The agreement, in plain English.

Section 1 What BaleWise is.

BaleWise (balewise.com) is a public hay price board run by Hiro Holdings LLC, a Massachusetts limited liability company ("BaleWise," "we," "us"). We collect hay prices, from public sources and from sellers who post their own, and publish them on one open board so buyers can see what hay costs near them. We also keep a running historical record of those prices and publish statistics built from it.

BaleWise is an information service. We don't sell hay, buy hay, broker hay, hold money between buyers and sellers, or take a cut of any sale. Every sale happens directly between a buyer and a seller, on their own terms.

Section 2 Agreeing to these terms.

These terms are an agreement between you and Hiro Holdings LLC. They bind you when you create a BaleWise account or pay for a BaleWise service. At account creation we record the date and the version of the terms you accepted. If you don't agree to these terms, don't create an account.

If you only read the board, no agreement is formed. It's a public page. What every reader should still know: listings are information provided as-is (Sections 9 and 11), and we are not a party to any sale (Section 1).

If we listed you from a public source. Most listings on the board were built from prices sellers had already published, a farm's own website, a classified ad, a state directory. If that's you: you have agreed to nothing, and we claim no license to anything of yours. We republish information you made public, and if you want your listing corrected, hidden, or removed, email contact@balewise.com and we will remove it promptly. That is a commitment, not a courtesy.

You must be at least 18 to create an account. If you're using an account for a farm or business, you represent that you have the authority to act for it. Every action taken under your sign-in is treated as taken by you, or with your authority.

Section 3 Your account.

• Accounts are free.Creating one, posting listings, editing them, and earning the ✓ Verified badge cost nothing today, and the only thing that costs money is the clearly labelled paid option (Section 7). Nothing requires it. If pricing ever changes, Section 15 applies: the change is announced and emailed to account holders before it takes effect.
• Your email is your sign-in.Keep it current. It's how we reach you about your own listings and purchases. You are responsible for keeping your credentials confidential and for everything done under your sign-in. If you believe your account has been accessed without your authorization, reset your password and notify us immediately.
• One account per seller.Use your real farm or business name. Don't create accounts to impersonate someone else, evade a suspension, or game the board.
• You can leave any time.Account → Delete account removes your account and takes your listings off the board (Section 14 covers what stays and what goes).

Section 4 Listings: what you can post.

The board is for hay, for sale, by the bale, from the person actually selling it. Specifically:

• Feed hay, and straw.The board lists baled feed hay. Straw may be listed as its own listing: it is labelled as straw on the board, it gets no verdict, and it stays out of the going rate and every published hay number. Mulch and standing or uncut hay aren't listed as their own listings. Mentioning them in the details as a sideline is fine. That's a board-wide rule, not a judgment on your crop.
• A real price is required.Every listing states a price per bale. That's the point of the board. Keep it current. You can change it any time, and changes show right away.
• It has to be yours.Your hay, your price, your photos, contact details that are yours to publish. Don't post someone else's crop, someone else's photos, or listings for things you aren't selling.
• It has to be honest.Stated weights, bale sizes, cuttings, and quality claims should be true to the best of your knowledge. The ✓ Verified badge tells buyers the information came from you first-hand. That only works if it's real.
• No spam, no games.No duplicate listings for the same hay, no fake listings, no using listings or forms to advertise anything other than the hay in them.
• Photos don't appear until we've looked at them.A photo you add is held until it has been checked, and we don't post ones that aren't hay or aren't appropriate.

We can edit obvious slips (a typo'd town name), decline, hide, or remove any listing, and set reasonable limits (like the number of listings per account) to keep the board useful. We may remove listings that break these rules; your account shows the current state of your listings.

Section 5 Your content, our record.

Your listings stay yours. You own what you post, your words, your photos, your prices. To run the board, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to:

• Show it : host, display, reproduce, and distribute your listing on BaleWise pages and in previews of the board while your listing is live, including through the service providers who host and deliver the site;
• Record it : keep your listing's details, including every price you've posted and each change, in our internal historical price record; and
• Count it : build aggregated, anonymized statistics from that record: averages, trends, regional comparisons, and indexes computed across many listings together.

