Terms of Service


Human Readable Summary Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This summary is not a part of the legal document. It is simply a handy reference for understanding the full terms and conditions for using this website.

You are free to:

  • Contribute content such as ratings, articles, blogs, forum posts, business listings and other website content.
  • Share and Reuse content under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 or later (CC-BY-SA).
  • Publish content under CC-BY-SA or the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.

Under the following conditions:

  • Responsibility – You take full legal, social and ethical responsibility for any and all of your contributions. We only provide the service of hosting your content and nothing more.
  • Civility – beyond complying with all website rules and restrictions, you act with common courtesy and decency.
  • Lawful Behavior – You do not violate copyright or any other laws.
  • No Harm – You do not harm our, or anyone else's technical infrastructure.
  • Terms of Service and Policies – You adhere in full to our Terms of Service, Policies and to all applicable rules and restrictions when using this website.

Our Terms of Service

Welcome to Yosemite's Best! Our ("us," "we," the "owners") mission is to provide a user-sourced information repository for the greater Yosemite area community. We welcome you (the “user,” “you”) as a consumer of, and hopefully also a contributor to this website.

To contribute content of any kind, you must first create an account on this website (the "Website," or "site"). By doing so, you agree to the following Terms of Service (“Terms of Service,” or "Terms"). Do not create an account if you are not willing to agree in full to these Terms.

Overview

These Terms of Service are meant to tell you about the services we provide you through this Website, and the rights and responsibilities that guide us both. Although we host Yosemite's Best and provide some content, it is the entire community, including you, that create much of its content. Our intent is to provide a platform for members of our community to help each other by contributing and sharing information and personal experiences.

The following terms and conditions, including any documents referred to within them, apply to your use of the Yosemite's Best website and all subsites, as well as any content, functionality and services offered to you, whether as an anonymous guest or a registered user, on or through the Website.

Please read these Terms of Service carefully before you use the Website. By using the Website, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by these Terms of Service and also our Privacy Policy.

The Website is operated by the website owners. We may revise and update these Terms of Service from time to time in our sole discretion. If We make any material changes to these Terms of Service, We will notify you by sending an email to the address associated with your user account, usually at least 72 hours prior to the changes being effective. We will publish notice on the Website as well. Your continued use of the Website following the posting of revised Terms of Service means that you also accept and agree to those changes.

A. Accounts

There are many activities on the Website that do not require an account. However, an account may be required for certain types of activities, such as adding content. Following is important information about your account.

1. To access some of the resources this website offers, you will need to create an account and provide your email address, a username, and a password.

2. User accounts are intended for personal use by an individual.

3. If you are sharing your user account with multiple people (e.g. as your “official” organization account), only one individual (the User) agrees to carry all legal responsibility for that account and any content posted by other individual using that account.

4. We welcome community members of any age, however if you are under 18 years old, you must only use the site with your parents, or with their consent.

5. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password and all activities that occur under the account. You should never disclose your password to any third party.

6. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your user account or any other breach of security by contacting us. You also agree to ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session from a public or shared computer.

7. We retain the right to block any user account at any time in our sole discretion, and in particular if you have failed to comply with any provision of these Terms of Service.

B. Content

1. The Website, its features and functionality are entirely the property of its owners.

2. Content, including user-generated content like comments and discussions on the Website is licensed under Creative Commons License, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 except where the content is shared from a third-party source where the license is cited. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain appropriate licensing and attribution for content they post to the site. Content without appropriate licensing or attribution will be removed, with or without warning.

3. We cannot and do not undertake to review all materials before they are posted on the Website, and cannot ensure immediate removal of any objectionable material after it has been posted. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications or content provided for the Website by any user or third party.

4. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any third party content posted on the Website. We disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by you or any other visitor to the Website, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

C. Activities

This website exists largely because of the community of users like you who contribute, revise and maintain content. We happily welcome your participation in this community. We ask you to be civil and polite in your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and to make contributions aimed at furthering the success of this community resource.

Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, may be harmful to other users and violate our rules, and some activities may also subject you to liability. Therefore, in order to ensure that the Website is a safe place for all users, you may not engage in such activities on our sites.

You agree that:

  • You are responsible for what you publish.
  • While publishing content on the Website you will abide by all rules, regulations and policies of the website.
  • The content you publish will not contain any material which is defamatory, obscene, indecent, abusive, offensive, harassing, violent, hateful, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable.
  • The content you publish will not promote sexually explicit or pornographic material, violence, or discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
  • The content you publish will not knowingly infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other intellectual property rights of any other person, company or organization.
  • The content you publish will not violate the legal rights (including the rights of publicity and privacy) of others or contain any material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under applicable laws or regulations or that otherwise may be in conflict with these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.
  • You will not use the Website to transmit, or procure the sending of, any advertising or promotional material without our prior written consent, including any "spam", "junk mail", "chain letter" or any other similar solicitation.
  • You will not impersonate or attempt to impersonate the owners, another user, or person or entity (including, without limitation, the use of email addresses or screen names associated with any of the foregoing).
  • The primary language of the site is English. The narrative content you publish in any content will be written in English. Other languages may be used in other areas of the site, as long as its meaning is clear to the average reader, either by common knowledge, or by an explicit accompanying English translation otherwise.

Additionally, you agree not to:

  • Use the Website in any way that violates any applicable law or regulation (including, without limitation, any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the US or other countries);
  • Use the Website in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Website or interfere with any other party's use of the Website, including their ability to engage in real time activities through the Website;
  • Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Website; Introduce any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful;
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage or disrupt any parts of the Website, the server on which the Website is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to the Website;
  • or Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website.

