Campfire Terms of Service

Effective date: October 28, 2026

The short version

This summary is here to help you read the terms. It isn’t legally binding; the full terms below are.

  • Campfire is an app for joining communities called camps, built around shared interests. It runs on the Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol, the open network that Bluesky also uses. You can sign in with an existing account, such as a Bluesky account, or create a new one in the app.
  • You must be 18 or older and in the United States.
  • You own what you post. We use it to run and improve Campfire and to build new products. We may license public posts to other companies, including for AI training, but we never sell your private information without your permission.
  • Follow the rules in section 5. Camps can add their own rules. You can report or block anyone.
  • Merit is a reputation score earned within each camp. It has no cash value.
  • If we have a dispute, we’ll try to work it out together first. There’s no forced arbitration: you keep your right to go to court.

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and Campfire Commons, Inc. (“Campfire,” “we,” or “us”). They cover the Campfire mobile apps, the website at campfirechat.co, and related services (together, the “Service”).

By using the Service, you agree to these Terms. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your information.

2. Who can use Campfire

  • You must be 18 or older. If we learn that someone under 18 is using Campfire, we’ll end their access and delete the information we hold about them. We may use age information from your device or app store to enforce this.
  • Campfire is offered only in the United States. We don’t offer it in the European Union or the United Kingdom. You can’t use Campfire if you’re in a country under a US government embargo, or if you’re on a US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
  • Banned users. You can’t use Campfire if we’ve banned you before, unless we agree otherwise.
  • Organizations. If you use Campfire on behalf of an organization, you confirm that you’re authorized to accept these Terms for it.

3. Your account

Campfire is built on the Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol, an open network that many social apps use, including Bluesky. Every AT Protocol account is stored on a Personal Data Server (PDS), a server that holds the account’s posts, profile and other data. The company or person that runs the PDS holding your account is your “hosting provider.”

You can use Campfire in two ways:

  • Sign in with an existing account. If you already have an AT Protocol account, such as a Bluesky account, you can sign in with it. Your account stays with its current hosting provider.
  • Create a new account in Campfire. Accounts created in the Campfire app are hosted on a PDS run by Bluesky Social PBC by default, or by another hosting provider you choose during sign-up. If you choose another provider, its terms and privacy policy apply. If Bluesky hosts your account, you also agree to Bluesky’s Terms of Service and its AT Protocol Network Services Privacy Notice, which cover how Bluesky stores your account.

Either way:

  • Two sets of terms. Your hosting provider stores your account under its own terms and privacy policy, and you must follow those too. These Terms cover Campfire’s app and features, such as camps, feeds and merit.
  • Your login. You’re responsible for keeping your login secure and for what happens on your account.
  • We’re a separate company. Campfire isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Bluesky Social PBC, including when Bluesky hosts your account.
  • Limits of our control. We can end your access to Campfire. We can’t suspend your AT Protocol account; only your hosting provider can.
  • Hosting in the future. We plan to run our own PDS and may offer to host accounts ourselves. Before we do, we’ll update these Terms and our Privacy Policy. We won’t move your account to a different hosting provider without your permission.

Handles on cmpfr.social. If your handle ends in cmpfr.social, Campfire provides it, and it works only while Campfire keeps it linked to your account.

  • Handles we can take back. We may reclaim or change a cmpfr.social handle that impersonates a person or organization, uses someone else’s trademark, or breaks these Terms. We may also release the handles of deleted accounts.
  • If you leave. If you delete your Campfire account or we end your access, your cmpfr.social handle may stop working. You keep your AT Protocol account and posts, and you can switch to another handle, such as one on your own domain.
  • Not property. Handles can’t be bought, sold or transferred.

4. Your content

“Content” means anything you post or submit through Campfire: posts, replies, images, links, profile details, camp descriptions, votes, and messages to us.

You own your content. These Terms don’t transfer ownership of anything you post to us.

Public means public. Posts you make through Campfire are published to the AT Protocol network through your hosting provider. Anyone can see, copy and store them, including other apps and services that we don’t control. The same goes for your camp memberships and merit (section 7). If you delete a post, we’ll remove it from Campfire. We can’t guarantee that other services will do the same.

The permission you give us. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable and sublicensable license to host, store, cache, copy, index, classify, adapt, format, display and distribute your content. This license covers only content you post through Campfire. We may use it only to:

  • operate Campfire, for example by showing your post in a camp or feed;
  • improve Campfire, for example by making topic sorting and spam filtering more accurate;
  • develop and train AI models, including models we build ourselves and offer to others;
  • build new products, for example data products made from aggregated or de-identified information, as described in our Privacy Policy;
  • license your public content to other companies and researchers, including for AI training, research and analytics;
  • promote Campfire, for example by featuring a public post, credited to you, in material about Campfire.

Our service providers may use your content only to help us do those things.

Posts you make in other apps. We don’t ask for a license to public posts you make on the AT Protocol network through other apps. Like any service on the network, we rely on those posts being public to show and sort them in Campfire and to train AI models we use ourselves, such as the ones that sort posts into camps.

