The deal
Be 18 or older, tell true stories your partner knows about, be kind, and remember everything here is public. You keep your story; you let us show it.
These terms are an agreement between you and Ironborn Ventures LLC (“we”, “us”), which runs Tell Me How You Met. By using the site, you agree to them, and to our community guidelines and privacy policy.
Who can join
Anyone can read. You need to be 18 or older to have an account.
You must be 18 or older to create an account, tell a story, react, comment or save. Both people in the couple must be 18 or older today. Give your real date of birth. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we delete it.
There are no passwords: you sign in with a link or code sent to your email, or with Google. Keep your email account safe, since anyone who can read it can sign in as you. One account per person.
Telling your story
It has to be true, it has to be yours, and your partner has to know.
When you send a story, you promise that:
- it’s true, as you honestly remember it;
- it’s about you and your partner, and your partner knows you’re posting it;
- you have the right to share every photo you add, and everyone recognizable in it is okay with it being public;
- it doesn’t share anyone’s private details (like a full name, address, phone number or workplace) without their permission.
Nicknames and first names are fine, and often kinder. If the story interviewer helped you, the draft is made only from your own answers; you read it, edit it and choose to send it, and you’re responsible for it like anything else you post.
Everything here is public
There’s no private mode. Anyone online can read a published story.
Published stories, photos, paper couples, names and comments can be read by anyone, found by search engines, and shared by readers. If you remove something, it comes off our site, but we can’t pull back copies other people already made or shared. Please don’t post anything you wouldn’t want the world to read.
Your story stays yours
You own what you write. You give us permission to show it and share it, here and in share cards, emails and our social posts.
You keep ownership of your story, photos and paper couple. When you send them, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free permission to host, store, copy, display and share them, and to adapt their format (for example a “Read more” cut-off, a share card made from your headline, or a pin on the globe) to run and promote Tell Me How You Met. That includes showing them on the site, choosing them as the Chester's Choice, and sharing them in our emails and on our social media accounts, with your names as you wrote them.
This permission ends when you remove your story, except for copies already shared, backups kept for a short time, and anything we must keep by law.
What's not allowed
The short list is in our community guidelines. Here’s the full one.
Don’t post or do anything that:
- is illegal, threatening, harassing, hateful or bullying;
- is sexually explicit;
- is sexual in any way about anyone who was under 18 at the time;
- includes an intimate picture of anyone without their consent;
- shares someone’s private details without their permission;
- names, shames or drags an ex or anyone else (a passing mention is fine; a takedown isn’t);
- pretends to be someone else, or tells a story that isn’t true;
- copies someone else’s writing or photos without permission;
- advertises, spams, or sells anything;
- tries to break, overload, scrape or sneak around the site’s protections.
How we check things
Everything is checked before it goes live. We can say no, and we can take things down.
Every story, comment and photo is checked before it appears, first automatically and then by a person if anything is flagged. We never rewrite your words; we either publish something or decline it. Readers can report any story or comment. We may remove anything that breaks these terms, at any time, and we don’t have to publish anything.
Removing things, and bans
You can remove your story any time. We can remove accounts that break the rules.
You can remove your own story at any time from your Me page, and it comes off the site right away. That works even if your account has been banned.
If you break these terms, we may remove your content, stop you posting, or close your account. If you think we got it wrong, email hello@tellmehowyoumet.love and a person will look again.
If a story is about you
Ask us, no account needed, and confirm your email. We hide the story within 24 hours while we look.
If a story here is about you and you didn’t agree to it, or it shares something that isn’t the storyteller’s to share, send us a removal request. We email you a link to confirm the request is really yours, so nobody can take down someone’s story by pretending to be you; a request counts once you tap it, and an unconfirmed one expires after a day. Once it counts, a person on our team reviews it, and if the story is up, we hide it within 24 hours while we decide. Hiding it isn’t a verdict. Then we either take it down, ask the storyteller to take your name or details out (it stays hidden until they do), or put it back, and we email you either way.
For an intimate picture shared without consent, use the intimate image removal request instead: we remove it within 48 hours of your request. We also ask you to confirm your email, but the 48 hours start when your request arrives, confirmed or not.
Copyright (DMCA)
If someone posted your photo or writing without permission, tell our copyright agent.
We respect copyright. If you believe something here copies your work without permission, send a written notice to our designated agent that includes:
- your physical or electronic signature;
- the work you believe was copied;
- the link to the material on our site;
- your name, address, phone number and email;
- a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn’t authorized by you, your agent or the law; and
- a statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner or are authorized to act for them.
Send your notice to our copyright agent, Dexter Brocks, by email at dex@charmingaiconsulting.com, or by post to 1147 Brook Forest Ave, Shorewood, IL 60404.
If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you can send a counter-notice with the details the law requires, and we’ll pass it on. We close the accounts of people who repeatedly post work that isn’t theirs.
Emails
Signing up includes our emails, like the daily featured love story. Every one has an unsubscribe link.
When you create an account, you agree to get our emails. That includes notes about your story (like when it’s live), and our emails with the daily featured love story and news from Tell Me How You Met. Every one of these emails has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing doesn’t affect your account or your stories. Sign-in emails come only when you ask for one.
The site as it is
We work hard on it, but we can’t promise it will always be perfect.
We provide the site as it is and as available. Stories are written by the people who tell them, not by us, and we don’t promise they’re accurate. To the extent the law allows, we aren’t liable for indirect or unexpected losses from using the site. If we are ever liable to you for anything to do with the site, the most we owe you is the greater of $100 or what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Nothing here limits rights you have by law that can’t be limited.
Disagreements
Talk to us first. Most things can be fixed with an email.
If something goes wrong, email hello@tellmehowyoumet.love first; we’d rather fix it together. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois.
Changes and contact
If these terms change in a way that matters, we’ll tell you first.
We may update these terms. We’ll post the new version here with a new effective date, and tell you before a change that matters takes effect. Questions: hello@tellmehowyoumet.love, or Ironborn Ventures LLC, 1147 Brook Forest Ave, Shorewood, IL 60404.