Disclaimers
In effort to maintain as much transparency as possible, we would like to list any and all disclaimers that pertain to our website, organization, and so on.
We will add to or adjust this list as the need arises over time.
Our disclaimers are categorized under the various aspects they relate to.
Business Aspects
To avoid any confusion – while we have altruistic standards & goals in our organization, we are NOT a non-profit; we’re a for-profit business with the intent to develop a business model that is profitable so that we may grow and do more good for our community, while also being aware and active in addressing the importance of the people that make a business successful – your team, your audience, & your community.
We apply this to everyone – our team, content creators, site guests, and community members.
Without our team and content creators, we would not have the basic foundation of our business which is to develop a magazine with real, genuine content.
So, we make sure to adequately compensate them for their time and work. Being a start-up company just starting out, we can’t offer a whole lot of benefits, but as our company grows, our team and content creators will be given more perks, promotions, and rewards for their amazing efforts. For now, we focus on ensuring they feel their time and work is properly rewarded and compensated. We value their time and efforts greatly (we’re writers and artists ourselves), and so we have a lot of plans to really build up the people who work with us, and help them to become stronger writers, artists, and content creators, and help them grow into their full potential. Our ideal vision for this organization, it to grow to the point where we employ these creators full time to do the things they love, and provide them with competitive benefits while building on their passions.
Without our site guests, we wouldn’t have a continuous flow of traffic to the site showing that people are interested in what others have to say or learn a new perspective, and that they’re interested getting involved in their communities.
As such, we pledge to always offer content for free, and for all who wish to view and absorb it, regardless of having a membership or not.
Without our community members, we wouldn’t be able to learn and grow to become a stronger organization.
We wouldn’t be able to accomplish as much within the community without their support. and their interactions. And, without them being involved in the features of the site, we wouldn’t be accomplish the goal of unification through content, conversation, and community – as they experience every aspect of our organizational makeup. As such, we are constantly thinking of and working on new features and perks to offer them so to provide them with the best possible experience on our site and to ensure they’re getting the most value for their money. Because we acknowledge that most people don’t have a lot of extra money. So we do our best to provide a substantial amount of features in return for their subscription, which we consider a social investment into our mission, and we wish to meet their expectations and surpass them.
And lastly, without our local community, we wouldn’t have nearly as much outside support as we do from all the amazing people who we work with, volunteer with, and have offered their knowledge and expertise to us as we have developed our business and continue on our journey.
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In addition to the explanation of our business structure, we would like to add a note on the aspect of the magazine (as in the content) itself, and the idea that community members are exclusively allowed to submit content.
Our organization makes NO revenue on the content aspect of the site. All of our content is free. We make our revenue from community member subscriptions, sales in the store, and donations by our supporters. We currently do not have ads on the site, although this is subject to change. Content submissions by community members is purely voluntary on their part, and is offered as an exclusive perk to our community to be a part of the conversation. When we use the word magazine, while it does refer to our content, we use the term to also apply to our community platform. So when someone subscribes to the ‘magazine’ they’re subscribing to our community, not our content.
Content and Contributors
The content viewed on the site is a combination of what is made by members of our team, freelanced writers/artists, and community members who elect to submit content on their own accord.
The content on our site and the topics discussed are produced by the people who wish to create that content or start that discussion. In other words, the author/content creator maintains complete control over their content development. They decide what they want to write or talk about; they decide when they’re inspired or have the energy to write/create content; and they submit it on their own schedule and accord.
We do not assign topics, unless the person in question specifically requests to be. We don’t demand content from our freelancers when we want it, we just accept their content as it is completed. And, we don’t force content to be made. We acknowledge that when people create content because they WANT to, they put more of their heart and soul into it than when they HAVE to.
So, while the main members on our team are committed to producing frequent content on what they’re specifically passionate about, the freelance writers we work with produce content when they are inspired to, or have time to. They may also decide at any time that they don’t want to produce content anymore, especially as life happens unexpectedly, and they may not be able to.
Many of the writers on our freelanced team are parents, college students, and/or full-time workers at their regular jobs. So for some of them, this is an outlet to pursue a hobby, rather than a career. And for some of them, this is a stepping stone on their way to become professional writers. Some we have approached for writing opportunities, and some have approached us. They may work for other content organizations, have their own sites or channels, or are just bored and want to supplement their income with something that they are interested in. Whatever the case, we are happy to have them and proud of what they accomplish through their content.
For our community members who chose to submit content, they do so because they are inspired to and want to start a conversation or relate with other Millennials. There is no requirement for them to submit content – it is an additional perk they are offered as part of their subscription, to be active in what their magazine publishes; a community member may decide that they only want to talk on the forums or do activities. But for those who have something to say, we invite them to join us in creating content that starts those conversations they want to have. We try to set up a fair and substantial reward system for those who frequently have content published with us, in the form of points awarded to them and in free merchandise and additional rewards.
As time goes on, and certain content creators have content published on a more frequent basis (as opposed to ‘once in a blue moon’), they may be offered the opportunity to officially join the actual members of the team, and as such, become either official freelancers or actual employees of our organization.
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As mentioned above in the business aspect section of the disclaimer: we make no revenue on the magazine portion of out site. We do not charge a subscription to view content. We only make revenue off of membership subscriptions and store sales, and eventually ads/sponsors. In our effort to offer as much as we can to our community members to provide opportunities to get involved, we give them the opportunity to submit content along with our writers. This is done on a volunteer basis and is done as they please or feel inspired to do so. We are not reliant on community member submissions to provide site content. Their content is supplemental to the content our team publishes.
