Terms and Conditions

PHEMA Terms & Conditions

Last Updated: April 15, 2025

Welcome to PHEMA.org — The Phriendly Helping Emergency Mutual Aid network. These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern your use of our website, forums, services, and community tools. By accessing or using any part of the site, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please refrain from using our platform.

1. Who We Are

PHEMA is a community-driven platform rooted in the Phish fanbase, created to support one another in times of need and beyond. Through mutual aid, mental health support, directories, forums, event listings, and nonprofit collaborations, we aim to build a safe, compassionate space online and on tour.

2. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing PHEMA.org, you confirm that you are at least 13 years old and legally capable of entering into these Terms. Continued use of the site implies consent to be governed by this agreement, our Privacy Policy, and our Community Guidelines.

3. Not a Substitute for Professional Advice

PHEMA.org may offer peer support and resource-sharing — but we are not medical professionals, lawyers, or crisis counselors. Content shared on the site is for informational and community-building purposes only and should never replace advice from licensed professionals.

4. User Accounts

To access many features of PHEMA (forums, group chats, directories, etc.), you must create an account.

You agree to:

• Provide accurate and complete information when registering

• Keep your login credentials secure

• Take responsibility for all activity under your account

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or our Community Guidelines.

5. Community Conduct

By joining PHEMA, you agree to:

• Treat all users with kindness, respect, and care

• Avoid hate speech, harassment, spam, or abusive behavior

• Respect others’ privacy and consent

• Follow all applicable laws

We reserve the right to moderate content and remove posts or users that violate our values or pose harm to the community.

6. Privacy & Data Use

We take your privacy seriously. Please review our Privacy Policy for details on how your information is collected, used, and protected.

We do not sell user data. Information submitted via forms, profiles, or posts is used only for the purposes stated and will never be shared without your consent.

7. Forum, Group & Directory Participation

PHEMA offers various community tools, including:

• Support Groups

• Forums

• Business and Nonprofit Directories

• Crowdfunding Hubs

• Volunteer Boards

• Event Calendars

By contributing to these spaces, you grant PHEMA a non-exclusive license to use your content for display and community engagement. You are responsible for the content you share and any consequences it may bring.

8. Donations, Listings, and Fundraisers

Some pages on PHEMA may include embedded crowdfunding campaigns, nonprofit donation links, or marketplace listings. While we aim to feature only trusted and verified listings, PHEMA is not liable for transactions made through third-party platforms (e.g., GoFundMe, Venmo, Stripe, etc.).

Please exercise due diligence before donating or purchasing.

9. Changes to the Site

PHEMA is a living project — content, features, and design may evolve over time. We reserve the right to update or remove features, sections, or user accounts at our discretion, with or without notice.

10. Termination of Access

We may suspend or terminate your access to the site at any time if you:

• Violate these Terms or Community Guidelines

• Post dangerous or inappropriate content

• Engage in fraudulent, misleading, or abusive behavior

11. Limitation of Liability

PHEMA.org and its volunteers, board members, and partners are not liable for:

• Any direct or indirect damages resulting from your use of the site

• Losses incurred through third-party services or external links

• Harm caused by user-generated content

Use of the site is at your own discretion and risk.

12. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Vermont, where PHEMA is registered as a nonprofit. Any legal disputes must be resolved within the jurisdiction of Vermont courts.

13. Contact

For questions about these Terms, please check out our Contact Us page or email: info@phema.org.

Thanks for being part of this mutual aid movement. We’re all int this together. ⭕️➕♥️

Privacy Policy

Who we are

Our website address is: https://phema.org.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where your data is sent

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.