Terms & Conditions

01Agreeing to these Terms

These Terms govern your participation in any submission, competition, challenge or bounty run by Oozezi Creative Collective ("Oozezi", "we", "us"), and your use of oozezi.com, including PoetryMine, Fan-Written Fiction (FWF), Standalone and Collection submissions, Challenges & Bounties, The Whisper Line, The Manuscript Mystery, The Last Word, The Stage, the Reading Room and any other programme we run.

By submitting work, registering, applying, commenting or otherwise using the site, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not submit your work or use those features.

02Skill-based competitions

Every Oozezi competition, challenge and bounty is a game of skill, not chance. Winners are never chosen by random draw. Entries are assessed on one or more of:

• Literary merit, creativity and originality
• Adherence to the prompt, theme or technical constraint (word count, syllable count, structure)
• Technical execution and craft
• Public community voting, only where that competition's page says so

Where the editorial team or a judging panel decides, that is stated for the competition. Where a vote decides in whole or in part, that is stated before you enter. Because outcomes turn on skill and judgment, our competitions are not lotteries or sweepstakes.

03Official rules

Eligibility

Entry is open internationally. You must be 18 or older, or have the express permission of a parent or legal guardian, given by completing our Guardian Consent form before taking part. We may ask for proof of age or consent and may disqualify an entry where eligibility cannot be confirmed.

Entry periods

Each competition has its own start date, cut-off deadline and timezone, published on its page before entries open. Late submissions are not accepted, whatever the reason. Submit with time to spare.

Prizes

Where there is a monetary prize, its amount, currency and payout method are stated on the competition's page. Prizes are normally paid by bank transfer, and the method is confirmed with the winner directly. Some submissions, such as Standalone Submissions outside an active Challenge, carry no prize, and that is disclosed at submission. Where a prize pot grows with community engagement, as PoetryMine's does, the final amount is confirmed once the window closes.

Judging and selection

The method for choosing winners is disclosed for each competition. Oozezi's decision is final.

Disqualification

We may disqualify an entry at any stage, before, during or after judging, for reasons including:

• Plagiarised, AI-generated or otherwise non-original work
• Not meeting the stated constraints (word count, syllable count, structure)
• Content that is hateful, defamatory, sexually explicit or breaks our community standards
• Multiple entries where only one per person is allowed
• Manipulating votes, ratings, likes or comments, including with bots or coordinated activity
• False information about your identity, age or eligibility

Our decision on disqualification is final.

04The Last Word and video entries

Some programmes, such as The Last Word, ask you to register with a video and to place it on Google Drive (or a similar service) and share the link with us. By sending a link you confirm that:

• The video is yours, or you have the right to send it to us
• Sharing is set so that our editors can view it. If we cannot open it, we will email you to fix it, and your registration may not be approved until we can
• You allow our editors to watch it inside our internal editors portal for the purpose of reviewing your registration and running the competition

Your video stays on your own Drive. We do not copy it to our servers to keep. Registration requires approval by our team, and approval is not guaranteed.

05Your work and our licence to publish it

You keep ownership

You keep full copyright in what you submit. Submitting does not transfer or give up your copyright. You may publish or license your work elsewhere, during or after a competition, unless you have signed a separate agreement with us that says otherwise.

The licence you give us

By submitting, you grant Oozezi a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to publish your piece on the Oozezi website; to display, promote and share it, in full or in excerpt, on the social channels we operate; and to use it to run, promote and archive the competition, challenge or the Collective generally. The licence survives the end of any competition and does not stop you using your work elsewhere.

Credit

We credit you with the name you give at submission, your legal name or your pen name, as you prefer.

Social media consent

Where a form has a social-media consent checkbox, it records whether you allow us to share your piece on our social channels with credit. If you leave it unticked we will not feature your piece on social media, though publication on the website under the licence above still applies.

06Collections and Fan-Written Fiction

Collections and FWF stories are built from pieces by several contributors, and each chapter or piece is credited to its own author. Contributors are identified by the email address they gave when submitting, which is how we match a chapter to its writer. Please keep that email address accurate, and tell us if it changes.

07Judges

People who apply to judge do so under a separate Judge Agreement that they read and sign on the judge registration page. Judging is voluntary with little or no compensation, requires independence from the contestants, and is confidential. Applying does not guarantee selection, and we may remove a judge at any time if the agreement is breached or a competition's integrity is at risk. We keep a record of what was signed, when, and which version of the agreement it was.

08Community, comments and conduct

You can comment on published pieces with a name of your choice, or leave the name blank and appear as Anonymous. No email address is needed. Comments may be held for moderation and we may edit or remove any comment, or block a user, at our discretion.

Do not post anything unlawful, hateful, abusive, harassing or spammy, do not impersonate anyone, and do not share other people's private information. Likes, ratings and votes must be genuine and may not be automated.

09Oozezi Words

Oozezi Words are our own currency, used only on oozezi.com. You earn them by taking part, as the words page describes, and they are kept under your email address. You can spend them anywhere on the site that takes words, such as a paid challenge's entry fee. Words can't be exchanged for cash or moved to anyone else, and we may remove words earned by cheating, automation or mistake, or freeze them while we look into misuse.

Buying words

You can buy words on the words page once your email is confirmed there. The price is shown before you pay. Payments are made through Flutterwave, by bank transfer to a one-time account number or from your bank app; we never see your bank login or card details. Your words are added once Flutterwave confirms the payment.

Bought words are the same as earned ones: they are spent on Oozezi and can't be exchanged back for cash. Once added they are not refundable, except where the law requires it or where we charged you in error. If a payment is reversed or charged back, we may remove the words it bought. Paying for words, or paying an entry fee with them, never improves your chances: every competition is judged as described under Skill-based competitions.

10Sponsorship transparency

Some challenges and bounties are sponsored in whole or part by outside people, brands or organisations. Sponsored challenges are labelled, typically "Proudly Sponsored by [Sponsor]". Sponsors have no influence over judging criteria unless that is disclosed as part of the challenge's stated judging method.

11Your information

How we collect, use and protect your personal information is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. In short: we use your information only to run what you signed up for, we do not sell it, and bank details collected for a prize are used for that payment only.

12Liability and general provisions

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms at any time. Material changes are shown by a new "Last updated" date above. Continuing to use our portals after a change means you accept the revised Terms.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Oozezi is not liable for technical failures, submissions lost through connectivity problems, or indirect damages arising from taking part. The site and its features are provided as they are.

Governing interpretation

These Terms are meant to apply fairly to entrants everywhere. Where a provision conflicts with mandatory law where you live, that law prevails for that conflict only and the rest of the Terms still applies.

Contact

For questions about these Terms, a competition's rules, or your data rights, write to info@oozezi.com.

By ticking "I agree to the Terms & Conditions" on any Oozezi form, you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to these Terms, together with any additional rules of the specific competition you are entering.