Terms of Service

By accessing or using Quarter (the "Service"), available at getquarter.app, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

The Service is operated by QUARTER KITCHEN LLC ("Quarter," "we," "us," or "our"), a Washington State limited liability company.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you via in-app notification at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

2.1 Age Requirement. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account on Quarter. Date of birth is collected at signup. Users under 13 are prohibited from creating an account, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

2.2 Alcohol Content. Recipes containing alcoholic ingredients are restricted to users aged 21 and older, as determined by the date of birth provided at account creation. Users under 21, users who have not provided a date of birth, and guests (users without an account) will not have access to alcohol-containing recipes or cocktail/mocktail recipe categories. This restriction is applied universally regardless of geographic location.

2.3 Account Information. You are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of your account information and the security of your login credentials. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account.

2.4 Usernames. Usernames must be unique, between 3 and 30 characters, and may contain letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens. A profanity filter is applied at creation. A real-name format (First Last) is permitted; multiple users may share the same real name. Usernames may be changed once every 90 days.

Quarter offers four access states:

3.1 Guest (no account). Guests may browse the feed, search, view full recipe detail pages, and view user profiles. Guests may not save recipes, rate, comment, follow, cook, create recipes, plan meals, or use shopping lists. Guest access exists so that anyone arriving from a search engine or shared link can see real content without a signup wall.

3.2 Free Account. Free users may do everything a guest can, plus save up to five (5) recipes. Free users may not access cooking mode, rate or comment on recipes, follow other users, create or publish recipes, use meal planning, or use shopping lists.

3.3 Subscriber. Subscribers have full access to all features of the Service, including unlimited recipe saves, cooking mode, ratings, comments, following, recipe creation and publishing, meal planning, shopping lists, and RPG progression.

3.4 Founding Member. Founding member status is granted to the first 500 users who complete a qualifying activity loop and accept the offer via in-app notification. Founding members receive full subscriber access, free for life. Founding member status is irrevocable except in cases of account termination due to enforcement action. The specific qualification criteria are not publicly disclosed.

3.4.1 Founding Member Refund. Upon acceptance of founding member status, all payments previously made to Quarter by that user are refunded in full via Stripe.

3.4.2 Founding Member Slot Counting. A founding member slot is counted only upon acceptance. Users who qualify but do not accept do not occupy a slot.

4.1 Pricing. Quarter offers one subscription tier at $1.00 USD per month or $12.00 USD per year (billed annually). All subscribers receive the same features. There are no premium or pro tiers.

4.2 Payment Processing. All payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. Quarter never sees, stores, or processes your credit card number. Stripe is PCI Level 1 certified.

4.3 Free Trial. Quarter may offer a free trial period. The free trial does not automatically convert to a paid subscription. When the trial period ends, no charge is made to your payment method. You must independently and voluntarily select a paid subscription plan and confirm your choice before any payment is processed. If you do not actively choose to subscribe, your account will revert to Quarter's free tier after a 48-hour grace period. Quarter will never charge your payment method as a result of a trial expiring.

4.4 Cancellation. You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings or the Stripe customer portal. Upon cancellation:

• Monthly subscribers: access continues through the end of the current billing period.
• Annual subscribers: access continues through the end of the paid annual period.

No partial refunds are issued for unused time within a paid period.

4.5 No Dark Patterns. Quarter does not use manipulative design to discourage cancellation. The cancellation process is straightforward and does not include guilt-based messaging, unnecessary steps, or hidden options.

4.6 Subscription Lapse. When a subscription ends, your account reverts to free tier. Nothing is deleted. Published recipes remain public. All saved recipes are preserved (the five most recently saved remain visible; additional saves are frozen and restored upon resubscription). Earned RPG rewards (badges, skins, titles, levels) are never revoked. Meal plans and shopping lists are frozen but preserved.

4.7 Inactivity & Auto-Cancellation.

• Monthly subscribers: After 3 months of inactivity, we will send a warning email. After 4 months of inactivity, the subscription is cancelled and no further charges are collected.
• Annual subscribers: The paid period always runs its full course. If the user has been inactive for 4+ months at 3 months before the renewal date, we send a warning. At the renewal date, if still inactive, the subscription is not renewed. An annual fee is never collected on an inactive account.
• Founding members: No billing to cancel. Inactivity warning sent at 4 months. Status is never revoked due to inactivity.
• Gifted subscriptions: The gifted period runs its full course regardless of activity.

4.8 Contribution Rewards. Subscribers who publish qualifying recipes during quarterly contribution windows may earn free subscription time. Rewards are applied silently and are subject to a rolling cap. Reward mechanics are not publicly disclosed.

5.1 Your Content. You retain ownership of all content you create and submit to Quarter, including recipes, recipe descriptions, cooking instructions, photographs, and comments ("User Content").

