Terms of Service
Updated March 23rd, 2020
If you are accessing this site you are bound to comply with these Terms of Service. You are responsible for making sure you follow all of these conditions. In failing to do so, you risk ban or permanent banning of your IP from this site. You are responsible for following the local laws of your state. The purpose of these Terms is our responsibility to you, the user, to make you aware of the laws applicable to accessing this site. You are required to have read and understood these Terms, failure to comply with them will prohibit you from using or accessing Aywas.com. If you disagree or do not understand these terms, do not access the Aywas.com website.
Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy has its own page now.
Staff cannot discuss other persons, users, or accounts that are existing, pending, or terminated, with persons not associated with those accounts.
Aywas uses Google Adsense to serve advertisements. Advertisements are served to help pay extra funds to artists who work on Aywas Jobs without having to raise the price of Breeding Coins or other commission-based items for players. To read about how Google handles privacy, please click here. Google uses cookies to serve ads, which you can read about here.
Report Unwanted/Offensive Ads here.
Contact
Aywas is owned and managed by Explorer Games.
Contact us on [email protected] if you wish to contact us regarding DMCA takedowns, other legal matters, or require support and are unable to access the site.
Please allow approximately 72 hours for a response before "bumping" your message.
Site Rules
You agree to be bound by the following sets of site rules, in addition to this TOS:
--- Site Rules:
Across the entire site in any place where text or images can be input, for example user/pet profiles, forums, news comments, etc.
You, the user, agree that you will:
- abide by the TOS
- treat all users with respect on all areas of the Aywas.com site
- not post or link to derogatory, racially offensive, or explicit material anywhere on the Aywas site
- not use profanity in public places, or in private spaces when asked to stop
- recognize the authority of moderators and administrators and abide by all requests made by these parties
- not harass a user through PM or any other system
- not spam or send unsolicited advertisement or commercial messages to players
- honor a user's request to cease communications with you
- make reasonable attempts to use correct grammar and capitalization on all areas of the Aywas.com site
- use minimal chatspeak
- access and use the "Help" forums and "Knowledge Base" prior to messaging any user or moderator regarding a question
- not attempt to solicit boyfriends or girlfriends anywhere on the Aywas.com site
- not solicit any asset - whether points, pets, items, or services - from any user without offering proper pay (begging)
- not post or link to fundraising or donations sites, or otherwise ask or imply a request for monetary donations
- not manipulate official pet details (pet image, pet stats, pet breedability, etc.) in pet profiles through CSS or any other means
---- Forum Rules
In addition to the Site rules, regarding the forums specifically.
You, the user, agree that you will:
- conduct yourself in a mature fashion
- type all responses submitted to the forums in a coherent manner.
- review all stickied threads in the "Help" forum prior to posting a question in said forum
- not excessively advertise other websites or outside services, nor solicit for Staff members of a competing site on Aywas
- not post spam or multiple threads for the same purpose
- respect all users and staff and their opinions
- not initiate or participate in any flame-baiting or harassment of another user
- not provide your phone number, home address, or real name on the forums
- accept all responsibility for any actions taken against your e-mail or IM program name should you choose to post it
- abide by all moderators' requests and orders
- not use profanity in the titles of your forum threads
- not use profanity except in threads with a [M] in the title
- not post, link to, or exhibit pornography, racist or derogatory material, cult creation, or any other materials forbidden by the TOS
- not bump your topic within twenty-four hours of your last bump unless it is off the first page of the forum section it is in
- not reserve a post during an official Aywas contest
---- Sales Rules
In addition to Site and Forum rules, regarding the sales of items, pets, all artwork, and services
You, the user, agree that you will:
- fulfill all transactions negotiated between you and another user
- fulfill all agreements (such as art) with another user within one month unless agreed to by the other user
- not sell or attempt to sell any product you do not have in your possession at the time for immediate transfer
- not offer site currency, pets, items, or other Aywas wealth that you do not own and cannot conceivably obtain at the time of purchase
- not ask for pre-payment on USD commissions
- not falsify information regarding any sale
- not attempt to conceal information upon which the sale is dependent, such as breeding slots, or breeding rights associated with a gen 2+ pet
- honor all sales agreements made, such as "auto buys" and "end of auctions"
- not attempt to coerce or force others to lower their prices or change their terms
- not publicly advertise or publicly request the usage of a premium member's Shop discount
- not purchase Premium time for another user with the Premium item as payment
- not conduct transactions that involve real world money or any website's property in which that website forbids trading
---- Breeding Rules
In addition to Site, Forum and Sales rules, regarding the breeding of pets and their associated user-made rules
You, the user, agree that you will:
- not attempt to coerce or force others who do not wish to have their pets bred
- honor all breeding agreements made prior to the breeding of two pets in which you are involved
- not attempt to coerce or force others to lower their breeding fee or change their terms
- disclose additional offspring or offspring rights/purchase rights to the rightful owner prior to attempting to put said offspring up for sale (associated with breeding rights)
Accounts
Each Aywas user is allowed one account. Users found creating multiple accounts will be made to give up one of the accounts of the administration's choosing for banning. Assets from multiple accounts cannot be merged into one account prior to banning. Non-compliance or creating other accounts after this first warning will result in permanent ban of the user’s IP address.
