TERMS + CONDITIONS
- Updated: 3.3.25
GENERAL
In the following terms and conditions, “Member” refers to all Melungeon Roots member types: Hill Folk, Hill Folk +, Mountain Legend, Mountain Legend +, and Founding Member. “Website” refers to https://melungeonroots.com and all URLs under it. “Our”, “We”, and “I” refer to the business entity Melungeon Roots and/or its owner.
We require all Members to agree to our Terms + Conditions during account registration. By agreeing to the Terms + Conditions, members understand that we reserve the right
PRODUCT + SERVICES
- recurring & lifetime community membership plans
- brand merchandise (printed/shipped by our partner)
- handmade items (made/shipped by Jes from Central Ohio)
USE OF CONTENT
With the exception of resource descriptions, author bios, and metadata, the content found on melungeonroots.com is copyrighted and should not be copied or used without permission. You agree to credit Melungeon Roots (melungeonroots.com) as your source anytime excerpts or quotes from published posts are shared. Any images without captioned credits found at melungeonroots.com are licensed stock images or photos taken by Jes or family members. No images from the website should be used without permission and proper credit. This includes images posted by other members of the Melungeon Roots community.
Visitors and members should let us know if they notice an image being used on the website that isn’t properly credited so we can add that information. Melungeon Roots respects the intellectual property rights of others and attempts to comply with all relevant laws. We will review all claims of copyright infringement received and remove any content deemed to have been posted or distributed in violation of such laws.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
The activity feed, groups, and forums in our online community contain user-generated content. Melungeon Roots cannot be held accountable for what others post, and we do not support or endorse the opinions of members on our website.
SUPPORT
All questions, feedback, and other requests submitted using the Connect form or by email to hey@melungeonroots.com will be reviewed by Jes, the creator and owner of Melungeon Roots. Members understand that we cannot guarantee a response to messages or comments made by other methods. If a question or concern answered is something that everyone should be aware of, I will update the Info + Help page and/or notify members by posting to the Welcome Home group. I read incoming messages in the order they are received and cannot guarantee a specific response time at this moment. Any emails or form submissions containing spam, solicitation, or harmful/disrespectful language will be discarded.
DONATIONS
Donations to the Melungeon Roots crowdfunding campaign are not made in exchange for any goods or services. All donations are non-refundable gifts and will aid in the project’s crowdfunding. Campaign contributions submitted on the website are transferred to us through the electronic payment methods of Stripe (minus 2.9% + $0.30 USD fee), PayPal (minus 3.49% + $0.49 fee) or Zelle ($0 fee).
Funds will be used at the owner’s discretion for site maintenance, continued development, professional consultations, and any other related expenses. No guarantees about site availability, member access & benefits, specific features, or the project’s lifespan can be made at this time based on any amount of financial contribution.
Melungeon Roots cannot provide tax advice and encourages donors to seek guidance from their professional advisors with any questions of that nature.
BUTTONS/LINKS
External Sites
You understand and agree that you may be taken to external web addresses when clicking buttons or links on the website. We only link to secure and reputable pages. However, due to the nature of the internet, these links can break, change, or become corrupted. Melungeon Roots cannot be held responsible for your experience after you are redirected to an external page. I will attempt to set up a pop-up notification or landing page to warn/remind visitors and members that they are leaving the site.
Affiliate Links
This website includes affiliate links to the following external websites: Bookshop.org, AbeBooks (pending), Ancestry.com (pending), and Newspapers.com (pending). When you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, I earn a small percentage of the sale as a commission. Affiliate links only work this way if the purchase is completed before the browser cookies are cleared (and only if you’ve given us cookie permission to start with, of course).
SECURITY
Two-Factor Authentication
We plan to configure 2FA for the website at some point in the near future to increase our community’s security. When this happens, all members must complete the setup process. You are probably familiar with or using this type of authentication already, but if not, it just means you’ll be sent a code to enter to complete your login in the future. This extra step significantly increases the security of your account and our website.
SHOP
Your order will be fulfilled and shipped by our printing partner. The timeframes mentioned on each product page are estimates, and actual delivery times may vary. Because any brand gear ordered will be made just for you, we can only accept returns for misprinted, damaged, or defective items. Please let us know within 7 days if there are any issues with your order so we can submit a problem report to fix things for you.
Resource Center
The Resource Center and Newspaper Clippings pages display historical sources and texts containing racist language, harmful stereotypes, and mature topics. These resources can be valuable to researchers and family historians, however, they do not represent the values or options of Melungeon Roots. It is our goal to add warnings to these resources and to hide them completely for ‘Junior Researcher’ members. We have not personally read and/or reviewed each resource and cannot in any way be held responsible for their contents.
IMPORTANT: If a modern work featured on the website contains any of the above, visitors should immediately notify Melungeon Roots using the Connect form.
ONLINE COMMUNITY
The Melungeon Roots community, like any community, functions best when its users follow a few simple rules. By accessing and/or using the website, you agree to comply with these community guidelines:
GUIDELINES
- You will comply with all applicable laws in your use of the website and will not use the website for any unlawful purpose.
- You will not upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any content that:
- infringes any copyright, trademark, right of publicity, or other proprietary rights of any person or entity; or
- is defamatory, libelous, indecent, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, invasive of another’s privacy, promotes violence, or contains hate speech (i.e., speech that attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and/or sexual orientation/gender identity; or
- discloses any sensitive information about another person, including that person’s email address, postal address, phone number, credit card information, or any similar information.
- You will not “stalk,” threaten, or otherwise harass another person.
- You will not spam or use the website to engage in any commercial activities.
- If you post any member content you will stay on topic.