Deletions carry through. Companies and researchers we license your public content to must honor deletions. When you delete a post or your account, we’ll tell them, and they must remove it. Deleting content doesn’t undo AI models that were already trained on it. Apart from that, the license ends when you delete the content, with three exceptions: copies that stay in our backups for a limited time, copies we must keep by law, and content that other people have already shared or quoted.

Licensing and selling. We may license public posts, and public information about camps and merit, to other companies (Privacy Policy, section 7). We never sell your private information without your permission.

Your promises. You promise that you have the rights to post your content, and that it doesn’t break these Terms or the law. If you upload contacts, you promise that you’re allowed to share them with us.

5. Rules

Rules for everyone

These rules apply in every camp. Don’t use Campfire to:

  • post, link to or ask for child sexual abuse material, or sexualize minors in any way. We report this material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children;
  • share intimate images of someone without their consent, including images that are fake or AI-generated;
  • threaten or incite violence, or support terrorist or violent extremist groups;
  • harass or bully people, or attack them based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or serious illness;
  • share someone’s private information, such as a home address, phone number or ID documents, without their consent;
  • impersonate a person or organization in a misleading way (clearly labeled parody is fine);
  • scam, defraud or phish people, or sell illegal goods or services;
  • spam people, manipulate votes or merit, or run fake or coordinated accounts (automated accounts must say that they’re automated);
  • infringe someone else’s copyright, trademark or other rights;
  • break the law or help someone else break it;
  • hack, overload or interfere with Campfire, or get around our limits or enforcement. This includes collecting data from our servers by automated means in ways that burden them. Public AT Protocol data stays open: you’re free to access it through the protocol itself.

Adult content. Nudity and sexual content involving consenting adults must be labeled as adult content. Campfire hides adult content by default. You can choose to see it through your settings on our website.

Camp rules

Camps can have their own rules, set by their communities or moderators. Camp rules can be stricter than these Terms but never looser. If you break a camp’s rules, your posts may be hidden from that camp or you may be removed from it.

Volunteer moderators

Some members volunteer to help moderate camps. They aren’t Campfire employees, contractors or agents, and they don’t speak for Campfire. Moderators must follow these Terms, apply camp rules fairly, and never use moderation tools to harass people or reveal private information.

Your moderation tools

You can report posts and accounts, block or mute people, and choose moderation services (called “labelers”) that filter what you see. Campfire uses moderation services, including Bluesky’s and our own, to label, hide or filter content.

How we enforce these rules

We review reports. We may remove or hide content, remove people from camps, reduce their merit, or suspend or end their access to Campfire. When we take action against your account, we’ll try to tell you what we did and why, unless doing so would be unsafe or unlawful.

If you think we got it wrong, you can appeal within 30 days in the app or by emailing support@campfirechat.co. We may also report content to the hosting provider that stores it, or to law enforcement when appropriate.

We’re not required to monitor content and can’t catch everything, but we act in good faith to keep Campfire safe.

If an intimate image or video of you was shared without your consent, including one that’s fake or AI-generated, report it in the app or email takedown@campfirechat.co. You can also report on behalf of someone you’re authorized to act for. Include:

  1. your name and contact information;
  2. a link or other details that let us find the image;
  3. a brief statement that you believe in good faith the image was shared without consent;
  4. your physical or electronic signature (typing your full name is fine).

We’ll remove the image from Campfire within 48 hours of receiving a valid request, along with any identical copies we know of. We’ll also report it to the hosting provider that stores it.

7. Camps, merit and invites

  • Camps. Camps are communities organized around topics. We may create, merge, rename or close camps. We may also place public posts in camps automatically, based on their topics.
  • Merit. Merit is a score that reflects how much you’ve helped a camp, for example by sharing content others value, moderating, or inviting people who contribute. Merit affects how widely your posts are shown in that camp and how much weight your votes carry there.
  • What’s public. Your camp memberships and your merit in each camp are public.
  • Merit has no cash value. Merit isn’t money or property, and you don’t own it. It can’t be bought, sold, transferred, or exchanged for anything outside Campfire. We may recalculate, adjust or remove merit at any time, for example to fix errors, stop manipulation or improve how merit works.
  • Camp decisions. Voting helps camps make decisions about themselves. It doesn’t give you legal rights in Campfire or any control over the company.
  • Invites. Invite codes are free and personal, and they can’t be sold. We may limit or revoke them. If someone you invited breaks these Terms, it may affect merit you earned by inviting them.

If you believe content on Campfire infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated copyright agent: Christopher Alder, Campfire Commons, Inc., 1083 59th St, Oakland, CA 94608, legal@campfirechat.co. Your notice must include:

  1. your physical or electronic signature;
  2. identification of the copyrighted work;
  3. identification of the material you believe infringes it, and where it is on Campfire;
  4. your contact information;
  5. a statement that you believe in good faith that the use isn’t authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law;
  6. a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or are authorized to act for the owner.

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake or misidentification, you can send us a counter-notice. It must include your signature, a description of what was removed and where it appeared, and a statement under penalty of perjury that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification. It must also include your name, address and phone number, and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your area and to accept legal papers from the person who complained.

