⚠️ Glowchus.COM is presently in its beta phase ⚠️

This, like many pages on Glowchus.com, is currently a huge work in progress. New entries will be added throughout the coming months, so make sure to check here regularly. If you think anything has been left out, should be added, or if you find a particular statement confusing and that it needs more explanation, please let us know!

General

• By registering on the Glowchus website and likewise partaking in its community, users are agreeing to abide by the terms outlined on this page.
• Any deliberate violation of said terms may result in consquences, although permanent bans are generally a last resort in all but the worst of circumstances.
• This website is not intended for anyone under the age of 13 and users must be at least 13 years old to join and likewise participate in any site-related activities.
  • The safety and well-being of minors is one of our top priorities, but Glowchus staff cannot be everywhere at once and therefore cannot guarantee that participating in this community will not expose users to mature or sensitive content.
  • For the above reason, our community Discord is not open to anyone under the age of 16 and likewise shares a slightly upped rating of 16+.
    • Any users found to be in violation of our age requirements for either this website or the discord will be banned from the community.
    • This ban can be appealed only once the user in question meets the respective age requirements.
• We reserve the right to discontinue services on or associated with this website [and any related platforms], including the website itself, at any point and for any reason - with or without notice. If cessation of services occurs, whether temporarily or permanently, you cannot hold us liable for any lossses experienced as a result.
• We reserve the right to update, change, or make adjustments to these terms at any point and do so without warning.

Account

• Account names may not contain any words or phrases that would be considered hateful or disrespectful or that likewise do not adhere to the community's content rating.
  • If users need to change their username for any reason, they can simply ask in the discord or submit a support ticket.
• There is a limit of one account per person. Multiple accounts and/or shared accounts on Glowchus.com are not allowed.
• A user's account, as well as access to that account, is non-transferrable and may not be given away, sold, or otherwise handed off to another person.
• Each respective user is the sole party responsible for any activity conducted on their account.
• If you wish to deactivate your account, you may do so by submitting a support ticket.
• If a user's account has been deactivated or banned, they may not create a new account, but may contact Glowchus staff to re-activate their account or likewise appeal a ban.

User Conduct

• Users must treat each other with common courtesy and respect while interacting within the community.
  
  • If users have a problem with one another, or likewise suspect that another user is behaving in a problematic way, we encourage users to reach out to staff rather than inciting an argument or attempting to deal with the situation themselves.
  • Users must respect the fact that, as members of the Glowchus staff team, we must treat each person in any given situation objectively and fairly. We can't simply ban or remove users purely because they don't get along with one another or that their presence makes each other uncomfortable.
• In the interest of maintaining a positive and comfortable environment for users at all times, we ask that users avoid discussing topics that are likely to incite an argument. This includes things like politics, world events,  religion, and anything else along those lines.
• Users may not beg, guilt trip, or harass other users into give up their characters or slots that they have rightful ownership of or claim to.
  • This is considered a severe - although not strictly bannable - offense and doing so will result in the loss of certain priviledges.
  • While not a bannable offense in and of itself, users may be banned for repeated offenses involving this sort of behavior.
• Lying in an attempt to cheat items/characters/etc out of other users may result in a ban, depending on the severity/recurrence of the offence.
• Sensitive information regarding yourself or others should not be shared on this website or in the associated discord. While it's not explicitly disallowed, when done, it is done at your own risk.
• The exploitation of any loopholes or site bugs is not allowed and we encourage users to report any instances of either to staff as soon as possible.
• Communication with one another [and with staff] must be conducted in English only. This is not meant to discriminate againt users of other languages, but the staff team of Glowchus.com is made up primarily of English speakers - and we can't moderate what we can't understand.
• We have a zero tolerance policy for the following:
  • Trolling, bullying, threats, abuse, and harassment of any sort.
  • Racial, religious, or homophobic slurs, joking or not. We don’t joke about that kind of thing here.
  • Promoting harmful, dangerous, or problematic links, websites, content, or behaviors.
  • Sharing pornographic material in any community related channels, mature or otherwise.

Ownership

• Glowchus [and Luminarian Pokemon in general] are an open species! People do not have to pay to make them and they are likewise open for everyone to create and enjoy, whether said people are a part of the Glowchus community specifically or rather just doing their own thing.
• Similarly, users are free to make and sell Glowchus-oriented or inspired adopts at their discretion.
• Glowchus claims no ownership over any characters registered on site - ownership of any respective character is held solely by the user, with one exception:
  
