MEMBER AGREEMENT:

<p>The Online Writing Workshop for SF &amp; F is open to all writers 
  of science fiction, fantasy, or horror, both aspiring and professional. You need to <a href="/ww-cgi/ww/ww.cgi">become 
  a member</a> in order to participate. After a one-month free trial, membership costs a reasonable $49 a year (that's 94 cents a week).  (<a href="/memberships.shtml">More about membership fees</a>)
  
<!--(When not offering free membership via 
partnerships with publishers, our online writing workshops charge a reasonable 
<A HREF="/memberships.shtml">membership fee</A>.)
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<p>
We require a valid e-mail address, and because of occasional adult content, people under 18 must get parental permission before joining.  Pseudonyms may be used.  Multiple memberships are not allowed.</p>

<p>Once you sign up to become a member and choose a member ID, we send you a temporary password via e-mail, which you use to log in for the first time. You can then reset your password to be whatever you want. You can choose to add your e-mail address and other
personal information to the member directory if you wish, or not--it's up to you. Your current submissions and the
  reviews you've done will be part of your directory listing.</p>
<p>
After becoming a member, you may submit your work, review the work of others, and participate in workshop discussions.  Other members will also be able to
read, rate, and review your work.</p>
<a name="points"></a>
<p>Because reviews and ratings are what improve people's writing, we require that 
  you contribute reviews in order to be allowed to post your own work.  (Of course reviews help the submission's author, but our members report that reviewing also helps the reviewer improve his or her own writing by improving analytic skills.)   And because 
  we want all members to have a good chance of getting their work reviewed, we 
  have a limit on how many pieces any member can submit at once.</p>
<p>
Rules about submitting your work:</p>
<ul>
  <li>You need four review points to post a submission.
  <li>You're given four review points when you join the workshop, so you can
post your first submission before contributing any reviews.
  <li>After that, you earn one review point for each substantive review you post, with a bonus point awarded if that submission has zero reviews.
  <li>Very short reviews are allowed, but don't earn review points. 
  <li>Once you earn the points, they're yours until you spend them by posting a
submission. Even if the submission you reviewed is removed from the workshop, you still keep your points.  
 <li>You may post up to three pieces of writing at a time: three chapters, three 
    short stories, etc. Three chapters from one novel equal three submissions. 
    (Some browser configurations do not allow submission of long pieces all at 
    once, so if your story or chapter is too long for the text window, you may 
    use our "append text" feature to add the second part.  Submit what you can, then go to your 
    partial submission and click the "Edit this submission" link at the top.  Scroll down to beneath 
    the submission text box and click the "'append' form" link to add the rest of your submission.  No extra points 
    are needed for this.)
  <li>Editors' Choice submissions are exempted from the three-submission limit, so
you may occasionally see some members who have more than three pieces posted.
</ul>
<p>Rules about the content of your submission: </p>
<ul>
  <li>It must be written by the person submitting it. 
  <li>It must be science fiction, fantasy, or horror. 
  <li>It must be no longer than 7500 words (about 30 double-spaced pages). 
  <li>It must not use licensed worlds, universes, or the characters from those 
    worlds or universes (including but not limited to those from Star Trek<sup>(R)</sup>, 
    Star Wars<sup>(R)</sup>, Babylon 5<sup>(R)</sup>, and computer or role-playing 
    games). 
  <li>It may contain "explicit" material--swearing, sex scenes--as long as that 
    material is comparable (in extent and explicitness) to that in SF/F novels 
    you can find on the shelves of most bookstores. Use your best judgment. If 
    you're in doubt, it's probably too much for the genre! (If your submission 
    does contain a lot of "explicit" material, note that in the area for author 
    comments.) 
  <li>You must have read and agreed to our legal disclaimer 
    before submitting. This protects you and us. 
</ul>
<a name="rights"></a>
Online Writing Workshops, as owner and administrator of the workshop, has
these rights regarding submissions: 
<ul>
<li>We may delete a submission at any time for reasons including but not 
limited to inappropriateness for the workshop, obscenity, and plagiarism.
  <li>We may e-mail the author regarding his/her submissions for various reasons.
  <li>We may select a submission as a monthly "Editors' Choice" and list it as 
    such on the Editors' Choice page and in the workshop's newsletter. 
</ul>
But we <b>don't</b> have the right to publish any author's work or submit it for publication, 
nor do we have an option on publishing that work, or any sort of claim to it, just because that 
work or a portion thereof has been posted in the workshop. Selecting a submission 
as an "Editors' Choice" does not give us any rights or options. <b>All rights 
remain with the author of the work.</b> In even plainer language, it's 
yours, not ours. 
<p> 
Rules about rating and reviewing: 
<ul>
  <li>You may not rate or review your own submission(s).  
  <li>Reviews must contain some useful content for the author, not just "I liked it" or "I couldn't read this."  Very brief reviews are allowed, but will not earn review points.
  Ideally, reviews should contain specific good and bad points.  All reviews should include at least one positive comment.
  <li>Members who post contentless reviews in order to earn points will have
those reviews deleted (and points removed) and may have their membership
revoked if they do not mend their ways. Play fair!  
<li>The point of the workshop is to help SF/F writers improve their writing. 
    Therefore, constructive criticism is encouraged; insults and put-downs are 
    not allowed. Try to be clear but not harsh in your criticisms, and don't forget to compliment the good points. Put yourself in the writer's shoes before you slam a submission, no matter how poorly written it may be.
<li>Flaming, personal attacks, and an aggressive, condescending tone are not allowed.  Members who cannot follow this rule will be banned from the workshop. 
</ul>  
<p> Online Writing Workshops, as owner and administrator of the workshop, has 
these rights regarding reviews: 