5.2 License to Quarter. By submitting User Content, you grant QUARTER KITCHEN LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, display, distribute, and create derivative works from your User Content for the purposes of operating, promoting, and improving the Service. This license continues for as long as your User Content remains on the Service.

5.3 Representations. You represent and warrant that: (a) you own or have the necessary rights to submit your User Content; (b) your User Content does not infringe any third party's intellectual property or other rights; (c) all recipe photographs you upload are your own original photographs of food you have prepared.

5.4 Published Recipe Persistence. If you delete your account, recipes you have published will remain on the platform attributed to "[Deleted]" as a community resource. All personally identifying information is removed. See Section 9 (Account Deletion) for full details.

5.5 Recipe Clipping & Attribution. Quarter allows users to clip recipes from external sources for personal use. The clipping process extracts factual cooking information (ingredients, cooking actions, times, temperatures, techniques) and strips all narrative voice, personal commentary, and creative expression. Clipped recipes are private by default and cannot be published without the user's own photograph, the user's own written instructions, and the user having actually cooked the recipe. Attribution to the original source ("Inspired by [Name] · Original recipe by [Author] · [Publisher]") is permanent and non-removable.

5.6 Ingredient Data. All ingredient data on Quarter (nutrition, allergens, dietary flags, density, region, cost estimates) is maintained by Quarter and computed automatically. Users do not manually enter nutritional information, allergen data, or dietary compatibility. This data is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as medical or dietary advice (see Section 13).

5.7 Quarter's Intellectual Property. The Service, including its design, code, visual identity, database structure, and original written content, is the intellectual property of QUARTER KITCHEN LLC. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works from any part of the Service except your own User Content.

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable laws or regulations.
• Upload content that is defamatory, obscene, hateful, threatening, or that promotes violence or discrimination.
• Upload photographs that do not depict food or drink, or that are not your own original photographs.
• Impersonate another person or entity, or falsely claim affiliation with any person or entity.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service, other users' accounts, or our systems.
• Use bots, scrapers, or automated tools to access the Service beyond normal browsing, unless explicitly permitted.
• Circumvent or attempt to circumvent any rate limits, access controls, or security measures.
• Create multiple accounts to abuse contribution rewards, founding member qualification, or any other platform mechanic.
• Submit false or misleading content, including fraudulent dietary or allergen claims that could endanger other users' health.
• Harass, bully, or intimidate other users through comments, recipe titles, photographs, or any other means.
• Upload or submit content that infringes on any third party's copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights.
• Spam the platform with low-quality, duplicative, or bulk-generated content.
• Attempt to manipulate community metrics (cook counts, ratings, reports) through coordinated or fraudulent activity.

7.1 Community Reporting. Users may report content that violates these Terms or the Community Guidelines. When content receives ten (10) distinct reports from unique users within a rolling seven-day window, it is automatically hidden from public view and placed in an administrative review queue.

7.2 Photo Validation. All recipe photographs are subject to automated validation to confirm they depict food or drink. Photographs that do not pass validation are held for administrative review, not automatically rejected.

7.3 Enforcement Tiers. Confirmed violations are subject to the following actions:

• Tier 1 — Warning: Notification naming the content and guideline. Content removed. No account restriction.
• Tier 2 — Probation: Community interactions held in moderation queue for one (1) week. Cooking and browsing unaffected.
• Tier 3 — Community Restriction: All community features disabled. User retains browse, search, saved recipes, cooking mode, and shopping lists. Duration set by administrator.
• Tier 4 — Account Termination: Full account deletion. Published recipes become "[Deleted]." Permanent.

7.4 Strike Decay. Confirmed violations expire from a user's record after six (6) months.

7.5 Earned Rewards. RPG rewards are retained through Warning, Probation, and Community Restriction. Forfeited only upon Account Termination.

7.6 Refunds on Enforcement. No refund is owed for remaining subscription time at any enforcement tier, including Account Termination.

7.7 Reporter Trust. Quarter uses an internal trust-scoring mechanism to weight the value of content reports. Trust scores are never disclosed to users.

8.1 Publishing Requirements. To publish a recipe, you must: (a) hold an active subscription, (b) use only ingredients recognized in Quarter's database, (c) upload your own original photograph, and (d) assign at least one meal type category.

8.2 Unrecognized Ingredients. Recipes with unrecognized ingredients are saved as private drafts and queued for review. If approved, the recipe becomes publishable. If rejected, you are notified.

8.3 Ingredient Lock. Published ingredient lists are locked. Unpublish, edit, and republish to change ingredients. Cook counts and ratings persist.

