Since the essay deadline and graduation are closing up, but I am at the same time very busy at work at Tribe Tampere ry, I put my few leftover brain cells to work on a puzzle: what could I do that simultaneously would bring immediate value to Tribe, but would also be passable as a double point essay for school purposes. And then it hit me: we’ve been waiting for a Terms of Service update for a long while, but no one has had enough extra hours to focus on it. Perfect match.

And what does a good teampreneur do when some rules and terms need to be updated? Ask for a team member to join in. However in this case not a Flip member, but a co-worker who also happens to be a Proakatemia Alumnus. Ahh, Julia my beloved one. We hit our heads together for one long Tuesday afternoon and stayed at work for an extra three(?) hours to get some sense into this thing.

The old Terms of Service can be viewed below in the pictures with a black background.

PICTURE SET 1. The Terms of Service page of Tribe Tampere ry. (Tribe Tampere n.d.)

As it quickly becomes clear even by only skimming through the terms of service (by the way, this is taken from our website), the big picture is unclear; there are multiple repetitions, and overall, the reading experience is not the best. Most likely this document is a few years old, and instead of being fully renewed at any point, it has only gotten some small add-on points. This is normal and also often visible for example in board rules. However, just like demonstrated in this case, sometimes it is just best to take the whole thing back to the editing table and make sure the whole makes sense.

As any good Akatemia graduate would do, me and Julia just hopped into the working without thinking too much of any theory or laws holding us down. Trial and error baby! Well, since this is an essay, after all, I will be reviewing the work one more time and editing it based on a few relevant sources and backup information. The list of these sources can be found at the end of this essay.

Let’s start from the basics. To foster a multinational and extensive community, I, Julia, and others at Tribe understand the need to not set any stupid rules, but also that some clear and comprehensive set of terms of service are needed to keep everyone using our premises happy. The goal of the renewed Space reserving info is for our community members to understand their rights and responsibilities and through that feel secure within the ecosystem. In addition, the current terms are clearly not up to date with old email addresses and wrong info about the Sauna. Below is presented the new Space Reserving Info (to replace the current ‘Terms of Service’ page on our website). The renewed version aims to be shorter, clearer, and more user-friendly.

PICTURE SET 2. New space reserving space. Drive archive of Tribe, Luhtala & Nieminen (2023).

The pricing table will be updated as well, but that will be happening a bit later.

As visible in the pictures above, the new model aims to build a better customer path. The first step is before booking the space, then becomes the official part terms of Service including a clear check-box list for everyone ending their space reservation, and the right at the end, so that it does not interrupt the thought flow, is the pricing table. As showcased in a short video about How to make terms and conditions understandable (Forbrukertilsynet 2018), this new version of the Space reserving page aims to

• not use difficult terms or heavy legal language
• to be short enough
• give the reader the most important overview right at the beginning.

When comparing this new version of the terms of service for example to Antilooppi Management Oy’s space reservation guidance (2023), we could still add mentions about the cancellation right, transfer of agreement, and a possible interest on late payments. To follow Tampere city’s guidelines on space reservations (2023), we could also mention the age limitation. The space reserver needs to be over 18. The platform used for the space reservation, Skedda, asks about this but it could also be mentioned in the Terms of Service. When comparing, we could also add that we have the right to suspend the event if we consider some rules have been violated. Overall, the current version already seems really good. Tampere City (2023) had an 18-point list of general conditions for booking and use of premises, but only these two notions were raised from the comparison.

Well, this new Terms of Service is clearly better than the old one, but it seems it still needs a few new updates. Please let me know in the comments if you notice something more!

SOURCES:

Antilooppi Management Oy. 2023. Tilavarausta ja tilan käyttöä koskevat ehdot. Tilavarausalusta spaces.antilooppi.fi. Read on 26.11.2023. https://antilooppi.fi/tilavarausta-ja-tilan-kayttoa-koskevat-ehdot/

City of Tampere. 2023. Tilojen yleiset varaus- ja käyttöehdot. https://www.tampere.fi/vuokrattavat-tilat/tilojen-yleiset-varaus-ja-kayttoehdot

Forbrukertilsynet. 2018. Digital Terms. Published on 14.11.2018. Updated on 9.6.2021. Read on 26.11.2023. https://www.forbrukertilsynet.no/english/digitalterms

Tribe Tampere. n.d. Terms of service. Tribe Tampere ry. Read on 26.11.2023. https://tribetampere.com/terms-of-service/

Luhtala, E. & Nieminen, J. 2023. Space reserving. Drive data archive of Tribe. Tribe Tampere ry.