Terms of use

Effective 14 October 2026.

1. Who we are

Unpressed (unpressed.app) is operated by Peter Höftberger, sole proprietorship, Allmendstrasse 120, 8041 Zürich, Switzerland ("we"). Contact: [email protected].

2. What these terms cover

These terms apply to your use of Unpressed: the website, its public log and API, and your account. The rules at unpressed.app/rules are part of these terms. If the rules and these terms differ, these terms apply.

By creating an account you accept these terms.

3. Who can play

• You must be at least 16 to create an account, and at least 18 to buy anything (section 8).
• One account per person. An account is personal and can't be sold or transferred.
• You sign in through Google, Facebook or a link sent to your email address. Keep access to that sign-in method secure; presses from your account count as yours.

4. Free to play

Playing is free. A press can't be bought, and nothing you can buy changes The Countdown or who wins.

5. The game

• The game runs as described in the rules. The server's record decides: a press counts if it reaches our server before The Countdown reaches zero. The time your press takes to reach us is your risk; The Countdown on your screen estimates it, but the server's arrival time is what counts.
• Outages. If our game server or its database can't be reached for more than 5 seconds, The Countdown counts as frozen from the last moment it was reachable until the game is back, as published on the status page. Planned maintenance is announced at least 24 hours ahead. A press that couldn't reach us during an outage gives no claim.
• The Countdown is 120 seconds and stays 120 seconds: it never gets shorter, and nobody can change it (rules, "The Countdown").
• We don't take part. We don't press, our accounts can't win, and we have no way to change The Countdown. Every press is in the public log.
• We don't guarantee that the site is always available. We work to keep it running; the outage rule above is how the game treats downtime.

6. Your press lines

• A line you add to a press is public, shown with your name, and stays in the public log.
• You keep the rights to your lines. You allow us, free of charge and for as long as the game and its archive exist, to show, store, reproduce and publish them as part of Unpressed, its log, its archive and its memorial.
• Don't post lines that are unlawful, that insult, threaten or harass, that spread hate, that reveal someone's personal information, or that advertise. Links are not accepted.
• Moderators can remove a line; it then shows as "[removed]" and the press still counts. You can appeal a removal.

7. The winner

• No purchase is necessary to take part or to win, and no purchase helps.
• If The Countdown reaches zero, the player with the longest streak of consecutive days pressed among all players who pressed within the 24 hours before the final press becomes the Winner of Season 1. Equal streaks: the player whose account was created first. Streaks are counted as the rules describe, including the shield and outage days.
• Not eligible: accounts flagged as automated or deleted at the moment of the final press, and accounts of the operator. The next player in the order is then the winner.
• The winner receives the title "Winner of Season 1", shown beside their name on the site; the last word (one line of up to 280 characters, written within 30 days of the end, shown on the memorial for as long as the site exists, under the same rules as press lines, section 6); and a printed certificate, posted at our cost to the address the winner gives us.
• There is no cash prize and no other prize of money value. The title, the last word and the certificate can't be exchanged for money or transferred.
• Players from every country can win; no country is excluded.
• We ask the winner for a postal address by email. If the winner doesn't answer, we send no certificate; the title stays theirs and nothing passes to another player.

8. Purchases

Applies once purchases are enabled. Until then nothing is sold.