  • Occasionally, Glowchus staff may gift a community owned character to a specific user. Ownership over the character, in this situation, is a partial ownership and is only valid so long as the user who received the character remains a part of the community and likewise adheres to the terms of the arrangement. This character cannot be sold/traded/gifted to another user and is subject to individual terms that will be discussed with the receiving user beforehand [if necessary]. Should the user leave or disappear [for any period of time upwards of one year], staff may choose revoke, rehome, or retire said character at their discretion.
• If a user owns a limited character (herald/original/etc) and leaves the community, the character's status can be revoked at founder discretion.
  • A user is considered to have left the community if:
    • They announce that they are leaving and have been actively gone for 3+ months beyond that.
    • They disappear for upwards of 1 year with no prior notice (and even with notice, under certain circumstances).
• Any and all rights to a character design transfer with the character when sold, traded, or gifted to another user. Terms or restrictions placed on a character by anyone other than Glowchus staff are not enforced by Glowchus and its up to the user's discretion when it comes to whether or not said user wishes to follow through with those terms or restrictions.
• In situations where a user is banned or leaves the community of their own volition, they maintain ownership rights to any Glowchus-oriented characters that they personally owned when they left, unless those characters have since changed ownership or been revoked for any reason.
• Co-ownership is allowed but is not regulated by Glowchus staff and by engaging in co-ownership, users are doing so at their own risk.
• Users maintain the right to use (their own) characters registered on this site for any purpose outside of the community.

Selling/Trading/Gifting/Voiding

• In game items/currency cannot be sold for real-world currency, but users are more than welcome to trade them for other goods/services, both within and outside of the Glowchus community.
• Users can sell thier Glowchus/Glowchus-oriented characters at their discretion and for any price they deem fit, official or not.
  • An official character's listed value is merely a factor to take into consideration when deciding whether or not to buy a character or likewise how much to sell it for.
• Non-guest artist users cannot create designs with the intent to sell them as official by using a voucher, as it directly undermines guest artist privileges.
  • The 60 day trade cooldown implemented on newly registered characters is meant to deter this.
  • If users attempt to bypass this rule by selling a design and "gifting" a voucher, we will make vouchers account locked.
• All sales/trades/gifts must be processed through Glowchus.com once a design has been registered and are not considered valid otherwise.
• Despite what the name suggests, account bound characters can be sold/traded/gifted to other users on site, but their status as a character is exclusive to the person who previously owned it.
  • What this essentially means is that if you trade an account bound character, the character will maintain its status as a registered character, but it will lose the facet of its status that made it account bound in the first place. Some examples of situations where this may occur are outlined below:
    
    • If a user trades a Generation I character, the character will remain as part of the community, but it will be demoted to Generation II.
    • If a user trades a Herald, the character will remain as part of the community, but it will lose its status as a Herald.
      
      • Giving up a herald slot does not entitle the user who gave it up to a new herald slot.
  • The trading of account bound characters is subject to mod approval.
• Glowchus staff are not required to reimburse or compensate its users in any way in the event that the terms of a trade or sale are not met by all parties involved.
  • The above in mind, if there's anything we can do to sort the situation out for you, we will, and we encourage users with any trade/sale disputes to reach out via support ticket.
• Registered characters can be voided at the user's discretion, but only under the following circumstances:
  • Designs made by Staarbits and/or Staarbytes cannot be voided under any circumstances.
    • The only exception to this rule is if the design was a custom.
  • Designs made specifically for the community [guest sales, fundraising sales, etc.] similarly cannot be voided.
  • To void a design, the user must be the one who originally created and submitted that design.
  • If the user is not the one who originally created and submitted the design, they need the original owner/creator's written consent to void it.
  • Users may only request that a design be voided if they presently own that design. Users cannot request the voiding of another user's design, even if they are the original creator/designer.
    • If a user voids a design, they do so knowing that they will not be compensated for the value/progression/etc of that character in any way.
    • If a voided character is re-registered later, they will not regain any value/progression/etc that was lost as a result of the former voiding.

ARPG Participation

• ARPG participation is done exclusively through Glowchus.com and its associated community discord server.
  • We do NOT accept outside links as submissions for prompts, activities, etc. Everything used for the sake of the ARPG must be submitted to the Glowchus on-site gallery and linked from there.
• Characters cannot be used to participate in ARPG aspects of the community unless they are registered on-site, although you are more than welcome to include unofficial characters in your submissions.
  
