Who these terms are between

These terms are a binding agreement between you and Orlando Signal, governing your use of orlandosignal.com, our email newsletter, our SMS service, and everything connected to them (together, the “Services”). By using any of the Services, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy (orlandosignal.com/privacy-policy), which is part of this agreement. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the Services.

Where we operate, and for whom

Orlando Signal is made for residents of the Orlando, Florida metro area. Our content, advertising, and subscriber outreach are aimed exclusively at Central Florida. If you read us from somewhere else, you’re welcome, but that incidental access doesn’t change the local, Florida-directed nature of what we do or subject us to the laws of other places.

Who can use the Services

You need to be at least 13 to use the Services. If you’re between 13 and 17, you may use them only with the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian who agrees to these terms on your behalf. You must be 18 or older to buy a paid subscription or make any purchase.

What we offer

• The newsletter: recurring email coverage of Orlando news, events, and culture, in free and paid tiers, delivered through Beehiiv.
• The website: articles, archives, community features, and account tools.
• Texts: an optional SMS service, roughly one message per week (full terms below).
• The job board: at jobs.orlandosignal.com, powered by Kardow, where businesses post jobs (free or paid/featured) and the public applies for free (full terms below).
• The dinner club: at dinnerclub.orlandosignal.com, powered by DNNR, where the public buys tickets to dinner events (full terms below).
• Experiences and tours: local experiences we promote (such as the Mills 50 Foodie Tour), operated by a partner and booked through FareHarbor (full terms below).
• Sponsored content and ads: the newsletter and site may include sponsorships, advertisements, and affiliate links. Sponsored content is labeled as such. Anything you buy from an advertiser is between you and them; we don’t vouch for third-party products or claims.

Free and paid subscriptions

The free tier costs nothing and gives you selected content. We may change, limit, or discontinue free features at our discretion.

The paid tier unlocks premium content. If you subscribe, here’s the deal, plainly:

• Billing and automatic renewal: you’re billed on a recurring basis, monthly or annually as you choose at checkout, through Stripe. Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period, at the then-current rate, until you cancel. By subscribing, you authorize these recurring charges.
• Price changes: the price is shown at checkout. If we change it, existing subscribers get notice before the new price applies to their next billing cycle.
• Cancelling: cancel anytime in your account settings or by emailing hello@orlandosignal.com. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period, and you keep access to paid content until then.
• Refunds: payments are generally non-refundable, but if you were charged in error or a technical problem kept you from the content you paid for, email us; we review those case by case and can issue refunds or credits at our discretion.
• Your account: keep your login credentials private; you’re responsible for activity under your account. Paid subscriptions are for your personal use and can’t be shared, transferred, or resold.

Job board, dinner club, and experiences

Several of the things we offer run on third-party platforms. Our job board (jobs.orlandosignal.com) and dinner club (dinnerclub.orlandosignal.com) run on Kardow and DNNR respectively; they’re on our web address and carry our brand, but they’re operated by those companies on their systems. Our experiences and tours are operated by a partner and booked through FareHarbor. Your use of all of these is also subject to the relevant company’s terms and privacy policies. We don’t control those platforms or guarantee their availability, features, or uptime.

• Job board. Businesses may post jobs for free or pay to feature a listing; the public may apply to jobs at no cost. Payments for featured listings are processed through Stripe on our account, so we’re the merchant for those upgrades. We handle featured-listing refunds directly: payments are generally non-refundable, but if you were charged in error or a technical problem prevented your listing from running, email us and we’ll review case by case and can refund or credit at our discretion. Job postings and applications are subject to Kardow’s terms (kardow.com/terms), and you’re responsible for the content and legality of anything you post or submit there.
• Dinner club. The public may buy tickets to dinner events and complete a preference quiz DNNR uses to match guests to tables. DNNR processes ticket payments through its own Stripe account and remits our share to us, so DNNR is the merchant of record for tickets. We handle dinner-club refunds directly through the platform: tickets are generally non-refundable, but if you were charged in error or an event is cancelled or materially changed, email us and we’ll review case by case and can refund or credit at our discretion. Your use of the dinner club is also subject to DNNR’s terms (getriver.io/terms-and-conditions).
• Experiences and tours. We describe and promote local experiences, but the tours are operated by a partner, Wandering Palm Adventures, and booked and paid for through FareHarbor. We don’t operate the tours or process the bookings, and the partner (not us) receives the booking payment and sends us our share separately. Because the partner runs the experience and holds the FareHarbor account, refunds, cancellations, rescheduling, and the conduct and safety of the tour are handled by the partner under her and FareHarbor’s terms and policies. For anything about a booking or a tour, contact the partner or FareHarbor; we can help point you in the right direction, but we don’t control those decisions.

