Vattastic Terms Of Use

Version 1.4, updated December 27, 2022

Vattastic is an online community created for enthusiasts of flight simulation and air traffic control on the VATSIM network. The goal of Vattastic is to provide a comprehensive and relevant information resource to those enthusiasts while bringing the community together in a social environment. To that end, the owners and operators of Vattastic have developed the following Terms of Use in order to insure that everyone's experience while using Vattastic's resources is a positive one.

Your use of this website constitutes your agreement to the following terms of use ("Terms"):

A. General Conduct

  1. Users and members must, at all times, be courteous and respectful to one another.
  2. Membership (registering with Vattastic) is entirely optional however, in order to use any Vattastic features which allow one to interact with others through Vattastic, you must become a member by registering.
  3. You must be a member of VATSIM in order to register and become a member of Vattastic. You must maintain your membership in good standing with VATSIM in order to continue your membership with Vattastic. Your VATSIM identification number is your exclusive Vattastic membership identification. You may not give permission or knowingly allow your identification and password to be used by anyone else.
  4. Except where permitted under these rules, users and members of Vattastic must use their real first and last names when registering or using any resource belonging to Vattastic.
  5. You may register for and hold only one Vattastic account.
  6. Users and members are prohibited from publishing, posting, distributing, disseminating or using any kind of defamatory, infringing, obscene, vulgar, profane, unlawful or other such types of communications materials or information through the use any Vattastic resource including the website, Teamspeak, or any other network-connected resource belonging to Vattastic. Individuals violating this rule shall be subject to the sanctions provided for herein.
  7. Users and members are prohibited from using any Vattastic resource to cause unrest or commotion, or to threaten, harass, criticize, abuse, intimidate or stalk others or to otherwise violate the legal rights of others, including expectations to the rights of privacy and publicity. Individuals violating this rule are subject to the sanctions provided for herein..
  8. Should problems arise online between several individuals, the parties should first attempt to resolve any issues among themselves. If this should fail, then the parties should request the services of a Vattastic admin or staff member in order to help resolve the dispute.
  9. The Vattastic Administrator is the final authority as to what constitues acceptable conduct.

B. Event Posts

The Vattastic website allows members to post notices of events that are to take place on the VATSIM Network. In addition to the
General Terms of Use as well as the Conduct rules set forth herein, the following rules apply to all event postings:
  1. Types of Events. Only events which may be participated in by all users of VATSIM may be posted. This includes ARTCC/FIR sponsored events as well as Over-The-Shoulder examinations of ATC students. If your event is private or specifically limited to your VA or ad-hoc group, you may not post it here. This does not mean that VAs and ad-hoc groups cannot post events. It means that you are inviting others to take part in it as well.
  2. Authorized Party. You are certifying that you are the responsible party for posting this event. This means you are an Event Coordinator, Training Administrator, ATM, DATM, VATSIM supervisor or admin, or other party with authority to make this posting. If someone challenges your authority, the administrator of Vattastic reserves the right to remove your posting until such time as the authority can be established.
  3. Final Authority. Management of this website has the final authority as to the fitness of your posting and may remove it at will.

C. Shoutbox

Vattastic provides a "Shoutbox" or chat system in order to facilitate social interraction and communication among the Vattastic/VATSIM pilot and controller community. In addition to the
General Terms of Use as well as the Conduct rules set forth herein, the following rules apply to use of the Shoutbox:
  1. Flooding. Do not flood the Shoutbox with messages or requests of any kind. The shoutbox sofftware has algorithms in place to detect flooding and will temporarily ban users from the Shoutbox if flooding is detected.
  2. Nonsense Messages. Do not post nonsense, foolishness, gibberish, or other drivel to the Shoutbox.
  3. Reputation. The Shotubox server assigns a score, or "reputation" to every person using it. The more a user interacts with the shoutbox, their reputation will slowly increase. As complaints are logged against user's posts or flooding is detected, the user's reputation will be decreased. Should a user's reputatation reach a certain threshold, the ability of the user to interact with the Shoutbox will be disabled, until such time as their reputation is restored. The Shoutbox has algorithms in place to handle all of this without human intervention. Requests to restore a user's reputation will be summarily dismissed by Vattastic staff.
  4. Language. English is the universal language of aviation as enacted by the International Civil Aviation Organization. We request that English be used when using the Shoutbox so that our moderators are able to effectively deal with individuals who are being rude. In any case, English must be spoken when interacting with a Vattastic Teamspeak Moderator or Staff member.

D. Sanctions

Any user or member who is found to have violated any provision of these Terms Of Use may be subject to one or more of the following sanctions, at the sole discretion of the Vattastic Administrator:
  1. Temporary Suspension. Your account may be suspended for a length of time determined by the Vattastic Administrator.
  2. Permanent Revocation. Your account may be permanently revoked.
  3. IP Address Blocked. Your IP Address may be blocked from using this site.
Note that it is a violation of the
General Terms of Use as well as a violation of the Conduct rules to attempt to re-gain access to Vattastic resources when your account has been suspended or revoked. Multilpe accounts are absolutely prohibited and may constitute Malicious Use under these Terms.

