Terms

Terms of service

The short version: Stoa is free, your club's words belong to your club, be decent to each other, and we run it as well as we can but can't promise it will never break.

Last updated November 1, 2026.

These terms cover the StoaReads website at stoareads.com, the Stoa app at stoareads.app, and club sites that StoaReads runs on Stoa under a club's own domain. By using them you agree to these terms. StoaReads is run by Seph Mard ("we" and "us").

The service

Stoa helps book clubs choose books, find dates to meet, and talk about what they read. It's free, with no ads and no paid tiers. We may add, change or remove features, and if we ever stop running stoareads.app we'll give clubs at least 30 days' notice and a way to take their data with them.

Your account

• Use your real name or one your club will recognize, and an email address you control.
• Keep access to your email, Google or GitHub account safe, because that's how you sign in.
• You need to be at least 13, and old enough where you live to agree to these terms.

Clubs and organizers

The person who starts a club is its first organizer. Organizers decide who joins, can make other members organizers, and can remove members. They can also see members' email addresses, and should use them only for the club.

Your content

What you write, such as reviews, posts and pitches, stays yours. You give us permission to store it and show it to your club, which is all we use it for. If you leave, what you've posted stays in your club's history without your name, unless you ask us to delete it, as our privacy policy explains.

Be a good neighbour

Don't use Stoa to:

• harass, threaten or abuse anyone, or post hateful content;
• post things that are illegal, or that you don't have the right to share, such as whole chapters of a book;
• send spam, or invite people who haven't asked to join;
• get around rate limits, break into accounts or clubs that aren't yours, or overload the service.

We may remove content or suspend accounts or clubs that break these rules.

Open source

The Stoa code is available under the MIT license. These terms cover the service we run, not the code. If you run your own copy, it's your service and your rules.

Other services

Stoa uses and links to other services, such as Venn for dates, Open Library for book details, Google and GitHub for sign-in, and Amazon for buying books. Their own terms apply when you use them.

No warranty

We provide Stoa "as is", without warranties of any kind. We work to keep it running and your data safe, but we can't promise it will always be available, error-free or secure. Keep your own copy of anything you can't afford to lose.

Limit of liability

To the extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for lost data, arising from your use of Stoa. Because Stoa is free, our total liability to you for any claim is limited to US $50.

Ending things

You can stop using Stoa and leave your club at any time. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms. The parts of these terms that by their nature should continue, such as the warranty and liability sections, still apply afterwards.

Changes

We may update these terms. We'll change the date at the top, and tell members in the app or by email before an important change takes effect. If you keep using Stoa after that, you accept the new terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@stoareads.app.