We strongly recommend you read the Elysium Gates "About" pages before proceeding.

Elysium Gates Inc. provides the general internet public a place to build and maintain a quality site.  A quality site is informative or educational, personal or business, creative or themed.  We nurture quality sites with responsible content, providing for fellowship among users, promoting a sense of unity and belonging, and fostering a spirit of camaraderie and community between both its members and its staff.

With these principles in mind the following terms of service will be rigorously maintained and enforced.  Please read carefully.

1. Membership in Elysium Gates is subject to approval by the staff.
   
   
2. You must have at least a concept of a web site (subject and general outline) before you can be considered for membership.  Our staff is here to assist you if you need help in learning how to build a page or use our tools.
   
   
3. Pages submitted for membership will be reviewed for content by the server staff.  If you are new to the world wide web and need assistance with HTML, JavaScript, style sheets, etc.; we have people who will aid you in getting your site ready for the public.  You have but to ask.
   
   If you want to have a site on the internet but lack the time to do it yourself, we have web designers who can build it for you.  Contact Mt. Olympus if you desire this kind of service and to discuss cost.
   
   
4. U.S. residents under 18 must provide written consent and acknowledgement from their parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of these terms prior to membership being considered.  This site and all those that are members must be COPPA compliant.
   
   
5. U.S. minors who provide false information regarding their age and are accepted for membership under such information will have their membership revoked and their site immediately removed from the Elysium Gates servers upon discovery.
   
   
6. Accepting this TOS means that you have read and will abide by the guidelines also set forth on our Privacy-Copyright-Disclaimer page.
   
   
7. Membership payment is due upon assignment of a web site space.  Sites will not be activated until payment is received by Elysium Gates.  Once accepted you will be contacted by Hermes that will design a payment schedule and method that works for you. Price of your service can change, but we would give you 30 days notice if it does and we will strive not to raise prices.  We started business in 2001 but our prices are now lower than when we started!
   
   
8. We will put no advertisement of our own on your paid member site.  You have the option to run your own banner ads or those of others (income generating or gratis) so long as they comply with the terms of service. However advertisement/banners are limited to not more than one (1) per informational/educational content related page without prior approval by the staff.
   
   
9. Failure to remit monthly membership payment on time may result in your site being taken off line and placed in a temporary folder on our server.  Resolution of payment must be made within twenty five (25) business days.  Repeated lateness in payment may result in the loss of your membership.
   
   
10. We will periodically review member's sites in a random fashion.  Any sites found to be out of compliance with the terms of service may be immediately transferred offline to a temporary folder and the owner notified of the action.  You will have two (2) weeks to correct the problem.  You must then notify us so that we may return you to an active status.  Repeated violations of this nature may result in the permanent loss of your membership.  No refunds will be made for unused time for sites removed under this clause.
    
    
11. You may not "sub lease", rent, give or sell your membership space to another person or entity.  If you allow a third party access to your site by giving out your userID or password, you will be held responsible whether you made the content changes or not.  DON'T GIVE OUT YOUR PASSWORD OR ID.  If your password is compromised, notify us immediately so we can give you a new password.
    
    
12. You may sign up for as many memberships as you like.  Each will carry the same membership conditions and charges.  You may link your sites together, run them independently or combine them into one 'large' site at your discretion.
    
    
13. Your site content is yours.  It will never be claimed or used by Elysium Gates.  We might choose your site as a 'featured site' and list it on our server run page, run it in a banner on our pages or give it other such visibility.  If you do not wish us to do this, please write and let us know.
    
    
14. We make no guarantee, express or implied, of server and server feature's availability.

    We fully intend to keep service running as smoothly and continuously as possible, however there is always a chance of mechanical breakdown or line faults beyond our control.  We will address those as they occur and return service as quickly as possible. Periodically we may have to take the server down for normal maintenance. All reasonable attempts to notify users of server status will be made.
    
    

15. Elysium Gates will NOT be responsible for files or documents lost or held responsible for failure of your equipment.  Though we will make every effort to ensure the safety of your material there is always the remote possibility of a catastrophic crash.  We strongly recommend that you keep up to date backups of all material you use on our server in a safe location - either on your computer hard drive or on diskette.  It is highly recommended that you back up all your files used within your account to diskette or other off site media such as zip disks or CD-R. You should do weekly back ups or less often depending on how often you update your content.
    
    
16. We will take no responsibility for content posted to your site, whether publicly displayed or not.  You have the ultimate responsibility for what is placed in your space.  "I didn't know the rules" is not an acceptable excuse!  We will investigate and act on complaints from others or in the course of a random check should your site content fall outside the published terms of service.  Our goal is to provide everyone a viable product/service for a fair price and under fair terms.
    
    
17. The following list outlines content which Elysium Gates forbids.  Sites applying for membership which contain such will be turned down.  Member sites which are later found to contain or link to such material may be immediately transferred to the holding bin and the owner notified.  Should a site be permanently removed for such content, no refund will be given to the member for unused time.
    
    
    1. Sites which abuse or exploit people and/or animals.
    2. Sites which contain excessive profanity.  What is 'excessive' is our call to make.
    3. Adult oriented or 'porn' sites.  Sites with excessive nudity.  We define what is 'porn' or 'excessive'.
    4. Sites pertaining to bigotry and/or 'Hate' sites.
    5. Sites which provide information or instruction in illegal activities.
    6. Sites which offer software cracks, codes, warez or pirated software.
    7. Sites which violate copyright, trademark or intellectual property.  This includes items from both commercial and private entities.
    8. Sites which contain personal slurs or libelous comments about another.
    9. Sites which use Spam or other such techniques to generate business/income or site traffic.
    10. Sites which contain illegal businesses.  (pyramid schemes and the like)
    11. Overtly offensive site content.

This is not an all-inclusive list and may be added to from time to time.  Members will be notified of any changes to the Terms of Service should they occur.  Site content that is suggestive of criminal activity will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

18. Listed below are some 'gray areas' which are acceptable for site content:
    
    1. Game cheat codes.  These are codes used in playing a computer or other games which are built into that game and may be considered a legal part of that game.
    2. Artistic nudity.  Many works of art and such contain a certain amount of nudity.  Items such as this are permissible.  If you have any doubts about what you want to post to your site, contact either your appointed volunteer or one of the staff.  The final call on what is permitted and what is not is ours and ours alone to make.
    3. Medical sites which use images and terms in the appropriate context.
    4. Bonafide business sites.  Links to other business sites (within the terms of service)
    5. Site which feature surveys or questionnaires. (not to be sent out as Spam)
    6. Sites with legal affiliations.  Remember, your site must have some content of its own to qualify for membership.
    
    
    
19. Members may use password protection on their personal sites; however, all password protected pages and links must be checked and approved by staff prior to activating the password feature on their site.