Terms of Use and Rules
Last updated November 1, 2026.
Gratitoonie is a free, non-commercial experiment run by one person in Ottawa, Canada. By creating an account or using the site, you agree to these terms.
Who can join
You must be 21 or older. One account per person, please.
Gratitoonies have no value
- Gratitoonies (GTNY) and gratitude records have no monetary value. They are not money, an investment, or property, and they can’t be redeemed for anything.
- You may not buy, sell, or trade them for money, goods, services, or any other currency, on or off this site, or offer to.
- Balances, records, and the ledger may be corrected, reset, or ended at any time, for example after a bug, abuse, or the end of the experiment.
What you write
You’re responsible for what you write. Please don’t post anything that:
- makes damaging claims about a real person or organization;
- shares someone else’s private details, such as their health, finances, relationships, or contact information;
- is hateful, harassing, threatening, sexually explicit, or violent;
- breaks the law or infringes anyone’s rights; or
- tries to manipulate the assessment.
Expressions are checked automatically, and ones that seem to break these rules aren’t accepted. Anyone can report a publicly shared expression with its Report link; a reported expression is hidden until we review it, then either restored or removed. We may remove any content, or suspend or delete any account, that breaks these terms. You keep ownership of what you write, and you let us store, assess (including with OpenAI, as the Privacy page explains), and, if you choose to publish it, display it.
Rules and limits
These are the current settings. They may change as the experiment evolves.
- Submissions
- 3 per day (every submission counts, accepted or not)
- Earnings
- up to 10 GTNY per day
- Reward
- 1–5 GTNY per accepted expression, plus one gratitude record
- Length
- 10–1000 characters
- Emailed cheques
- at least 1 GTNY each; up to 3 unclaimed at a time; unclaimed cheques return to you after 30 days
- Day boundary
- 00:00 UTC
- Assessed by
- …
What gets accepted
- It reads as gratitude toward someone or something.
- It is reasonably specific about who or what, and why.
- It is not a copy or close rewording of an expression already accepted, from anyone.
- It doesn’t make damaging claims about anyone, share someone else’s private details (such as their health, finances, relationships, or contact information), or include hateful, harassing, or explicit content. Talking about yourself is fine.
Rejected and duplicate submissions earn nothing. If your reward would take you past the daily earning limit, it is reduced to what remains; if nothing remains, the submission is not accepted, and you can try again after 00:00 UTC. If our assessor is unavailable and a submission can’t be assessed, it doesn’t count against your daily limit. Uncertain cases may wait for a person to review them.
Fair use
Members must be 21 or older. Please use one account. Attempts to game the assessment — for example, instructions aimed at the model, or many rewordings of one expression — are flagged for review. Sign-up is by invite for now, which keeps things friendly; it can’t fully stop one person from using several accounts, which is a known limitation of this experiment. Members can also bring people in by emailing them a cheque; the site records who invited whom, so unusual patterns can be reviewed.
Cheques
A cheque link works like cash: whoever has it can claim it. Send it only to the person it’s for. We’re not responsible for a cheque claimed by someone you shared the link with.
Your account
Keep your password and recovery code safe. Without either, your account can’t be recovered. You can delete your account at any time from the Account page; that erases your words and makes the account unusable, as described on the Privacy page.
No guarantees
The site is provided “as is”, without warranties of any kind. It may be unavailable, change, lose data, or shut down at any time. To the fullest extent the law allows, the operator isn’t liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the site, including anything other members write.
Contacting us
There’s no email address. For questions, problems, or requests (including privacy and content requests), use Report an issue. It’s one-way: we read every message, but we can’t reply directly.
Changes
These terms may change as the experiment evolves. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the new terms. They are governed by the laws of Ontario and of Canada.