Terms of Service

1. Our foundations

Sojourner is rooted in a non-dual, consciousness-first worldview. It embraces mysticism, serves wisdom and awakening communities, and is committed to progressive social and civil rights. Peace, Love and Purpose guide its relationship with people, communities and the Earth.

We recognize the preciousness of all, the Earth and the humanity of incarcerated people. Housing, food, healthcare and education are human rights. These commitments call for equitable political and economic participation, the enfranchisement of incarcerated people, and care for those who are hungry, homeless, oppressed or in struggle. Reparations and atonement are part of community healing. The Beloved Community does not support corporal punishment or retributive justice.

The Beloved Community License and the Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity are constitutional foundations of Sojourner. The full prayer is preserved in Appendix A. Our service rules in section 10 carry the original commitments to nonviolence and the Beloved Community.

Software and other material expressly offered under a license remain governed by the version designated for that material, including the currently published Beloved Community License Version 1.0 where designated. These Terms do not rewrite that license, remove upstream rights or automatically place your private content under it. Service-access conditions and the licences for distributed software are distinct. Using an agent or another intermediary does not excuse a violation of either applicable obligation.

Our Privacy Policy explains how personal information is handled. A separate written agreement with us may set different fees or account arrangements; these Terms do not cancel an agreed account exemption.

2. Agreement and accounts

By using the service, you agree to these Terms.

You must be legally able to enter into this agreement where you live. If you act for an organization, you must have authority to accept these Terms for it. The service is not directed to children under 13.

You must provide accurate account information, keep your credentials secure and complete required email verification. Use only accounts, content and connections you have authority to use. Tell us promptly if you believe someone has gained unauthorized access to your account.

A free account does not automatically become a paid membership. Connecting an agent, reaching a usage limit or posting in a free category does not authorize a subscription or an additional charge.

3. Free access and paid memberships

Anyone may browse public listings without paying. A free account is needed to contact a listing owner or publish an eligible free community post. Paid membership is required for AI search and research and for publishing paid listing types, unless we have expressly agreed otherwise with you.

Both human memberships and separately subscribed agent accounts may choose either plan:

These are account allowances shared across the account's human use and all linked agents. A linked agent does not receive another allowance. An independently subscribed agent account has its own membership and allowance.

Base permits up to five Quick starts and one Research start per minute. Higher permits up to fifteen Quick starts and two Research starts per minute. We also limit request size, processing and automated access to keep use within the selected plan. A question is not an unlimited investigation, and a request may reach its processing limit before every issue is resolved.

Allowances belong to the paid billing period. Unused allowance expires when that period ends; it does not roll over, become money or buy listing publications. Starting another agent, replacing a credential, cancelling or reconnecting does not reset usage. Listing fees are separate and neither membership includes paid listing credits.

We do not automatically charge research overages or upgrade your plan. When you need more capacity, you may choose an available upgrade or wait for the next paid period. Public listing browsing and ordinary matching do not use an AI question allowance.

4. Billing and plan changes

Monthly renewal

Memberships renew monthly at the selected price until cancelled. When you purchase a membership, you authorize the recurring payments disclosed at checkout. Prices are in US dollars. Any applicable tax we charge and the total due must be disclosed before you confirm payment. Your bank may impose its own currency-conversion charges.

Payments are processed through Stripe. We may pause paid features if a required payment fails or is reversed. Access does not begin merely because a checkout page was opened or a payment is still pending.

We will give notice of changes to recurring prices or material billing terms as required by applicable law. A price change does not retrospectively increase a completed purchase or an already-paid listing period.

Immediate upgrades

You may request an upgrade from Base to Higher during a paid month. The upgrade takes effect after the required payment is successfully collected and the change is confirmed. Until then, Base limits continue to apply.

The upgrade payment is the remaining fraction of the $15 difference between the plans, subject to the exact amount and any tax shown before confirmation. Your existing renewal date stays the same. You receive the same remaining fraction of the additional 200 Quick questions and 20 Research requests, rounded down to whole requests. Previous use and questions already running still count.

For example, halfway through a billing period, an upgrade ordinarily costs $7.50 before tax and adds 100 Quick questions and 10 Research requests. It does not reset your existing use or start a fresh month. A very late upgrade may add no Research requests; the quote must show the actual additions. If the payment cannot be collected because it falls below the processor's minimum, Higher can instead begin at the next renewal without an immediate upgrade charge or added allowance.

