Terms of Service

1. Acceptance

By creating an account or using minShelf, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

2. Eligibility

You must meet the minimum age required to use an online service in your country, and in any case be at least 13 years old, to use minShelf. If you are under 18, you must have parental or guardian consent. When you create an account you confirm that you meet these requirements - we ask you to attest to this rather than collecting your date of birth.

3. Your account

• You are responsible for keeping your password secure.
• You must not share your account or impersonate others.
• One account per person.

4. Content rules

You must not post content that:

• Is false, misleading, or fraudulent.
• Infringes any copyright, trademark, or intellectual property right.
• Is abusive, harassing, or threatening to other users.
• Violates any applicable law.

You retain ownership of content you post. By posting, you grant minShelf a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, and distribute that content within the platform, and to use it to operate, improve, and develop the service - including measuring and improving our identification models. We only include a specimen in datasets we build, which in the future may be licensed, if you have explicitly opted that specimen in, either at the moment it becomes community-verified or via the "auto-add my verified specimens" setting (Settings → Privacy & data sharing). This is off by default and recorded in an auditable consent log; you can withdraw at any time, after which future releases exclude your data (datasets already published cannot be recalled). Shared records use reduced-precision locality and EXIF-stripped photos.

5. AI identification

minShelf includes an AI-powered identification feature that helps you identify rocks, minerals, and fossils from photos.

• Identifications are provided as a starting point and may be incorrect. You should not rely on them for safety-critical decisions (e.g. radioactive or asbestos-bearing material identification).
• Photos you submit for identification are sent to our AI provider (Anthropic) for processing. Anthropic does not retain or train on API inputs by default. See our Privacy Policy.
• Community members may suggest corrections to your specimen's identification via the peer verification feature. You can ignore or accept these suggestions.
• A daily AI scan limit applies to fair-use the service.

6. Community verification

Other authenticated users can agree with, disagree with, or propose alternative names for the identification of any public specimen. The platform aggregates these votes - weighted by each reviewer's track record - into a verification status and a confidence score. You may dispute or comment on votes cast on your own specimens. Specimens that reach "verified" are the ones we may invite you to contribute to the dataset (see section 4).

7. Marketplace (not currently available)

minShelf is currently a social and identification platform only. Buying and selling features are not enabled during the current beta. Separate marketplace terms and a seller agreement will be published before any marketplace functionality is enabled.

8. Subscriptions (minShelf Premium)

minShelf Premium is an optional paid subscription that raises usage limits and adds extra features. It may not be available at all times.

• Premium is billed in advance as an auto-renewing subscription, either monthly (£3.99 per month) or yearly (£29 per year), processed by Stripe. Prices include VAT where applicable.
• By starting a subscription you agree that the service begins immediately, and you waive the 14 day statutory cooling-off period in exchange for instant access. You confirm this with a checkbox before checkout.
• You can cancel anytime through Manage subscription in Settings, which opens the Stripe billing portal. Cancelling stops future renewals; Premium stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for. We do not give partial refunds for unused time, without prejudice to your statutory rights.
• If a renewal payment fails we will retry and notify you. If payment cannot be collected, Premium features are removed after a short grace period.
• We will give at least 30 days notice before any price change, which takes effect at your next renewal. If you do not agree, cancel before the renewal.
• If Premium is withdrawn or a paid feature is permanently removed, we will refund the unused portion of any prepaid period.

9. Prohibited activities

• Scraping or automated data collection without permission.
• Attempting to access other users' accounts.
• Posting specimens that could pose a safety risk (e.g. high-activity radioactive material) without clear warnings.
• Using the AI identification feature in a manner that abuses the daily quota.

10. Moderation

We remove content that violates these terms or applicable law. You will receive a notification with the reason for any removal, and you can appeal moderation decisions. See our Moderation Policy for the full process.

11. Termination

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms. You may delete your account at any time from Settings.

12. Disclaimer

minShelf is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. AI identifications are best-effort suggestions, not guarantees. We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

14. Contact

Questions? Email legal@minshelf.com.