We end access for people who repeatedly infringe. Content stored by your hosting provider is also subject to that provider’s copyright process.

9. The Service

  • Changes. Campfire is new and changes often. We may add, change or remove features, and we may limit or stop all or part of the Service. If we shut Campfire down, we’ll try to give you at least 30 days’ notice and a way to download your Campfire data.
  • Ads. Campfire may show ads and sponsored posts, including next to or between posts from you and others. We choose them based on your activity and interests on Campfire, as our Privacy Policy describes. You won’t be paid when ads appear near your content.
  • Other services. Campfire works with services we don’t control, such as your hosting provider, and feeds and moderation services made by others. Their own terms apply, and we’re not responsible for them.
  • Open-source software. Parts of Campfire are open-source software licensed under their own terms. Nothing in these Terms limits your rights under those licenses.
  • Feedback. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without paying you or owing you anything.
  • Our brand. The Campfire name and logo belong to us. Don’t use them in a way that suggests we endorse you.

10. Leaving Campfire

You can stop using Campfire at any time. You can delete your account only in the Campfire app’s settings, where you can:

  • Delete your Campfire account. This deletes the data Campfire holds about you but leaves your AT Protocol account and posts in place.
  • Delete your whole account, if you created it in Campfire. We’ll also ask your hosting provider to delete your AT Protocol account, posts and profile, following that provider’s own process.

If you signed in with an existing account and want to delete that account, go to your hosting provider.

We may suspend or end your access to Campfire if you break these Terms, if the law requires it, or to protect people or the Service.

Sections 4 (for copies we still hold), 7 (no cash value) and 11 through 17 continue to apply after your access ends.

11. Disclaimers

Campfire is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.

We don’t promise that Campfire will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free, or that content on it is accurate. Content comes from users and other services, not from us, and we aren’t responsible for it. Rankings, merit and recommendations are automated and can be wrong. Take care when you meet in person someone you know only from online.

12. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Campfire and its officers, employees and agents won’t be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising from or related to the Service or these Terms.

Our total liability for all claims related to the Service or these Terms is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

These limits don’t apply where the law doesn’t allow them, such as liability for fraud, gross negligence or willful misconduct. Some states don’t allow certain limits, so some of them may not apply to you.

13. Claims caused by your content

If someone else makes a claim against us because of your content, or because you broke these Terms or the law, you’ll cover our reasonable losses and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees. We’ll tell you about the claim and let you help respond to it.

14. Disputes

  • Talk to us first. Before filing a claim, email legal@campfirechat.co with a description of the problem and what you’d like us to do. We’ll try to resolve it with you within 30 days. We’ll do the same for you before we file a claim against you.
  • No forced arbitration. You keep your right to go to court, and you keep your right to join a class action where the law allows.
  • Governing law. California law governs these Terms, regardless of conflict-of-law rules.
  • Where to file. Any lawsuit must be filed in the state or federal courts located in Alameda County, California, and you and we agree to those courts’ jurisdiction. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court, if it qualifies.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. If a change is material, we’ll tell you in the app or by email at least 30 days before it takes effect. The exception is a change required by law or needed urgently for safety, which may take effect sooner.

If you keep using Campfire after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you don’t agree, stop using Campfire and delete your account. We won’t use a change to these Terms to expand how we use content you posted before the change without asking your permission.

16. App store terms

If you downloaded Campfire from Apple’s App Store:

  • These Terms are between you and Campfire, not Apple. Apple isn’t responsible for Campfire or its content.
  • You get a limited, non-transferable license to use the Campfire app on Apple-branded devices that you own or control, as allowed by the Usage Rules in Apple’s Media Services Terms and Conditions.
  • Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app.
  • If the app fails to meet any warranty that applies, you can notify Apple, and Apple will refund the price you paid for it, if any. To the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app. Any other claims about warranties are Campfire’s responsibility, to the extent these Terms don’t disclaim them.
  • Campfire, not Apple, is responsible for handling claims related to the app. These include product liability claims, claims that the app fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection or privacy laws.
  • If someone claims that the app or your use of it infringes their intellectual property, Campfire, not Apple, is responsible for investigating, defending, settling and resolving the claim.
  • You confirm that you aren’t in a country under a US government embargo or designated by the US government as a “terrorist supporting” country. You also confirm that you aren’t on any US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
  • You must follow any third-party terms that apply when you use the app, such as your wireless carrier’s terms.
  • Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms. Once you accept these Terms, Apple has the right to enforce them against you.

If you downloaded Campfire from Google Play, Google Play’s terms also apply to your download.

17. General

  • These Terms and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Campfire about the Service.
  • If any part of these Terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies.
  • If we don’t enforce part of these Terms right away, we haven’t given up the right to enforce it later.
  • You can’t transfer these Terms to anyone else without our consent. We may transfer them as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, and whoever takes them on must honor them.
  • These Terms don’t create a partnership, employment or agency relationship between you and Campfire.
  • We may send you notices in the app or by email. You can send notices to us at legal@campfirechat.co.

18. Contact

Campfire Commons, Inc., 1083 59th St, Oakland, CA 94608

support@campfirechat.co