When your listing comes off the board (you remove it, mark it sold, or close your account), it stops being displayed and the "show it" license ends with it. Your photos do not outlive your account: close it and they are deleted. As to the historical record and the anonymized statistics built from it, this license is perpetual and irrevocable and survives your listing's removal and your account's closure: a price that was part of the board's history stays part of the board's history, the same way a newspaper archive keeps old classified pages.

What we publish from the record identifies no one. A published statistic is a number built from many listings together. A regional average doesn't say whose bales went into it, and we do not publish or license statistics that name you or your farm. The record itself stays internal.

Section 6 The board is public.

Listings appear on a public website. Anyone can read them, search engines index them, and automated tools, including AI systems, can and do read public pages. Treat everything you put on a listing as published: your farm name, town, prices, photos, and whatever contact details you choose to show. Don't put anything on a listing you wouldn't put on a roadside sign.

You control what contact information appears, from your account. Our Privacy Policy covers the details of what we collect and how it's handled.

Section 7 Promoted.

Promoted is the board's one paid option: a clearly labelled spot for your listing above one region's board, for a fixed run you pick and pay for once, currently 14 days ($59), 30 days ($99), or 90 days ($229). Here's how it works, in the board's own language:

• It's a labelled ad, outside the board.The Promoted strip sits above the board and says what it is. Your actual listing stays exactly where the board's sorting puts it.
• Board order is never for sale.Paying us does not move any listing up the board, and it does not change a price, a bale size, or a verdict. Not for you, not for anyone.
• Up to three spots, order rotates.A region's strip holds at most three Promoted listings at a time, and the order they appear in rotates automatically. Every current Promoted listing gets the same treatment, and no particular position within the strip, rotation slot, or amount of buyer attention is promised or for sale. What you're buying is the run: your listing in that region's labelled strip for the days you paid for.
• It ends on its own.When your run is up, the spot comes down automatically. Nothing renews, and nothing charges you again unless you book again.
• The rules still apply.A Promoted listing is still a listing. Section 4's rules apply. If your listing comes off the board mid-run (you remove it or we do), the Promoted spot comes down with it.

Prices are shown at checkout and can change for future bookings. A run you've already paid for is never re-priced.

Section 8 Paying us, and refunds.

• Stripe handles the money.Card payments are processed by Stripe. Your card number goes to Stripe, never to us. We receive confirmation of the payment and enough to show you a receipt (like the card brand and last four digits).
• If a run never starts, or we cancel it, you get your money back.Full refund.
• Once a run has started, the remaining days aren't refunded if you simply change your mind or your hay sells out early. A Promoted run is a fixed booking, priced that way.
• If we get it wrong, we make it right.If your Promoted spot failed to display, or the site was unavailable, for more than 24 hours in total during your run, tell us. We'll refund the affected days or extend the run, your choice. This is the sole remedy for display and availability problems with a Promoted run.
• No refunds for removed rule-breakers.If we end your run because your listing broke Section 4's rules, the unused days aren't refunded.

To ask about any charge: contact@balewise.com. Receipts live in your account under Billing.

Section 9 Using the board.

• Information only. Confirm before hauling.Prices, bale sizes, and availability are what sellers stated or published, as of the date shown. They go stale. The seller's word beats the board, always.
• Verdicts are math, not advice."Good deal" compares a price against similar bales on the board. It is not an inspection, a grade, or a recommendation.
• Reading the board is welcome.It's a public page.

In using BaleWise, you agree that you will not:

• use the site, its forms, or its listings for anything other than their purpose: finding, listing, and asking about hay;
• post false, misleading, or deceptive content anywhere on the site, or make claims on listings that aren't yours;
• harvest contact details from listings to build mailing or call lists, or use them to send unsolicited commercial messages;
• interfere with the site's operation, access it in ways that degrade it for others, or circumvent any security or access control;
• impersonate any person or business, or misrepresent your affiliation with one.

