed in court rather than arbitration; the rest of the dispute, and the rest of this Section 16, remains in arbitration.

16.6 30-day right to opt out of arbitration & class waiver

You can opt out of the arbitration provisions in Section 16.2 and Section 16.3 and the class-waiver provision in Section 16.5 within 30 days of the date you first agree to this Agreement. To opt out, send an opt-out notice through our contact channel marked “Arbitration Opt-Out.” The notice must include your name, the email associated with your OBENA account, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration and the class waiver.

Opting out is free, will not affect any other part of this Agreement, and will not cause OBENA to retaliate against you in any way. If you opt out, disputes between you and OBENA proceed in the courts identified in Section 17 (Governing law & jurisdiction).

If we update this Section 16 in a material way after you have already accepted this Agreement, you will have a fresh 30-day opt-out window starting on the effective date of the change.

16.7 Severability of this Section

If any part of this Section 16 is found to be unenforceable, that part will be severed and the remainder of this Section will continue to apply. If Section 16.5 (Class & representative action waiver) is found unenforceable as to a claim seeking class or representative relief, that claim must proceed in court and not in arbitration; all other claims continue to be arbitrated under this Section.

17. Governing law & jurisdiction

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Subject to Section 16 (Dispute resolution & arbitration), you and OBENA agree that any dispute that is not subject to arbitration will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in the County of New York, State of New York, and you and OBENA consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply to this Agreement.

18. Export, sanctions & restricted users

You represent that you are not located in, and are not a resident or national of, any country or region that is subject to comprehensive U.S. trade sanctions, and that you are not on any U.S. government list of restricted or denied parties. You agree not to use the platform in violation of U.S. or other applicable export-control or sanctions laws.

19. General provisions

Entire agreement: This Agreement, together with the Privacy Policy and Accessibility Policy, is the entire agreement between you and OBENA regarding your use of the platform and supersedes any prior agreements.
Severability: If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest of this Agreement remains in full force and effect, and the invalid provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law.
Waiver: Our failure to enforce any right or provision of this Agreement is not a waiver of that right or provision.
Assignment: You may not assign or transfer this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without OBENA’s prior written consent. Any unauthorized attempt to do so is null and of no effect. We may assign or transfer this Agreement, at our discretion, in connection with a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, financing, reorganization, or by operation of law.
Force majeure: Neither party is liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond reasonable control, including acts of God, government actions, network outages, or similar events.
Survival: Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including §6, §7, §8, §11, §12, §13, §14, §15, §16, §17, §18, this Section 19, §20, and §21 — survive termination of this Agreement.
Headings: Headings are for reference only and don’t affect interpretation.
No third-party beneficiaries: This Agreement is between you and OBENA and is not intended to create rights for any third party (other than for OBENA’s affiliates as expressly named).
Independent contractors: Nothing in this Agreement creates an agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between you and OBENA.

20. Notices

Notices to you: We may give you notices under this Agreement by email (using the email address associated with your account), through an in-app notice or banner, or by posting on the website. You agree that electronic notice satisfies any legal requirement that notice be in writing.
Notices to us: Notices to OBENA under this Agreement should be sent through our contact channel. For notices that the law requires to be sent in a particular way (for example, service of process), please follow Section 21 (Contact & legal notices).
Effective date: Notices are effective when sent (for electronic delivery) or when posted (for website/in-app notices), unless this Agreement specifies a different effective date.

21. Contact & legal notices

For general questions, feedback, or support, please use our contact channel.

For formal legal notices (including service of process, DMCA notices, and notices required by these Terms), please use our contact channel marked appropriately, or any postal or email address that OBENA publishes for legal notices on its website.

OBENA will publish on its website the full legal name of the entity operating the platform and a postal address for formal notices (including service of process where applicable) as soon as its corporate structure for operating the service is in place. Until then, direct legal notices through the contact channel; we route them to the responsible team and confirm receipt without undue delay.

If you cannot use the contact form for accessibility or other reasons, please indicate that in any notice, and we will accept alternative reasonable channels of communication.

If you have any questions or concerns about this Agreement, or any feedback or suggestions, please contact us.

Thank you for being a part of OBENA.