TERMS OF SERVICE
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Sebastian Larsen, an individual ("Backmonkey", "we", "us"). Backmonkey is a personal project run by one person, not a company. They govern your use of the Backmonkey mobile app and website (together, the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
Please read Section 4 carefully. It describes how pledges work, when your card is charged, and why charges are final.
1. What Backmonkey is
Backmonkey is a habit-change app. You create monkey avatars that represent habits you want to stop, log, or build, and you check in with them over time. Backmonkey is a motivational tool. It is not medical, psychological, or addiction treatment, and nothing in the Service is professional advice. If you are dealing with a serious dependency, please talk to a qualified professional.
2. Eligibility and accounts
- You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to create an account.
- You need an account to sync monkeys, join crews, or place a pledge. You can sign up with an email address and password or with Sign in with Apple.
- You are responsible for keeping your login and device secure and for everything that happens under your account. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.
- One person, one account. Do not share, sell, or transfer your account.
3. Free monkeys
Free monkeys use lives. A monkey has a set number of lives, loses lives on missed check-ins or logged slips, and can recover lives through clean days. When a monkey runs out of lives it dies and may be revived under the rules shown in the app. Free monkeys involve no money and no charge of any kind.
We may change how lives, streaks, banana passes, revivals, weekly targets, and similar free-mode mechanics work at any time. Where a change affects an active paid window, Section 4 controls.
4. Pledges (paid monkeys)
A pledge lets you put real money on the line for a 30-day window. This section is the complete description of how that works. It applies together with the short pledge terms you accept in the app each time you place a pledge, and those in-app terms are part of these Terms.
4.1 A pledge is not a deposit
- When you place a pledge, we save a payment method with our payment processor, Stripe. We do not charge your card at that time and we do not hold your money.
- You are only ever charged for what you lose under the rules below. A perfect window costs nothing.
- Backmonkey never pays out. A pledge is not a wager, a bet against other people, or a prize pool. Money you defend simply stays in your account; money you lose is paid to Backmonkey and becomes our revenue.
- Pledges are available on daily Stop monkeys only, and in United States dollars only.
4.2 Authorization to charge your saved payment method
By placing a pledge you authorize Backmonkey, through Stripe, to charge the payment method you saved for the amounts that become due under this Section, at the times described in Section 4.6, without further notice and while you are not actively using the app. This authorization stays in effect until every pledge you placed has settled, been waived, or been converted, and until any failed settlement has been paid. You can update your saved payment method in the app. You cannot revoke this authorization for a pledge that is already open; you can end a pledge early under Section 4.7 instead.
4.3 Two modes
- Easy. Your pledge is split into 30 equal units, one per day of the window. Each judged miss or slip loses one unit. Losses accrue during the window and are charged once at the end. If you lose every unit, the monkey dies.
- Hard. The monkey has one life. The first judged miss or slip loses the entire pledge, which is charged right away, and the monkey dies.
If, after a Hard fall, you re-enter the same window on Easy, the new pledge is split across the days that remain in that window rather than across 30.
4.4 How a day is judged
- Every day inside the window is judged as a success, a miss (no check-in), or a slip (you logged one).
- A day is judged at 5:00 PM the following day in the monkey's time zone. Until then you can still check in for the previous day and save it.
- The time zone is frozen when you place the pledge. Changing your device or profile time zone later does not move judging boundaries for that pledge.
- A slip logged after a day has already been judged re-judges that day. A day can go from success to slip and add a loss. The app keeps an append-only record of every judgment and correction.
- Banana passes and any other streak protection never shield a pledged day. Money never gets a pass.
- If you stop opening the app, every unjudged day is a miss. Abandoning a monkey costs the same as missing every remaining day.
4.5 Surviving the window
If the monkey is alive when the window ends, it pauses. Nothing is judged while it is paused, and your streak clock stops where it was. The owner then chooses what comes next: pledge again on Easy or Hard, or continue as a free monkey. Paused days are never judged and never cost anything.