- You will not impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
- You will not interfere with or attempt to interrupt the proper operation of the website through the use of any virus, device, information collection or transmission mechanism, software or routine, or access or attempt to gain access to any data, files, or passwords related to the website through hacking, password or data mining, or any other means.
- You will not cover, obscure, block, or in any way interfere with any admin notices and/or safety features on the websites.
- You will not take any action that imposes or may impose (in our sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our technical infrastructure.
NOTIFICATIONS
Popups
At first sign-in, members will be asked if they want to opt in or out of push notifications. These settings can be changed anytime after in the member’s account settings.
Signing up for our email newsletter is an option for members registering on our website. Member notification settings default to receive emails for many actions within groups and the community. To turn all or some of these off, members must visit their Account > Notification Settings after clicking on their username in the top menu. We recommend leaving notifications for group Welcome Home ON or checking your activity feed regularly for important updates and tips.
Invites
Members can send invites to join the Melungeon Roots community to their friends and family from Email Invites under the member menu or by clicking the envelope icon in the left menu. Members can resend an invite if needed from the same page.
MEMBERSHIP
Plans/Pricing
Membership prices are subject to change at any time. This would be most likely to happen if the campaign doesn’t receive sufficient funding before a server upgrade is needed. We will attempt to notify members of any changes more than 30 days before the updates take effect.
Prices as of 3.3.25:
Hill Folk – $6/month, Mountain Legend – $33/month, and Founding Member – FREE (lifetime)
Payments
Membership fees are collected monthly via Stripe or PayPal. The date of your next automatic payment deduction can be found in Membership > Subscriptions. All fees and donations collected during our early post-launch period are non-refundable due to the at-risk status of the project.
Coupon Codes
Coupon codes can be entered at the time of checkout. You must hit return/enter in order for the coupon to be applied. You agree that you will check that your coupon code is applied before completing checkout. We cannot process refunds during our early post-launch period due to the at-risk status of the project.
Registration
Members should use their real first and last names during the signup process. Your nickname chosen for use within the community can be any unique word or phrase that isn’t inappropriate or offensive. Melungeon Roots reserves the right to ask you to change your nickname if we feel strongly there is a reason to do so.
Individual memberships are available to anyone who hasn’t already applied and had their account suspended and/or terminated.
Founding Members applying should align closely with Melungeon Roots’ mission/values. This membership type requires an invitation and/or admin approval and can be revoked at any time based on our discretion.
Personal Data
You can control your notification and privacy settings from within your account. We recommend reviewing your options immediately after signing up.
Benefits
Member benefits are still being added and developed, and their availability is subject to change at any time. Membership fees paid during Melungeon Roots’ gradual launch will be used immediately to cover the ongoing expense of maintenance and continued development of the site and to secure any site functionality or features at risk of being lost. No member benefits, including community and forum access, are guaranteed. This will change after Melungeon Roots has proven to be a sustainable project.
Changing Tiers
You can upgrade or downgrade your membership at any time from Profile > Membership > Subscriptions. Changes to your membership plan are pro-rated. Mountain Legend tier members exercising their ability to submit “priority requests” should not downgrade until the following billing cycle. Plus (+) tiers are reserved for members of the Melungeon Heritage Association. MHA membership status will be verified.
Cancellation
You are free to cancel your membership at any time from Profile > Membership > Subscriptions.
Refunds
Because the Melungeon Roots project is in an early “soft launch” phase, funds collected for membership will be immediately applied to the ongoing expenses of creating the website. For that reason, we are unable to issue any refunds at this time. Please keep an eye on your membership subscription renewal dates, which can be easily viewed from your Account page, and cancel if needed before your next payment date. That’s all there is to it!
Activity Feed
During our soft launch period, members posting to the activity feed should limit themselves to one post and one photo upload daily. Based on the number of members vs. server capacity, this is subject to change at the discretion of Melungeon Roots at any time. Members will be notified of changes through posts to the Welcome Home group and/or by email (the method(s) depends on the member’s notification settings).
Forums
Forums are set up as either a category (no discussions directly under the topic) or a forum (discussions can be started under the topic). Forum topics and discussions should directly pertain to Melungeons and related groups (ancestors, surnames, peoples, places, etc.), mixed-race studies, regional culture and history, current issues, and other related topics.
Members can suggest that a new forum be added. Requests must meet the following criteria to be approved:
- The topic must fall under one of the existing top-level categories: Melungeon, Regional, Surnames, Ancestors, Connections, Places, Events, or Resources.
- Place forums should be titled as a traditionally accepted location where Melungeons and related groups were known to live (mainly within the Cumberland Gap region).
- All forum suggestions are subject to approval. Additional criteria to be posted soon (list incomplete).
Messages
Hill Folk +, Mountain Legend +, and Founding Members have the ability to message one another privately. They also have the ability to block and/or report other members, should that become necessary (We hope this isn’t your experience!). Melungeon Roots does not access your private messages. However, we reserve the right to review member messages in cases of reported harassment or for other serious concerns.
MODERATION
Reporting/Blocking
- You have the option to block other members you no longer wish to interact with.
- You agree to report harmful language (racist, antisemitic, homophobic, transphobic, , etc.) within the community.
- You agree to report offensive/inappropriate content or misinformation posted within the community.
- You agree to report any member behavior that otherwise violates our Community Guidelines.
Suspension/Termination
Members will be automatically suspended after being blocked or reported 3 times.
We reserve the right to deny you access to the website or any portion of the website without notice and to remove any content that does not adhere to the Community Guidelines. In our sole and absolute discretion, we also reserve the right to terminate the membership of any members causing unnecessary upset or stress within the community and/or to the owners over a period of time.