This Site Usage Policy hereby incorporates by reference all terms, conditions rules, policies and guidelines on the Site. Capitalized terms not defined in this Site Usage Policy are defined in the Terms of Service.
 
This Site Usage Policy is effective as of March 1, 2010. Your continued use of the Site after such time will signify your acceptance of this Site Usage Policy.
 
COMMUNICATION
 
OpenTotal encourages detailed and professional communication between Providers through the Site. You are required to log onto the Site to manage Exchanges and use the Workrooms to maintain an electronic record of all written communication including clarifications and agreements around scope and deliverables.  You must transcribe into the Workroom all relevant emails, instant messages, telephone or in-person conversations between the other party and the Provider to maintain a record. If there is a dispute, all written communication on the Site, including Exchange posting, proposals, messages, and any communications transcribed to the Workroom will serve as the record for resolution of the dispute. A communication that is not saved in or copied to the Workroom cannot be submitted as evidence in the OpenTotal Dispute Resolution process after a dispute is reported.  Please review our Dispute Resolution Process for more details. 
 
OpenTotal provides a designated space in the Provider profile to enter email address, telephone number and instant message IDs. Providers must not enter contact information or solicit private communications in public messages, in Exchange descriptions, or sections of their OpenTotal profile outside of the designated Contact Information fields.
 
POSTING INFORMATION AND CONTENT
 
You agree to provide true, accurate and complete information whenever you post any information or content on the Site (including but not limited to posting a request for Provider Services, providing a proposal for a posted Exchange, posting your profile and providing feedback). You agree to update such information whenever it changes. You agree to use good judgment when posting information and remarks on the OpenTotal platform. You understand that you may be held legally responsible for damages suffered by other Users, Members, other partys, Providers, OpenTotal or any third party as a result of legally actionable or defamatory comments, remarks or other information or content which you post to the OpenTotal Site. Under federal law (specifically, the Communications Decency Act of 1996), OpenTotal is not legally responsible for any remarks, information or other content posted or made available on its Site by any User or third party, even if such information or content is defamatory or otherwise legally actionable. OpenTotal is not responsible for and does not monitor or censor content for accuracy or reliability. OpenTotal reserves the right to remove or restrict access to any information, content or Exchange posted or made available on the Site in its sole discretion, or if ordered to do so by a court, or if OpenTotal considers such information or content to be in violation of the OpenTotal Terms of Service.
                                                                                                                                                              
PROHIBITED SITE ACTIVITIES
 
You agree NOT to do any of the following on the Site:

• Post false or misleading information about a product, service or exchange request.
• Post logos, seals or slogans from third parties on the Site unless such material is provided by OpenTotal or an OpenTotal partner, or you have received express written permission from OpenTotal to display such third party logo, seal or slogan.
• Post or transmit any content that is profane, vulgar, racist, offensive, threatening, harmful, abusive, defamatory or disparaging.
• Post or transmit unprofessional or offensive comments about a User, Member, Provider, other party, OpenTotal, or any third party.
• Suggest or solicit another User to contact you directly in order to buy, exchange or sell services outside of OpenTotal.
• Post or introduce software on the Site that: (i) is designed to disrupt, disable, harm or otherwise impede in any manner, including aesthetic disruptions or distortions, the operation of this Site or any other software, firmware, hardware, computer system or network (sometimes referred to as "viruses" or "worms"); (ii) would disable or impair this Site or any other software, firmware, hardware, computer systems or networks in any way where such disablement or impairment is caused by the elapsing of a period of time, exceeding an authorized number of copies, advancement to a particular date or other numeral (sometimes referred to as "time bombs," "time locks" or "drop dead" devices); (iii) would permit you or any other person to access this Site or any other software, firmware, hardware, computer systems or networks to cause such disablement or impairment or transmit information (sometimes referred to as "traps," "access codes," or "trap door" devices, or "spyware"); or (iv) which contains any other similar harmful, malicious or hidden procedures, routines or mechanisms which would cause such programs to cease functioning or to damage or corrupt data, storage media, programs, equipment or communications or otherwise interfere with operations.
• Access, tamper with or use non-public or non-authorized areas of the Site. Unauthorized individuals attempting to access these areas of the Site may be subject to prosecution.
• Tamper with postings of other Users, Members or OpenTotal.
  Solicit or gather any User's or Member's information available from the Site, such as other usernames and email addresses, for any commercial or business purposes or to transmit any unsolicited advertising, junk mail, spam or chain letters.
• Do anything which would create or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large burden or load on the Site.
• Use robots, spiders, scrapers or other automated means to access information in our Site for any purpose without express written permission from OpenTotal.
• Frame or link to the Site except as permitted in writing by OpenTotal.
• Impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
• Require or request that a Provider deliver a free mock-up or proof of concept as part of a proposal submission or as a condition to consideration of a proposal.
• Repeat any action after you receive warning or request to desist from OpenTotal, whether or not that action is explicitly prohibited in the policies stated on the Site.
• Fail to respond to an email from OpenTotal regarding violation, dispute or complaint within two business days.
• Use the Site if you are not able to form legally binding contracts, are under age or are temporarily or indefinitely suspended from our Site.
• Take any action that may undermine the feedback or ratings systems (such as importing or exporting feedback information off the Site, or using feedback as an extortion mechanism).
• Copy, modify or distribute content from the Site, except for your own information and use, without the prior express written permission from OpenTotal.
• Select a other party or hire a Provider on the basis of religion, sex or race.
• Violate a request by OpenTotal to not post Exchanges deemed by OpenTotal in its sole discretion to be contrary to the interests of the Site or the OpenTotal User community.

