We haven’t forgotten about Catch & Release. I promise.
It’s just…well, I have a confession to make.
I love writing, obviously. I love reading, too. But there are certain things I just can’t bear to read. Horror novels, for instance (I have too vivid an imagination – you should have seen me after the first time I read a really good ghost story as a kid. I didn’t sleep for a WEEK). But certain other things, too.
Like Terms of Service.
You see, there’s more to being a badass creator of stuff than merely creating things. I knew this going in to Catch & Release, but I didn’t realise just how dire the situation would become. First, I discovered the technical challenges of putting together what is, in effect, an internet startup when you have next to no backend web development skills.
Now I’m finding that I really, really loathe legalese.
I used to work at a law firm. Several of ‘em, in fact. I’ve taken law courses. I can read and discuss court documents and decisions with surprising ease.
But I HATE Terms of Service. I think it’s something about all the parentheses and gratuitous capitals.
I have to read them, though, in order to figure out what is necessary, what is not necessary, and how to craft my own. Because every web venture these days needs a ToS, a privacy policy, and some other legal ass-covering in order to work. And I don’t have the money to hire a lawyer to gin this stuff up.
Beyond that, I don’t like your standard ToS. It’s crafted to hold up in a court of law, obviously, but does it really have to be so ruddy dense? So indecipherable to the average human being?
I’m an editor by trade. I like things to be laid out clearly, simply, comprehensibly. I don’t like them to be intentionally obfuscatory, as though a particularly angry (and juicy) squid has gone and freaked out all over a perfectly good document. So the standard ToS, with all its jargon and dense wording, irritates me. I want to write a better one, one people can actually understand.
Even if they don’t read it before clicking the “I Accept” button. Because, seriously, I can’t blame you. Ew.