Terms of Service

What OnceHere Is

OnceHere is a community platform for sharing historical photographs of places. By using OnceHere, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the service.

Your Account

You can browse OnceHere without an account. To upload photos or leave comments, you'll need to sign in with Google or an email link. You're responsible for your account activity.

What You Upload

When you upload a photo to OnceHere, you keep ownership of it. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide license to display, reproduce, and distribute your photo on OnceHere and in connection with promoting the platform. This license ends if you delete your photo.

You confirm that you have the right to share the photos you upload. This means the photo is yours, is in the public domain, or you have permission from the copyright holder.

Please review our Content Guidelines for details on what's welcome and what isn't.

Archive Content

OnceHere displays thumbnails and metadata from public archives including the Library of Congress, Digital Commonwealth, the Digital Public Library of America, and Wikimedia Commons. This content is sourced from publicly available APIs and remains subject to the terms and licenses of those institutions. OnceHere does not claim ownership of archive content.

Curated Walks

Curated Walks are themed collections of photos created by approved curators. If you create a walk, you retain ownership of your original written content (captions, descriptions) and grant OnceHere the same non-exclusive license to display it on the platform. Walks may include photos uploaded by other users, which remain the property of their respective uploaders.

Moderation

All uploaded photos are reviewed before they appear publicly. We may remove content that violates our guidelines, is unrelated to the platform's purpose, or is otherwise inappropriate. We may also suspend accounts that repeatedly violate these terms.

Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Upload content you don't have the right to share
• Upload content that is harmful, abusive, or unrelated to historical places
• Harass other users through comments or messages
• Attempt to access other users' accounts or private data
• Use the platform for commercial purposes without permission
• Scrape or bulk-download content from the platform

Disclaimer

OnceHere is provided “as is” without warranties of any kind. We do our best to keep the platform running smoothly, but we can't guarantee uninterrupted service. Location data, dates, and archive metadata are provided for informational purposes and may contain inaccuracies.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. Continued use of OnceHere after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Reach out at hello@oncehere.place.