4.6 When you are charged
Your saved payment method is charged:
- at the end of an Easy window, for the total of the units you lost;
- immediately on the first loss in Hard mode, for the full pledge;
- immediately when you end a pledge early by deleting or leaving (Section 4.7);
- immediately when a monkey with an open pledge dies for any reason, for what the pledge had accrued.
If the amount due is under $1.00 we waive it and nothing is charged.
Charges appear on your statement as Backmonkey Pledge. We send a receipt for every settlement.
4.7 Ending early by deleting or leaving
Deleting a pledged solo monkey, or leaving a pledged crew, ends the pledge early. Ending early counts as missing every remaining day: your accrued losses plus one unit for every unjudged day, today included, are charged immediately. Days you already defended stay defended. Before you confirm, the app shows you exactly what you are forfeiting and the amount that will be charged. If that charge fails, the monkey stays until it clears or your request under Section 4.10 is resolved. A Hard pledge that has not fallen forfeits the full amount if you end it.
4.8 Transaction history
Settings includes a Transaction History page listing every completed charge and every pending charge from a running Easy window. When you place a pledge you acknowledge that this page is available to you. It is the record we will point to in any dispute.
4.9 Refunds
Because you are only ever charged for days you actually lost under rules you agreed to before the window opened, settlements are final. We keep the exact wording of the pledge terms you accepted, the timestamp of your acceptance, and your day-by-day judgment record, and we will use them to respond to any payment dispute.
Backmonkey runs on the honor system. If you truly believe you are entitled to a refund on a completed charge, you have 7 days from the charge completing to request one from the Transaction History page, selecting the charges and telling us why. We review every request in good faith and decide at our sole discretion, and the Transaction History page shows where each request stands. Requests outside the 7-day window, or for charges that are still pending, are not eligible.
Contact us through the app or at support@trybackmonkey.com before disputing a charge with your bank. Disputing a charge with your bank that you knew to be correct is a breach of these Terms.
4.10 Failed charges
If a settlement fails (for example your card was declined or expired), the pledge goes into a settle-up state. We will retry the charge, and you can pay it manually from the settle-up screen. While a settlement is unpaid we may restrict the app, including creating new monkeys and pledges and, at our discretion, access to your existing monkeys, until it is paid or resolved.
If you are unable to pay, the settle-up screen has an "I can't pay it" option. Tell us why and we will review the request on the same honor-system basis as a refund. While your request is under review the restrictions above are lifted and the charge is listed as forgiven in your Transaction History. If we decline the request, the charge is due again and the restrictions return until it is paid. We may suspend accounts that leave settlements unpaid without a request.
4.11 Limits and changes
We may set minimum or maximum pledge amounts, refuse a pledge, or turn pledges off entirely at any time. Turning pledges off does not change the rules of a window that is already open. If we must end an open window ourselves, we will settle it for what it had accrued at that moment and no more.
5. Crews and tribes
5.1 Shared monkeys
A shared monkey ("crew" or "Tribe Extreme") is kept by up to six people. Every member checks in, and the monkey's day succeeds only if every member carries it. Any member's miss or slip counts against the whole crew.
5.2 Paid crews
- A paid crew is paid for everyone: every member must hold their own pledge on the monkey. There are no free members on a paid crew, and a member with no open pledge cannot take part until they place one.
- Each member's pledge is their own money on their own card. No member ever pays another member's losses, and no member can lose more than their own pledge.
- Because any member's miss or slip loses a unit for every member, you will be shown, and must accept, a separate consent line before you pledge on a crew. That acceptance is recorded with your pledge.
- The creator sets the crew's mode (Easy or Hard) and may set a fixed buy-in that every joiner must match, or leave the amount open. Every pledge on a paid crew is at least $1.
- The amounts each member committed, defended, and lost are visible to the other members of that crew and of its tribe. Do not join a paid crew if you do not want your pledge amount seen.
- A crew's 30-day window is fixed when the crew is created. You can join a paid crew at any point up to the end of its window. Your pledge is still split into 30 units and each judged loss still costs one unit; only the days that remain can be lost. Your buy-in is added to whatever the crew has defended at the moment you join, and on a Hard crew your own miss or slip can still fall the monkey.
