The terms of taking a seat.
These apply when you enter a Xertz round. They are written to be read, so they are short. Effective 17 October 2026.
What Xertz is
Xertz runs private one on one Lincoln-Douglas practice rounds. A round starts on this site, where one debater sets the resolution and hands the other a private seat code, or in Discord with the /debate command, where each debater receives a code. The code opens a seat on this site.
Xertz gives you a shared clock, live video and audio, and the speaking order. Xertz itself does not judge, score, or rank you. If both debaters ask for coaching notes, an AI reads the transcript and gives its own decision on who won, with its reasons. That decision can be wrong and is not an official result.
Who may use it
You must be at least 13 years old to use Xertz. If you are under 18, you may use it only with permission from a parent or guardian. A coach or school can introduce Xertz to a team, but that does not replace a parent or guardian's permission.
If you are agreeing to these terms for a school, team, or Discord community, you confirm you are allowed to do that on their behalf.
Your seat
A seat code is private, works once, belongs to one person, and expires 30 minutes after it is issued. Do not share it. Anyone holding your code can take your place in the round.
Xertz does not require an account. Entering a code creates a temporary session on your device so the server can tell that the seat is yours. Clearing it through Leave and clear this device ends that session.
You may sign in with Google to keep your rounds. Signing in attaches your Google identity to that same session, so the rounds you played stay on your account. You may use only your own Google account, and you are responsible for what happens under it.
How to behave in a round
Debate the resolution. Do not harass, threaten, demean, or slur your opponent. Do not use a round to share sexual content involving minors, illegal material, or anything you have no right to share.
Do not record, screen capture, restream, or publish a round without the clear agreement of the other debater. Xertz does not record for you. Recording a private conversation without everyone's agreement can be a crime in Illinois and other states.
Do not impersonate another debater, take a seat that was not issued to you, or interfere with the clock, the bot, or the service.
We can end a round, remove access, or decline service if any of this happens. Serious conduct may be reported to the Discord server it came from, and to the authorities where the law requires it.
Your voice, your video, your words
Xertz does not record your audio or video. Your camera and microphone are carried live between the two of you and nothing else, and are not stored.
Transcription is off unless both debaters separately say yes in that round. When it runs, your microphone audio is sent as you speak to our speech-to-text provider so it can be turned into text. The audio is not kept. Only the finished text is stored.
A transcript is private to the two debaters in that round, unless you both agree to share it with a volunteer judge. You can delete your own words from it at any time, and once both of you have, it is gone. Automated transcripts contain mistakes and are not a record of what was said.
Rounds, transcripts, coaching notes, and judge feedback are deleted automatically about 24 hours after the round ends, unless a debater in the round has signed in to keep them. Without an account, download anything you want to keep before then.
You keep everything you say and write. You give Xertz only the permission it needs to carry your round between you, to produce a transcript when you have both agreed to one, and to show it to a judge when you have both agreed to that.
Xertz does not identify anyone by their voice or face and collects no biometric data. The privacy policy explains exactly what is collected and for how long.
Coaching notes
If both debaters say yes before the round and the round ends with a transcript, Xertz has an AI model, Anthropic's Claude, write private coaching notes for each of you from the transcript. Your names are not sent. The notes are coaching: what worked and what to change. With them, the AI gives one decision on who won the round and why, the same for both of you. It never gives a score.
Notes and the decision are written by a machine and can be wrong. The decision is the AI's own reading of the transcript, not an official result, and it does not stand in for a judge. Read both as one more opinion to argue with. Each debater sees only their own notes; both see the same decision. All of it is deleted with the transcript.
Rounds started on this site include a small number of transcribed rounds per account, shared from a monthly pool. When the pool is used up, the round still runs; only the transcript and notes are unavailable.
Judge feedback
If both debaters agree, a volunteer judge can read the round's transcript and send written feedback to both of you through the Xertz bot. Judges see the transcript, the resolution, and each side's display name. They never get audio or video.
Judges are volunteers, may be adults, and may come from another Xertz server. A judge must keep what they read private, contact debaters only through Xertz, and never ask a debater for personal information or to talk somewhere else. Feedback is coaching: no winner, no ballot, no score.
Safety and reporting
Report anything unsafe, including a judge or opponent who breaks these terms, to support@xertz.app or to the moderators of the Discord server where the round started.
Federal law requires Xertz to report apparent child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Xertz will, and will preserve related information and cooperate with law enforcement when the law requires it.
What Xertz does not promise
Xertz is early software offered free of charge. It can be interrupted, changed, or taken down. Rounds can fail. Transcription can fail, and when it does the debate continues without it.
The service is provided as it is, without warranties of any kind. Xertz is not responsible for the outcome of a debate, for the conduct of the person you debate, or for anything you lose by relying on the service being available.
Where the law allows a limit, our total liability to you for anything connected to Xertz is capped at the amount you have paid us in the twelve months before the claim.
Changes and endings
We may change these terms. If a change matters, we will say so on this page and update the date at the top of this page before it takes effect. Continuing to use Xertz after that means you accept the change.
You can stop using Xertz whenever you like. We can suspend or end access if these terms are broken, or if we stop offering the service.
Law and contact
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Disputes belong to the state or federal courts located in Illinois.
Questions, complaints, and requests about your data go to support@xertz.app. We would rather hear from you than from a lawyer, and we answer.
Xertz is operated from Illinois. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. See also our privacy policy and accessibility statement.