Disputes about these third-party platforms themselves (as opposed to your relationship with us) may be governed by the relevant vendor’s or partner’s terms. We’re not responsible for the acts, omissions, content, data practices, or safety of Kardow, DNNR, FareHarbor, or our tour partner, or for interactions between users of those services (for example, between an employer and an applicant, among dinner guests, or on a tour).

House rules

When using the Services, don’t:

• Break the law, or use the Services for anything unlawful.
• Post or transmit content that’s defamatory, obscene, threatening, or harassing.
• Impersonate anyone or misrepresent who you’re affiliated with.
• Interfere with the Services, probe for vulnerabilities, or try to access accounts or systems that aren’t yours.
• Scrape, crawl, or bulk-collect content with automated tools without our written permission.
• Republish or redistribute our content beyond what these terms allow.
• Send spam through, or because of, the Services.

If you break these rules, we may remove your content, suspend or end your access, and take whatever other steps are reasonable to protect the Services and our readers.

Our content

Everything we publish (articles, newsletters, photos, graphics, logos, and the design itself) belongs to Orlando Signal or our licensors and is protected by copyright and trademark law. The Orlando Signal name and logo are our trademarks.

You get a personal, non-commercial license to read and use the Services. You’re welcome to link to our work, share it on social media, forward the newsletter to friends, and quote short passages with credit and a link back. Please don’t republish whole articles, rehost our images, or use our content commercially without asking; email us and we’ll usually say yes. This license is revocable and doesn’t transfer any ownership to you.

Your content

If you send us feedback, messages, or other content (for example, by email), it stays yours, but you give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license to use, reproduce, edit, publish, and display it in connection with the Services. You promise you have the rights to what you send and that it doesn’t infringe anyone else’s. Note that we don’t host public comments on our site. Content you post to our job board or dinner club is handled under those third-party platforms’ terms (see “Job board, dinner club, and experiences” below).

Copyright complaints (DMCA)

We respect copyright. If you believe content we’ve published infringes your copyright, email us at hello@orlandosignal.com (subject line “DMCA Notice”) with: (1) your physical or electronic signature; (2) identification of the copyrighted work; (3) identification of the allegedly infringing material and where it appears; (4) your contact information; (5) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use isn’t authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (6) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and you’re authorized to act for the copyright owner. We respond to valid notices and, where appropriate, remove infringing material. For content posted on our job board or dinner club, the relevant platform (Kardow or DNNR) handles copyright complaints under its own process.

[Note: if you register a designated DMCA agent with the U.S. Copyright Office at copyright.gov/dmca-directory, you strengthen safe-harbor protection. With no public user-posted content on your own site, this is optional but inexpensive.]

Third-party links

We link to other websites and feature sponsors, advertisers, and local businesses. We don’t control them and aren’t responsible for their content, accuracy, or practices. A link or an ad isn’t an endorsement. Your dealings with third parties are governed by their terms, not ours, and are at your own risk.

No guarantees

The Services are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We work hard to be accurate and reliable, but we can’t promise the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure; that the content will always be accurate, complete, or current; that defects will be fixed; or that the Services will be free of harmful components.

One more important disclaimer: our content is for general information and entertainment. We aren’t licensed professionals in any field, and nothing we publish is legal, financial, medical, real-estate, or other professional advice. Talk to a qualified professional before making decisions that matter.

Limits on our liability

To the maximum extent the law allows, Orlando Signal and its owners, operators, employees, agents, and affiliates are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits, goodwill, or data, arising from your use of (or inability to use) the Services, any content obtained through them, the conduct of any third party, unauthorized access to your data, or any sponsored content or third-party product.

Our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to these terms or the Services is capped at the greater of (a) what you paid us in subscription fees in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) fifty dollars ($50.00). These limits apply regardless of the legal theory (contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or otherwise), and even if we were advised such damages were possible. Some jurisdictions don’t allow certain limitations; in those places, our liability is limited to the fullest extent the law permits.

You cover us if you cause a problem

If your use of the Services, your violation of these terms or the law, your infringement of someone’s rights, or content you submit causes a legal claim against us, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us (and our owners, operators, employees, agents, and affiliates) harmless from the resulting claims, damages, losses, costs, and reasonable attorneys’ fees. In practice this rarely comes up; it’s here for the edge cases.

If we have a dispute

We’d much rather fix a problem over email than fight about it. But if a dispute can’t be resolved that way, we’ve both agreed in advance to handle it through individual arbitration instead of court. The section below is written more formally than the rest of these terms because the law requires arbitration agreements to be precise. Please read it, because it affects your legal rights, and note that you can opt out within 30 days.

Dispute Resolution and Binding Arbitration

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING YOUR RIGHT TO FILE A LAWSUIT IN COURT AND TO HAVE A JURY TRIAL.