Users who wish to trade or buy another’s account must either submit their old account for banning or have their old account sold within a two week time span. When you choose to move your possessions to a new account, you are required to submit a form described in this Aywas Thread. It is imperative that the staff know account moving so that we can prevent account hopping scams.
Users are allowed to share accounts according to the next section.
Note: Two or more players who send all of their income contents of accounts, including but not limited to free promotional items, event items, or "daily" game items, will be considered "multiple accounts." Users may not ask their friends, family, or other individuals to sign up solely to gain the wealth from the friend's account. While gifting is allowed and encouraged, remember that all accounts should be playing for their own sake, and not to make a single account rich.
When you register or access an Aywas account, you agree that you are the person you are claiming to be and you will not impersonate any other outside entity. You also agree that you will keep your account maintained with accurate information and will not input another person's data or impersonate another person in your account settings at any time.
Account Sharing
Users are allowed to share their account with other users. If an account is shared between two or more people, this is still considered to be one account, and users may not have any further accounts. Be aware that in sharing a single account, the actions of both players are held equally responsible for all aspects involving said account. It does not matter if the other players sharing this account are aware of the rules being broken, the punishment will still apply to the dual account the same as a single player account, regardless of whether or not the other person knew the rules had been broken or not.
Note: Persons wishing to share an account must already have an account of their own, having gone through the registration process and been accepted. If persons are found to be joining an existing account without having successfully completed the registration process, the account may be banned temporarily or permanently depending upon the situation.
Persons from accounts banned by the administration may not join another account, as their access to Aywas.com has been revoked. Accounts found to be allowing a banned person access to Aywas.com will be banned permanently.
Users wishing to engage in shared account behaviour must submit a joint agreement document to [email protected] with the following: each user's online handle, each user's e-mail, a list of which assets (currencies, items, pets) belong to which user in the event of a lair split.
This joint document cannot be edited, updated, or resubmitted once it has been submitted, except in the event of another user joining the account, at which point their information can be added to the existing document, and no other changes made.
Materials listed on the joint document agreement must be returned to its rightful owner in the event of an account split. Any goods not listed on this document and any further goods gathered in the account as a result of shared efforts must be dealt with by said users.
Passwords and Logins
Aywas administration will never ask you for password. Therefore, if you receive any messages requesting this kind of information, be sure to immediately report it to [email protected]. Users found requesting the passwords and login information of others in an attempt to scam will be banned permanently from the site.
Safety and Minors
Aywas is not a children's site. The website is rated as "teen" and is geared towards users 16+, however users under the age of eighteen, defined as minors under US law, are allowed to access the Aywas website. These users must make their parents or legal guardians aware of the Aywas Terms of Service. Some content on the website may not be suitable for minors, such as mature rated topics (as signified by an [M] in the title) on the forum, which may only be accessed by a minor user at the user's own risk.
If a parent or legal guardian discovers their minor on Aywas and would like their child's account permanently deleted, the parent/guardian may e-mail this request to [email protected]
Aywas encourages users to protect their privacy. Aywas suggests that users do not share their email, IM accounts, address, hometown, real name, or any other information that may identify the user to other viewers on the Aywas site. Aywas also takes the safety of all members very seriously. If any member feels they are being sexually harassed or their privacy is in danger of being invaded by a user soliciting information from them, they should make an immediate report to [email protected] so that our staff team may look into the issue. Any sexual harassment, attempt to solicit a minor, or a user seeking to gain personal information about a minor will be seen as the behavior of a sexual predator, and the offending user may have their IP permanently banned and a report made to their ISP.
Expected Behavior of Users on Aywas
Users are expected to conduct themselves in a mature fashion at all times. Excessive rudeness or a hurtful, ridiculing attitude toward any player (user or staff), site feature, or site amenity will not be tolerated. When discussing a sensitive topic (such as religion, politics, sexuality, etc.), users must remember to remain respectful and should keep any criticism aimed at the issue instead of each other. Voicing dislike for a political/religious figure or group is allowed, but personal attacks and insults toward Aywas members is not. Utilizing the "rants" forum does not allow a user an exception to this rule.