Violating these commitments is a breach of these terms. Section 13 covers what happens if your breach causes damage, and Section 14 covers suspension and closure.

Section 10 Our work.

The board's compilation (the gathering, checking, math, history, statistics, design, and presentation) is © BaleWise. Quote it with credit; don't republish it wholesale as your own. Sellers' farm and business names belong to their owners; we use them only to say whose price is whose.

Think something on the board infringes your copyright, a photo that's yours, a listing copied from your page? Send a notice to our designated copyright agent: Hiro Holdings LLC, Attn: Copyright Agent, 82 Wendell Ave. Ste 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201, or contact@balewise.com. Include: the work you own, where it appears on BaleWise (the link), your contact details, a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn't authorized, and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you own the work or are authorized to act for whoever does. We remove infringing material promptly. If material you posted was removed by mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to the same agent with the same identifying details and an explanation. Accounts that repeatedly post infringing material get closed.

Section 11 No warranties.

BaleWise is provided as-is and as-available. We work to keep it accurate and up, but we don't warrant that the board, any listing, any price, any verdict, or any statistic is accurate, complete, current, or uninterrupted, and we disclaim all warranties the law lets us disclaim, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We are not a party to any sale and aren't responsible for the quality, safety, delivery, or existence of any hay listed, or for any dispute between a buyer and a seller.

Section 12 Limits on liability.

To the fullest extent the law allows: we're not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost hay sales, or lost data, arising out of your use of BaleWise. Our total liability for everything, combined, is capped at the greater of $100 or the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim.

Some states don't allow certain of these limits. Where a limit isn't allowed, it doesn't apply to you, and everything else here still does.

Section 13 If your content or conduct causes a problem.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Hiro Holdings LLC and its members, managers, and agents from any claim, demand, damages, penalties, and reasonable legal costs (including attorneys' fees) arising out of:

• content you post : a listing, a photo, a claim about your hay;
• your breach of these terms , including the commitments in Sections 4 and 9;
• your violation of any law or of someone else's rights , including intellectual-property and privacy rights.

We'll notify you promptly of any claim this section covers, and you won't settle one in a way that admits fault or creates obligations on our behalf without our written consent. In short: you stand behind what you post and what you do here.

Section 14 Closing accounts.

• By you.Delete your account any time from Account → Delete account. Your listings come off the board and your account data is removed as the Privacy Policy describes. If you have a Promoted run still going, settle it first (let it finish or write to us). The delete button will tell you.
• By us.We can suspend or close accounts that break these terms, post dishonest listings, or abuse the board or other users. For anything short of clear abuse, we'll make reasonable efforts to warn you at your sign-in email first.
• What survives.The historical price record (Section 5), completed transactions and their records, and the sections of these terms that by their nature outlive an account (Sections 5 and 10 to 16) survive account closure.

Section 15 When these terms change.

These terms will change as the service grows. When they change, the effective date at the top changes. Material changes get called out on the board and, if you have an account, emailed to your sign-in address before they take effect, not buried here. If you keep using BaleWise after a change takes effect, that's acceptance of the new terms. If a change isn't acceptable to you, close your account before it takes effect.

Section 16 Law and disputes.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Disputes that can't be resolved by contacting us first belong in the state or federal courts of Massachusetts, and both sides consent to those courts. You can always bring an eligible claim in your local small-claims court instead.

If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stands. If we don't enforce a term right away, we haven't waived it. Your account and these terms are personal to you. Don't transfer them to someone else without asking us first. We may assign these terms as part of a sale or reorganization of the business, and they bind and benefit both sides' successors. These terms plus the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about BaleWise.

Section 17 Contact.

BaleWise is a service of Hiro Holdings LLC, 82 Wendell Ave. Ste 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201, USA. Anything about these terms, your account, a charge, or a listing reaches us at contact@balewise.com.