Terms of Service

DEADLINE is operated by ARMEN ARMEN LIMITED(“DEADLINE,” “we,” “us”). By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree, don’t use DEADLINE.

DEADLINE is a writing-accountability tool. You set a daily writing goal and, if you fall behind, the app applies escalating in-app “punishments.” These are theater (see §6). It is not a bank, a lottery, an investment product, or a substitute for professional advice.

You must be at least 16 years old to use DEADLINE, and at least 18 years oldto make any purchase or place a Ransom. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may only use DEADLINE with a parent’s or guardian’s consent. By using the service you represent that you meet these requirements.

Accounts are created and authenticated through our login provider. You agree to provide accurate information, to keep your credentials secure, and to be responsible for everything that happens under your account. One account per person. Tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorized use.

You own what you write. We claim no ownership of your manuscripts. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to store, process, back up, and display your content solely to operate the service for you — including rendering the in-app punishment effects, generating the public Wall of Shame entry described in §9, and showing excerpts as configured by you.

You are responsible for your content and confirm you have the right to it. AI-assisted writing is permitted as long as it goes through the editor; we punish absence, not the tools you use.

DEADLINE deliberately uses dark, theatrical, and humorous mechanics to motivate you. You acknowledge and accept that the experience is intentionally adversarial: it mocks your discipline, escalates punishments, and publishes failure to a public page. It never mocks your identity, never touches files or accounts outside the app, and every effect lives entirely inside DEADLINE.

While a punishment is active, your text is never destructively deleted. The render-layer punishments only change how your text looks; the underlying manuscript is unchanged.

At “permadeath,” a manuscript is moved to a private escrow store, not erased, and held for 45 days — your resurrection window. We send warning emails before the window closes. A permanent purge happens only (a) 45 days after an un-resurrected permadeath, after those warnings, or (b) immediately when you delete your account. We also keep short-term version snapshots to make recovery possible. The funeral is theater; the drawer it goes into is real.

Resurrection (bringing a dead manuscript back during the window) can be performed with a one-time $9.99 purchase or with Forgiveness Credits. A Dignified Burial ($2.99) replaces a public gravestone’s title and last words with an anonymous marker. Both are final and non-refundable.

Forgiveness Credits are a prepaid, in-app convenience used to soften certain punishments (buyouts, streak restores, resurrections, export unlocks, and similar). They are not money, not currency, and have no cash value outside DEADLINE, and they cannot be transferred or sold.

The full price is shown before every purchase. Single-credit prices rise the more you buy within a rolling 30-day window, as disclosed at checkout. All purchases are final and non-refundable, spent or unspent, except where a refund is required by law. Credits do not expire while your account is active and carry across every manuscript you own.

A Ransom is an optional, adults-only commitment contract. You stake an amount you choose ($10–$500) on writing every day for a set length. It is not a wager against us, a game of chance, a deposit, or an investment — it is a self-imposed penalty for not doing what you committed to do.

Nothing is charged when you start. We securely save a payment method and charge it only if you miss a day, and only the stake you set. By starting a Ransom you expressly authorize that off-session charge in advance via the acknowledgments shown at setup, including confirmation that you are 18 or older and that you have read the forfeiture disclosure. Where required, you also waive the applicable cooling-off / withdrawal period so the commitment can begin immediately; you may decline by not starting a Ransom.

If you finish, you are never charged. There is no payout and no refund, because there was never a charge — the reward is keeping your money. Inside a Ransom, mercy is disabled: Mulligans, Forgiveness Credits, and streak restores will not save a missed day. Sudden Death is an opt-in mode where a single miss ends the manuscript and triggers the charge.

You may cancel an active Ransom early; doing so may forfeit a portion of the stake as disclosed at setup. If a charge fails, the manuscript still faces its in-app consequences and we may retry collection a limited number of times. Initiating a chargeback on a properly authorized forfeiture is a breach of these Terms; we may present the day-by-day record as evidence, suspend the account, and recover the amount and any fees. The one-time cheat code can void a single failed Ransom.

When a manuscript dies, a “gravestone” — title, basic stats, a short excerpt of your final words, and your handle or a pseudonym you choose — is published to a public page, and each Ransom has a public pledge page on a private, non-guessable link. Staking and failing in public is part of the design. Choose a pseudonym at signup if you do not want your handle shown. Other users may leave a single emoji reaction; there are no text comments.

Payments are processed by our third-party payment processor. We do not store full card numbers. You authorize us and the processor to charge your selected payment method for the purchases and Ransom forfeitures you initiate, plus any applicable taxes. Prices are in U.S. dollars unless stated otherwise.

You agree not to: break the law through the service; upload content you have no right to; attempt to cheat detection, game the streak/anti-cheat systems, or manipulate Ransom outcomes; probe, scrape, or disrupt the service; reverse-engineer it; or use it to harass others. We may remove content or suspend accounts that do.

You can delete your account at any time, which immediately and permanently purges your manuscripts and escrow (financial ledger records are anonymized and retained as required). We may suspend or terminate accounts that breach these Terms or create risk for us or others. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (ownership, disclaimers, liability limits, payment obligations, governing law) survive.

DEADLINE is provided “as is” and “as available,”without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will make you finish your book. The in-app stakes are a motivational device, not a guarantee of any outcome.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, DEADLINE and ARMEN ARMEN LIMITED will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or goodwill. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or USD $100. Some jurisdictions don’t allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless ARMEN ARMEN LIMITED from claims arising out of your content, your use of the service, or your breach of these Terms, to the extent permitted by law.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. You and we agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Colorado, except where mandatory local consumer-protection law gives you other rights. Nothing here removes consumer rights that cannot be waived where you live.

We may update these Terms. If we make material changes, we’ll update the date above and, where appropriate, notify you in-app or by email. Continuing to use DEADLINE after changes take effect means you accept them.

Questions about these Terms? Email admin@urdeadline.com. DEADLINE is operated by ARMEN ARMEN LIMITED.