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A Writing & Publishing Place for young people.. Check it out!
WritingPrompts, FreeWrite, CreateAFriend, Contests & more!

Join Us.. Be a Lounger

PonderLounge is a place for you to express your creativity and get feedback from other Loungers and Literary Artists like authors, teachers and other really cool people.

Just fill out all the information below and become a Lounger...

* = required


*Lounger Login Name
*First Name
*Last Name
*Email Address:
City
Country
State
*Birthdate (mm/dd/yyyy)
Parent/Guardian Email - only required if under 13
*Password:
*Confirm Password:
PonderLounge is a nonprofit online and interactive literary arts zone for youth in middle school and high school. Our aim is to facilitate, encourage and celebrate brave, bold, creative self-expression in a safe, respectful and positive literary-focused online environment. To ensure that your privacy is respected and protected, we are dedicated to safeguarding your personal information collected at PonderLounge. We are diligent in our dedication to comply with Federal Trade Commission policies (www.ftc.gov) as well as the Children�s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). PonderLounge is a fully moderated nonprofit website and learning environment. This means that authorized PonderLounge eyes look at each and every submission, comment, posting, etc. prior to being posted on our website. Membership and Personal Information PonderLounge encourages mothers, fathers and guardians to participate and review your child�s online activity. To find out more about how to be involved with your child online, please visit www.onguardonline.gov. If a person under the age of 13 wants to become a PonderLounge member, the membership will be flagged as pending and inform the person under 13 that we must contact their mother, father or guardian to gain permission/consent. Once permission/consent is received, we will activate the level of membership requested. Communication with mothers, fathers or guardians will be online and will be verified with the use of a credit card number which will be charged for monthly dues. If monthly dues is not applicable, we will follow the rules of COPPA to ensure that parental or guardian permission/consent is received. For more information on the United States Children�s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), please visit www.ftc.gov. Basic Information Basic information may be collected. Basic information is regarded as non-personal, identifiable information, such as but not limited to IP address, operating system, browser software, internet service provider, web pages viewed and geographic location. We do not collect it to identify individual traits but collect it to identify traits of the PonderLounge population as a whole. This helps us to better serve our existing and future members. To collect aggregate basic information, cookies and other similar means may be employed. You may adjust your web browser for stop or restrict the placement of cookies on your computer. Aggregate, basic information may be shared with third parties, affiliated partners or other entities but will never contain specific personal and/or identifiable information about individual members. Communication When you join PonderLounge, you have the option to sign up to receive our e-communications via email, Facebook and Twitter as well as other means. The intention of e-communications is to keep our members informed of the activities and other information we deem interesting for our members. At times, we may share with our members contests, links to other websites and online resources, promotions, etc. It is our express intention to only share information that is reputable, age appropriate and secure. PonderLounge will not be held responsible for any inappropriate, unlawful or other objectionable material related to these non-PonderLounge contests, websites, resources, promotions, etc. If you become aware of any objectionable material related to these non-PonderLounge resources, you can report it to us at abuse@ponderlounge.org. We will investigate and determine whether or not to continue to share this information with our members. At any time, members can opt out of receiving any and all e-communications by contacting us at contact@ponderlounge.org or blocking or deleting themselves using normal means of the communication method. For instance, blocking PonderLounge on Twitter, etc. Personal Disclosure We strongly encourage all members to refrain from putting any personal information in a submission, posting, comment, etc on PonderLounge. Although every submission, posting, comment, etc is moderated and seen by authorized PonderLounge eyes to ensure your safety, there may be times when a personal disclosure may be inadvertently put on the PonderLounge website. By signing up as a member of PonderLounge, you agree to follow our privacy policies, term of usage and posting policy and will not hold PonderLounge liable for any breach of personal disclosure or other inappropriate submission, posting or comment. At any time, if you see something inappropriate, please report it to us: abuse@ponderlounge.org. Changes to Any Policies at PonderLounge We reserve the right to change, revise, delete, add or modify information contained in our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use or any other policy. If at any time, the way we use personal information changes, we will contact our members via our normal means of communication. At that time, members can opt out of being a PonderLounge member. Continued usage of PonderLounge is a statement that you agree with the changes to said policies. Contact PonderLounge is an open and interactive literary arts zone facilitated online. We welcome and encourage our members to communicate with us at contact@ponderlounge.org. PonderLounge Nonprofit Registration PonderLounge is an associated program of Shunpike. Shunpike is a 501(c)(3) non-profit art service organization whose mission is to strengthen the Seattle arts community by partnering with small and mid-size arts groups to develop the business tools they need to succeed. Working in close partnership with these groups, Shunpike helps solve problems quickly and impart vital skills in finance, organizational management and arts administration. In other words, Shunpike helps PonderLounge to do what we do best - WRITE! For more information about Shunpike, please click here to visit their website. Effective Date This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 3, 2010. I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy
Welcome to PonderLounge. We are a nonprofit interactive literary community dedicated to facilitate and publish creative written work and honest self-expression by young people in middle and high schools. We create a friendly and safe environment, as well as a core of culturally-relevant content and activities to empower young people to think deep into their soul, write about their thoughts, and publish their voices. These Terms of Use apply solely to the website and its related activities at www.ponderloung.org as well as any related activities including but not limited to workshops, writing groups and events where PonderLounge is involved. For additional rules regarding PonderLounge contests, please click here. PonderLounge uses characters and other activities that are licensed to us free of charge from LuChai LLC. To learn more about PonderLounge�s relationship with LuChai, please visit Mission and Format in ABOUT on the main menu. PonderLounge encourages a good-faith and common sense policy of computer use by our members, employees, board members , interns and volunteers as well as any third party, affiliated partner, licensee, licensor or other entity. Membership In order for individuals to participate in PonderLounge, they must become members by following our registration process found on our website, unless otherwise explicitly stated. PonderLounge, in conjunction with schools, civic groups, organizations and other associations, etc may offer onsite workshops with activities based on the PonderLounge website. In some cases, membership will be extended to individuals participating in these workshops. A similar registration process of information gathering and consent will be used for these types of memberships. All members at PonderLounge are bound to abide by the same set of rules, terms of use, privacy policy and posting policy. All membership information you provide during the membership process must be truthful and accurate. Your membership is for your sole usage and not transferable or authorized for anyone else or another entity to use. During the membership process, you will choose a sign-in screen name and password. You are responsible for the security of your screen name and password as well as your personal information. For members under the age of 13, mothers, fathers and/or guardians need to give full consent to membership. They have full access to the membership account and can change information or opt out of membership and/or our e-communication at any time. Privacy The privacy of your personal information is very important to us. For complete information on how we collect and utilize personal information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. Rules of Conduct PonderLounge wishes to create an online society where everyone�s creative expression is celebrated. Therefore, we ask everyone, members, employees, board members, volunteers, interns and others associated with PonderLounge, to practice the rules of common sense and courtesy. Below are some common sense grounds rules but they are not complete. You know what is right and what is wrong, what is polite and what is rude � it�s common sense. Please use it when interacting in any way with PonderLounge, any third parties, affiliated partners or other entities associated with us. Thanks! Because PonderLounge is a fully moderated site, we reserve the right to let you know when you�ve done something that is not in line with our rules of conduct and Posting Policy. Respect Other's Creativity Everyone thinks differently and creates individually. Respect it. Focus on Content PonderLounge is not your school. Your school teaches about correct punctuation, grammar, right verb tense - all that school stuff. We are all about the creative process, what you think and how you want to express. Be open to yourself and others. The Ultimate Rule Treat others as you would like to be treated. Enough said :) Don�t Give Out Your Personal Information At PonderLounge, we care about you and your safety. The only way to stay completely safe on the internet is to not give out your real name, where you live, where you go to school, what your password is, etc. Definitely do not share photos of yourself or your family and any email addresses, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or other social networking sign-ins and passwords. Be Kind To One Another Be tolerant and accepting of people who are not the same as you. Don�t use any negative comments as they relate to race, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation or disability. Be Constructive, Not Hurtful Part of the creative process at PonderLounge is the ability to give feedback to other members� submissions. Be constructive- tell someone how you honestly feel about their submission in a kind way. For example, "Hey, great creativity! It may help if you use a third person perspective instead of first person because you can describe how others feel about the main character. Have fun!