# FreeFellow Rewards Programs: Terms and Conditions

**Version:** 3.0.0

**Effective Date:** June 3, 2026 for Section 6.1 (contributor IP assignment, introduced in v2.0.0). All other provisions are effective at the Last Updated date below. Contributions submitted before June 3, 2026 remain governed by the v1.2.0 license-only language for Section 6.1.

**Last Updated:** 2026-08-09

> Versioning convention: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. MAJOR = new program or change to dispute resolution. MINOR = new tier, rate change, new fraud-prevention rule, hard cap. PATCH = clarifications. See changelog at end.

These terms govern your participation in FreeFellow's rewards programs. By opting in to any program, you agree to these terms in full. "FreeFellow," "we," "us," and "our" refer to FreeFellow LLC, the Wyoming limited liability company that operates freefellow.org. "You" refers to the participant.

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## 1. Overview of Programs

FreeFellow operates two rewards programs. You may participate in one or both; they are independent of each other.

| Program | Who It's For | What You Do | What You Earn |
|---------|-------------|-------------|---------------|
| **Universal Referral** | Any registered FreeFellow user | Share your auto-generated referral code | 10% off a qualifying plan for your friend, plus Contributor points and a 10% coupon for you |
| **Contributor Program** | Users who improve question quality | Submit suggested edits or bug reports that we accept | Points redeemable for Fellow feature access |

---

## 2. Universal Referral Program

### 2.1 Eligibility

Every registered FreeFellow user automatically receives a unique referral code at signup. No application or approval is required. You can find your code at freefellow.org/invite.

Your referral code becomes active 7 days after your account was created. This activation delay is a fraud-prevention measure.

### 2.2 Friend's Discount (Referee Reward)

When a friend signs up using your referral code and purchases a **qualifying Fellow subscription (quarterly or annual billing)**, **they receive 10% off their first payment**. The discount is applied automatically at checkout. It applies once per referred friend.

Monthly-billed plans and one-time purchases (such as single practice-exam passes) do not qualify for the referral discount. A friend who first subscribes monthly keeps their referral link; if they later purchase a qualifying quarterly or annual plan, the discount applies to that purchase.

### 2.3 Your Rewards (Referrer)

Referral rewards are paid in **Contributor points**, the same currency described in Section 3, so everything you earn on FreeFellow accumulates in one place and redeems from one ladder.

**Activation reward.** You earn **25 points for each friend who signs up with your code and starts studying** (completes at least one graded question). Signing up alone does not earn the reward; your friend has to actually begin. This is repeatable, capped at 6 rewarded friends per calendar month, and anything beyond the cap carries into the following month rather than being lost.

**First-referral coupon.** The first time one of your referred friends starts studying, you also receive a one-time **10% off coupon**, valid 90 days, applied automatically at checkout on a qualifying quarterly or annual plan or an Exam Day Pass.

**Invite-link milestone.** When 3 distinct people visit your referral link, you earn a one-time 25 points, whether or not they sign up.

Points redeem for Fellow feature access at the thresholds in Section 3.3. At the 150-point mock exam rung, six friends who start studying is a free mock exam.

**International participants.** Points and discount coupons are product credits, not cash, so every reward in this program is available to all participants regardless of location. (Before version 3.0.0 the referrer reward was a cash-equivalent gift card restricted to jurisdictions our fulfillment partner served; that restriction is gone with the gift card.)

### 2.4 Timing

Activation rewards are granted by a daily process, so points typically appear within one day of your friend's first study session.

Referral rewards are product credits rather than cash, so there is no payment-clearing period and no hold. If a referred friend's purchase is later refunded or charged back, FreeFellow may reverse any reward associated with it under Section 2.6.

### 2.5 Redemption

You can see your referral progress at freefellow.org/invite and redeem points at freefellow.org/rewards. Redemption grants Fellow feature access on your account; nothing is mailed or paid out.