Photography, Artwork, and Quotes on the Site
At this time, a majority of the photography on our website is from royalty-free image sites, specifically being RawPixel and PixaBay. We do not own these images. Some photography on the site (specifically anything pertaining to the team or our community actions) are taken by us.
Over time as we progress, we plan to collect our own images to use for thumbnail and page headers to replace the stock photos.
Most of the artwork you see on the site and all of the artwork on the shop is made by the graphic artists who we freelance art from.
All quotes on the site are found on BrainyQuote.
Political Standing
We are not a political publication or political organization, but we expect that the content that will be published to the site by our writers and our community members will generally lean towards the left or more progressive side of the political spectrum.
The individual political views or party affiliations (or lack there of) of our team members, freelance writers, and community members do not imply any sort of political standing or endorsement as far the overall business goes, unless explicitly stated.
We do acknowledge however, that we do and will lean towards more progressive ideals. We do not endorse any political parties at this time, but we may in the future decide to endorse candidates whose platforms align with our values as an organization. Should we choice to do this, we will be transparent about our endorsement.
Instead, we primarily give our endorsement to causes/legislation/movements, such as the following:
– Swift action in response to the climate crisis and a push for a Green New Deal.
– Medicare for All and the notion that health care is a human rights
– Housing is a human right – no one should be living on the streets.
-The death penalty is costly and discriminatory, and should be abolished.
– We support land back efforts and indigenous sovereignty.
– We must raise the minimum wage to a livable wage.
– Corporate welfare must end and corporations and wealthy citizens should be taxed at a higher rate, through a marginalized tax rate.
– Women have a right to chose what they want to do with their own bodies.
– Veterans deserve better than how this country has treated them.
– We must end our costly wars and the military industrial complex. Defense is important, but this level of spending is outrageous.
– Immigration must be reformed, ICE must be abolished, and we must liberate the camps at the border where countless incidents of abuse and human rights violations are happening to the migrants and their children we’ve locked up at these facilities which are modern-day concentration camps.
– We must preserve our natural resources and public lands, protect our wildlife and native biodiversity, and advocate for the environment.
Regarding recent events in the country, we would also like to affirm our stances on the national protests currently happening, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the conversations being had around them:
– We see the vast majority of the people who are protesting are peacefully exercising their constitutional rights, and the police using violence and excessive force against citizens protesting are infringing on those rights.
– Police brutality isn’t done by just a “few bad apples” – the entire orchard is poisoned. And until we address the roots of the profession, we must extract what is poisonous from the toxic, violent culture that has been cultivated in this profession throughout history and to this day.
– The system of policing cannot be changed from within by those who are truly good cops – it and those who work within it must be regulated and held to the same accountability as any other institution, profession, or individual when it comes to equal application of the law.
– We should be striving for ‘Rule of Law’ – where no one is above it not even the police or the president; rather than what we have now, which is “Law and Order” – where law is applied to people differently depending on things like race, sex, wealth, connections, and status.
-The police profession has roots in both racism (slave patrols/enforcement of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws) and classism (union busters) that have never been severed from the criminal justice system as a whole, and this must be addressed with real reconstruction, not a reform label, if we are to fix things in this county.
– We must end police brutality, end qualified immunity, hold police accountable, defund a percentage of police department budgets to fund social services in communities, and reconstruct how the police profession and criminal justice system is at every level.
– All minority groups are affected by police brutality and systemic racism, but when one group is disproportionately and most often the specific target of these things, the issue is even more insidious.
– While there is no band-aid solution or one-size-fits-all answer to addressing all of the wrongs against communities of color in this country, if we address the issues affecting the country’s most oppressed and most vulnerable people, we can begin to address issues that affect all communities at all levels.
– Raising the bar for those who are treated the worst in this country (and at the magnitude in which they have been for centuries), will ultimately raise the bar for everyone.
– Justice must be had for the countless victims of police brutality.
– Black lives matter, we must be actively anti-racist, and we must fight systemic racism at all levels that affects communities of color.
Products, Partnerships, and Sponsorships
Unless otherwise explicitly stated, the products, people, organizations, and other things recommended or otherwise mentioned on this site, the content, any community features, and in comments by the team, content creators, or community members, is NOT mentioned or recommended based on any partnership or sponsorship.
If a partnership or sponsorship, or any other affiliation exists between us/the person in question and the other parties involved, it will be explicitly mentioned in order to maintain transparency.
Any referrals by anyone on this site do not constitute immediate or verifiable association, promotion, or other form of affiliation by the organization and it’s members.
Seed Points
Seed points are an additional perk for our community members, in which they collect points through interacting with various aspects and features on the site.
They exchange these points for community actions that our organization does on their behalf.
These points have NO monetary value and cannot be exchanged for actual money.
Our organization spends the money in the place of the points for the community action, or does the action ourselves, if possible.
Views and Opinions
The views and opinions of our team members, freelance writers, and our community members, in the form of the content, words, and actions, may not necessarily reflect the mission, views, and opinions of the organization as a whole. We may disagree with a view or opinion in content submitted to us or with people we have discussions with but we are not here to censor anyone or bubble wrap the world. We want as many views and perspectives to be shared to help build understanding of one another, and promote respect and unity between people.
As long as submitted content or conversation/discussions being held on the site are respectful of our community guidelines, there will be no barrier to that content or conversation.
These are basic sense guidelines like no racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, hate speech, making threats, and so on.
Please see our Community Guidelines for a break down.