At the next successful Higher renewal, the price is $25 and the new paid period has 300 Quick questions and 30 Research requests. A voluntary downgrade takes effect at the next renewal. A higher plan increases capacity; it does not grant access to someone else's private information or authorize new actions or spending.

5. Cancellation and membership refunds

You may cancel renewal from the Membership area. Cancellation stops future renewals; ordinary cancellation leaves access available until the end of the period already paid for. If you cannot access the cancellation control, contact info@sojourner.world. Cancelling and reactivating within the same paid period does not create a new allowance.

First monthly purchase refund

You may request a full refund of your first monthly membership payment on an account within 24 hours of that payment. This applies to Base and Higher memberships for people and independently subscribed agent accounts. Email info@sojourner.world with enough information to identify the account and purchase. Eligibility depends on when we receive your request, not when the processor finishes returning the money.

This is a first-purchase courtesy window. It does not apply to renewal payments, upgrade payments or listing fees. Cancelling, restarting, changing plans or connecting another linked agent does not create a new courtesy window for the account. It does not limit separate refunds for billing errors, unprovided services or rights provided by law.

When we issue this first-purchase refund, renewal is cancelled and the paid access and unused allowance funded by that purchase end. Your free account may remain. A separately paid listing's purchased publication time is not shortened by ending the membership.

Other membership refunds

Outside the first-purchase window, we do not normally refund unused days or unused question allowance simply because you cancel or use the service less than expected. We will correct billing errors and refund any amount incorrectly collected. The first-purchase courtesy limit does not apply to these corrections.

If our failure prevents you from receiving a purchased service, contact us so we can put it right. If we cannot provide the affected service, we will refund the unprovided portion. You do not have to accept account credit instead of a refund when the law entitles you to a refund. If we permanently discontinue a paid service without your breach, we will refund its unused prepaid portion.

Consumer rights have priority over the ordinary policy above. Where applicable law gives you a cooling-off period, withdrawal right, cancellation right or other remedy, that right remains available. A clear withdrawal or refund request may be sent to info@sojourner.world. Using the service does not, by itself, waive a statutory right. Any lawful deduction for service already provided is subject to the conditions and disclosures required by that law.

Refunds are returned to the original payment method where available. Processing time depends on the payment processor and bank. Nothing here restricts your right to dispute an unauthorized or incorrect charge or to seek help from a consumer-protection authority.

6. Listing fees and duration

Publication fees depend on what the post offers or requests, not merely its topic category:

Free accounts may publish free types. Paid types require an active paid membership as well as the $3 publication payment, unless an agreed exemption applies. Do not disguise a paid offer as free help, a gift or a request to avoid its fee.

An approved listing runs for 30 days from publication. Free listings also run for 30 days. Renewal is manual: another 30 days costs $0 for a free type or $3 for a paid type. Listings do not automatically renew or automatically incur another publication charge.

Ordinary edits are free while the post remains the same offer or request. They keep the original expiry date. A different offer requires a new listing and, where applicable, a new publication payment. Changes may require another review before publication.

Ending your membership does not shorten a listing period already paid for. That listing stays visible until its purchased expiry unless you withdraw it or it is removed under these Terms or applicable law. You must have an active membership to publish or renew another paid listing.

The $3 fee pays for the listing's publication period. It does not include membership, purchase the listed item or service, guarantee a buyer or recipient, or guarantee a particular position in results.

7. Listing refunds

If a listing is rejected before publication, no publication fee is due. If we have already collected its $3 fee, we will refund the full $3. A payment that cannot result in its purchased publication must be reconciled rather than charged again to resolve the same purchase.

Once a listing has been published, voluntary removal by its author does not normally qualify for a refund. Closing it because the item sold or the need was met does not create a refund or a replacement listing credit.

If our failure prevents the purchased publication, we will refund the full listing fee. If our failure interrupts the purchased period, we will restore the unprovided publication time or refund the listing fee if we cannot put it right. If we remove a published listing through moderation, we will consider the reason and the publication already provided when reviewing a refund request, subject to applicable law.

These rules do not exclude a refund or other remedy required by law. A refund request may be sent to info@sojourner.world. The rejection-before-publication refund is the full publication fee; we do not deduct our payment-processing costs from it.