Cheating, Scamming, and Glitches
Cheating, including but not limited to multiple accounts, using programs like auto-buyers and auto-refreshers, and setting the browser to refresh a page, is strictly forbidden. Any cheating behavior will result in a ban. Scamming another user will result in a permanent ban. Abusing a glitch is strictly forbidden and will result in a permanent ban.
If you find a glitch that allows for unlawful gain of any site amenity, report it immediately to a site staff member and cease accessing any method that allows you to activate the glitch. Hold aside any amenities you gained and prepare for a staff member to guide you regarding how to dispose of them. Posting or sharing glitches that allow for amenity gain is strictly forbidden and will result in a warning or ban.
Usage of Site Resources
Any user found to be using a disproportionate amount of site resources compared to other active, online users may be banned by Aywas Administration. An example of abusing site resources is holding down the F5 button on games or not allowing a page to load before playing the page again. You should always allow the page to load before renewing any action.
Mature [M] Forum Topics
The following topics are considered to be mature [M]: politics, religion, sex, sexual innuendo or jokes, artistic nudity, sexuality, and swearing. These topics are to be marked with [M] so that any user under the age of eighteen will know that they are meant for mature audiences, and those not interested in such topics can know not to view them. These discussions may not be explicit in any way. These discussions are meant to allow freedom of speech within limitations for our more mature users. They are to be read and participated in at the users own discretion.
Aywas allows the use of swearing on the forums, so long as it is in a forum thread with [M], not explicit, and not directed toward any user. Forum titles, user names, and signatures may not have profanity in them. Swear words that require [M] are defined as: ass, bastard, bitch, fuck, shit. Using language toward another user that is racist, derogatory, or explicit is strictly forbidden.
Forbidden Material
No user may post any material that is sexually explicit or that is illegal in any way on Aywas.com. Users may not post about, mention, reference, or otherwise discuss the following topics: the desire to commit animal abuse, bestiality, child sexuality or pedophilia, warez or hacked programs, self-harm, suicide, cult creation, or threatening of, or the killing of another person, both on Aywas and off.
Malicious Viruses or Software
Anyone who links to malicious virus’ or software will be immediately IP banned from Aywas, and a report will be sent to your current internet provider.
USD Sales of Designs By Artists
This section governs the sale of derivative works (artworks incorporating official Aywas pet bases, SCC pets that have been submitted already, and HA avatar artwork). Players may only accept USD for their derivative artworks through the Commissions Panel or through the use of Artist Paintbrushes. Players are forbidden from negotiating or selling derivative artworks through any other means, or in any other location. This means that players may only receive USD direct to their PayPal account when in connection with a Commissions Panel official request, or when an administrator redeems a Paintbrush for them. Pre-payment is not allowed for USD commissions under any circumstances: violation of this can lead to being banned from the Commissions Panel.
USD Sales and Cross-Site Trading
Users may not sell any accounts, pets, items, currency, or any other property of Aywas for real life money, including but not limited to United States Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Gift cards (Visa Giftcard, Mastercard, Amazon Gift Card, etc) or real life objects that are not artwork (such as video games, books, etc). You may trade your site amenities for another site's amenities provided that site allows for reciprocal trading. Users may trade any site amenity for artwork, including drawings both digital and traditional, sculptures, hand made jewellery, etc. provided it does not include any official Aywas artwork.
You may not trade any site amenities to any site that allows you to trade their amenities for real life money or real life objects. An example of this is Second Life.
A list of sites that we do and do not allow trading with can be found in this Thread.
The previous section titled "USD Sales of Designs By Artists" covers the sale of artist-made artwork designs based off and incorporating Aywas pet bases.
Copyright
All content in and of Aywas.com and related to Aywas pets, NPC’s, or concepts is solely the property of Aywas.com. This includes derivative artwork, written works, pet colorations, and suggestions and ideas made by and for Aywas.com. You may display your pets on your own personal websites so long as there is a clear ©Aywas listed on the image and a direct link to Aywas.com. As a user you or your legal guardians give Aywas the rights to use any written works, art, text, ideas and suggestions that you have submitted or uploaded to this site that are related to Aywas. This includes any materials, data or games you may submit. This is a non-verbal, non-reversible and exclusive right to use anything you have submitted related to Aywas in any way we see fit. We have a right to modify, republish, transmit, change, or edit any of your submissions to Aywas.com.
Any and all Aywas-related information received becomes the automatic property of Explorer Games and Aywas.com, including any art, written works, suggestions, coding and other information related based on or related to Aywas ("derivative work"). When you submit any information, written work, materials or any of the aforementioned things, you are acknowledging that you assign Aywas all associated rights to the derivative work, and that you are legally able to do so and thereby take all responsibility for this.
