Terms of Use

Last updated: 24 May 2026

These terms set out the agreement between you and The Pain Points Project ("we", "us", "the site"). By using the site you agree to them. If you don't, please don't use the site.

1. Who we are

The Pain Points Project is an independent platform operated from the United Kingdom. You can reach us at admin@thepainpointsproject.com.

2. What the site is — and isn't

The site is a public database of real-world problems ("pain points") submitted by anyone who wants to flag them, so that builders, founders, and curious people can read them and decide whether to act on them.

We do not guarantee:

That anyone will pick up your idea, build a solution, or contact you.
That submissions are accurate, complete, or free of bias.
That the site will be available without interruption.
That any specific outcome will result from using the site.

We provide the platform; we do not provide a service that produces solutions, partnerships, or business outcomes.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the site. If you're between 13 and the age of digital consent in your country, you confirm that a parent or guardian is aware that you're using the site.

4. Accounts

You can browse the site and submit pain points without an account. You only need to sign in to leave comments. When you sign in:

Use a real email address that you control.
Don't share your account with anyone else.
You are responsible for activity that happens under your account.

Display names. Every signed-in account is automatically assigned a random, friendly display name. You can change it on the Settings page within the following rules:

Names must be unique across all users (matched case-insensitively).
Names must be between 2 and 30 characters and cannot contain the "@" symbol.
Names that impersonate the project, its administrators, or other roles of authority — including anything containing words such as "admin", "administrator", "moderator", "owner", "staff", "support", "official", "verified", "system", "root", or any variation of the project name itself — are reserved and cannot be used.
We reserve the right to reset or remove any display name we consider misleading, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate, without notice.

Verified admin accounts display an "Admin" badge next to their display name on comments. The absence of this badge means the comment was posted by an ordinary user, even if their chosen display name suggests otherwise.

5. How we may contact you

By creating an account, you agree that we may contact you at the email address associated with your account for purposes directly related to your use of the site. This includes, but is not limited to:

Asking questions about a submission you have made.
Letting you know that another user has asked to be put in contact with you, and asking whether you consent to that introduction.
Important notices about your account or content you have posted.
Moderation or trust-and-safety matters.

We will only send emails of this kind where we have a specific, legitimate reason relating to your activity on the site. We will not use your email address for newsletters, marketing, or any other non-essential communication without first obtaining your explicit consent.

You may withdraw consent for non-essential emails at any time by following the unsubscribe link in any such email or by contacting us at admin@thepainpointsproject.com. Withdrawing consent for non-essential emails does not affect our ability to contact you for the operational purposes listed above, as these are necessary for the functioning of the platform.

6. Submissions — pain points, comments, and tags

"Submissions" means anything you post to the site: pain points, proposed solutions, tags, comments, and contact-form messages.

6.1 You keep your rights

You retain ownership of anything you submit.

6.2 You grant us — and the public — a licence to use your submission

By submitting a pain point or comment, you grant us and every other user of the site a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to display, share, and act on that submission. This includes building products, services, or businesses inspired by it.

In plain English: if you log a problem here, anyone is allowed to read it and try to solve it, and we are allowed to display it. You should not submit confidential information, trade secrets, or anything you don't want others to see or build on.

6.3 You confirm the submission is yours to give

By submitting, you confirm that the content is yours (or you have permission to share it) and that posting it does not break anyone else's confidentiality agreement, employment contract, or other legal obligation.

6.4 Deleting your own content

You can delete any comment you have posted at any time. Deleting a top-level comment also removes any reply thread underneath it (including replies by other users); this is a deliberate consequence of removing the root of a conversation. Pain-point submissions can be removed by emailing us — we don't currently offer self-service deletion for them because they form part of a public database.

6.5 We can review and remove

Pain points go through manual review before they appear in the public database. We can refuse, edit, hide, or remove any submission for any reason — typically because it doesn't fit the site, is spam, breaks these terms, or has been flagged by other users.

7. Acceptable use

Don't use the site to:

Post unlawful content, threats, harassment, hate speech, or material that targets individuals.
Post sexual, violent, or otherwise harmful content.
Post personal information about other people (names, addresses, phone numbers) without their permission.
Post spam, advertising, affiliate links, or off-topic promotional content.
Try to break, scrape, scan, or overload the site, or bypass its security.
Impersonate another person or organisation.
Use the site to violate anyone's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights.

8. Suspension and termination

If you break these terms, we may suspend or permanently close your account, remove your submissions, and (where appropriate) report the matter to the relevant authorities. You can also delete your own account at any time by emailing admin@thepainpointsproject.com.

9. Intellectual property

The site's name, logo, design, code, copy, and structure are ours and protected by copyright. You may not copy, redistribute, or commercially reproduce them without permission. Submissions remain the property of the people who post them, subject to the licence in section 5.2.

10. Disclaimer

The site is provided "as is". We make no warranties — express or implied — about its accuracy, completeness, reliability, suitability for any purpose, or availability. Anything you read here is user-generated; don't rely on it as professional, legal, medical, financial, or technical advice.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the site — including lost profits, lost data, or business interruption. Our total liability to you for any direct claim is limited to £100.

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be limited under UK law.

12. Third-party services

The site uses third-party services (e.g. Supabase for storage and authentication, Google for optional sign-in). Your use of those services is also governed by their own terms.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top will reflect any change. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes will be handled by the courts of England and Wales.

15. Contact

Questions, takedown requests, or anything else: admin@thepainpointsproject.com.