  • When including unofficial characters in submissions, at least one official character must be present in the submission for it to be accepted.
  • As a follow up to the above point, be aware that users will not receive community currency for any unofficial characters included in submissions when doing so.
• Characters depicted in prompt submissions must be portrayed as they appear in their masterlist entries, with a few exceptions:
  • Certain prompts (such as monthlies, festivals, and the legacy rerun prompts) can be treated as flashbacks and characters portrayed can be depicted as younger or at a lower evolutionary stage than they are presently at in their masterlist entries.
  • Users may stylize their characters to any degree that they choose, whether that be chibi, anthro, gijinka, human, etc. When doing so, we only ask that users remain aware of the traits the characters possess and that they take care not to depict them with traits or characteristics that they do not [for example, drawing a Luminarian without horns as a human with horns or portraying a gijinka Luminarian as with a Raichu tail when its a Pikachu and should have a Pikachu tail].
• Participation in the ARPG can be done through the use of a user's own submissions [illustrations, literature, etc. that a user personally made themself], as well as through the submissions of others [commissioned or gifted work].
• Users may NOT submit artwork/literature/etc. to their own account if they were not the person to make it - regardless of whether or not you are using it for ARPG purposes. Artwork can only be submitted to the site by the person who created it.
  • The only exception to this is if the piece you're using was produced by someone who isn't a part of the community for the purpose of prompt participation, but we do not have established guidelines for this process at this point in time.
• Users may not submit plagerized, traced, stolen, or heavily referenced pieces and users that do so will be subject to consequences at founder discretion.
• Submissions that do not ahere to overall species or prompt guidelines/requirements will be rejected and are not eligible for rewards.
  • If a user's submission is rejected, we ask that they keep in mind that the rejection was not a personal attack on them or their art, but a decision made among staff in order to maintain the standard for submissions, as well as the guidelines that apply to them.
• If there is a deadline associated with any prompts, events, or activities, submissions cannot be made to those prompts beyond the deadline, regardless of the circumstances. These submissions will not be eligible for rewards from the associated prompt.
• We likewise do not offer extensions on prompts, events, or activities with deadlines to the benefit of one singular user, but may extend deadlines for the community overall at our discretion.
• Many prompts offer currency bonuses based on things included in the submission, such as extra characters, certain items, certain scenes, and so on. It is up to staff discretion to determine whether or not a submission meets the requirement for those bonuses.

The Story/Comic/etc.

• Glowchus.com is a heavily story-oriented community with complex lore, highly interconnected events, and even a planned comic! By creating and registering characters on this website, you are aknowledging and agreeing to the following terms when it comes to the story and your characters' role in that story:
  • By registering a character on this website, you are giving us the rights to use it for the sake of the project, regardless of whether or not you remain involved in the community. 
  • Characters can be replaced/removed from the story at any point up to where they appear in that story. Beyond that point, they are locked in and will not be removed.
  • Characters registered on-site may be used at the founders' discretion when it comes to their portrayal in the comic/story/community overall.
  • Similarly, users register characters knowing that the founders' may receive financial benefits for a comic that your character is depicted in and that you will not be entitled to any of these benefits yourself, despite your character being used in it
    
    • If you do NOT want your characters included in the story/comic for any reason, you are required to let us know.
    • Certain characters cannot be witheld from our use when it comes to the comic, this includes...
      • All Generation 1 characters (with the exception of Predecessors/Preluminarians)
      • All Heralds
      • Any story characters that are locked into the community but may have been granted to other users.
  • If your character has made an appearance in the comic, they are locked in and you are agreeing to the fact that we may continue to use them as a canon character throughout the remainder of the story [at our own discretion], regardless of whether or not you remain part of the community.
    • This does not mean that we obtain ownership over the character, only that we continue to use them for their indended purpose/role.
• The legacy rerun is an opportunity for users to participate in events they may have missed [and likewise earn any rewards that are associated with them] during the original run of Radiant Spirits, and likewise further flesh out concepts for their characters during that time period.
• As a story, the main story for G2 is already fleshed out and established. The legacy rerun is NOT an opportunity to rewrite the story and events that have already occured as well as characters that were already introduced [and when] will not be changed - with very few exceptions.

Purchases/Donations/pAYMENTS

• All one-off payments for designs, vouchers, and customs from Staarbits and/or Staarbytes must be made in USD through paypal invoices unless otherwise specified.
• Users who have an outstanding payment due to Staarbits or Staarbytes for any Glowchus related purposes may not participate in any subsequent Glowchu related sales until said outstanding payment has been made in full.
• A claimed design or custom must be paid for within 48 hours of the initial purchase unless otherwise discussed with Staarbits and/or Staarbytes beforehand or otherwise stated.
  • Designs or customs not paid for within that timeframe may be resold at Staarbits and/or Staarbytes discretion.
• Users lose all rights to a design that has had a chargeback filed on it. If a user files a chargeback on the sale of any official Glowchus designs or customs, they will be barred from official sales in the future.
• Donations can be made through the Glowchus Ko-fi page as either a one time gift or a monthly pledge.
  • Star Tokens will be granted for donations at a rate of $1 = 1ST as our appreciation for the gesture!
  • Monthly pledges grant additional rewards on top of the base rate of ST distribution as a sort of loyalty reward!
• Certain ARPG items can also be purchased from the Glowchus Ko-fi Shop.
  • If you purchase an ARPG item from the Glowchus Ko-fi Shop, you will not receive Star Tokens. Star Tokens are for donations only.
• Please allow for up to 48 hours after your purchase/donation to receive your rewards before reaching out to staff.
• Purchases/donations are final and are not required to be reimbursed for any reason.
  • If a founder does decide to reimburse a user for their purchase/donation, it is done at the founder's discretion.