<ul>
<li>We may remove a submission and its reviews from the workshop automatically three
months after its submission date or last update.  This is to keep
workshop members focused on newer submissions and submissions that
are being actively revised.  (If your submission is scheduled to be
removed, you will receive e-mail notifying you two weeks in advance;
you may then either update your submission to keep it from being
removed, or save or print out the reviews and ratings for your
submission before they are removed with the submission.)
<li>We may delete a review at any time for reasons including but not limited 
    to inappropriateness for the workshop, obscenity, and just plain unconstructive 
    meanness. Flames and personal attacks will be deleted.  
  <li>We may contact a member about a contentless review, request
revisions, or direct that member to resources on how to review. We may also
delete contentless reviews.
  <li>We may contact a member about an inappropriate review and request revisions. 
  We may also cancel a person's membership and ban a person from participating in the workshop, 
  with or without prior warning, if he or she seems incapable of participating in a constructive 
    manner. We will cancel the memberships of reviewers who consistently contribute reviews that are 
    aggressive in tone and inappropriate for the workshop environment.  In those cases we may or may not refund a prorated amount of the member's membership fee, at our discretion.
</ul>

Rules about information displayed on this site: 
<ul>
  <li>You may not use members' names, e-mail addresses, or other public information for any 
  commercial purpose.  This includes sending out commercial advertising via e-mail to members, 
  creating commercial mailing lists from members' e-mail addresses, or any other commercial use. 
  Violators of this rule will be permanently banned from the workshop.  
  Members who suspect violation of this rule should inform Online Writing Workshops by using our 
  <a href="/contact.shtml">contact form</a> or e-mailing 
  <a href="mailto:support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com">support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com</A>.
  <LI>Online Writing Workshops itself has a <A HREF="http://www.onlinewritingworkshop.com/privacy.shtml">privacy 
  policy</A> as well.  We won't give out members' names or e-mail addresses for commercial use, either, though we may occasionally send out a message on behalf of our sponsor partners about their books of interest to members, not more than 4 times per year. 
</UL>  

<P>
We reserve the right to cancel your membership, with or without prior notice, if we learn that you have:
<UL>
<LI>registered under multiple member IDs
<LI>made submissions that do not follow our guidelines
<LI>submitted reviews that personally attack or flame other members
<LI>consistently submitted contentless reviews
<LI>used member information for commercial purposes
<LI>or otherwise violated this member agreement.
</UL>
In these cases we may or may not refund a prorated amount of any membership fee paid, at our discretion.
<P>
Your membership rights:
<UL>
<LI>You may delete or update your own submissions and reviews at any time, and update the information in your member-directory listing, too, as long as you continue to provide us with a valid e-mail address.  

<LI>You may terminate your membership at any time, for any reason you
wish.  Just log in, then click on the "Log in or join" button to get to the membership-management page, enter your member ID and password, and click on "Delete membership."  Your submissions will be removed from the workshop as soon as you delete your membership.  However, your reviews will remain in the workshop unless you delete each one before your delete your membership.

<LI>You may send us e-mail (at <A HREF="mailto:support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com">support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com</a>) to clarify any workshop rules and rights, complain about a review, report a problem with the workshop, or make suggestions.  We will do our best to reply to you within a day or two.
</ul>

<p>You may also find our <a href="/howitworks.shtml#notice" 
target="new">Notice 
  to Writers</a> of interest, especially if you have not participated in a workshop before. 
<p>