E. General and Miscellaneous Terms.

  1. Use of Content. All content posted on the Vattastic website is for non-commercial, personal use for flight-simulation or entertainment purposes. Except as provided herein, You may not take or use any material from this website and reformat, repost, or redisplay it for any purpose. You acknowledge that any aviation-related information found on this website is intended exclusively for flight-simulation purposes, and shall under no circumstances be used for real-world aviation and/or navigation purposes.
  2. Contributed Content. Contributed content should be relevant to virtual aviation and/or VATSIM. Content may not be illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing of intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy or otherwise injurious or objectionable. Vattastic does not pre-screen any contributed content, but Vattastic has the right (though not the obligation) to remove, without notice, any content posted which we consider, for any reason, to violate these Terms or to be outside the subject scope of the Services. Any user or member posting such content shall be subject to the Sanctions provided herein.
  3. Copyright. Any person who provides any material for inclusion (through event postings and the like) is responsible for ensuring that this material does not violate other parties' copyright or other proprietary rights and does not otherwise violate law or applicable Vattastic policy. Copyright to any material posted on the Vattastic website shall remain with the original author of such content.
  4. Membership. Membership is defined as having properly completed the registration process using the Vattastic website. One must log into Vattastic at least once every six (6) months in order to retain their membership. The Vattastic Administrator may terminate your membership with Vattastic at any time, and for any reason. Termination of your membership does not release you from your obligation to abide by these Terms.
  5. Indemnities. You acknowledge and agree to indemnify and hold Vattastic, it's affiliates, officers, employees and agents, harmless, including costs and attorneys' fees, from any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of Vattastic or the Services, your violation of these Terms, or the infringement by you or made under your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.
  6. No Warranty. Vattastic IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. Vattastic MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE SITE'S OPERATION OR THE INFORMATION, CONTENT OR MATERIALS INCLUDED ON THIS SITE. TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY APPLICABLE LAW, Vattastic HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Vattastic WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SITE. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOU USE THIS SITE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL Vattastic OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, ECONOMIC OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA OR LOSS OF USE DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS) ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH THE SITE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ITS OPERATION, ITS CONTENTS OR THE INFORMATION OR MATERIALS CONTAINED THEREIN, OR THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE ANY OTHER SITE LINKED TO THE SITE, OR ANY CONTENT CONTAINED IN ANY SUCH SITE, OR THESE TERMS, OR THE PRIVACY POLICY APPLICABLE TO THIS SITE) EVEN IF Vattastic, ITS SUPPLIERS, OR LICENSORS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS. THE RESPECTIVE LIABILITY OF Vattastic, ITS SUPPLIERS AND LICENSORS SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. This exclusion and limitation only applies to the extent permitted by law and is without prejudice to any express provisions to the contrary in any written license or subscription agreement from Vattastic in respect of the use of any online service provided via this web site.
  7. Access Source and Method. All users shall access Vattastic using a web browser. Users are prohibited from using proxy servers or VPN services which are intended to conceal the originating public IP address or the identity of the user. Users are further prohibited from using tools (whether or not contained within the web browser) which allow the user to inject data to any of Vattastic's scripts, including but not limited to SQL injections or Cross-Site-Scripting (XSS).
  8. Malicious Use. Vattastic may report criminal activity to the authorities. In addition to possible criminal prosecution, users who maliciously violate these Terms may be subject to the payment of liquidated damages:
    1. Fraudulent Accounts. Any user who knowingly and intentionally creates multiple accounts in violation of section A(5) of these Terms who uses said additional account(s) to regain access after having their membership terminated, or in connection with intentional violation of one or more of these Terms, shall pay to the Vattastic Administrator upon demand, $500.00 USD in liquidated damages per additional account.
    2. Theft of Resources. Any person who attempts to employ an automated means of querying Vattastic's data scripts and/or Vattastic's airspace database for a purpose other than the normal and customary use of the Vattastic website via a web browser operated by a human being shall pay to the Vattastic Administrator upon demand, $2.50 USD in liquidated damages per query.
  9. Cookies and Tracking. Vattastic employs the use of cookies and other methods of uniquely identifying users. In order to use Vattastic, cookies must be enabled in your web browser.
  10. Governing Law and Entire Agreement. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States Of America, without regard to the rules of conflict of law that may cause the laws of another jurisdiction to apply. You agree to the sole and exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the federal or state courts of the State of Florida in the event of any dispute of any kind arising from or relating to the Site, or your use or review of it. The Terms constitute the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes and replaces all prior or contemporaneous understandings or agreements, written or oral, regarding such subject matter. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision or portion of these Terms to be unenforceable, the remainder of the Terms will continue in full force and effect.
  11. Modifications. Vattastic reserves the right to change, at any time, at our sole discretion, the Terms under which these Services are offered. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms. Your continued use of the Services constitutes your agreement to all such Terms.