These Terms of Use explain the rules that apply when the Sidelight Discord bot is used in a Discord server.

Sidelight is a UK-based organisation that provides custom Discord bot tools for community management, moderation, engagement features, staff workflows, and related server operations.

Sidelight is not Discord and is not operated by Discord. Use of Sidelight takes place within Discord and remains subject to Discord’s own terms, policies, privacy information, community guidelines, developer requirements and platform rules.

The official version of these Terms of Use is published on Sidelight’s website (https://sidelight.dev/). If these terms are copied into a Discord server, document, message or third-party page, the website version should be treated as the current version.

For general enquiries about these Terms of Use, contact: hello@sidelight.dev

For privacy or data protection requests, contact: privacy@sidelight.dev

1. Definitions

In these Terms of Use:

1. “Sidelight” means the organisation operating and maintaining the Sidelight Discord bot framework.

2. “Bot” means the Sidelight Discord bot and any Sidelight bot deployment used in a Discord server.

3. “Client” means the person, organisation, community team, brand, artist team, agency, server owner or authorised representative that asks Sidelight to provide or configure the Bot for a Discord server.

4. “Server” means a Discord server in which the Bot is installed or used.

5. “Server owner” means the person or organisation responsible for the Discord server in which the Bot is used.

6. “Server staff” means moderators, administrators, managers or other authorised people with staff permissions in the relevant Discord server.

7. “User” means a Discord user who interacts with the Bot, is present in a server where the Bot is used, or is affected by an enabled Bot feature.

8. “Deployment” means a configured instance or profile of the Bot used for a particular Discord server or client.

9. “Feature” means a specific Bot function, such as moderation, levelling, giveaways, scheduled messages, direct message forwarding, music games or external feed posting.

10. “User content” means content submitted, posted, uploaded, entered, configured or otherwise provided through Discord or the Bot, including messages, command inputs, links, attachments, moderation reasons, giveaway entries, game submissions and staff-configured content.

2. Scope of these Terms

These Terms of Use apply to the Sidelight Discord bot and its related Bot features.

These Terms apply to any User who interacts with the Bot, is present in a Server where the Bot is used, or uses a feature provided by the Bot.

These Terms are Sidelight-wide. Individual Deployments may use different Discord application IDs, names, bot profiles, features, permissions or server-specific configurations.

Client payment terms, invoices, late payment, cancellations, refunds, service scope and commercial arrangements are not covered by these public Terms of Use. Those matters are handled under separate client agreements or written arrangements between Sidelight and the relevant Client.

3. Use of Discord

The Bot operates through Discord. Users must comply with Discord’s own Terms of Service, Community Guidelines, platform rules and any applicable Discord policies.

Users must also meet Discord’s minimum age requirements. Sidelight does not set a separate minimum age for Bot use.

If a User is not allowed to use Discord, they are not allowed to use Sidelight through Discord.

Sidelight is not responsible for Discord’s platform, account systems, availability, moderation systems, permission systems, outages, API changes, user accounts, server settings, data handling or enforcement decisions.

4. Acceptance of these Terms

By using, interacting with or being present in a Server where the Bot is installed and active, Users agree to follow these Terms of Use.

If a User does not agree to these Terms, they should not interact with the Bot and should contact the relevant Server owner or Server staff if they have concerns about the Bot being used in that Server.

Clients and Server owners are responsible for ensuring that their use of the Bot is lawful, appropriate for their Server, and consistent with Discord’s rules and any separate written agreement with Sidelight.

5. Who may use Sidelight

Sidelight may be used by Users in a Discord server where the Bot is installed and active.

Server members are not charged by Sidelight for ordinary use of the Bot.

Sidelight is provided to Clients as a paid service. Client commercial terms are handled separately and are not part of these public Terms of Use.

Server owners and Server staff may have access to additional Bot features, depending on the Deployment, Discord permissions, role configuration and enabled features.

6. Server owner and Server staff responsibilities

The relevant Client, Server owner or authorised Server staff decide which Bot features are enabled in their Server.

Server owners and Server staff are responsible for:

1. Configuring the Bot appropriately for their Server, or providing Sidelight with the information needed to configure the Bot appropriately on their behalf.

