By creating an account on The Last Line (“the platform”), you agree to these Terms and Conditions, our Community Guidelines, and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not create an account.
We may update these terms from time to time. Continued use of the platform after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.
You must be at least 16 years of age to use The Last Line. We reserve the right to request proof of age at any time.
Accounts are created via third-party authentication (Google and/or Apple sign-in). You are responsible for maintaining the security of your authentication credentials. You must choose a unique username that does not impersonate another person, contain slurs or offensive language, or infringe on any trademark.
One account per person. Duplicate or secondary accounts used to circumvent moderation or inflate activity may be suspended without warning.
The Last Line is a collaborative storytelling platform. All story content — first lines, contributed lines, last lines, and story titles — is created by users.
You retain ownership of the individual lines you write. By submitting content to The Last Line, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display, distribute, reproduce, and modify your content as necessary to operate the platform. This includes displaying your lines within stories, in Dead Lines archives, in share artifacts, in Vox Pop forks, and in promotional materials for the platform.
Stories on The Last Line are collaborative works involving multiple contributors. No single contributor owns a completed story, and no single contributor may block the use of a completed story.
The platform may display, share, distribute, and publish completed stories in any format and through any medium. This includes the share artifact, print anthologies, e-books, and merchandise featuring story content, whether or not sold commercially.
By submitting a line to a story, you accept that your contribution becomes part of a collaborative work and cannot be individually withdrawn from that work once it has been accepted into the story. This is not a transfer of ownership of your words — it is a recognition that collaborative works, by their nature, cannot be dismantled by a single participant.
Contributors are credited by their platform username. If a completed story is published outside the platform — in a book, anthology, or on merchandise — the platform will credit all contributors by username.
If you do not wish your username to appear in a published work, you may request its removal by contacting anampersand@proton.me. Your contributed lines will remain in the story, attributed to “anonymous” or equivalent. You cannot request the removal of your lines from a collaborative work.
If the platform generates revenue from the commercial sale of compiled works or merchandise featuring user-contributed content, a portion of that revenue will be directed to a literacy or creative writing charity. Details of any such arrangement will be published on the platform before commercial sales begin.
Stories may be forked through the Vox Pop mechanic, where community engagement with a rejected line (a “Dead Line”) triggers the creation of a new, independent story that inherits the trunk lines of the original up to the fork point. By submitting content, you consent to your lines appearing in forked stories. Forked stories are credited to the original Director and the Dead Line author.
If you delete your account, your contributed lines will remain within collaborative stories. The licence granted above survives account deletion for content that has been incorporated into collaborative works. You may request that your username be replaced with “anonymous” by contacting anampersand@proton.me prior to deletion.
All content must comply with the Community Guidelines. The four categories of prohibited content are: hate speech and slurs, sexual content involving a minor, self-harm promotion, and spam or off-topic content.
Literary use of strong language (profanity) is permitted and is not a violation. Stories that contain strong language are automatically labelled “Strong Language” so that readers who prefer a cleaner feed can filter them out. This label is a content notice, not a penalty, and does not count as a strike.
We reserve the right to remove any content at our sole discretion, with or without notice, for any reason, including but not limited to violation of these Terms, the Community Guidelines, or applicable law.
We operate a three-strike system for content violations. Directors bear responsibility for content they curate into their stories. A confirmed violation results in a strike for both the line’s author and the story’s Director.
Sexual content involving minors results in an immediate permanent ban on the first offence, without passing through the strike system. Where legally required, such content will be reported to the relevant authorities.
We may suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice. Grounds for suspension or termination include but are not limited to: accumulation of three strikes, severe violations that skip the strike ladder, coordinated manipulation or spam, impersonation, and any activity that threatens the safety or integrity of the platform or its users.
Upon termination, your right to use the platform ceases immediately. Content you contributed to collaborative stories may remain on the platform as part of those collaborative works.
The Last Line offers an optional paid subscription (“Boost”) that provides enhanced capacity and cosmetic features, including unlimited daily line submissions, multiple story starts per day, access to the formatting studio for share artifacts, and folio saves on the profile page.
The core experience of the platform — reading stories, starting one story per day, submitting lines, and sharing in the default format — is and will remain free. No feature previously offered for free will be moved behind a paywall.
Boost subscriptions are billed on a recurring basis. You may cancel at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. We do not offer refunds for partial periods.
The Last Line name, logo, the ampersand production mark, and all platform design, code, and documentation are the intellectual property of the platform’s operators. You may not use our trademarks without prior written permission.
The share artifact feature generates styled images of stories for social sharing. These images may include platform branding. By using the share feature, you consent to the inclusion of platform branding on shared content.
The Last Line is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not guarantee that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of data, loss of goodwill, or loss of profits, arising out of or in connection with your use of the platform.
We are not responsible for the content submitted by users. While we moderate content in accordance with our Community Guidelines, we cannot guarantee that all harmful content will be detected or removed promptly.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Last Line, its operators, and its affiliates from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including legal fees) arising from your use of the platform, your content, or your violation of these Terms.
We may modify these Terms at any time. Material changes will be communicated via the platform. Continued use of the platform after changes are posted constitutes acceptance.
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction in which the platform’s operators are incorporated, without regard to conflict of law principles.
Questions about these Terms should be directed to anampersand@proton.me.