TERMS OF SERVICE
A Necessary Kindness — anecessarykindness.com
Version 1.8 · Last updated 29 July 2026

Plain language, on purpose. This is a game about secrets, so you should
know exactly what happens to yours.

1. WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH

Operator: Morrow State Games
Address: registered in the Netherlands; postal address held in the KVK trade register and available on request by email
Chamber of Commerce (KVK): 59718048
Email: [email protected]

That address is our single point of contact — for you, for the
authorities, and for anything under these terms, including notices under
the EU Digital Services Act. We read English and Dutch. A person answers it.

2. WHAT THIS SERVICE IS

A free browser game and a work of interactive fiction. It works like this:

- You choose a handle (up to 24 characters) and write one secret
  (8 to 180 characters, at least three words).
- Your secret joins a queue. Strangers are shown it one at a time, and
  each of them chooses.
- CONDEMN publishes your secret in the field, next to your handle, where
  anyone can read it.
- ABSOLVE leaves it unpublished. 10 absolutions and you are
  free: your figure walks the field and your secret is never published.
- A published secret stays readable for 48 hours while its words are
  blacked out one by one. When that ends, the text is deleted from our
  storage. The stone and the handle may remain, empty.

There is no account and no password. Your browser holds a random token;
that is how the site knows which record is yours. If you clear your
browser data, the link is lost and we cannot restore it for you.

The service is free. There is nothing to buy, nothing to unlock, and no
payment can change what happens to you here. You may send a voluntary
tip if you want to help keep the site running — see clause 12.

3. YOU MUST BE 18 OR OLDER

This is for adults. By entering you confirm you are at least 18. If we
believe a record belongs to someone under 18, we delete it without notice.

4. WHAT YOU MAY NOT WRITE

Write your own secret, in your own words, about your own life. Do not
submit:

- anything that identifies you or anyone else — real names, addresses,
  email addresses, phone numbers, links, social handles, ID or account
  numbers;
- someone else's secret, or private facts about a person who could be
  recognised;
- anything unlawful, including material that sexualises children,
  terrorist content, incitement to violence or hatred, threats,
  harassment, doxxing, intimate images shared without consent, and offers
  to buy or sell illegal goods or services;
- a description of a crime you are committing or planning;
- statements you know to be false about a real, identifiable person;
- advertising, spam, malware, or anything submitted by automated means;
- content that impersonates someone else.

You are responsible for what you write. Assume strangers will read it,
and that if you are condemned it will be published.

5. HOW MODERATION ACTUALLY WORKS

Every submission is checked automatically — in your browser, and again on
our server, before any stranger can see it. The check is a fixed set of
rules. It is not an AI and it does not learn from you. It looks at length
and shape, rejects text that appears to contain personal details, rejects
slurs, threats and exploitation, and routes certain text about self-harm
or abuse out of the game entirely (clause 10). Ordinary profanity is fine.

Automated rules are blunt. They sometimes refuse something harmless and
sometimes miss something they should catch. We also review records by
hand, and we may refuse, hide or delete any submission, and block further
use of the service, where we believe clause 4 or the law has been broken.

We do not read everything that is submitted and we are under no general
obligation to monitor. That is not indifference — see clause 6.

If we restrict something you submitted and we are able to reach you, we
tell you what we did, why, whether automated tools were involved, and how
to challenge it.

6. REPORTING SOMETHING ILLEGAL, AND CHALLENGING WHAT WE DO

Anyone can report content here that they believe is illegal. Email
[email protected] and include:

- where it is: the handle on the stone, and what it says or what you saw;
- why you believe it is illegal;
- your name and email address — not required if your report concerns a
  criminal offence against someone's life or safety;
- a line confirming you believe, in good faith, that your report is
  accurate and complete.

We confirm receipt. We decide in a timely, careful, non-arbitrary and
objective way, normally within 10 working days. We then tell you the
decision and the reasons for it, whether or not anything was removed.

If you disagree with a decision — as the person who wrote the content or
the person who reported it — reply within 30 days to [email protected] and a
person will look at it again. You may also use an out-of-court dispute
settlement body, complain to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), the Dutch Digital Services Coordinator,
or go to court. Nothing here takes those rights away.

If we believe someone's life or safety is at risk, we will inform the
police or another competent authority.

7. YOUR WORDS STAY YOURS

You keep every right you have in what you write. You give us permission
to store, show and display your handle and your secret inside this game
and in material about the game, worldwide and without payment, for as
long as we hold it. We need that permission because condemnation
publishes your secret in public. We do not sell your secret and we do not
license it to anyone else for their own purposes.

You confirm what you submit is yours to share and does not break clause 4.

About "forever": the game says a carved secret is forever. In truth the
text is blacked out over 48 hours and then deleted, as in clause 2 — and
we will remove anything sooner when the law requires it, including a valid
request under data protection law. The story never overrides your rights.

8. WHAT BELONGS TO US, AND WHAT YOU MAY NOT COPY

The game itself is ours: the code, the artwork and every sprite in it,
the written text and the voice it is written in, the sounds, the
typography and visual design, the name, and the way all of it is chosen
and arranged. It belongs to Morrow State Games, or to those who
licensed parts of it to us. Playing gives you no rights in any
of it, and every right not expressly given to you here stays
with us.

