Terms of Service

Last updated September 14, 2026

1. What Gnome is

Gnome (operated by Boone Systems LLC, Ohio, USA) is a neighborhood marketplace where people share, trade, buy, and sell homegrown and homestead goods — produce, plants, seeds, eggs, honey, firewood, garden supplies, and similar items. For that marketplace, Gnome is a venue only: we don’t sell the items neighbors list, we don’t process payments between neighbors, and we’re not a party to any exchange between them. Pickup, payment, and the goods themselves are arranged directly between users. If Gnome ever sells something itself, we’ll say so plainly on that product’s page, and that sale will have its own terms.

2. Your account

You must be at least 18 to sell, and at least 13 to use Gnome. You’re responsible for what happens on your account, including anything posted or sent from it. One person, one account. We may suspend or remove accounts or listings that break these terms or the law.

3. What you can post

A listing can give something away, offer a trade, offer something for sale, ask for something you want, or offer a garden plot for a neighbor to reserve. A Wanted post is a request, not an offer to buy at any price — and when a neighbor answers it, everything in these terms about sellers applies to them. Whatever the type, the listing has to describe the real thing you actually have, honestly.

4. What’s not allowed

Gnome has no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive behavior. Don’t post or send anything harassing, threatening, hateful, sexually explicit, violent, or meant to deceive another neighbor. Don’t impersonate anyone, don’t scrape or spam, and don’t use Gnome to arrange anything illegal.

Some things may never be listed on Gnome: alcohol, cannabis, tobacco and nicotine products, prescription and medical products, weapons and ammunition, and unsafe chemicals. Pesticides and fertilizers may only be listed in their original labeled packaging. Don’t list anything illegal, recalled, unsafe, misrepresented, stolen, or that you don’t have the right to sell. Our Trust & Safety page explains the categories that need extra care — eggs, baked and canned goods, meat and dairy, pet food — and forms part of these terms.

5. Seller responsibilities

Sellers are solely responsible for their listings and for complying with all laws that apply to what they offer — including state cottage-food laws, egg and dairy regulations, meat inspection and licensing requirements, seed labeling laws, pet-food and feed registration, and local zoning. Some things need permits or are prohibited from neighbor-to-neighbor sale in some states; it’s the seller’s job to know. You are also responsible for your own taxes.

6. Regulated categories

Some categories are gated. Depending on the category and where you are, Gnome may block publishing outright, ask you to affirm a statement about how the item was produced, require a paid seller plan, or require you to upload a permit, license, or registration for us to review before your listing can go live. While a document is under review you can save a draft but not publish. Documents you upload are stored privately and are visible only to you and to Gnome.

These gates are our house rules, and they are not legal permission. Us approving a document, or not gating a category at all, never means your listing is lawful where you live — that judgment stays yours.

7. Buyer responsibility

Homegrown and homestead goods are not commercially inspected. Use your judgment, ask sellers questions, and handle food appropriately. Meet in safe, public-ish places (a porch counts) and bring a friend if you like.

8. Claims, requests, and pickup

When you claim a free item, offer a trade, request to buy, or answer a Wanted post, the seller decides whether to accept. If they accept, a message thread opens between the two of you for that one exchange, and it becomes read-only once the exchange is marked complete. A claim is an arrangement between neighbors — Gnome doesn’t reserve the item, guarantee it will be there, or hold anything for you. Show up when you said you would, and tell the other person if plans change.

Sellers can type a pickup address manually or use address suggestions powered by Google Maps Platform. Using those suggestions is also subject to the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms and Google’s Privacy Policy.

9. Money changes hands between you, not through us

Gnome takes no cut of neighbor-to-neighbor exchanges — no transaction fee, no commission, no listing fee. We don’t process, hold, escrow, or refund those payments. Sellers can publish how they’d like to be paid (cash at pickup, Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Zelle, or something else) and the payment itself happens on that service or in person, under that service’s terms and not ours. The same is true of any delivery fee a seller sets: Gnome calculates and displays it, the seller collects it directly, and we never touch it.

The Sales Notebook is the seller’s own private record of exchanges that already happened somewhere else. It records money; it never moves money. It isn’t an accounting service, a receipt, or a tax document, and we don’t verify what’s entered in it.

A seller may add a Market Deal to a promoted sale listing, such as buy one get one free or a custom offer. The seller sets the offer and is responsible for describing and honoring it. Gnome displays the Deal but does not automatically calculate a discount, change the listing price or inventory, reserve an item, or process the payment. Buyer and seller should confirm the Deal before completing the exchange off Gnome.

10. Your content

You keep ownership of the photos and text you post. You grant Gnome a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, resize, and display them in the app, on the website, and in the parts of the site search engines can see, so the marketplace works. That license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies we’re required to keep or that already exist in backups. Don’t post content you don’t have rights to. If you believe something on Gnome infringes your copyright, email us and we’ll look into it.