• You must be 18 or older to buy. Before your first purchase you confirm that you are; we keep that confirmation with its date.
• We sell a Guardian subscription (USD 3 a month: a Guardian mark next to your name that counts your paid months, your hour's name in gold, your name on the Wall unless you turn it off, and one free gift a month), gifts on other players' presses (USD 2 each, also bought ahead, 1 to 10 at once at the same price) and day stamps for a milestone day you pressed on (USD 3 each). None of them affects The Countdown, streaks, the shield, alerts or who wins. A gift is a mark on someone else's press: it gives them nothing else and has no money value.
• A gift goes on a press, with or without a line, and stays there if a moderator removes the line. A gift can't be given on your own press or on a press of a deleted account; if the receiver's account is deleted before the payment arrives, the payment is refunded.
• Gifts bought ahead and not yet given don't expire while the game runs. When the game ends, or when you delete your account, the unused ones are refunded: their share of what you paid, to the payment method you used. Gifts already given stay given. Day stamps belong to the account: deleting it deletes them, without a refund. If a payment for gifts bought ahead is refunded in full or reversed (for example a chargeback), the gifts not yet given are gone and the gifts given from it are taken off the presses.
• You can't spend more than USD 50 a month on Unpressed. Purchases that would exceed this are refused.
• What you pay funds the running of Unpressed. None of it goes to players.
• Purchases are sold to you by Stripe as merchant of record (Stripe Managed Payments): Stripe takes the payment, charges VAT or sales tax where it applies and handles payment disputes, under the terms it shows at checkout. What each purchase gives you, and our refunds, are as these terms say. Prices include VAT or sales tax where it applies.
• Your right of withdrawal. We give every buyer the same right, wherever you live (Swiss law has no general right of withdrawal for online purchases; the EU's applies to EU consumers; one rule for all is simpler):
  • Gifts, gifts bought ahead and day stamps are digital content delivered as soon as you pay. Before checkout you ask us to deliver at once and confirm that you know you lose your right of withdrawal once it is delivered. So there is no right of withdrawal for them. (Unused gifts bought ahead are still refunded when the game ends or you delete your account, as above.)
  • The Guardian subscription is a service. You can withdraw from it within 14 days of your first payment, without giving a reason. Before checkout you ask for it to start at once; if you withdraw within the 14 days, the subscription ends at once and you pay for the days you had: we refund the rest of the month you paid for, by the day (every day begun counts as had). Renewals don't start a new 14 days; a new subscription after one has ended does.
  • How to withdraw: use "Withdraw from a contract" in the Support section of your profile (shown while you can), or write to [email protected] with your name on Unpressed, saying that you withdraw from your Guardian subscription. Sending it within the 14 days is enough. We confirm it on screen and by email, and refund to the payment method you used, within 14 days of your withdrawal.
  • You can use this model text, but you don't have to: "To Peter Höftberger, Unpressed, Allmendstrasse 120, 8041 Zürich, Switzerland, [email protected]: I hereby withdraw from my contract for the Guardian subscription. Ordered on: [date] / Name on Unpressed: [name] / Date: [date]" (the EU model withdrawal form, Annex I(B) of Directive 2011/83/EU).
  • After each purchase we send you a confirmation by email with what you agreed to before paying.
• The subscription renews every month until you cancel it. You can cancel any month; it then ends when the month you paid for is over.
• If the game ends, sales stop: subscriptions are cancelled without refund of the running month, and a payment made after the end is refunded.

9. Fair play

• Don't use more than one account, and don't run accounts for others.
• Don't attack, overload or probe our systems, and don't try to influence The Countdown other than by pressing.
• Automated pressing is not forbidden as such, but an account that presses like a machine is marked, can appeal, and can't win while flagged.
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms. A closed account can't win. Its presses stay in the public log.

10. Your account and the public log

• You can delete your account at any time from your profile. Your presses stay in the public log, without your name, country or lines (privacy notice).
• The public log of all presses can be downloaded and used by anyone under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0).

11. Changes

We may change these terms. Changes are announced on the site at least 30 days before they take effect, except where the law requires a change sooner. The length of The Countdown never changes; the rules about the winner and what's sold change only as the rules describe. A change never applies to a game that has already ended.

12. Liability

We are liable without limit for intent and gross negligence. Otherwise our liability is excluded as far as the law allows, in particular for lost presses, interruptions and the loss of a streak through events outside our control. The outage rule (section 5) is how the game treats downtime.

13. Law and courts

These terms are governed by Swiss law. The courts of Zürich have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, the mandatory law and the courts of your country of residence remain available to you.