2. Assigning Discord roles and permissions carefully.

3. Ensuring that only trusted people have access to sensitive Bot commands.

4. Informing members that the Bot is active where appropriate.

5. Applying their own Server rules fairly and lawfully.

6. Reviewing moderation, giveaway, game, staff workflow and scheduled message features before use.

7. Ensuring that any content they configure or submit through the Bot is lawful and suitable.

8. Ensuring that their Server remains compliant with Discord’s rules.

Sidelight provides the Bot as a tool. Sidelight does not take over the Server owner’s or Server staff’s responsibility for managing their Discord server.

Clients, Server owners and Server staff represent that they have the necessary rights, permissions and authority to provide any content, branding, artwork, images, text, links, feeds, integrations or materials supplied to Sidelight for use within a Deployment.

7. Support

Sidelight support is provided to Clients and authorised Server staff.

Ordinary Server members should contact the relevant Server staff team for Server-specific questions, moderation appeals, giveaway queries, role issues, leaderboard issues or feature-related concerns.

Privacy and data protection requests may be sent to:

privacy@sidelight.dev

General enquiries about these Terms of Use may be sent to:

hello@sidelight.dev

8. Availability and service operation

Sidelight aims to provide the Bot on a reliable, best-efforts basis.

The Bot may depend on Discord, hosting providers, APIs, webhooks, public websites, third-party services, network providers and server configuration. Sidelight does not control all of those services.

Sidelight does not guarantee that the Bot will be uninterrupted, error-free, permanently available, or available in every Server at all times.

The Bot may be unavailable, delayed, limited, suspended or affected by:

1. Discord outages or API changes.

2. Hosting or infrastructure issues.

3. Third-party API issues.

4. Server configuration errors.

5. Permission or role hierarchy issues.

6. Maintenance or security work.

7. Abuse prevention or investigation.

8. Feature changes, removals or updates.

9. Legal, platform or operational requirements.

Any specific service commitments for a Client must be agreed separately in writing. Public statements about infrastructure or hosting availability do not create a direct uptime guarantee to Users.

9. Acceptable use

Users must use Sidelight lawfully, responsibly and in accordance with these Terms, Discord’s rules and the rules of the relevant Server.

Users must not use, attempt to use, or encourage others to use the Bot for:

1. Illegal activity.

2. Harassment, abuse, threats, hate, exploitation or harmful conduct.

3. Spam, mass unsolicited messaging or disruptive automation.

4. Circumventing Bot restrictions, permission checks, role checks or access controls.

5. Attempting to access data, commands, features, channels or systems without authorisation.

6. Attempting to interfere with, overload, disrupt, exploit or damage the Bot.

7. Reverse engineering, decompiling, copying, extracting or attempting to derive the Bot’s source code, systems or internal logic, except where this cannot lawfully be restricted.

8. Manipulating, abusing or undermining giveaways, games, leaderboards, scoring systems, entries, rerolls or other community features.

9. Submitting false, deceptive, malicious, harmful or unauthorised content.

10. Uploading or submitting malware, malicious links, phishing content or unsafe files.

11. Infringing copyright, trade marks, privacy rights, publicity rights or other third-party rights.

12. Misusing direct message forwarding, scheduled messages, custom messages, embeds or webhooks.

13. Using the Bot in a way that breaches Discord’s rules or causes Sidelight to breach Discord’s rules.

14. Using the Bot to collect, expose, sell, share or misuse personal data without a proper lawful basis.

Sidelight may disable access, remove features, suspend a Deployment, or take other action where Sidelight reasonably believes the Bot is being misused.

10. Moderation and server decisions

Moderation decisions are the responsibility of the relevant Server owner and Server staff.

This includes decisions about warnings, timeouts, kicks, bans, temporary bans, permanent bans, role changes, channel access, deleted messages, appeals, staff actions and enforcement of Server rules.

Sidelight may provide tools that allow Server staff to carry out or record moderation actions. Sidelight is not responsible for how Server staff choose to use those tools, unless Sidelight itself has directly caused an issue through its own operation of the Bot.

Users who wish to appeal a moderation action should contact the relevant Server staff team, not Sidelight, unless the issue relates specifically to Sidelight’s own operation of the Bot.

Sidelight is not responsible for resolving disputes between Users, Server staff, Server owners, Clients or third parties, except where the dispute relates directly to Sidelight’s own operation of the Bot.

