Terms of use

Last updated: October 14, 2026

The short version

• Datelyst is a guide for adults 18 and over. It isn't a dating service: we don't host profiles, messages or matches.
• Our articles are general information. They aren't medical, legal, financial, therapy or other professional advice.
• If you send us your story, you keep owning it. We publish it, lightly edited, only after you've seen and approved the final version, and you can ask us to take it down at any time.
• We link to apps, sites, matchmakers and events that we don't run, apart from Spark Twice, which is run by Datelyst's parent company. Some links pay us, and we label them.
• We list events run by other people. We don't sell tickets.
• If something goes wrong, email us first. If we can't fix it, Delaware law applies, and small claims court is always open to you.

The full terms are below. By using Datelyst you agree to them, so please read them. Our privacy policy explains how we handle your information.

1. Who we are

Datelyst ("we", "us", "our") is published at datelyst.com by Datelyst's parent company, a Delaware limited liability company. Spark Twice, a matchmaking service, is also run by Datelyst's parent company. These terms are an agreement between you and Datelyst's parent company. They cover the website, our emails and reader accounts.

2. Who can use Datelyst

You must be 18 or older to use Datelyst, create an account, take the quiz, subscribe or send a story. Datelyst is written for readers in the United States. Please use one account, with an email address that's yours.

3. What Datelyst is, and what it isn't

Datelyst publishes articles, real stories from readers, a quiz that suggests ways to meet people, a list of local singles events, and our picks of apps, sites and matchmakers.

Datelyst isn't a dating service. We don't host profiles, introduce readers to each other or arrange dates. When you use an app, site, matchmaker or event we mention, you're dealing with that service directly, under its own terms.

Our content is general information. Articles, quiz results, emails and stories are written for a general audience. They aren't medical, legal, financial, therapy or other professional advice, and they can't take your situation into account the way a professional can. Please talk to a doctor, lawyer, financial adviser, therapist or counselor about decisions in their area.

If you need help now. If you're in danger, call 911. If you're in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988. If you're afraid of a partner or an ex, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. Our contact page lists other places to get help. Datelyst can't respond to emergencies.

Safety is your call. We write a lot about meeting people safely, but we can't check the people you meet or guarantee anyone's honesty or behavior. Meet in public, tell someone where you're going, and never send money to someone you haven't met.

4. Your reader account

You sign in with a code sent to your email address. Anyone who can read your email can sign in to your account, so keep your email account secure and tell us at [email protected] if you think someone else has used it.

You can delete your account at any time from your account page. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, puts others at risk or is used to send spam. If we do, we'll tell you why unless the law or safety reasons stop us.

5. Our emails

We email you only what you ask for, plus messages about your account and any story you send. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link that works at once, and you can change topics and frequency on your email preferences page. We may still send you messages you need, such as sign-in codes and updates about your story.

6. Our content and how you can use it

The articles, illustrations, photos, quiz, design and the Datelyst name and logo belong to us or to people who've given us permission to use them. You're welcome to read, save and print articles for your own personal use, and to share links to them. Please don't republish whole articles, use our content to sell something, or remove our name or credits.

Automated access (bots, crawlers, scrapers) is allowed only as our robots.txt file permits. Please don't try to get into parts of Datelyst that aren't public, interfere with how the site works, get around our security checks or send automated form submissions.

Stories on Datelyst belong to the readers who wrote them. You need the writer's permission to use a story beyond sharing a link to it.

7. Sharing your story

Our story guidelines explain what to send and how we handle it, in plain words. This section is the formal version.

You keep ownership

When you send us a story or photo, you still own it. You give us the permission set out below, and nothing more.

The permission you give us

You give Datelyst a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to:

• edit your story for length, clarity and our story rules, and show you the result;
• publish the version you approve on datelyst.com, with the name, age, state, situation and photo you chose;
• feature it in our newsletter and on Datelyst's own social media accounts, and make a share image from its title;
• keep the copies needed to run the site, such as backups.

We don't publish anything until you've seen the final version and agreed to it. We won't use your story in paid ads, give it or sell it to anyone else, use it to train AI models, or use it in advertising for Spark Twice (run by Datelyst's parent company), unless you give us separate written permission.

This permission ends for future use when you ask us to take your story down, as described below.

What you promise us

By sending a story, you confirm that:

• it happened to you, and you wrote it yourself (it wasn't written by an AI tool and presented as yours);
• you're 18 or older;
• you own or have permission to share any photo you send, and the photo shows you, a place or a thing (not another person without their consent);
• it doesn't include another person's full name, workplace, photo or contact details without their consent;
• it's true as far as you know, and doesn't say false things about a real, identifiable person;
• you haven't been paid or offered anything to write it.

If you work for Datelyst or for Spark Twice (run by Datelyst's parent company), are related to someone who does, or are a paying member of that matchmaking service, please tell us. We'll publish that connection at the top of your story, or not publish it.

Our story rules

We don't publish phone numbers, email addresses, social media handles or links. We don't pay for stories or reward positive ones. If we ever send a thank-you gift, every published writer gets the same one, whatever their story says, and the story will say so. We may ask you a question if a story reads as if it was generated by AI.

We read every story, and we may decline one for any reason, including that it breaks these rules or might identify or harm someone. If we do, we'll tell you briefly why.

How a story gets reviewed

A person on our team reads and edits every story. Our editor may use an AI tool (Claude, made by Anthropic) to summarize a story and check it against these rules, as our privacy policy explains. A person makes every decision.