Content and Continuity
All members are visitors, and are expected to act like one. Aywas may revoke access to the website for any reason, regardless of the user's standing, behavior, or purchases. All accounts, virtual items, virtual currencies (BP, GP, SP), coding, virtual pets, images, and content are the property of Explorer Games, and may be seized without warning for any reason.
Aywas may change the services provided by our site for any reason. Aywas may change any fees and charges for accessing the site, purchasing items, currency, or pets, or any other content associated with Aywas. Aywas reserves the right to revoke access to any user of the site. Aywas may change the hardware or software of the site as well as terminate anything related to the site. Aywas reserves the right to terminate the service to any and all users, including closing Aywas down. Aywas will not refund any services, virtual items, currency, upgrades, or pets purchased in the event that the site closes.
Gold Paws and Virtual Items
Aywas offers various virtual items through the "USD Shop", as well as the virtual currency "GP" or "Gold Paws". In purchasing virtual items or currency you realize that you do not claim any ownership to the virtual items or currency purchased, and that the purchase is non-refundable. Aywas does not provide any refunds for any reason, including but not limited to revoking access to the site or seizing content. Aywas reserves the right to not refund or give back any purchases for any reason.
The user submitting the charge is responsible for all payments incurred by themselves in the purchase of "Gold Paws" or any other Aywas virtual items or merchandise. You agree that Aywas is not liable or responsible for charges made from either bank or credit card providers in association with the transactions you submit. You agree that by initiating a "PayPal Dispute", "Chargeback", or any other means of attempting to recover funds spent through an Aywas transaction will result in an immediate permanent ban, and that you accept liability for the transaction in question, any fees, such as chargeback fees or legal fees, that Aywas incurs due to your attempt to recover funds.
By submitting a transaction through PayPal for any Aywas merchandise, including virtual merchandise and "Gold Paws", you agree that you are authorized to use the PayPal account you are sending the payment from. If you are found to be accessing a PayPal account and sending illegitimate transactions, you agree to be held liable for civil and/or criminal penalties as Aywas pursues all fraud avenues through your bank, PayPal, your credit card company, and any and all legal avenues that Aywas uses. You agree that all data you have submitted to Aywas will be used to identify you to police, credit card companies, PayPal employees, banks, courts, and any other entity involved in your attempt to recover funds and Aywas' attempt to pursue civil or criminal penalties.
Disclaimers
Users hereby acknowledge that Aywas has no control over which users gain access to Aywas.com. We have no responsibility to take any action regarding what materials you access, and what effects said materials may have on you. Nor do we hold responsibility for how you may interpret or use said materials, or what actions you take as a result of having been exposed to these materials. As we are primarily a more mature audience based site, Aywas may contain links to websites and threads on our forums that some users may find offensive or inappropriate, and Aywas does not endorse such links. In accessing Aywas.com, you are hereby releasing Aywas for all liability for your having acquired or not acquired materials through this site. You are agreeing to hold Aywas and its staff harmless from any claims, losses, damages, liabilities, including legal matters, fees, and situations arising out of your use or misuse of Aywas.com, violation of these Terms of Service, violation of the rights of any other user, or any breach made by you or another user on this site. Aywas reserves the right, at your expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter for which you are required to indemnify Aywas, and you agree to cooperate with Aywas’ defense of these claims.
Liability
Users posting any form of content on Aywas.com accept responsibility for all liability for content they have posted. Users who steal art, writing, or otherwise claim the work of others will be permanently banned. Aywas values others' intellectual property. If you feel that your rights have been infringed by an Aywas user, please submit a DMCA takedown notice to [email protected].
Legal Matters
By playing on this site, you agree that you cannot hold Aywas responsible for the liability of any legal issues. You may not attempt, threaten or try to sue Aywas or any of its staff regarding any matter or issue. We have done what we can to ensure a safe, player friendly site for our members; it is their responsibility to have read these Terms of Service and to comply with them. You are hereby agreeing not to hold Aywas or any of the staff involved responsible for any loss, claim, expense or legal matters including but not limited to theft of personal information, non-compliance of the Terms of Service resulting in consequences to yourself or those involved, loss of service to your user account, including but not limited to Cash Shop items, items, currencies and pets.
Changes to ToS
The administration will post notices in the "News" if any of these Terms of Service have changed. The user is responsible for checking the updated Terms of Service once notified of the need to do so. For any further questions not covered by the Terms of Service, or you are unsure about something contained in them, contact [email protected].