Informal resolution first

Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to contact us at hello @ orlandosignal.com and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least sixty (60) days, during which neither party will commence arbitration or court proceedings. If the dispute isn’t resolved within sixty (60) days, either party may proceed to arbitration.

Binding individual arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these terms, the Services, or your relationship with Orlando Signal (including disputes about the formation, scope, validity, interpretation, or enforceability of this arbitration agreement, and claims that arose before these terms existed) that is not resolved informally shall be resolved exclusively through final and binding individual arbitration, administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect (available at adr.org). If the AAA is unavailable or unwilling, the parties will agree on a substitute provider, or a court of competent jurisdiction will appoint one.

The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator, in English, in Orange County, Florida. If you live outside Florida, you may participate by phone, video, or written submission as the AAA Rules permit. The arbitrator will apply Florida substantive law without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, may allow limited discovery consistent with the AAA Rules, and will issue a reasoned written decision that may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Each party bears its own attorneys’ fees and costs, except the arbitrator may award fees against a party whose claim or defense was frivolous or brought in bad faith. If you demonstrate that arbitration costs would be prohibitive compared to litigation, Orlando Signal will pay as much of your filing and hearing fees as the arbitrator deems necessary to keep arbitration from being cost-prohibitive.

Class action and jury trial waiver

You and Orlando Signal each agree that disputes will be resolved only on an individual basis, and not as a class, consolidated, or representative action. You expressly waive any right to participate in a class action, class-wide arbitration, or other representative proceeding against Orlando Signal. You and Orlando Signal each irrevocably waive the right to a jury trial in any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or the Services.

If a court of competent jurisdiction finds the class action waiver unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim shall be severed and proceed in the state or federal courts of Orange County, Florida, while all remaining claims proceed in individual arbitration.

Your right to opt out

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing hello @ orlandosignal.com within thirty (30) days of first using the Services (or within thirty (30) days of the effective date of any material update to this section, whichever is later), with your full name, email address, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. If you opt out in time, both you and Orlando Signal keep the right to pursue claims in court. If you don’t, you’re deemed to have agreed to arbitrate.

Survival

This arbitration agreement survives the end of your subscription, your unsubscribing, and any changes to these terms (except as to the opt-out right above).

Ending things

You can stop using the Services anytime. We may suspend or terminate your access (including any subscription) at any time, with or without cause or notice, at our discretion. If we terminate your paid subscription without cause, we’ll refund the prorated unused portion of what you prepaid. If we terminate for cause (like a violation of these terms), no refund. Provisions that by their nature should survive (including the intellectual property, disclaimer, liability, indemnification, arbitration, and governing-law sections) survive termination.

Texting terms

If you opt in to texts: you consent to receive recurring automated messages from Orlando Signal at the number you provide, delivered through our messaging provider, Klaviyo. Frequency may vary, but it’s typically about one (1) message per week. Message and data rates may apply depending on your carrier and plan. Reply STOP anytime to opt out (you’ll get a confirmation); reply HELP for support. We will never sell, rent, or share your phone number or SMS opt-in data with any third party for their marketing. Carriers aren’t liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Email

Subscribing (free or paid) means you consent to receive our newsletter and related editorial and sponsored content by email, plus transactional emails about your account (confirmations, receipts, password resets). Unsubscribe from the newsletter anytime via the link in any email; transactional account emails may continue even after you unsubscribe from marketing.

The legal housekeeping

• Governing law and venue: these terms are governed by Florida law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any claim not subject to arbitration must be filed exclusively in the state or federal courts of Orange County, Florida, and you consent to jurisdiction and venue there. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods doesn’t apply.
• Severability: if any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the rest remain in force, and the invalid provision will be modified only as much as needed to make it enforceable while preserving its intent.
• Entire agreement: these terms, the Privacy Policy, and any other policies we publish on the Services are the entire agreement between us about the Services, replacing any earlier understandings.
• No waiver: if we don’t enforce a provision, we haven’t waived it. Waivers are effective only in writing, signed by us.
• Assignment: you can’t assign these terms without our written consent; we may assign ours without restriction. These terms bind and benefit both parties’ successors and permitted assigns.
• Force majeure: we aren’t liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control: natural disasters, government actions, pandemics, internet or power failures, cyberattacks, and the like.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the publication evolves. When we do, we’ll change the “Last updated” date at the top. For material changes (anything that meaningfully changes your rights or what you can do), we’ll notify subscribers by email and flag it in the newsletter before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the Services after a change means you accept the updated terms. (Material changes to the arbitration section restart your 30-day opt-out window.)

Contact

Orlando Signal

Email: hello @ orlandosignal.com

Website: https://orlandosignal.com