11. AI features

Gnome’s AI features — listing drafts from a photo or a description, the garden planner, and the in-app assistant — generate suggestions automatically, and they can be wrong. They are suggestions and nothing more: Gnome never publishes a listing for you. An AI draft lands in the normal editor, and nothing goes live until you read it, fix what’s wrong, and post it yourself. Once you post it, it’s your listing and your responsibility — including its price, its description, and whether it’s legal for you to sell. Treat planner and assistant answers as gardening guidance, not professional, legal, tax, medical, or food-safety advice.

12. Plans and billing

Gnome is free to use, and sharing your surplus always will be. Sellers who want more included listings each month, more pickup locations, delivery controls, plots, and higher daily Zordy request limits can subscribe to a paid plan. Paying us never changes §9 — we still take no cut of what you sell to a neighbor.

If you subscribe, a paid plan is a subscription that renews automatically at the price and interval shown to you at checkout, and it keeps renewing until it’s cancelled. Subscriptions started in the iOS app are billed and managed by Apple. Subscriptions started on Gnome’s website are billed and managed through Stripe. Gnome never receives your full card number or Apple payment credentials. Some things are one-time or add-on purchases instead — promoting a single listing, or an extra pickup location billed monthly — and those are described where you buy them. A promoted listing is always labeled Promoted where it appears.

Cancelling. You can cancel at any time. For an iOS subscription, use Apple’s subscription settings from the Manage subscription button in Gnome or from your Apple Account. For a website subscription, email daniel@boonesystems.com and we’ll stop the next Stripe renewal. Your plan keeps working through the period you’ve already paid for, and your Market then returns to the free tier. Listings you already posted run out their normal term; new listings then draw on the free plan’s smaller included allowance. Pickup locations above the free limit stop being selectable rather than being deleted. Refunds and billing disputes for Apple purchases are handled under Apple’s App Store terms. We don’t generally refund partial website-billed periods, but if something went wrong on our end, email us and we’ll make it right. If we change the price of a plan you’re on, we’ll notify you before it takes effect so you can cancel first.

13. Founding Member

The Founding Member program is not open. No one has been made a Founding Member, no number has been issued, and no price or benefit has been promised to anyone. If we open it, we’ll publish its terms first. It would recognize people holding a paid Gnome marketplace subscription — signing up early, joining a waitlist, or expressing interest wouldn’t qualify anyone — the number of memberships would be limited, and membership would depend on keeping that subscription current: it lapses if the subscription lapses, and can be revoked on a refund, a chargeback, or abuse.

To be unambiguous about what it isn’t: a Founding Member subscription would be prepayment for services and nothing else. It is not equity, ownership, a stake, an investment, a security, or any share of Gnome’s revenue or profit, and it confers no control over Boone Systems LLC.

14. Seed Drop

Seed Drop is coming soon. There is nothing to buy, no price, and no opening date. You may join the free launch-interest waitlist with an email address, ZIP code, and the Drop size you would consider. That lets us measure demand and contact you if Seed Drop opens in your area. It is not an order, reservation, subscription, guaranteed queue position, or promise of availability, and it creates no payment obligation of any kind. Telling Gnome about your garden separately saves a garden profile so our first suggestions fit your zone and space. Gnome’s current plan is to select a seed-company partner to pack and ship Drops, but no partner or fulfillment terms are promised yet. Seed Drop would be the one place Gnome sells something itself rather than acting as a venue, so before it opens we will update these terms and say plainly what changes.

15. Reports, moderation, and suspension

Every listing, Market, and conversation has a report option, and you can block any neighbor. Reports go to a person. We may remove content, restrict features, suspend an account, or permanently remove one — with or without notice, at our discretion — when something breaks these terms or the law, or when we think a neighbor is at risk. A suspended account can’t post listings or make claims. We don’t pre-screen listings or messages, and we’re not obligated to monitor them; the report button is how most problems reach us, so please use it.

16. Ending it

You can stop using Gnome at any time. You can delete your account from Profile → Settings → Delete my account in the Gnome app, or on the web at gnomefarmersmarket.com/delete-account — either way it removes your profile, listings, and uploads, and it can’t be undone. If you can’t sign in at all, email daniel@boonesystems.com from the address on the account and we’ll delete it for you. If you have a paid plan, cancel it first — or say so in the same email — because deleting your account does not by itself stop a subscription from renewing. Sections 9, 17, and 18 survive your account ending.

17. Disputes between neighbors

If an exchange goes wrong — the item wasn’t as described, someone didn’t show up, a payment didn’t arrive — that’s between the two of you. Gnome isn’t a party to it, doesn’t arbitrate it, and can’t reverse a payment we never handled. Report it anyway: we can act on the account, even when we can’t fix the exchange.

18. No warranties; limitation of liability

Gnome is provided “as is.” To the maximum extent permitted by law, Boone Systems LLC is not liable for the conduct of users, the quality or safety of listed items, or indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service. Our total liability for any claim is limited to $100.

19. Changes and contact

We may update these terms; we’ll change the date at the top, and continued use means acceptance. These terms are governed by Ohio law. Questions: daniel@boonesystems.com.