None of this touches clause 7. What you write stays yours.

You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, publish or adapt any part of the
game, make a derivative or translated version of it, or remove or alter
any notice of authorship.

You may not extract, scrape or re-publish the field, the stones or the
leaderboard in bulk, by hand or by machine. That applies to the
collection as a whole as much as to anything held in it.

You may not present anything in a way likely to make people think it is
ours, made by us, or connected to us, and you may not use our name or
anything confusingly close to it.

We enforce this. If you believe something here infringes rights of your
own, write to [email protected] and tell us what and where.

9. REMOVING YOUR OWN RECORD

Email [email protected] with your handle and, if you have it, the record id
shown on your own record. We remove it within 30 days, usually much
sooner. What we cannot do is un-read it: anyone who already saw a
published secret may remember it or have copied it. Your full data
protection rights are on the Privacy page.

10. THIS IS NOT HELP, AND NOBODY IS WATCHING

This is a game. It is not counselling, therapy, medical, legal or crisis
support, and no one reads submissions in real time.

Text that suggests self-harm, suicide, abuse, or risk to a minor is never
stored and never published; you are shown places that can actually help.
If you are in danger now: call 112 anywhere in the EU, 113 or 0800-0113
in the Netherlands, or find your local line at findahelpline.com.

11. THE PURSE

Part of what the advertising earns may be returned as a prize — the purse
— to a single player who survives judgment. Before a round opens, THE
PURSE page states the value of the prize, when the round runs, when the
draw happens, and how the winner is told.

Standing rules:

- Taking part is free and always will be. There is no stake, no entry fee,
  nothing to buy, and we never charge communication costs.
- Only players aged 18 or over can win.
- One player, one voice. Creating or judging records through extra
  identities, browsers, devices or connections to influence a verdict or
  the draw is cheating: such records may be removed without notice and
  their maker is disqualified from the round.
- Players who reach 10 absolutions during a round qualify for
  the draw. Qualifying is not winning.
- There is ONE winner per round. The whole purse goes to a single player,
  drawn at random from everyone who qualified during that round. Everyone
  else receives nothing, however many reach the full count.
- The winner is contacted at the email address they chose to give. Without
  an email address we cannot pay you. We may ask you to confirm your age
  and identity before paying.
- We may change, pause, shorten or cancel the purse, and we say so on THE
  PURSE page if we do. A round already announced is honoured as announced.
- We run this as a small promotional game of chance under the Dutch Code
  of Conduct for Promotional Games of Chance (Gedragscode promotionele
  kansspelen) and keep prize values inside its limits.
- Dutch gambling tax (kansspelbelasting) applies only to prizes above
  €449. We keep prizes below that. If one ever exceeds it, we declare and
  pay the tax and say so in advance.
- If a prize cannot lawfully be offered where you live, you cannot take
  part in that round.
- Complaints about the purse: email [email protected] with "PURSE" in the
  subject. We answer within 10 working days.

12. TIPS

You may send a voluntary tip through the payment page linked from the
About page. A tip is a gift, not a purchase. It buys nothing: no
feature, no advantage, no protection from condemnation, no entry to the
purse and no better chance of winning it. The strangers who judge you
cannot see whether you have given anything, and the purse stays free to
enter for everyone (clause 11).

Tips are handled by Stripe. We never see your card details. A gift is
not a purchase, so the 14-day right of withdrawal that applies to online
purchases does not apply — but if you sent a tip by mistake, email
[email protected] and we will refund it where we still can.

13. THE SERVICE CAN CHANGE OR STOP

The game is offered as it is, free of charge. We may change it, add or
remove features, reset the field, or stop it altogether. We try to keep it
running and to give notice of anything major, but we cannot promise it is
always available, free of errors, or that your record survives a technical
failure.

We may end your access if you break these terms. You may stop at any time
by not returning.

14. LIABILITY

We are liable to you as the law provides, and nothing in these terms
limits or excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or
excluded. If you are a consumer, the rights you have under the law of
your own country are untouched by anything written here.

Beyond that, and only as far as the law allows: we are not liable for
indirect or consequential loss, for what other players write or do, for a
stranger's verdict, for content you chose to submit, or for what someone
else does with a secret once it is published; and our total liability is
limited to €100.

15. OTHER SERVICES WE USE

The site is hosted by Cloudflare. Advertising is served by Google
AdSense, whose scripts run on the page, which makes Google a separate
recipient of data about your visit; in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland
you are asked to consent before any personalised advertising runs. Tips
are processed by Stripe. The Privacy page sets out what each of them
receives.

16. WHICH LAW, WHICH COURT

Dutch law applies. If you are a consumer you also keep the
protection of the mandatory law of the country you live in, and you may
bring a claim in the courts there. We may bring a claim against you only
in the courts of the country where you live.

17. CHANGES TO THESE TERMS

We may update these terms. The version and date at the top always say
which text is current. If a change matters to you, we announce it on the
site before it takes effect. If you keep playing afterwards, the new terms
apply; if you do not accept them, stop using the service and ask us to
remove your record.

18. THE REST

If a clause turns out to be invalid, the rest still stands. These terms,
the Privacy page and the Report page are the whole agreement between us
about this service. The English text is the original.