11. Giveaways, games and community features

Sidelight may provide tools for giveaways, games, leaderboards, XP, music activities, track submissions, quiz features, scheduled messages and other community features.

The relevant Server owner or Server staff are responsible for setting up, managing and enforcing any Server-specific rules for giveaways, games or community activities.

Unless Sidelight expressly states otherwise in writing, Sidelight is not the promoter, organiser, sponsor or prize provider for giveaways run in a Client’s Server.

Sidelight is not responsible for prize fulfilment, eligibility decisions, winner disputes, disqualifications, rerolls, delays, prize quality, prize availability or the conduct of Server staff in relation to giveaways.

Sidelight may provide technical tools for winner selection, entry tracking or rerolls, but responsibility for the giveaway remains with the relevant Server owner, Client or Server staff.

12. User content

Users and Server staff remain responsible for the User content they submit, upload, configure or provide through Discord or the Bot.

Users should only submit content that they have the right to submit and that complies with Discord’s rules, the relevant Server rules and applicable law.

By submitting User content through the Bot, Users grant Sidelight a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to process, store, copy, display, transmit, publish, modify, format and use that content only as needed to operate the Bot, provide enabled features, maintain the service, comply with legal or platform obligations, investigate misuse, and support the relevant Deployment.

This licence does not transfer ownership of User content to Sidelight.

The relevant Client or Server owner may have separate rights or responsibilities in relation to content submitted in their Server.

13. Sidelight intellectual property

Sidelight owns or controls the rights in the Bot, including its custom code, systems, command logic, feature logic, configuration structure, deployment structure, documentation, branding, written materials, design assets, workflows and related materials, except for third-party services, Discord materials, open-source components, Client-provided content, User content, and other materials owned by third parties.

Clients and Users do not receive ownership of the Bot, source code, command logic, configuration structure, deployment structure, documentation or Sidelight branding by using the Bot or paying for a Deployment.

Clients may provide content, instructions, wording, images, brand assets or configuration preferences for use in a Deployment. Unless agreed otherwise in writing, Sidelight may implement, adapt and configure those materials as part of the Bot service, but the underlying Bot systems, configuration structure, implementation, code and deployment remain owned or controlled by Sidelight.

No part of the Bot may be copied, resold, sublicensed, rehosted, redistributed, reverse engineered or used to create a competing service without Sidelight’s written permission, except where this cannot lawfully be restricted.

14. Third-party services

The Bot depends on Discord and may use third-party services such as hosting providers, APIs, webhooks, Songlink/Odesli, public websites, public APIs, infrastructure services and backup services.

Third-party services have their own terms, policies, limits, availability and data handling practices.

Sidelight is not responsible for third-party service outages, API changes, rate limits, content changes, inaccurate third-party data, removed third-party content, unavailable links, unavailable websites, unavailable APIs or third-party enforcement decisions.

A feature may stop working, change, be limited or be removed if a third-party service changes, restricts access, becomes unavailable, changes its terms, or becomes unsuitable for continued use.

15. Privacy and data

Sidelight processes personal data as described in the Sidelight Bot Privacy Notice.

The Bot Privacy Notice explains what data may be processed, why it is processed, how long it is kept, who it may be shared with, and how privacy requests can be made.

Privacy and data protection requests should be sent to:

privacy@sidelight.dev

These Terms of Use do not replace the Bot Privacy Notice.

16. Security and permissions

Sidelight uses technical and organisational measures to support the security of the Bot.

Server owners and Server staff are responsible for managing their Discord roles, permissions, channel access and staff access carefully.

Sidelight is not responsible for misuse caused by a Server owner or Server staff member granting excessive permissions, exposing staff-only channels, misconfiguring roles, sharing credentials, exposing webhook URLs, or allowing untrusted people to use sensitive Bot commands.

Users must not attempt to bypass security controls, permission checks, staff-only features, role hierarchy checks, channel restrictions or other access controls.

17. Suspension, restriction and termination

Sidelight may disable features, restrict access, suspend a Deployment, remove a Deployment, refuse support, or terminate use of the Bot where Sidelight reasonably considers it necessary.

