Terms and conditions

Last updated 21 July 2026 · 2A Woodcote Avenue, SM6 0QS

01The agreement

These terms cover this website, the Chapterhouse waiting list, and the Chapterhouse app ("the service"). By creating an account or using the service you agree to them, together with the privacy policy. If you do not agree, don't use the service, and we will think no less of you.

You must be at least 13 to use Chapterhouse. If you are under 18, make sure whoever is responsible for you is comfortable with you joining a chapter.

02The waiting list

Joining the waiting list asks for one thing: an email address. In return you get one thing: a note when the doors open for your chapter. A place on the list is not a guarantee of access, a timeline, or a particular set of features. Invitations go out in waves, at our discretion.

03Your account

You sign in with Apple or Google (or email, where offered), and their terms apply to that sign-in. Keep your account to yourself: one person per account, accurate details, and you are responsible for what happens under it. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has got in.

04Chapters and the Chapter Master

Chapters are private and invite-only, between 2 and 12 members. Joining one means the other members see what the product is built to show them — your name, photo and tag, your ribbon, your progress on the sealed book, and what you post. What they can and cannot see is set out precisely in the privacy policy, and those promises form part of these terms.

Every chapter has one Chapter Master — its founder — with extra tools the product gives them: sealing the next book (by ballot or direct pick), curating ballot shortlists, a casting vote on ballot ties, vetting the quiz deck before a meetup (including removing questions, without notice to their authors), planning meetups, setting the chapter's ribbon rule, and managing members. The Chapter Master can remove a member from a chapter at any time; removal frees the seat, and rejoining needs a fresh invite. Chapterhouse provides the tools; how a chapter runs itself is the chapter's business.

05The Ballot

Votes in a ballot are secret. The service is built so that no one — including the Chapter Master and including us, in the ordinary course — can see the running tally or who ranked what. After a ballot closes, only the winner, the vote shares per book, and the participation count are revealed. Do not pressure other members to reveal their vote; the secrecy is the point.

06Your content

What you put into Chapterhouse is yours: reading logs, margin notes, thread messages, questions, hot takes, quiz questions, scores, your taste profile. By posting or logging you give us the limited licence needed to store your content and show it to the right people under the product's rules — chapter content to your chapter, gated by reading progress; private content to you alone. The licence goes no further than operating the service, and ends when the content is deleted.

• Margin notes are private. Promoting a note to a chapter question publishes it to your chapter — that is your choice, made per note.
• Progress gates are honour plus software. The app blurs what you haven't reached; choosing to reveal a spoiler past the gate is on you.
• Quiz questions can be vetted out of a deck by the Chapter Master. The question still belongs to you; it just doesn't make the meetup.

Don't post content that is unlawful, infringing, or abusive. You must have the right to anything you upload, including imported reading history (see §08).

07Ribbons, wagers, and anything with stakes

Ribbons, chapter ribbons, leaderboards, and any wager or forfeit mechanics the service offers exist to keep a chapter reading together. Where members attach stakes to their reading — a forfeit, a wager, a curry night — that is a social arrangement between the members, made and honoured on trust. Chapterhouse records terms where the product supports it; it does not hold stakes, handle money, adjudicate disputes, or enforce anything. No part of the service is gambling, and no wager may involve payment through the app.

08Imports and third-party material

You can import your reading history by uploading a CSV export from Goodreads or StoryGraph. Upload only exports of your own data that you are entitled to use; the import is user-driven — Chapterhouse does not scrape, sync with, or log into any third-party service on your behalf, and you must not use Chapterhouse to do so.

Book titles, covers, descriptions and other metadata are supplied by third-party sources (such as Google Books and Open Library) and remain the property of their owners. The app is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play, and their terms also apply to your download and use.

09House conduct

Be the sharpest friend at the table, not the worst one. Do not use Chapterhouse to harass, impersonate, or deliberately spoil around the gates; do not probe, overload, reverse-engineer or interfere with the service or other people's data; do not automate access without our written say-so. We may suspend or close accounts that do any of this.

10Early access

Chapterhouse is young and currently in a friends-and-family period. The service may change, misbehave, or occasionally lose the plot entirely. Features may appear, disappear, or be renamed; we may reset data where a change requires it, and we will warn you first when we can. Availability is not guaranteed and the service may be withdrawn.

11Ending things

You can leave a chapter or delete your account at any time from the app, or by emailing us. We may suspend or close accounts for breach of these terms, and may suspend or end the service itself. What happens to your data — including contributions that remain part of a chapter's shared record — is set out in the privacy policy.

12Liability

The service is provided as-is, without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of Chapterhouse — including, for the avoidance of doubt, the outcome of any wager, the conduct of any chapter member, or the quality of any curry. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

13Changes, law, and contact

We may update these terms as the product grows; the date above will change when we do, and material changes will be flagged in the app or by email before they take effect. If you keep using the service after that, the new terms apply. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.

Questions go to hello@chapterhouse.club, or by post to Chapterhouse, 2A Woodcote Avenue, SM6 0QS.