Taking your story down

You can ask us to remove your published story at any time, from your account or by emailing [email protected]. It comes down from datelyst.com within 2 business days, and we stop featuring it anywhere we control.

Please understand what removal can't undo. Once a story is public, people may have shared it, emails that featured it have already been delivered, and search engines, AI assistants and web archives may have copied or indexed it. We can't recall those copies. That's why we ask you to use a first name or pen name and to leave out anything you'd want to stay private.

If you appear in someone else's story

If you think a story on Datelyst identifies you or says something untrue about you, email [email protected] with the link and what concerns you. We'll look at it promptly and may edit or remove the story while we do.

8. Rules for anything you send us

Whether it's a story, a form or an email, please don't send anything that:

• is illegal, threatening, harassing, hateful or sexually explicit;
• shares someone else's private information or images without their consent;
• pretends to be someone else, or misrepresents a connection to a business;
• infringes someone's copyright, trademark or privacy;
• advertises or promotes a product, service or person;
• contains viruses or other harmful code;
• involves anyone under 18.

Please don't use Datelyst to collect other readers' information, test our security without permission, or overload the site.

We may remove anything that breaks these rules and close accounts that break them repeatedly.

9. Copyright complaints

If you believe something on Datelyst infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our copyright agent:

• Name: Copyright Agent, Datelyst
• Address: Spark Logic, 11133 Shady Trail PMB 322, Dallas, TX 75229
• Email: [email protected] (subject line "Copyright notice")

Your notice needs to include your physical or electronic signature; the work you believe was copied; where the material is on Datelyst, so we can find it; your address, phone number and email address; a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn't authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and a statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you're authorized to act for the copyright owner.

10. Links, recommendations and how we're paid

Datelyst links to apps, sites, matchmakers, event pages and other websites that we don't control. The one exception is Spark Twice, which is run by Datelyst's parent company. We aren't responsible for other services' content, prices, terms, privacy practices or how they treat you. Please read their terms before you sign up or pay, especially how renewals and cancellations work.

Our picks and reviews are our opinion, based on the information available to us when we wrote them. Services change their prices, features and policies, and what we say may be out of date. Check the details with the service before you rely on them.

Some links pay us a commission, some placements are paid for by sponsors, and one service, Spark Twice, is run by Datelyst's parent company. We label each of these next to the link. How we make money explains it in full.

11. The quiz

The quiz suggests ways to meet people based only on your answers. Its picks are suggestions, not guarantees that a service will suit you, work in your area or lead to a relationship.

12. Event listings

Our events list is built from public event listings that we find automatically through search tools, plus events we add ourselves. A person checks each event before it appears, to confirm it looks like a real singles or social event. That check is limited: we don't organize, host, attend or vouch for these events, and we don't vet their organizers or the people who go.

We don't sell tickets. When you click "Tickets on" an event, you buy from the organizer or ticket site, under their terms and refund policy. Dates, prices, venues and age ranges can change or be wrong in the original listing, so confirm the details with the organizer before you go. Events are removed from Datelyst the day after they happen.

If you run an event and want it corrected or removed, email [email protected].

13. Spark Twice

Spark Twice is a matchmaking service run by Datelyst's parent company. If you apply to it, its own terms and privacy policy apply to that relationship. It may not be matching in every area yet; its own site is the place to check where it matches.

14. Disclaimers

We work hard to keep Datelyst accurate and useful, but we provide it "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no promises or warranties, express or implied, about Datelyst, including that it will be accurate, complete, up to date, uninterrupted or free of errors, or that it is fit for a particular purpose. We make no promises about any third-party service, event or person you learn about through Datelyst.

15. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• we aren't liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data or emotional distress, arising from your use of Datelyst or of any service, event or person you learn about through it;
• our total liability to you for any claim about Datelyst is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount you've paid us in the 12 months before the claim (Datelyst is free to readers, so usually that's $100).

Some states don't allow some of these limits, so they may not all apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law doesn't allow to be limited, such as liability for fraud or for harm we cause on purpose.

16. If you break these terms

If you break these terms, or send us content you didn't have the right to send, and that leads to a claim against us by someone else, you agree to cover the reasonable costs that result, including legal fees, to the extent the law allows.

17. Changes

We may change Datelyst, add or remove features, or stop offering it. We may also update these terms. When we do, we'll change the date at the top, and if the change is significant we'll tell subscribers by email or put a notice on the site before it takes effect. If you keep using Datelyst after a change takes effect, the new terms apply. Changes never apply to a dispute that started before the change.

18. If we have a disagreement

Talk to us first. Email [email protected] with "Dispute" in the subject line and tell us what happened and what you'd like. Most problems can be fixed quickly. Please give us 30 days to try before going further, and we'll do the same for you.

Small claims court. Either of us can take a claim to small claims court in the county where you live, as long as it qualifies there.

Everything else. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any other dispute will be decided in the state or federal courts located in Delaware. There's no forced arbitration in these terms.

Nothing here takes away rights you have under the consumer protection laws of the state where you live.

19. The rest

These terms and our privacy policy are the whole agreement between you and us about Datelyst. If any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later. We may transfer these terms to a company that takes over Datelyst. You may not transfer your account.

20. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected], or write to us at:

Spark Logic, 11133 Shady Trail PMB 322, Dallas, TX 75229