8.4 Metadata Editing. Title, description, instructions, times, and photograph may be edited freely after publishing.

8.5 Cook Verification. A "cook" counts only on full workflow completion (marked successful + feedback provided). Photo optional.

8.6 Duplicate Detection. If a similar ingredient set exists, you are informed warmly. This is informational, not punitive.

8.7 Brand Name Handling. Recipe titles containing recognized brand names will have "Copycat" automatically prepended at publish unless already present.

9.1 Manual Deletion. You may delete your account at any time. Upon requesting deletion:

• Your account enters a 30-day deactivation period (frozen, recoverable).
• After 30 days, permanent deletion occurs. All PII (email, date of birth, display name) is permanently erased.
• Published recipes remain attributed to "[Deleted]" as community resources.
• Drafts and private recipes are permanently deleted.
• Cook photographs remain in galleries; your avatar is replaced with a generic icon.
• Comments are anonymized to "[Deleted]" — text remains, identity removed.
• Cook counts and ratings remain in aggregates; identity erased.
• Follows, XP, badges, skins, and RPG data are deleted.

9.2 Automatic Deletion. Accounts inactive for two (2) years are automatically deleted per the same cascade. Return after auto-deletion means a new account from scratch.

9.3 GDPR Compliance. All PII is erased within 30 days (manual) or at the 2-year auto-deletion point. Published content is anonymized, not deleted, as it constitutes community content.

9.4 Data Portability. You may request a data export at any time. Data will be provided in a standard, machine-readable format within 30 days.

Your use of the Service is governed by our Privacy Policy, incorporated into these Terms by reference. Quarter does not sell, rent, or share your personal information with advertisers, data brokers, or any third party for marketing purposes. There are no ads on Quarter and there will never be ads on Quarter. Revenue comes exclusively from subscriptions.

11.1 Infrastructure Services. Quarter uses the following third-party services to operate the platform:

• Supabase — database hosting and authentication (US servers, Oregon).
• Stripe — payment processing. Quarter never sees or stores card numbers.
• Resend — transactional email only (no marketing emails).
• Vercel — web application hosting.
• Google Cloud Vision — photo validation (food check + plagiarism detection). Images not retained after processing.

Your use of these services is subject to their respective terms and privacy policies.

11.2 Third-Party Shopping & External Websites. Quarter may provide access to third-party grocery and shopping websites through an in-app browser or external link (collectively, "Third-Party Shopping Services"). When you interact with a Third-Party Shopping Service, you are subject to that service's own terms of service and privacy policy — not Quarter's. Quarter does not control, operate, or assume any responsibility for Third-Party Shopping Services, including their pricing, product availability, fulfillment, payment processing, data collection practices, or security. Any purchases you make, accounts you create, or personal information you provide on a Third-Party Shopping Service are between you and that service. QUARTER KITCHEN LLC is not liable for any loss, damage, or claim arising from your use of any Third-Party Shopping Service.

Quarter respects intellectual property rights. If you believe your copyrighted work has been used on Quarter in a way that constitutes infringement, see our DMCA Policy. Our designated DMCA agent is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Users subject to repeated valid DMCA notices may have their accounts terminated.

13.1 General. The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied.

13.2 Food Safety. Quarter is a recipe-sharing platform, not a source of dietary, nutritional, or medical advice. Nutritional information, allergen data, and dietary flags are computed automatically and provided for informational purposes only. Always follow food safety guidelines. Consult a healthcare provider for dietary advice. Quarter is not liable for allergic reactions, foodborne illness, or adverse health outcomes.

13.3 User Content. Quarter does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy, safety, or quality of any User Content.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, QUARTER KITCHEN LLC shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the Service. Total aggregate liability shall not exceed the greater of amounts paid to Quarter in the preceding 12 months or $50.00 USD.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless QUARTER KITCHEN LLC from claims arising from: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your User Content; (c) your violation of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any third party's rights.

16.1 Governing Law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington.

16.2 Informal Resolution. Before filing any proceeding, you agree to contact us at t.gardnertree@gmail.com and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days. This requirement does not apply where doing so would cause you undue hardship, or where you seek emergency or injunctive relief.

16.3 Jurisdiction. Legal proceedings shall be brought exclusively in the courts of Washington State.

17.1 Entire Agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Community Guidelines constitute the entire agreement.

17.2 Severability. Unenforceable provisions do not affect the remainder.

17.3 Waiver. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.

17.4 Assignment. You may not assign without consent. We may assign without restriction.

17.5 No Agency. No partnership, employment, or agency relationship is created.

17.6 Notices. Via in-app notification or email. Contact: t.gardnertree@gmail.com.

17.7 Platform Commitments (binding). (a) No ads, ever. (b) No paid algorithmic boosting. (c) No religious, political, or ideological framing. (d) User data never sold.