### 2.6 Fraud Prevention

FreeFellow reserves the right to deny, reverse, or claw back rewards in cases of:

(a) **Self-referral.** Using your own code, or referring an account that shares your email (including plus-addressed variants like `you+anything@gmail.com`), IP address, or device fingerprint.
(b) **Disposable email addresses.** Referees signing up from known throwaway-email providers.
(c) **Velocity anomalies.** A referrer accumulating an unusual concentration of referred signups or purchases in a short window may be placed under manual review.
(d) **Payment fraud.** Purchases made with stolen cards, prepaid cards used to game referral rewards, or accounts later flagged by Stripe Radar.

We may place a referral under manual review at any time. A referral under review earns nothing until the review clears. Reviews typically resolve within 14 business days.

### 2.7 Tax Treatment

Referral rewards are Fellow product credits (points and discount coupons). They are not cash, gift cards, or any other cash equivalent, so no reportable payment is made and no IRS Form 1099 threshold applies. FreeFellow does not issue 1099s for referral rewards.

Through version 2.5.0 this program offered a cash-equivalent gift card subject to a $599 annual cap for 1099-NEC purposes. That reward, and the cap that governed it, were discontinued in version 3.0.0. No participant had redeemed a gift card at the time of discontinuation.

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## 3. Contributor Program

### 3.1 Eligibility

Any registered FreeFellow user may participate in the Contributor Program by submitting suggested edits or bug reports through the platform's built-in submission tools. No separate enrollment is required.

### 3.2 Earning Points

Contributions earn points as follows:

| Contribution Type | Points Earned |
|-------------------|--------------|
| Accepted suggested edit | 10 points (your first 3 accepted edits earn 20 points each as a starter bonus) |
| Confirmed and resolved bug report | 40 points |
| Bug report resolved as a content fix | 10 points |
| Invite milestone: 3 distinct visitors open your referral link | 25 points (one time) |
| Study group founder: a leaderboard group you created reaches 3 members | 30 points (one time) |
| Leaderboard milestones: opt in with a handle (5), first promotion-zone finish (10), first week in Gold or higher (15), first week in Diamond (25) | 5 to 25 points (each one time) |
| High-impact contribution (significant question rewrite, systemic fix) | 25 points |

A "confirmed and resolved bug report" means a defect in the platform itself (a broken page, feature, or calculation engine). A bug report whose underlying issue turns out to be question, lesson, or flashcard content is treated as a suggested edit for points purposes and earns the content-fix rate above.

FreeFellow determines acceptance, rejection, impact classification, and the site-bug versus content-fix classification in its sole discretion. Duplicate reports and invalid submissions earn no points. Milestone awards (invite, group founder, leaderboard) are granted at most once per account, are detected automatically, and may be withheld or reversed where fraud-prevention rules in Section 5.3 apply.

### 3.3 Redeeming Points

Points are redeemed for Fellow feature access on a per-track basis. Stacking the same reward on the same track extends your access window. Points do not expire and are not convertible to cash.

| Points Required | Reward |
|----------------|--------|
| 50 points | Flashcards access for one exam (30 days) |
| 100 points | Topic Practice access for one exam (30 days) |
| 125 points | 20% off coupon (see below) |
| 150 points | Mock exam access for one exam (7-day window) |
| 250 points | Full Fellow access for one exam (7 days) |
| 350 points | Full Fellow access for one exam (30 days) |

The 20% off coupon (125 points) is a one-time discount, not feature access. It applies 20% off the first payment of a quarterly or annual Fellow plan, or the price of one Exam Day Pass. It is valid for 90 days from redemption, is applied automatically at checkout, and is limited to one unconsumed coupon per account at a time (you can redeem another once the first is used). It does not apply to monthly plans or single mock exam purchases, and it does not combine with any other discount (including a referral discount or the Exam Day Pass date-entry special); the larger single discount applies.

Redemptions are processed through the rewards dashboard at freefellow.org/rewards. Points are deducted upon redemption.

Ladder transition (v2.3.0): points accumulated before 2026-07-21 retain their original redemption terms per Section 5.1. If you held a balance of 150 points or more on 2026-07-21 and want to redeem at the prior thresholds (150 points for 7-day Full Fellow, 250 points for 30-day Full Fellow), email jeff@freefellow.org by 2026-08-21 and the redemption will be honored manually.

### 3.4 No Guaranteed Acceptance

Submitting a suggested edit or bug report does not guarantee acceptance. Common reasons for rejection include:

- The reported "error" is actually correct (the user misunderstood the question)
- The issue was already fixed in a prior update
- The suggestion is a stylistic preference rather than a factual correction
- The report is a feature request, not a bug

---

## 4. General Provisions

### 4.1 Tax Obligations

Universal Referral rewards (gift cards and account credits) and Contributor point redemptions are intended to remain below IRS Form 1099 thresholds. FreeFellow does not currently issue 1099 forms for participants in either program. **You are solely responsible for reporting and paying all applicable taxes** consistent with your jurisdiction.

### 4.2 No Employment Relationship

Participation in any rewards program does not create an employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture relationship between you and FreeFellow. You are an independent participant.

### 4.3 Age Requirement

You represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years of age (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction). If you are under 18, you may not participate in any rewards program.

### 4.4 No Guaranteed Continuity

FreeFellow commits to the discount, gift card, and point structures described above for as long as the programs are active. However, we cannot guarantee that the programs will continue indefinitely. See Section 5 for modification and discontinuation terms.

### 4.5 Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FREEFELLOW'S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU UNDER THESE TERMS, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE TOTAL PAYOUTS MADE TO YOU IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) $500.

FREEFELLOW IS NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS OR LOST REWARD OPPORTUNITIES.

---

## 5. Program Changes and Termination

### 5.1 Modifications

FreeFellow may modify these terms, gift card amounts, point values, or program mechanics at any time. We will notify active participants at least 30 days before material changes take effect, via the email address on your FreeFellow account. Changes are not retroactive: rewards already earned and points already accumulated retain their original terms.

### 5.2 Program Suspension or Discontinuation

FreeFellow may suspend or discontinue any program at any time. If a program is discontinued:

- **Universal Referral:** Pending rewards within the 60-day hold are honored on the original schedule. Gift card redemptions queued before discontinuation are processed.
- **Contributor:** Accumulated points remain redeemable for 12 months after discontinuation. No new points can be earned.

### 5.3 Participant Removal

FreeFellow may remove you from any program for:

(a) Violation of program rules or these terms
(b) Fraud, misrepresentation, or gaming (e.g., self-referral schemes, fabricated bug reports, disposable-email signup loops)
(c) Conduct that damages FreeFellow's reputation or relationships with exam bodies, universities, or professional organizations

Removal forfeits all unredeemed referral balance and all unredeemed contributor points.

---

## 6. Intellectual Property

### 6.1 Suggested Edits, Bug Reports, and Other Contributions

By submitting a suggested edit, bug report, or any other contribution to FreeFellow (each, a "Submission"), you **hereby irrevocably assign to FreeFellow LLC all right, title, and interest** in and to your Submission, including all worldwide intellectual property rights (copyright, database rights, moral rights to the extent waivable, and all related rights), effective at the moment of submission, without further consideration or action.

To the extent any right in a Submission cannot be assigned by operation of law in your jurisdiction (including any non-waivable moral rights), you instead grant FreeFellow a perpetual, irrevocable, exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display the Submission for any purpose, commercial or otherwise. You waive, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, any moral rights, attribution rights, or right to object to any modification of the Submission.

You represent and warrant that (a) the Submission is your original work or that you have obtained all rights necessary to make this assignment, (b) the Submission does not infringe the copyright, trademark, trade-secret, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any third party, and (c) you are not subject to any agreement (including any employment agreement) that would prevent this assignment.

You retain no intellectual property rights in accepted Submissions and have no right to reuse, redistribute, or republish a Submission once it has been incorporated into the platform.

This assignment applies prospectively to Submissions made on or after the Effective Date of this version (June 3, 2026). Submissions made under prior versions of these terms remain governed by the license-grant language in effect at the time of submission.

---

## 7. Privacy

### 7.1 Data We Collect

- **All programs:** Name, email address, FreeFellow account ID
- **Universal Referral:** Referral code, referred user IDs, signup IP and user agent (used for fraud detection only), gift card delivery email
- **Contributor:** Suggested edit and bug report content (already collected via the platform's standard submission tools)

### 7.2 How We Use It

Your data is used solely to administer the rewards programs: validate eligibility, deliver gift cards, track points, and detect fraud. We do not sell your data or share it with third parties except as required by law or as needed to fulfill gift card orders through Tremendous.

### 7.3 Data Retention

- Gift card order records: retained for 7 years
- Referral signup IP and user agent: retained while the referral relationship is active, then anonymized
- Account data: retained as long as your FreeFellow account exists

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## 8. Disputes

### 8.1 Informal Resolution

If you have a dispute about gift card delivery, point balances, or program decisions, contact us at jeff@freefellow.org. We will respond within 14 business days and make a good-faith effort to resolve the issue.

### 8.2 Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, without regard to conflict of law principles. This aligns with the governing-law clause of FreeFellow's main Terms of Service.

### 8.3 Binding Arbitration

Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally shall be settled by binding arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules. Arbitration will be conducted remotely (by videoconference) unless both parties agree to in-person proceedings. The arbitrator's decision is final and binding. Each party bears its own costs.

### 8.4 Small Claims Carve-Out

Notwithstanding Section 8.3, either party may bring claims in small claims court within applicable jurisdictional limits. This carve-out also applies to claims for injunctive relief.

### 8.5 Class Action Waiver

You agree to resolve disputes individually. You waive any right to participate in a class action, class arbitration, or representative proceeding.

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## 9. General

### 9.1 Entire Agreement

These terms constitute the entire agreement between you and FreeFellow regarding rewards program participation. They supersede any prior oral or written agreements on this subject.

### 9.2 Severability

If any provision of these terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force.

### 9.3 Assignment

You may not assign your rewards, points, or program participation to another person. Rewards program rights are personal to you and non-transferable.

### 9.4 No Waiver

Our failure to enforce any provision of these terms does not constitute a waiver of that provision.

### 9.5 Dissolution or Insolvency

In the event of FreeFellow's dissolution, bankruptcy, or insolvency, all active rewards program obligations are subordinate to secured and unsecured creditors. FreeFellow makes no guarantees that any distribution will be made in such circumstances.

### 9.6 Contact

For questions about these terms or any rewards program:
**Email:** jeff@freefellow.org
**Website:** freefellow.org

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*By participating in any FreeFellow rewards program, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms and Conditions.*

---

## Changelog

| Version | Date | Type | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| **3.0.0** | 2026-08-09 | MAJOR | Universal Referral rewards restructured onto the Contributor points ladder (§§ 1, 2.2-2.7). Referee reward changes from $10 off to 10% off a qualifying quarterly or annual plan. Referrer rewards change from a mock exam unlock plus a $10 gift card to 25 Contributor points per referred friend who starts studying (repeatable, 6 per calendar month, excess carries over) plus a one-time 10% coupon on the first such friend. DISCONTINUED: the mock exam unlock, the $10 Amazon/Visa gift card via Tremendous, the account-credit alternative, the 60-day hold, the $599 annual 1099-NEC cap, and the gift-card phone-verification requirement, all of which are moot once no reward is a cash equivalent. No participant is worse off: at discontinuation zero gift cards had ever been redeemed, zero payout emails were on file, and zero mock unlocks had ever been granted (a defect prevented the unlock from ever firing). The four participants who met the old two-verified-signups condition were granted 150 points each, redeemable for the mock exam the prior terms promised, plus the 10% coupon. Per § 5.1 nothing already earned is reduced. |
| **2.5.0** | 2026-07-26 | MINOR | New fraud-prevention rule (§ 2.5): redeeming a Tier 2 gift card requires a one-time phone verification on the account (SMS, WhatsApp, or voice code). Gift cards are transferable cash-equivalent value, which makes self-referral farming the obvious abuse; one verified number per recipient prices that at a real phone. Account credit and Tier 1 product rewards are unaffected, accrual is unaffected, and no earned reward is forfeited (redemption simply waits for verification). Enforced server-side in api/tremendous/create-payout.js in the same commit. |
| **2.4.0** | 2026-07-22 | MINOR | Contributor Program adds a 125-point redemption (§ 3.3): a one-time 20% off coupon good for the first payment of a quarterly or annual Fellow plan or one Exam Day Pass. Valid 90 days, one unconsumed at a time, applied automatically at checkout, no monthly plans or single mocks, no combining with other discounts (larger single discount applies). Additive; no existing reward or rate changed. |
| **2.3.0** | 2026-07-21 | MINOR | Contributor Program growth revamp (§§ 3.2, 3.3). Earning: confirmed site-bug rate raised 15 to 40 points; new 10-point content-fix rate for bug reports whose defect is content; new one-time milestones (invite link reaches 3 distinct visitors, 25; study-group founder at 3 members, 30; leaderboard opt-in / first promotion / first Gold / first Diamond, 5/10/15/25). Redemption: new 150-point mock exam rung (7-day window); Full Fellow rungs repriced to 250 (7 days) and 350 (30 days). Per § 5.1 non-retroactivity, balances of 150+ points held on 2026-07-21 may redeem at the prior thresholds by emailing jeff@freefellow.org through 2026-08-21. |
| **2.2.1** | 2026-07-06 | PATCH | Corrects the party definition in the preamble: "FreeFellow" refers to FreeFellow LLC, the Wyoming limited liability company that operates freefellow.org (previously worded "operated by Jeffrey Ting"). The LLC has been the operating entity throughout (see the main Terms of Service and Section 6.1 of this document, which already named FreeFellow LLC); this aligns the preamble with that fact. No rule, rate, or right changes. Identified by the 2026-07-05 legal audit. |
| **2.2.0** | 2026-06-10 | MINOR | §§ 1, 2.2, 2.3: referral rewards (the friend's $10 discount and the Tier 2 gift card) now require a qualifying quarterly or annual Fellow plan. Monthly-billed plans and one-time purchases no longer qualify; a monthly subscriber's referral link stays attached and the rewards apply if they later purchase a qualifying plan. Rewards earned before this date are unaffected. Also replaced typographic em-dashes with standard punctuation throughout (formatting only, no meaning change). |
| **2.1.1** | 2026-05-16 | PATCH | Clarified the Effective Date header. The June 3, 2026 date applies only to Section 6.1 (contributor IP assignment) per the v2.0.0 30-day pre-notice; all other provisions (including the v2.1.0 international-scope clarifications) are effective at the Last Updated date. No substantive change to any rule. |
| **2.1.0** | 2026-05-10 | MINOR | § 2.3 clarifies international scope of Tier 2 rewards: cash-equivalent gift cards available only where Tremendous delivers and U.S. tax reporting applies; participants outside that scope (including India) receive Tier 1 product-feature credits in place of Tier 2. § 2.7 clarifies that the $599 annual cap applies only to Tier 2 cash-equivalent payouts, not Tier 1 product-feature credits. Aligned with the regional-pricing launch in ToS § 4.2 v2.1.0. Additive; does not modify or remove any existing reward. |
| **2.0.0** | 2026-05-04 | MAJOR | Section 6.1 Intellectual Property tightened from a perpetual license to an irrevocable copyright **assignment**, with fallback exclusive license for jurisdictions that do not permit assignment. Added contributor representations and warranties of original authorship, non-infringement, and absence of conflicting prior agreements. Effective Date set 30 days out (June 3, 2026); contributions made before that date remain governed by the v1.2.0 license-only language. Existing accumulated points and pending redemptions are unaffected. |
| **1.2.0** | 2026-05-03 | MINOR | Hard cap of $599 / calendar year on Universal Referral payouts (§ 2.7) to stay below IRS Form 1099-NEC reporting threshold. Governing law unified with main ToS to Wyoming (§ 8.2). |
| **1.1.0** | 2026-04-26 | MINOR | Topic Practice cost adjustment (§ 3.3). Clarified extend semantics for stacked redemptions. |
| **1.0.1** | 2026-04-23 | PATCH | Universal Referral renamed from Ambassador Program; added 60-day hold and chargeback-reversal language. |
| **1.0.0** | 2026-03-23 | MAJOR | Initial publication. |