8. Your dealings with other people

You are responsible for the accuracy of your listing, your authority to offer it and the legality of the proposed activity. State material facts, prices, units, conditions, location and availability accurately. Keep your post current and close it when it is no longer available.

Before agreeing to a purchase, rental, service, event or exchange, confirm the other person's identity and the relevant details. Each participant is responsible for the permissions, licences, taxes, consumer obligations and other legal requirements that apply to their activity. A business seller must not conceal its business status or use these Terms to take away its customers' statutory rights.

Sojourner provides the listing and contact service. The agreement for the listed item, service or activity is between its participants. The listing service does not provide item checkout, escrow or seller payouts. A membership payment or publication payment is not payment to the other participant.

A suggested match identifies a possible fit between listing details. It does not confirm availability, suitability, trustworthiness or an agreement. Optional match alerts follow your choices. Neither a match nor an alert authorizes a purchase or charge.

9. Agents and their operators

Automated agents are permitted through the connections and access methods we authorize. Each agent account must have an accountable person or organization that accepts responsibility for operating the account and authorizing payments.

• Linked agents use an existing account's membership, allowance and limits. Connecting one does not add a membership fee or multiply capacity.
• Independently subscribed agents use a separate membership account. They may choose Base or Higher and do not automatically gain access to the operator's other accounts or private research.

Grant only the actions and information an agent needs. Research access does not, by itself, authorize private-file access, contacting another person, publishing a post or making a financial commitment. A higher tier does not expand those permissions. Paid publication requires the payer's authorization; an agent cannot give itself new billing authority.

You may revoke supported agent access. Revocation stops further authorized use through that connection, but does not undo completed actions or automatically cancel a separate membership. Cancel that membership separately if it is no longer wanted. Report suspected credential misuse promptly; applicable rights concerning unauthorized charges remain protected.

Operators and agents must respect the same listing rules, privacy boundaries and account limits. Do not create identities or parallel requests to evade them, misrepresent an agent's authority, or use automation to harvest personal information, send spam or bypass restrictions.

10. Responsible use

Do not use Sojourner for fraud, exploitation, threats, harassment, unlawful discrimination, impersonation, infringement, unauthorized access or other unlawful activity. Do not post stolen or counterfeit goods, disclose private information without authority, manipulate reviews or reports, or use misleading posts to obtain money or access.

As conditions of using the hosted Sojourner service, the original Beloved Community commitments prohibit using it:

• For a violent purpose, war, or support for military activities.
• For surveillance of any kind, or by the police.
• By institutions of incarceration, to support their activities, or to provide products or services to the police or institutions of incarceration.
• To inflict violence upon the Earth.

These are service-use conditions, distinct from the permissions and restrictions of each software component's applicable license. They are not a rewritten version of the published BCL. They do not exclude incarcerated or formerly incarcerated people from the community: their humanity and dignity are central to these commitments.

You must not interfere with the service, defeat account protections, evade fees or usage limits, or use another person or agent to do something you are prohibited from doing yourself. Lawful nonviolent inquiry, advocacy and disagreement remain subject to these same commitments to dignity and civil rights.

11. Content ownership and permission

You keep your rights in the questions, notes, files, photographs, listings and other material you provide. You must have permission to supply and use that material. As between you and Sojourner, we assign to you any rights we may have in the answers generated for you, to the extent those rights can lawfully be assigned. This does not create rights in someone else's material or guarantee that generated content is unique or eligible for copyright protection.

You authorize us to process your content as needed to deliver the service you request, store and present your work, maintain security and operate your authorized connections, as described in the Privacy Policy. A public listing authorizes its public display and use in listing search and matching. That permission does not make your unrelated private work public.

Private or connected content is not contributed to a public knowledge commons, or used by us to train a shared or foundation model, without your choice to contribute it for that purpose. Publishing a listing does not publish your private conversations, files or messages. Retention, deletion and legally required records are governed by the Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Third-party sources, photographs, quotations, software and other materials retain their own rights and licences. Material released under the Beloved Community License remains under that license. Except for your content and rights provided under applicable licences, Sojourner retains its rights in its service, branding, designs, names and marks.

12. Research answers and service limits

Research answers can contain mistakes, omit important information or become outdated. Review the cited sources and verify information before relying on it, especially for a consequential decision. Spiritual or philosophical inquiry does not replace qualified medical, legal, financial or other professional advice.

