Terms of Service

By creating an account you agree to these terms. If you’re using Scholarly Oxen on behalf of a club, you agree to them for that club too.

You’re responsible for keeping your sign-in email secure — it’s how access to your account is granted.

You keep ownership of everything you and your club create — book lists, votes, notes, and discussions. You grant us only the permission needed to store and display that content back to your club so the product works.

We don’t claim your words as our own and we don’t repurpose them.

During prelaunch, Apple purchases are available to authorized beta testers through Apple’s Sandbox. Public App Store purchasing is not yet available. Existing subscriptions are managed with their original billing provider.

Scholarly Oxen currently offers Free and Basic plans. Existing legacy subscriptions remain unchanged. Paid plans are billed in advance — monthly, or annually if you choose an annual plan — and renew automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel.

Payments are processed by Apple for purchases in the iOS app and Stripe for purchases on the website. Manage or cancel with the provider you purchased through. Your plan works on both platforms when you sign in to the same account. We don’t see or store your full card details, and taxes may apply depending on where you are.

For an existing founding-member subscription, your price stays the same for as long as your subscription remains active and in good standing.

Cancel an Apple subscription in Apple’s subscription settings, or a web subscription through the web billing portal. When you cancel, your plan stays active until the end of the period you’ve already paid for, and then reverts to the free plan. Your clubs, books, and history stay with you; features above the free plan (and any members beyond the free limit) become limited until you upgrade again.

For web purchases, we do not provide refunds for partial periods, except where required by law. Apple handles refund requests for purchases billed by Apple; use reportaproblem.apple.com or contact Apple Support. Canceling renewal and requesting a refund are separate actions.

During prelaunch, self-service account deletion is not yet enabled. Contact support@blackautomations.com for account-deletion help.

Account deletion ends your access to that account and is separate from ordinary subscription cancellation. Before deleting, transfer leadership or delete every club you lead, including archived clubs. Your personal content and account attribution are removed; shared agendas, meeting summaries and reading history stay with the club with your account attribution removed.

Web subscriptions are canceled immediately as part of deletion. Deleting your account does not cancel an Apple subscription: cancel it with Apple to avoid further charges. You can still delete your account immediately without waiting for the subscription to expire. Contact us if deletion needs help or retained shared text contains personal details.

Use Scholarly Oxen for real reading communities. Don’t use it to harass others, break the law, or disrupt the service for other clubs.

Club leaders and admins manage membership and roles within their own club; we don’t mediate internal club decisions.

We work to keep Scholarly Oxen running smoothly, but the service is provided “as is.” We can’t promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we’re not liable for indirect losses arising from its use.

As the product grows, these terms may change. If we make a material change we’ll update this page and the “last updated” date. Continuing to use Scholarly Oxen means you accept the current terms.

Scholarly Oxen is a service operated by Black Automations LLC. These terms are an agreement between you and Black Automations LLC.

Questions about these terms? Email support@blackautomations.com.