Terms

Who we are

This site is run by Tingle Press Ltd, the publisher of Dreamscape Code, a private limited company registered in England and Wales (company number 16075152, registered office 66 Moyser Road, London SW16 6SQ, England). Tingle Press Ltd is the seller of everything you buy on this site. Contact: hello@dreamscapecode.com.

Age

The site is for people aged 16 and over. Reading needs no account and no age check. We keep the whole site private by default for everyone (see Privacy).

Members aged 16 or 17 have extra protections: a moderator reads their posts for their first 30 days, and posting pauses between 10pm and 7am their time. Paying, selling, paid work, prizes and evening events are for adults (18 and over). Where the law asks us to, such as for posting from the UK or Australia, we may ask for a one-off age check before you post; we keep only the result.

The fiction is fiction

Many pages here are written as if from inside the novel: the Bureau, the Hotel, the Cellar. They are a story. Nothing in them is a real offer, a real agency, a legal document, a contract or an instruction to do anything in the real world.

If the story ever shows a form, a waiver or a permit, it is a prop. It sits beside these terms and never replaces them. Where anything in the story seems to disagree with these terms, these terms win.

Earth numbers, ranks and titles in the story have no value outside it, and cannot be bought or sold.

Using the site

• Be kind. Do not use the site to harass, threaten or impersonate anyone.
• Only put a name in the Code if it is yours, or you have the person’s permission. Do not enter names that are abusive or hateful.
• Do not try to break, overload or get around the site’s security, or to collect data about other visitors.
• Do not post about real political groups, real people’s private lives or real-world dares (see Values).

We may remove anything that breaks these rules, including a name card. We will tell you what we did and why, and how to appeal.

Posting, submitting and moderation

When you post in the Dining Room or the Margins, or submit a World File, Statement, artwork, translation or fan world, you agree to the Community Rules. They are part of these terms.

There are no private messages between members. Posts are read in the open, in order, and the only count is how many people marked a post Heard.

Submissions are made under the submission licence: you keep your copyright and give us a non-exclusive licence to publish what we accept. We are under no duty of confidence and no obligation to use anything.

Paid, trained moderators read reports and decide what happens, as how moderation works explains. Automatic tools can only hold something back for a person to read. Removing something, suspending an account or closing it to posting always needs two people to agree.

If we act on something of yours, we send you a statement of reasons. You can appeal any decision within six months on Form AP-1, even while suspended, and someone who took no part will decide within 7 days. If you live in the European Union you can also go to a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body, or to a court.

Anyone can report anything on the site at Report a problem, with or without an account. We never tell anyone who reported them.

The Dreamwalkers’ Charter

The nine promises of the Dreamwalkers’ Charter are part of these terms and bind us. Among them: you can leave in one step; nobody, in or out of character, will message you first or ask for money in character; nothing is sold by chance; we never send you anything between 10pm and 7am your time; and if you are in trouble, a person will answer.

The Guest Book (£3.00)

The price is £3.00. For it, the name you give us is added to the Code on this site and printed in the ebook appendix of the next Dreamscape Code novel.

The first 3,000 Guest Book names will also be printed in the endpapers of that novel’s special edition. That limit is set by the size of the paper. We state it now, before you buy, and we will not invent a deadline around it.

What “delivered” means. Your name is delivered when it appears in the Code on this site and in a published ebook of the next novel. We do not have a publication date for that novel yet. We will tell Guest Book buyers the expected date by email as soon as we know it.

Refunds. You can have a full refund of the £3.00, for any reason, at any time until your name is delivered. Write to hello@dreamscapecode.com with the email address you used to pay. We will refund you through Stripe within 14 days of your request.

Your money is kept separate. Until your name is delivered, Guest Book payments are held apart from the rest of our money, so a refund is always possible.

Names are checked by a person. We read every name before it is printed. If a name is abusive, impersonates someone, or belongs to someone who has not agreed to it, we will refund you in full instead of printing it. If you mistyped your name, write to hello@dreamscapecode.com before it is delivered and we will correct it.

Support the site (£3.00)

The price is £3.00. It is a contribution to running the site. You get our thanks and nothing else: no reward, no rank, no advantage.

If you change your mind, write to hello@dreamscapecode.com within 14 days and we will refund you in full.

Objects and pre-orders from Lost Property

Each product page shows the price and the delivery cost to where you are before you buy, and Stripe’s payment page shows the total before you pay: nothing is added after that. Outside the UK, your country may charge import duties or taxes on delivery, which the carrier collects from you; they are not part of our price. We post to the UK, the EU, the US and most of the rest of the world.

Pre-orders. Objects that are not ready to post yet are sold as pre-orders. The product page, your cart and your order page show the date we expect to dispatch it by. When you order, Stripe saves your card and nothing is charged. We charge the price you agreed, including delivery, only when your order is posted, and we email you a few days before.

Cancelling a pre-order. You can cancel a pre-order at any time before it is posted, from your order page, at no cost. Nothing has been charged, so there is nothing to refund.

Digital pre-orders. A download or licence that is not ready yet (the ebook before publication, the font licences, the offline pack) is a pre-order too: Stripe saves your card, nothing is charged, and we charge it only when it is delivered, on or after the date shown, and email you first. Cancel for free at any time before then.

Downloads. When a download is delivered, its link is on your order page and in your receipt email. Each link works for 7 days (your order page always has a fresh one), and an order can be downloaded 5 times; after that, write to hello@dreamscapecode.com and we will help. The ebook has no DRM: each copy carries the buyer's name or email, the order and the date on its copyright page, and an invisible mark of the order, so please don't share it.

If it is late. If dispatch slips more than 30 days past the date we gave you, we tell you by email, and you can still cancel for free or keep waiting. We never charge you before it is posted.

After it arrives. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations you can cancel a contract for goods within 14 days of receiving them, for any reason, and we refund the price and the standard delivery charge. On top of that, you can return anything unused within 30 days. See refunds and returns.

Product safety. Each product page shows who makes it, its EU responsible person, its materials and any warnings, as far as they are confirmed. Anything still missing is confirmed before the object is posted, and nothing is charged until then. The EU responsible person is needed only for objects sent to the European Union: until one is appointed, a pre-order to an EU address waits, uncharged, and you can cancel it at any time.

Paying

Payments are taken by Stripe. You enter your card details on Stripe’s page, never on ours. Stripe emails you a receipt. Prices are in pounds sterling. Tingle Press Ltd is not registered for VAT in the UK, so UK buyers pay no VAT. For a pre-order, Stripe keeps your card until the order is posted (see above).

We do not sell anything on World Mental Health Day (10 October), from 24 to 26 December, or on Nor’easter Night. On those days the payment buttons are switched off.

Nothing you buy here gives you rank, votes, hints, luck or a say in the story.

Your legal rights

Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer. For more about them, see Citizens Advice.

Who owns what

The novel, its characters and the text, art and audio on this site belong to their authors and are protected by copyright. The name Dreamscape Code and the Director’s Eye are the publisher’s brand.

When it is published, the data describing the Code’s script and language (its signs, sounds and word list) will be free to use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Tattoos of the signs are free for anyone, always.

If something goes wrong

We work hard to keep the site running and correct, but it is provided as it is, and parts of it may change or pause. We are not responsible for losses we could not reasonably have foreseen. Nothing here limits our responsibility where the law does not allow it to be limited.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live elsewhere in the UK, you can also use your local courts.

Changes to these terms

If we change these terms, we will update this page and its date. Changes never apply to a purchase you have already made unless they are better for you.