D. Monitoring and Enforcement

From time to time the need may arise to address an especially problematic user because of significant disturbance or dangerous behavior. In such cases, we reserve the right, but do not have the obligation to:

1. Exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to the above terms. Accounts not following the guidelines listed above will be blocked. Content which does not follow the guidelines listed above will be removed, possibly without warning.

2. Take appropriate legal action, including referral to law enforcement for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Website, cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court orders requesting or directing us to disclose the identity of anyone posting any materials on or through the Website.

3. You waive and hold harmless the website owners and their representatives from any claims resulting from any action taken by them during or as a result of investigations by either them or law enforcement authorities.

E. Privacy

1. We ask that you review the terms of our Privacy Policy, so that you are aware of how we collect and use your information. Because our services are used by people all over the world, personal information that we collect may be stored and processed in the United States of America or any other country. By using our services, you consent to any such transfer of information outside your country.

F. Compliance with Data Protection Regulations

The Website serves an international community, and so we are committed to complying with any applicable data protection laws and regulations, such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For more information about how we protect your data, please consult the Privacy Policy.

G. Cancellation

We certainly hope you will stay with our community for a long time, but you can stop using our services at any time.

1. You can delete your account at any time. Upon deletion all private and personally identifying information from your user profile may be deleted. The data may also remain in backups on our servers for an indeterminate period of time, or it it may be completely removed.

2. Public content you have created will not be deleted. This content will in general be attributed to the ‘Anonymous’ user.

3. Once deleted, your account is gone and can not be restored.

4. If you are a relative or a friend of a deceased user, contact us and we will take steps to lock their user account and protect the privacy and data of the deceased person. Verification may be required.

H. General Conditions

1. You may link to the Website, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not suggest any form of approval or endorsement on our part. The Website must not be framed on any other site.

2. Links from the Website to other sites and resources provided by third parties are provided for your convenience only. This includes links contained in advertisements, including banner advertisements and sponsored links. Although the Website contains links to third-party websites and resources, we do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for their availability, accuracy, or the related content, products, or services (including, without limitation, any viruses or other disabling features), nor do we have any obligation to monitor such third-party content.

3. You understand that we cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that files available for download from the Website will be free of viruses or other destructive code. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your particular requirements for anti-virus protection and accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to our site for any reconstruction of any lost data.

Highlighted for emphasis: We are not responsible for the content, data, or actions of third parties, and you release us, our directors, officers, employees, and agents from any claims and damages, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with any claim you have against any such third parties.

No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from us or through or from our services creates any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms of Service. Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through your use of our services is done at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material. You agree that we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any content or communication maintained by the service.

We retain the right to create limits on use and storage at our sole discretion at any time with or without notice. We do our best to serve quality content to a very wide audience, but your use of our services is at your sole risk. We provide these services on an "as is" and "as available" basis, and we expressly disclaim all express or implied warranties of all kinds, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We make no warranty that our services will meet your requirements, be safe, secure, uninterrupted, timely, accurate, or error-free, or that your information will be secure.

4. Limitation on liability: In no event will the website owners, their representatives, service providers, employees, agents, officers, or directors be liable for damages of any kind, under any legal theory, arising out of or in connection with your use, or inability to use, the Website, any websites linked to it, any content on the Website or such other websites or any services or items obtained through the Website or such other websites, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages, including but not limited to, personal injury, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of revenue, loss of profits, loss of business or anticipated savings, loss of use, loss of goodwill, loss of data, and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable. The foregoing does not affect any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

5. Arbitration. All disputes (whether in contract, tort or otherwise, whether statutory, common law or equitable and whether pre-existing, present or future) against the Website owners, their agents, employees, affiliates, successors and assigns (collectively, the "Affiliates"), relating to these Terms or any aspect of the Website will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by a service of the website owners' choosing under its arbitration rules then in effect. You may obtain a copy of those rules by contacting the owners through this Website.

That arbitration will be conducted before a single neutral arbitrator and will be limited solely to the dispute between the Affiliates and you, the user. The arbitration may be conducted in person or by telephone or online. Any award of the arbitrator will be final and binding on each of the parties and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.

You or the Affiliates may, without violating this provision, seek from a court any equitable relief that may be necessary to protect the rights or property of that person pending the appointment of an arbitrator (or pending the arbitrator's determination of the merits of the controversy), and in those cases, you irrevocably submit to the jurisdiction of any state or federal court sitting in the State of California, you waive any objection to jurisdiction and venue in those courts and any claim that forum is inconvenient, and you agree not to initiate any proceeding against the Affiliates in any other jurisdiction.

6. Any cause of action or claim you may have arising out of or relating to these Terms of Service or the Website must be commenced within three (3) calendar months after the cause of action accrues, otherwise, such cause of action or claim is permanently barred.

7. Waiver and Severability. If in any circumstance, we do not apply or enforce any provision of these Terms of Use, it is not a waiver of that provision. If any provision of these Terms of Service is held by a court of competent jurisdiction or the arbitrator to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms of Service will continue in full force and effect.

8. These Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy constitute the sole and entire agreement between you and the Affilates with respect to the Website and supersede all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations and warranties, both written and oral, with respect to the Website.

Contacting Us

If you have questions or concerns about these Terms of Service, please contact us.