This may happen where:

1. The Bot is being misused.

2. A Server or User breaches these Terms.

3. A Server or User breaches Discord’s rules.

4. A Deployment creates security, legal, operational or reputational risk.

5. A Client relationship ends.

6. A Client fails to comply with a separate written agreement.

7. A third-party service, Discord API change or platform requirement makes continued operation impractical.

8. Sidelight needs to protect the Bot, its systems, its Clients, Users, Discord or third parties.

Where a Client relationship ends, data handling and offboarding will be managed in accordance with the Bot Privacy Notice and any applicable separate written agreement.

18. Changes to the Bot

Sidelight may change, update, improve, replace, limit, suspend or remove Bot features from time to time.

Sidelight may also change commands, permissions, workflows, configuration options, integrations, third-party services, storage methods, security measures and feature behaviour.

Where possible, Sidelight will aim to manage material changes in a reasonable way for Clients. However, Sidelight may make urgent changes without notice where required for security, abuse prevention, legal compliance, Discord platform compliance, maintenance or operational reasons.

19. Disclaimers

The Bot is provided on a best-efforts basis.

Sidelight does not guarantee that the Bot will meet every User’s or Client’s expectations, that every feature will remain available, that all third-party services will continue to work, or that all data, messages, links, entries, scores, results, posts or records will be error-free.

The Bot may contain bugs, errors, delays or limitations.

Sidelight does not guarantee any particular moderation outcome, giveaway outcome, leaderboard result, game result, staff workflow result, engagement result, business result, audience growth, community outcome or financial outcome.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

20. Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Sidelight is not liable for indirect loss, consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of business, loss of goodwill, loss of opportunity, loss of anticipated savings, loss of data, loss of content, loss caused by third-party services, or loss caused by Discord outages, Discord changes or Discord enforcement decisions.

Sidelight is not liable for moderation decisions, giveaway decisions, staff conduct, Server owner conduct, User content, prize fulfilment, Server rules, Server disputes, role misconfiguration, excessive permissions, or misuse of the Bot by Server staff or Users.

Sidelight’s liability to a Client may be further limited by the separate written agreement between Sidelight and that Client.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under the law of England and Wales.

21. Client agreements

Clients may have separate written agreements, statements of work, invoices, proposals, onboarding documents or service terms with Sidelight.

If there is a conflict between these public Terms of Use and a signed written client agreement, the signed written client agreement will take priority for the Client relationship, unless it says otherwise.

These public Terms still apply to ordinary Bot use by Server members unless replaced or supplemented by a more specific written agreement.

22. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

The courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction over disputes relating to these Terms of Use, except where applicable law gives a User mandatory rights to bring a claim elsewhere.

23. Changes to these Terms

Sidelight may update these Terms of Use from time to time to reflect changes to the Bot, legal requirements, Discord platform requirements, security practices, operational arrangements, third-party services or Sidelight’s business.

The updated version will be published with a new effective date.

Continued use of the Bot after the updated Terms are published means that the updated Terms apply from that point onward.

24. Entire Agreement

These Terms of Use, together with the Sidelight Bot Privacy Notice and any documents expressly referenced within them, form the entire agreement between Sidelight and Users regarding ordinary use of the Bot.

They replace any previous discussions, understandings or communications relating to ordinary use of the Bot, except where a separate written agreement applies between Sidelight and a Client.

25. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unlawful, invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

26. Waiver

If Sidelight does not immediately enforce a provision of these Terms, this does not mean that Sidelight waives its rights to enforce that provision or any other provision in the future.

27. Assignment

Sidelight may transfer, assign or subcontract its rights and obligations under these Terms as part of a business reorganisation, acquisition, sale of assets or operational restructuring.

Users may not transfer or assign their rights under these Terms without Sidelight’s written permission.

28. Relationship with Discord

Sidelight is an independent service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or operated by Discord.

All Discord names, trademarks, services and APIs remain the property of their respective owners.

29. Force Majeure

Sidelight is not responsible for delays, interruptions or failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including infrastructure failures, cyber incidents, hosting outages, internet disruptions, Discord outages, API failures, legal restrictions, acts of government, labour disputes, natural disasters or failures of third-party providers.

30. Contact

For general questions about these Terms of Use, contact:

hello@sidelight.dev

For privacy or data protection requests, contact:

privacy@sidelight.dev