Terms of
use

Bureau of Chat is a free service for Twitch chats. Viewers type !passport in a channel that runs the Bureau and get a passport that collects a stamp from each channel they chat in. Streamers get an overlay for OBS, a chat bot and a live desk to run them from.

The passport is a game. It is not an identity document, and nothing here is a real government. The Bureau is run by one person, who streams on Twitch as diminished_seventh.

You sign in with your Twitch account, on Twitch's own page. The Bureau asks Twitch only who you are. It asks for no other permission and never sees your Twitch password. A sign-in lasts 30 days. You can sign out, or sign out everywhere at once.

You are responsible for your Twitch account and for anything done while signed in as you. Signing in does not make a passport by itself. You apply for one, and you can ask for it to be removed at any time.

You must be at least 13 to use the Bureau, the same as Twitch. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you need a parent's or guardian's permission.

Registering a channel is your choice, and so is every feature you switch on. You are responsible for what appears on your stream through the overlay, and for what the bot says in your chat because of a setting, command or timed message you wrote.

Your control list. You can let other people drive your desk. Helpers can put things on your stream. Managers can also change your channel's settings. They act with your authority. The desk keeps a short log of who did what, and only you can change the list.

Your overlay address. An overlay address can carry a key, and new channels start with one. Anybody who has the address can draw your overlay, so keep it as private as a stream key. If it gets out, change the key.

Your own bot account. If you connect your own bot, the Bureau speaks in your chat as that account. Its sign-in is stored sealed, and you can disconnect it whenever you like.

A Stoat call on stream. The Bureau joins a Stoat voice call only after you prove it is yours with a code posted in that call. Names are off until you switch them on. Anybody in a call can ask to be left off every Bureau stream, and the Bureau honours that. If you put a Stoat call on stream, tell the people in it. Anybody in the call can ask to be kept off.

Anything you upload has to be yours, or something you have permission to use on a live broadcast. That covers passport artwork, stamp pictures, frames, Stoat call pictures, desk pictures and clips, and sounds. No sexual content, gore, hate symbols, or anything that would break Twitch's rules on your stream.

A person at the Bureau can refuse any picture at any time, including one that was allowed before. A refused picture comes off every stream at once.

If you put an item in the Duty Free, a holder who buys it keeps what was on the receipt. Changing or removing the item later does not take it back from them, unless the picture in it is refused.

You keep ownership of what you upload. You give the Bureau permission to store it, show it where it was uploaded for, and make the copies that takes. That permission ends when the upload is deleted, apart from backup copies, which are gone within 30 days.

Miles are points. You earn them for a new port on your passport and for your first message in a broadcast, up to a daily limit. You spend them in the Duty Free on passport looks: skins, titles, frames and the like. Miles cannot be bought with money, sold, sent to somebody else or exchanged for money or anything outside the Bureau. They have no cash value. The Bureau sets the rates and can change them. Miles go when your record is removed.

The lottery is free to enter with !lottery while a streamer has one open, and it needs a passport. Each port on your passport is another chance. The prize is whatever the streamer names. The Bureau supplies no prizes, holds none and delivers none: that is between you and the streamer who ran it. The winner's name is said in that chat and shown on that stream. A lottery is run by the streamer, not by the Bureau. The streamer is responsible for following any giveaway rules where they live.

Friend of the Bureau is a one-off payment of US$3, made on Stripe's own page. In return the Bureau strikes its own stamp into your passport. It moves no rung, earns no miles and unlocks no feature. You need a passport to buy it, and you can only buy it once. If the payment is fully refunded or disputed, the stamp comes off.

Tips go through a separate Stripe page, in Canadian dollars, for whatever amount you choose. A tip unlocks nothing and is not linked to your passport.

Stripe's own terms apply to both payments. Your card details go to Stripe and never reach the Bureau.

Ask within 14 days and the Friend of the Bureau payment is refunded in full, and the stamp comes off. After 14 days it is not refundable. Tips are gifts and are not refunded, unless one was sent by mistake and you ask within 14 days.

The Bureau can add, change, pause or close any feature, and can stop the service altogether. When a feature has closed before, stamps already earned stayed on the passports that carried them, and looks already bought stayed wearable.

The Bureau is free and is offered as it is. It runs on one small server and depends on Twitch, Stoat, Stripe, Google and Cloudflare. The overlay or the bot can stop working in the middle of a broadcast. A stamp, a count or a streak can be wrong. Keep your own copy of anything you cannot afford to lose. The Bureau is provided as is and as available, without any warranty, as far as the law allows.

As far as the law allows, the Bureau is not responsible for losses that come from using it or from it not working: a missed stamp, a broken overlay on stream, a lost upload, or something another user or streamer did. Nothing here takes away a right the law gives you that cannot be signed away. As far as the law allows, the most the Bureau owes you for any claim is what you paid it in the twelve months before, or CA$10 if you paid nothing.

You can stop using the Bureau whenever you like. To have your record removed, follow the steps on the privacy page. To take a channel off the Bureau, ask, using the contact below.

If somebody breaks these terms, the Bureau can end their sign-ins, refuse their pictures, remove their record, or stop working with their channel. You are told why when that is safe to do, and you can ask for a second look by messaging diminished_seventh on Twitch.

These terms can change. The date at the top of this page says when they last did. Using the Bureau after a change means you accept the new terms. A change is posted on the Recent changes page and in the notice bar at the top of the site, with the new date above. Using the Bureau after a change means you accept it.

Bureau of Chat is independent. It is not affiliated with Twitch, Stoat, Stripe, Google or any streaming platform, and none of them endorse it.

Questions about these terms go to diminished_seventh on Twitch. Or email [email protected].

These terms follow the laws of Canada, and any dispute is heard in Canada.