The Small Print

I know I’ve been getting you guys to vote for me at About.me – which I appreciate so much – but the other day I thought it would be wise to read the terms and conditions, and I am not eligible because I don’t live in the US. :( I did actually read the terms and conditions a few times before I realised this, but I didn’t read it in detail. /bash It’s a shame I can’t really win now, but thank you guys for voting for me. ♥️

It’s a bit funny how no one really reads the terms and conditions these days. I don’t think anyone wants to read a lot of small text. It’s like a cruel ploy to steal your kidney or something, the way the terms and conditions are so lengthy and made hard to read so that after skimming the first few lines you give up and deem the rest of it a waste of your time to read. If they’re that important, they should make it bigger. What kind of warning is Warning: may contain giant squid brains? If this is a warning, I think my attention should be more susceptible to it.

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN GIANT SQUID BRAINS

I just don’t read terms and conditions unless it’s for a competition or a special offer that I’m really keen on. If I’m signing up for something or downloading something, I don’t really read it. I’ve probably signed up for a lot of websites without reading the small print. On the other hand, some websites brag about having barely any terms and conditions, and actually tell you “this is all you need to know!” in large print. Well, I kind of like that. It reminds me of the infomercials for makeup or vacuum cleaners or Ab Swing Pros that say “30 days and if you’re not satisfied, your money back! It’s that easy!” Oh god. I guess it’s good when there are no hidden fees or hidden things that you don’t know about. It helps keep you from being scammed if you read the terms and conditions.

I always feel guilty when I tick that “I agree to the terms and conditions” box. I feel so guilty that I save the terms and conditions to my computer but never actually read them. Oooo.

Today in class we made paper planes. That’s not all there is to it though. :P We had to do an activity with project planning, and worked in our groups we were put into for our assignment. This activity was pretty fun, because our group was mentioning funny things in our risk assessment like muscular pain from throwing a plane, getting papercuts, being poked in the eye – meaning we had to wear safety goggles and lab coats. XD

We were looking up on Google how to make a good paper plane. In the end we kind of just worked by trial and error. Everyone in the class had a similar project plan. It was a really weird activity, it’s not every day that you make and throw paper planes in class. Our group ended up winning as we were able to fly the plane for five metres in a straight line smoothly. /bounce

I had an assignment due today, and the awesome thing is that I did it on The Fanlistings Network. We had to research a community and write about it. I chose an online one, knowing that I’m a part of TFL and know a lot about it, and because I just felt like I would do a much better job than researching an actual charity or an organisation that is not online. After all, you get a sense of community online with forums and such. It was weird having to write just 2000 words on that, because I kind of enjoyed it, but at the same time, I hated thinking about it in a kind of academic manner.

Gosh, university ruins your views sometimes. It’s like how you get prescribed books and movies in high school English, and you just can’t see it the same way again. :P

Comments on this post

L O L. Exactly. If they are *so* important they should be in bigger font. I never read them, NEVER. Just tick and sign up haha. Just looking at the small print gives me a headache so I give up quite quickly. XD

Haha. Sounds like you had a entertaining class. XD Throwing paper airplanes? Haha. Sweet. CONGRATS that you won! Yay! My paper airplanes fail, they look good but they don’t fly properly. :(

That’s good that you wrote it about your fanlisting network since you know a lot about it thus you can write a lot. :D

Wha wha wha..? That’s a shame you can’t participate in the contest. That’s the thing about these sort of contests/giveaways/etc, they never tell you about the T&C until you’re caught in the net. And as you said, they make the terms so lengthy that by the time you’re half way through it your brain is already fried. I mean, is it that hard to put ‘READ T&C BEFORE YOU SIGN UP’ or at least something like, ‘US RESIDENTS ONLY!’ in block/bold letters?

Aww paper planes! Sounds like fun. :D Haha, you guys had to Google to find out how to make paper planes?? Interesting. XD

I feel the same way about university too. After my first year of university I was already feeling the university was trying to brainwash me. :(

I agree. I don’t often read terms&conditions on websites. I mean, yes I might browse through them veeeery quickly. But usually I don’t. Hmm.

these days? I’m pretty sure no one ever read them :P sucks you can’t win though. Usually they warn you like 500 times if it’s only open to US residents :(

School does have a way of ruining fun things. Work too. I actually used to enjoy programming and web design. I mean, I don’t hate it now, but it used to be something I did for fun and now it’s work.

You know what, I still voted for you after reading the post! It’d be hilarious if you won anyways.

I usually don’t read the fine print because of the language that they’re written in. The language is tough legalese. Most human beings aren’t well-versed in it. It’s also easy to misinterpret the language. If a terms of service were written in normal speech, then I’d read it. However, normal speech just isn’t as exact. (Or maybe it is… I just don’t know.)

That freaking sucks that you can’t enter it just because you don’t live in the states!! They should honestly declare it in HUGE fonts or something that people don’t have to disappoint themselves the way you did. Stupid people. I know how you feel though. I go through that too because there some contests that I have been really wanting to join but of course, some of them don’t apply to Canadian residents. BOO.

I love paper airplanes. I think it’s because my mom has always had this knack for making these wicked paper airplanes since I was a kid. They would always fly right across the entire house!! Never inherited that skill from her though lol. She would just make them and I would decorate them haha.

I know what you mean about school ruining your views. A lot of the books I read in highschool stuck with me in my mind and I also have never been able to look at them the same way again. I try to read them again because they ARE good books but man … having learn things in university … meh … just doesn’t work anymore!!

Ohh…that sucks. A lot of times I will realize that I am not eligible for certain things because I am not a US citizen even though I live here >_>

LOL I agree with you but then again a lot of people prefer skipping through the terms and conditions since most of them are more or less the same. I can imagine the uproar people will create if they had to scroll through bigger T&Cs.

I agree…I only read them if I am entering in a contest, scholarship or stuff like that. I like having no hidden fees or things either. A lot of people take advantage of the fact that people don’t like reading and so they use that to scam them T_T

At least you save them to your computer…unless they automatically have it in the installation directory I don’t care much for T&Cs ^_^;

LOL paper planes are fun and that class and activity seems fun. I remember doing project planning as a topic during one of my courses as well and it was a lot of fun XD. Congratulations on winning…these small things count :D

I like your choice…I have always been a part of online communities and forums so I would have chosen something along those lines as well lol. Haha I agree…doing something for academic purposes tends to ruin the fun of it but if you do fun things for academics then you can make your boring routine more fun ^_^

Sorry to hear about your little discovery. I usually get the same thing, but with the European Union. I saw the About.me voting wandering around Twitter but I don’t think I could vote since I didn’t have an account. :/
I actually read the fine print most of the time, but skimming it is always good. After a while, it gets to be the same, though, and I have found some pretty strange requirements hidden in a whole page of text before 😰 .
You got to make paper planes in university? That sounds like fun :P Not like the blood-shedding labour people seem to make it sound like @_@ But your project sounds like a lot of fun. I love writing essays, especially analytical ones :P But yea, English sucks the fun out of a lot of stories. So many books were just fine until they have some wacky “metaphorical significance.” /faw
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So many people only post pictures from events but words are always nice, too. A picture may be worth 1000 words but those words can sometimes be deceptive :P .
The food was pretty good but there’s never enough Italian food XD Italy has a lot to do but hopefully we’ll be able to go back one day and do those things.
Yea, I fluctuate between 85 and 90 pounds, haha.

i wouldn’t mind if the important text was in a bigger font size either. it’s so annoying to realize you’ve overlooked it! i’m sorry to hear about the term about living within the us border though, i hope you’ll get another chance in the future to travel to new york, hopefully there will be more contests for you to win!!

haha i don’t use to read the terms and conditions either. i mean, i start out pretty good, reading every sentence and every word, but as i’m reading, the sentences seem to be more unreadable for every word, and in the end i’m too bored to read the whole thing. why couldn’t they just put up a few simple rules instead of writing more than three whole pages!!

haha it’s a funny coincidence, we also made paper planes in class! my group made a pretty good one, until it flew right in the glass wall, hahaha it didn’t flew thast good after that.

Aw, I’m sorry that you aren’t able to win just because you don’t live in the US. :( That doesn’t really seem fair. I voted for you a few times when I saw you post the link on twitter.

I just think reading the terms and conditions is annoying. I can’t remember the last time I actually read one of those. :P They’re almost always extremely lengthy, and the vocabulary is sometimes confusing too… I think if companies really wanted us to read them, they should make it bigger, like you said.

We made paper airplanes in my history class last year for some activity (I don’t remember what it was), and my plane turned out horribly. :( I have absolutely no artistic ability, especially not when it comes to building things.

True, English class can definitely ruin good books just because you’re reading them for school. Once I did a report for English on my favourite book at the time, and after analyzing the book and writing about it, I suddenly didn’t like it very much anymore.

I rarely read small print haha.

Hey Georgie, I used your FanUpdate tutorial. (& linked you in my credits and blog.) ;) Thanks!

Are you using FanUpdate?

I’m using WordPress, not FanUpdate! I used to use FanUpdate over three years ago. :)

Ahahaha you should see the HUMANCENTiPAD episode of South Park. Or maybe not, there was a couple of parts I thought I would throw up watching. However, it is based off the idea of people not reading terms & conditions that they agree to, and what can happen if you don’t know what you’re signing up for. Hilarity ensues.

Hahaha @ stealing your kidney … I’m now reminded of Charlie the Unicorn ♥

I never read the T&Cs…never ever. I should but I don’t. Off-topic, those Ab Swing Pros adverts and any other similar advert.

Oh, how fun! Making paper planes. When I was in 8th grade we were given a similar task that contributed to our end year mark – that was quite interesting :)

I just agree to the T&C too. I barely read it. Which bit me in the butt when I got hosted by FirstHosting.us and they stole my money. -_-
What’s in the past is in the past…That’s all I have to say about that.

I’m thinking about getting back into fanlistings and having a subdomain on Mushie with them but I want to wait until one that I LOVE LOVE like Soccer, Basketball, or something about computers. :) I’m most likely going to use Listing Admin. I like it the best out of Enthusiast and the other fanlisting stuff. :)

That seems like a really fun project for college. :)

They really should have it in big letters. I do my best with my T&C for Hostwish. There are just things that you HAVE TO have in there, you know?
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Hahahaha. I need to catch up on Shane Dawson TV, TV 2, & his iPhone Channel. I haven’t watched that for months. XD I’m trying to do it but I’m starting to get uninterested in him so I’m just waiting until I feel like it. :P

I’ll have to check those people out sometime. :)

Yeah, we did talk about it and he forgave me. Hahaha. He still uses it against me though. XD
Or I could make a fanlisting on boyfriends? XD Jk. I’m not going to do that. Idk how I’d update that anyway. XD

Same here. I just don’t think I’ll be able to exercise today. Poop! :( Oh well. I’ll exercise tomorrow. :D

That sucks. :( I’m sorry, I know how much you wanted to win.

I really hate online competitions because I’m never eligible. NORWAY is NOWHERE, you know. There’s this forum which has a huge thread for discounts and coupons around the web. After I tried out a few, none of them worked because they’re US/North-America only. I complained on the thread, requesting people to at least add that relevant information of WHO can use the discounts/coupons in their posts but no one bothered to and just kept thumbing me down :| Aka, giving me negative reputation ffff.

I heard about this guy who read through the TOS of a program and won 10 000 dollars. The program had added a small text where it said that the person should send an email and claim the prize of 10k for reading it. After all the years the program was out, the only one who read the TOS and won the money was that ONE guy.

thanks, thanks, and thanks! lol. The weekend went great, I’m surprised lol.

awww, sorry to hear that you aren’t eligable due to not living in the states. That’s crap! I hate when things are only located to the states and only available for them. Blah. You’re very right, they should make the important things HUGE. I always find nice stuff that I want to order from the states but I can’t because they don’t offer it to Canada or any other place :(

Haha, I’m glad you enjoyed your class! Making paper air planes sounds exciting! 5 metres, omg thats far !

No one reads Terms and Conditions! It’s such a shame though about you not being eligible! If something had a squid brain warning on I think I’d avoid it…

Your risk assessment sounds so funny! We have to be that extreme every time we do a show, or workshop work, or anything…
5 metres is very impressive for a paper airplane! Share your secret, please!
I know what you mean about having to look at things in an academic way changing your views on it, you have to analyse it so much! That was such a nice topic to write about though!

Haha we actually really thought hard about the plane as we gave it test runs. We realised that you could fold a paper plane really simply (there are several different techniques on the internet), but what counted for about half of the success was the way you threw the plane. It takes time, but I think a quick, swift movement does it. ;)

Late to the party, but oh well :P

Man, I NEVER read terms & conditions. Unless of course it’s for a competition. But I’m talking about the terms & conditions for software I’m installing, for user agreements, for internet-related things I’m downloading etc. I just can’t be bothered. My hand automatically goes to click ‘agree’ XD If it was really that important, it’d be in size 72 font lol and red, and bold :P

You’re so right about school ruining books and other things because you have to look at them academically and/or critically. “Romeo & Juliet” is ruined for me because we studied it in Drama in high school lol. In a similar vein, I can’t look at a flower the same way again (I know all the different parts; sepals, petals, stamen, stigma, etc haha) or a rock (as I know some of the different minerals that make it up) but I don’t mind so much with that. It’s a bit of a nerdy thing to be knowledgeable about :P