PROVIDING SERVICES

Proposal Guidelines
 
As a Provider, you agree to follow these guidelines when you submit an exchange request or proposal:

• Provide proposals only for Exchanges that you are a good fit for and you can complete within the other party's time frames.
• Help the other party clarify his or her needs and fully develop the Exchange scope and deliverables.
• Only submit exchange requests when you have full title to the item being exchanged.  
• Not submit unreasonably low proposal prices or test proposals. If you wish to submit a proposal but require more information about the Exchange, post a message in the Public Messages area to request more information, indicating your assumptions regarding the Exchange scope in your proposal and making explicit that you will update the proposal once you receive more information.
• Not submit proposals that are made with the intent to commit fraud.
• Not submit boilerplate, placeholder or generic proposals.  
• Not offer your services in exchange for good feedback or for free.

Exchange Fulfillment Guidelines

You agree to the following Exchange fulfillment guidelines:

• Once an Exchange has been agreed to, log onto the Site to manage the Exchange and use the Workroom to maintain an electronic record of all written communication between you and the other party.
• Use the Workroom to record your understanding of the scope, deliverables, milestones, time frames, price, feedback, revisions, schedule changes, vacation, availability, delays, acceptance of deliverables, and completion of milestones.
• Transcribe relevant emails, instant messages, telephone or in-person conversations between you and the other party into the Workroom to maintain a record of what is agreed.
• If there is a dispute, the data that you enter on the Site and the contents of the Workroom will constitute the sole and exclusive record of facts and evidence for resolution of the dispute.
• Inform the other party if a committed deliverable will be missed, offering an explanation and proposing a revised date.
• Inform the other party if you will be unavailable for more than one business day.
• If you are unable to complete the Exchange, alert Customer Support so that OpenTotal is aware of the situation and can offer assistance to the other party.
• Respond promptly, within 1 business day, to all Exchange-related communication, whether from the other party or from OpenTotal.

Audit Provisions and Record Keeping

For a period of one year after accepting each Exchange, you agree to keep and maintain complete and accurate records related to the Provider Services that you perform for your other party, including the service description, the proposal and payment terms, and information on all repeat or follow-on Provider Services performed for each other party originated on OpenTotal. If questions arise regarding services rendered, work performed or fees due to OpenTotal, you agree to provide copies of these records and other relevant documentation to OpenTotal within 20 days of OpenTotal’s request.

RATING AND FEEDBACK SYSTEM

Always leave objective balanced feedback about the Users with whom you have transacted. You acknowledge and agree that the Site contains public feedback from Users with whom you have transacted. You acknowledge that feedback results for you may consist of comments and ratings left by other Users and that OpenTotal may calculate a composite feedback number based on these individual ratings. Providers agree to be rated by the other party along several criteria, as determined by OpenTotal. OpenTotal provides its feedback and rating system as a means through which Users can express their opinions publicly, and OpenTotal does not monitor or censor these opinions or investigate any remarks posted by Users for accuracy or reliability unless a User brings the posting to OpenTotal's attention. You may be held legally responsible for damages suffered by other OpenTotal Users or third parties as a result of your remarks if a court finds that your remarks are legally actionable or defamatory. Under federal law, OpenTotal is not legally responsible for any feedback or comments posted or made available on this Site by any Users or third parties, even if that information is defamatory or otherwise legally actionable.

You agree to report violations or abuses of our rating and feedback system immediately by contacting Customer Support, and agree not to take any actions that undermine the integrity of the feedback system, including but not limited to the following:

• Leaving feedback for yourself, using a secondary username or another Member’s username.
• Leaving fake or inaccurate feedback for another User or Member.
• Soliciting other OpenTotal Members to leave fake or inaccurate feedback.
• Threatening to leave negative feedback to induce another User or Member to perform a task not required by the Member Contract.
• Withholding deliverables or funds required by the Member Contract to induce another User or Member to leave positive feedback or no feedback.
• Feedback solicitation such as offering to sell or buy services in exchange for good feedback, trading feedback undeservedly or buying feedback.

In order to protect the integrity of the feedback system and protect Users from abuse, OpenTotal will investigate and has the right (but is under no obligation) to remove posted feedback or information under the following scenarios:

• It seeks to elicit or solicit any User's contact information, such as other Users' email addresses, for any non-OpenTotal related commercial or business purposes, or to transmit any unsolicited advertising, "junk mail," "spam," or "chain letters."
• It contains language that is profane, vulgar, or racist or contains adult material. Insulting or inflammatory feedback is strongly discouraged but will not be removed.
• It is shown to have been left by any User who is in violation of OpenTotal's Eligibility requirements, or by or for a User who has conducted any fraudulent transaction.
• It is not directly related to transactions conducted through OpenTotal.
• It makes any reference to actions taken or purported to be taken by OpenTotal or any law enforcement organization.
• OpenTotal is provided with a ruling or settlement agreement from a valid and certified dispute resolution service, or is provided with a court order finding that the feedback or information posted is slanderous, libelous, defamatory or otherwise illegal.
• The User who posted the feedback or information provided OpenTotal with false contact information during the transaction period (as verified by OpenTotal) and cannot be contacted by OpenTotal.
• The User who posted the feedback or information is participating in an OpenTotal transaction with the intent of leaving feedback as part of a campaign to harass OpenTotal member(s) (as verified by OpenTotal).
• The User who posted the feedback or information informs OpenTotal that it was intended for another User and posts the feedback or information for the appropriate User. This does not apply to feedback that was mistakenly marked negative instead of positive or vice versa, in which case the User can contact Customer Support to file a feedback review request.

CONTACTING US

If you wish to report a violation of Site Policies, have any questions or need assistance, please contact OpenTotal Customer Support as follows:

Web Support: Customer Support Ticketing System

Department Contacts: Contact webform

Online Help: FAQ and Customer Support Options