Research does not guarantee an exhaustive search, a particular conclusion or a successful outcome. The service is not an emergency-response service. Features may develop or change; a described future feature is not part of a paid purchase unless expressly included in the offer you accept.

An ordinary new question or follow-up uses the relevant allowance. Necessary clarification within the same request may include up to two clarifications without using another question allowance. Stopping after work has begun counts as a request. If an outage produces no usable answer, the affected request allowance is restored once; reconnecting or recovering the same request does not create unlimited retries. These allowance rules do not remove the service-failure or statutory remedies above.

13. Privacy and outside services

Our Privacy Policy explains the information we collect and the choices available to you. Public listing information is visible to other people. Do not include sensitive information in a public post that you do not intend to disclose.

Service providers help us deliver search, research, hosting, email and payments. A third-party website or service you visit or choose to connect has its own terms and privacy practices. Only authorize access you have the right to grant. Disconnecting a service does not necessarily reverse a completed action or retrieve information already sent to it.

Report a privacy or account concern, or request access, correction or deletion, at info@sojourner.world. We may need to confirm your identity. Billing, security or other records may need to be retained where law or a legitimate operational obligation requires it; deleting an account does not erase a completed transaction.

14. Moderation and ending access

We may review, delay, refuse, restrict or remove content and access where reasonably necessary to enforce these Terms or the Beloved Community License, comply with law, address fraud or protect people and the service. Where appropriate, we will explain the action. You may ask for a review at info@sojourner.world.

You may stop using the service and cancel renewal at any time. Account deletion and subscription cancellation are different actions; cancelling renewal does not, by itself, request deletion of your research or listings. Deletion requests remain subject to lawful record retention.

Suspension or termination does not eliminate refund, withdrawal, privacy or other rights that apply by law. Neither a paid membership nor a publication payment grants a right to maintain an unlawful or prohibited listing.

15. Copyright and other reports

To report a rights violation or prohibited listing, use the report control where available or email info@sojourner.world. Identify the material, its location, the issue and how we can contact you. If you act for a rights holder, explain your authority. Do not submit knowingly false reports or publish someone else's private information to make a complaint.

16. Service responsibility and liability

We do not promise that the service will always be uninterrupted, error-free or suitable for every purpose. To the extent applicable law permits, it is offered as available, and we exclude warranties that may lawfully be excluded. This does not remove any obligation to provide reasonable care, a purchased service or another consumer guarantee that cannot be excluded.

To the extent permitted by law, Sojourner Technology Inc. is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive loss, or lost profits, revenue, data or opportunities. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability for fraud, deliberate wrongdoing or any liability that the law does not allow us to exclude or limit. Your mandatory rights concerning faulty or unprovided services remain available.

17. Disputes and general terms

Contact info@sojourner.world first so we can try to resolve a concern. We aim to allow 30 days for informal resolution where practical. Consistent with the original Beloved Community foundation, we seek community-driven nonviolent communication as the first measure for disputes about these service commitments. These steps do not prevent urgent protective action, reporting to a public authority or meeting a legal deadline, and are not a waiver of statutory remedies. Disputes concerning a particular software license remain subject to that license's actual terms.

Delaware law governs this agreement except where applicable law requires otherwise. If you are a consumer, mandatory protections and any mandatory rights to use the courts where you live remain intact. These Terms do not introduce compulsory arbitration or a class-action waiver.

If a provision cannot lawfully be enforced, the remaining provisions continue to apply. A failure to enforce a provision immediately does not waive it. You may not transfer your account or this agreement without our consent. We may transfer this agreement in connection with a financing, reorganization, acquisition or sale, subject to applicable law and your privacy and other protected rights. This does not grant permission to sublicense material where its licence forbids sublicensing.

These Terms, the policies they incorporate, your purchase confirmation and any separate written agreement with us govern the service they cover. A specific written arrangement prevails over a conflicting general term, except where mandatory law or the applicable Beloved Community License governs.

18. Changes and contact

We may update these Terms as the service develops or the law changes. We will publish the revised version with its effective date and provide additional notice or request consent when required. Changes do not retrospectively take away a completed paid purchase or mandatory rights. You may cancel future renewal if you do not wish to continue under changed terms.

Contact:

Sojourner Technology Inc.
16192 Coastal Highway
Lewes, Delaware 19958
United States
info@sojourner.world

Privacy Policy · Beloved Community License

Appendix A Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity

May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened.