Our Mission

Last updated: 2026-10-07

Writer's Grove is committed to putting authors first.

  • We believe that authors have full ownership and control of their work, and are the only ones who should decide how that work is used.
  • We believe that our policies should be transparent and written in plain language.
  • We believe in giving authors full creative freedom to write whatever kind of work they desire.
  • We believe in protecting the privacy of authors.
  • We believe authors should have a community that is safe and inclusive for all voices, even those who do not agree with each other, as long as the conduct remains respectful.

Our Code of Ethics

1. User-Centric Commitment

We believe that you, the user, are our customer, not the product. This principle guides all of our decisions and ensures that your rights and privacy are always prioritized.

2. Transparency and Control

  • Data Ownership: You own your content. We only request the right to display it on our site. You have full ownership and control over your data.
  • The Right To Delete: You can delete your data at any time. Deleted data will be permanently removed from our servers after a 30-day grace period.
  • Simple Delete: No need to contact support. With a single button click and confirmation you can delete a series, story, chapter, or your whole account. We won't beg you to stay.
  • Easy Export: At any time, you can export your works as Markdown to back them up or publish elsewhere.

3. Ethical Use of Technology

  • No AI Training: We do not train AI on your work and will not let anyone else. If that ever changed, nothing of yours would be included without your opt-in.
  • AI-Made Work Is Labelled: Work made with AI is labelled by its author, and readers can block it. The personal note at the end of this page says why.

4. Freedom of Expression with Responsibility

  • Content Moderation: We respect your right to share your stories and content freely. We only intervene in specific circumstances, such as a legal obligation or a payment processor's rules. Our moderation is minimal but necessary to maintain a safe and legal environment. We will only remove content in these circumstances:
    • DMCA Takedown Notice: We receive a DMCA takedown notice that you do not challenge.
    • Court Order: We receive a court order from a court that has jurisdiction over us.
    • Business Requirement: This is a business, and we need to make money. Credit card processors and advertisers can limit the content we are allowed to show, even if that content is legal. We will do our best to prevent this from being an issue.

5. Community Respect and Engagement

  • Not the same as stories: While we will not moderate or restrict speech in the stories posted, we will moderate our community engagement.
  • No Drama Policy: We value a positive and respectful community. We will intervene in conflicts that disrupt the harmony of our community, with a clear process for warnings and bans if necessary. Hate speech, harassment, and discrimination will not be tolerated.

6. Commitment to Privacy

  • No Selling of User Information: We will not sell your information to third parties, and we collect only the minimum information needed to operate the service.
  • Analytics: We run our own analytics. Premium authors may run whatever analytics platform they are most comfortable with on their own subdomain, so we cannot speak for what runs on a custom subdomain; that is the author's choice, not ours.

7. Legal Compliance and Jurisdiction

  • Where we are: Writer's Grove is operated from Michigan and hosted on servers in Ohio. We follow the laws of the United States of America and the State of Michigan. We have no offices, staff or presence in any other state.
  • The EU and UK: Our services are not designed for use in the EU or UK, and we do not recognize their jurisdiction. If you use our platform from these regions, you acknowledge that it is not designed to comply with local regulations.
  • The Rest of the World: We do not follow, and do not attempt to follow, the laws of any country other than the United States of America. If your country expects websites in other countries to observe its laws, this site is not designed for you, and you should not use it.

8. Ethical Business Practices

  • Fair Revenue Model: We aim to run a sustainable business that supports our small team without resorting to unethical practices. Our revenue comes from paid services and, in the future, possibly ads; never from exploiting user data.
  • Ads: We do not run ads today. If we ever do, they will only appear on the pages of non-premium authors, and premium authors will always be able to turn ads off on their pages. We will do our best to avoid interstitials (the full-page ads that cover what you came to read) and ads with video or audio.
  • Referral Fairness: Our referral program rules are clear and permanent. Referrals cannot be stolen or reassigned, and payouts are honored as promised. We will not retroactively change the deal in ways that disadvantage participants.

A Personal Note on AI - AI Enhanced not AI Generated

I understand the concerns about AI in the creative community. As an author and a software engineer (more the latter than the former), I get it. I have seen what AI has done to my own industry, and I have had to wade through AI slop on creative platforms I love.

Even so, I am not imposing a full ban on AI-generated content here. What I want is for readers to decide for themselves. Every author on Writer's Grove is required to say where AI was used in a work: writing, art, audio or editing, each marked on its own. Readers can block any or all of those from their reading settings, and a blocked work stays out of their home page, their browsing and their search results.

Where I stand myself: I view AI as a tool and use it as such. My work may be enhanced by it, but it is never generated by it.

I do not use it in spaces where creativity is what matters. For example, I do not use AI in my writing or my drawing.

Where the AI output is not the end product, I do use it. For example, the thumbnails on my personal blog, Apocalypse Theory, which before AI were edited stock images from Canva; the thumbnail is not the content, the post is. By contrast, Creeper, my mascot, is a creative work beyond my skill level, and I commissioned an artist on Upwork to create him for me.

I also use AI to write code. Writing code is a very small part of a software engineer's job, though. I still review and modify the code by hand, and I handle the system architecture, the design and the testing.

Steven, founder of Writer's Grove