� Follow the Rules of the Land Don�t pretend to be someone that you aren�t. Be who you are and be proud! Definitely do not break any laws or violate the rights of others or encourage others to do so. Forbidden Stuff & Cyberbullying: Just don�t do it. You know what it is but just in case, we mention a few things below. Refrain from posting the following: Defamatory, abusive, obscene, offensive or rude comments or excessive foul language Anything that will violate intellectual property rights Comments that will give out personal information about yourself or others Remarks that promote violence against others Comments that are knowingly false or inaccurate - don�t gossip No material that advertises, promotes or solicits other products or services - no spams, phishing, junk mail, chain letters, pyramid schemes, etc No links to other websites, blogs or online information that might infringe on intellectual property rights And, definitely please don�t use any spiders, webbots, cookies and other tracking devices and/or computer viruses. You can�t reproduce, use, distribute, manage or organize any information on PonderLounge. Everything on PonderLounge is strictly prohibited from being used outside of PonderLounge unless it�s something that you submitted. Reporting Abuse If you see, hear or read any abusive language or want to tell us about a violation of the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy or Posting Policy, please email us at abuse@ponderlounge.org. Your Content Anything you submit to PonderLounge is yours - stories, comments, ideas, opinions, thoughts, views, feedback. You own the rights. However, when you become a member, you grant PonderLounge, its affiliated partners, licensor, licensees, agents, assignees, successors and sub-licensees the perpetual royalty-free license to publish, use, copy, sublicense, perform, create derivative works and distribute the content you submit. Your content may be edited without your express or prior approval. We will not use your name or any personal information except your screen name, age and state unless you give approval. Our Content PonderLounge�s content including but not limited to copy, graphics, images, designs, materials, copywrites, trademarks, intellectual property, proprietary rights including member submissions, postings, comments, feedback may not be used by anyone other than PonderLounge unless written consent is obtained. Any PonderLounge visitor, member, employee, board member, volunteer, intern or other persons related to PonderLounge may not, at any time, copy, distribute, modify, make derivative works or use the information as stated above. PonderLounge, in conjunction with schools, civic groups, organizations and other associations, etc may offer onsite workshops with activities based on the PonderLounge website. These workshops will be held in partnership with PonderLounge. No organization, other entity or person can use PonderLounge information unless otherwise approved by us. We do encourage you to set up writing clubs and can help you do so! Just contact us at contact@ponderlounge.org. Links and Other Resources At times, we may share with our members information or links that are not maintained by us. It is our express intention to only share information that is reputable, age appropriate and secure. However, PonderLounge will not be held responsible for the content or services offered by these third-parties. We encourage you to read the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and other policies of websites when you leave the PonderLounge website. Revoking and/or Denying Membership At any time, PonderLounge reserves the right to revoke, and suspend a person�s membership due to a violation of these Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy or Posting Policy. We also reserve the right to deny membership to any persons for reason of safe guarding our other members. Warrantees We work hard at PonderLounge to ensure that we create and facilitate an environment that meets our mission. We are a nonprofit interactive online literary community for youth in middle school and high school. However, we know that some visitors, users and members may disagree with our goals, ethos and mission. Please understand that we do not guarantee or offer any warrantees for the content, activities or other items included on PonderLounge�s website as well as on-site activities including but not limited to workshops, writing groups and events. You agree to participate and visit PonderLounge at your own risk and of your own volition and accept us �as is�. Under no circumstances shall PonderLounge, its affiliated partners, licensees, licensors or third party entities be liable to you or anyone else for damages arising out of use of PonderLounge. If for some reason, we are found liable. PonderLounge will only be held accountable for the amount paid by you for membership during the preceding 12 month period only, regardless of how long you have been a member. Indemnity You agree to indemnify, or relieve from responsibility or liability, PonderLounge�s employees, board members, volunteers, related persons, licensees, licensors, affiliated partners or third parties from and against any damages, loss and/or all legal claims including but not limited to lawyer fees. Governing Law The laws of Washington state in the United States of America govern these Terms of Use. Any claims by you must be sent to us in writing within 6 months of the incident. Otherwise, the claim is waived by you. Contact Information If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at contact@ponderlounge.org. Effective Date These Terms of Use were last updated on October 2, 2010. I have read and agree to the Terms of Use