5.3 The caretaker
After a fall, and after a survived window's pause, the monkey's owner (the "caretaker") decides what comes next for the whole crew. If the caretaker re-ups on money, every other member is re-invited and must place a fresh pledge to keep their seat. If the caretaker goes free, the crew stays intact as a free monkey.
5.4 Leaving
You may leave a crew at any time. Leaving a paid crew during a window is priced exactly like ending early (Section 4.7): your accrued losses plus one unit for every remaining day are charged immediately. The other members are notified that you left.
5.5 Crew notifications
Members of a crew or tribe are notified of one another's check-ins, nudges, departures, revivals, re-invites, and when a shared or tribe monkey dies. Notifications are delivered as push messages to devices that allow them and are not guaranteed to arrive or to arrive in time.
5.6 Invites
Invite links are personal to the crew, expire 12 hours after they are created, and stop working once the crew is full. A seat offered to you after a revival or re-up stays open for as long as that seat stands. Sharing an invite means the recipient will see the monkey's name, habit, and, on a paid crew, the buy-in.
5.7 Tribes
A tribe is a group of separate monkeys whose keepers can see one another's progress, including each member's committed, defended, and lost amounts on any paid monkey in the tribe. Joining a tribe is consent to that visibility.
6. Your content
You own what you write in the app: habit names, notes, reflections, proof labels, and the rest. You give us a license to store, display, and process that content to run the Service, including showing it to the members of your crews and tribes as described in these Terms and the Privacy Policy. Do not post anything unlawful, abusive, or that you do not have the right to share. Names and slip status you enter are visible to the other people keeping a monkey with you.
7. Acceptable use
Do not attempt to manipulate judging, time zones, or device clocks to avoid a loss. Do not access another person's account or data, probe or attack the Service, scrape it, or use it for anything unlawful. We may suspend or close accounts that do.
8. Deleting monkeys and closing your account
You can delete or leave monkeys in the app. Deleting or leaving a monkey with an open pledge ends the pledge early under Section 4.7, and the app tells you the amount before you confirm. A monkey whose settlement is unpaid stays until it is settled or resolved. You can delete your account from Settings once you have no open pledge and no pending charge. Deleting your account leaves every monkey you keep with others, exactly as if you had left it, and deletes the rest. Settlement and pledge records are retained as described in the Privacy Policy.
9. Changes to the Service and to these Terms
We can change or discontinue any part of the Service. We can also change these Terms; when we do, we will post the new version with a new effective date and, for material changes, tell you in the app. Continued use after the effective date is acceptance. A change to the pledge rules applies only to pledges placed after the change.
10. Disclaimers
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not promise that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that a notification will arrive in time for you to check in. You are responsible for checking in on time.
11. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, Backmonkey, its operator, and anyone who helps build it are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or data, arising from your use of the Service. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of $50 or the amount you paid us in settlements in the six months before the claim. Some jurisdictions do not allow these limits, so they may not apply to you.
12. Indemnity
You will defend and indemnify Backmonkey against claims arising from your content, your breach of these Terms, or your misuse of the Service.
13. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Fairfax County, Virginia, and you consent to their jurisdiction. Before filing, you agree to contact us and give us 30 days to resolve the matter informally.
14. Apple
The app is distributed through the Apple App Store. Apple is not a party to these Terms, has no obligation to provide support for the Service, and is not responsible for pledges or settlements. Pledges are payments for a real-world service delivered through Backmonkey's own processor and are not in-app purchases.
15. General
These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the in-app pledge terms you accept are the entire agreement between you and Backmonkey about the Service. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. If we do not enforce a provision, we have not waived it. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor operator of the Service under Section 4.4 of the Privacy Policy. Sections 4 (for any open or unsettled pledge), 6, and 10 through 15 survive the closing of your account.
16. Contact
Backmonkey is operated by Sebastian Larsen.
You can also reach us from Settings in the app.