Privacy Policy

Effective October 28, 2026

The Uncommon Pursuit Community (up.uncommonpursuit.net) is run by Uncommon Pursuit, Inc., a Georgia 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN 87-3459028). In this policy, “we,” “us,” and “our” mean Uncommon Pursuit. This policy covers the community. Our main website, uncommonpursuit.net, has its own privacy policy.

The community runs on Discourse, open-source forum software, and Communiteq hosts it for us.

In short: You create an account to take part, and anyone can read what you post in our public categories. We use Google Analytics to understand our visitors. We don’t sell your personal information.

1. Your account

To join, you choose a username and give us your email address. You can sign in with a password or with a link we email you. Discourse stores your password in a scrambled (hashed) form, so no one, including us, can read it. You can also add a full name, a profile photo, a bio, and other profile details. All of these are optional.

Your username and profile photo appear beside everything you post, so anyone who can read a post can see them. Your full profile is visible to other members but hidden from visitors who aren’t signed in.

Profile photos from Gravatar. If you haven’t uploaded a photo, Discourse checks whether you have one at Gravatar, a service run by Automattic. To check, it sends Gravatar a scrambled (hashed) form of your email address.

2. What you post

• Public categories. Anyone can read posts in our public categories, including visitors who aren’t signed in and search engines. Our community is also listed in Discourse’s public directory of communities.
• Group categories. Some categories are open only to members of groups such as Community Partners and course participants. Only members of those groups and our staff can read them.
• Personal messages and chat. Personal messages and chat conversations are visible to the people in them. Our administrators can technically access them, and we look at them only when a member reports a problem or we need to stop abuse.
• Deleted posts. When you delete a post, other members can no longer see it, but our staff still can.
• Amazon links. When someone posts a link to Amazon, Discourse adds our Amazon affiliate tag to it. If you buy something after following such a link, Amazon knows you came from us, and we may earn a commission.

3. Information collected automatically

Activity. Discourse records what you do in the community, including which topics you read and for how long, which posts you like or react to, and the days you visit. It uses this to show you what’s new, award badges, and grant trust levels, which unlock more features as you take part.

IP addresses and devices. Discourse records the IP address and browser you sign up, sign in, and post from. It uses them to fight spam and abuse, and it shows you your recent sign-ins, with approximate locations, in your preferences. Our staff can see these records.

Spam checks. Discourse sends posts from newer members to Akismet, a spam-detection service run by Automattic. Akismet receives the post, your username, your email address, your IP address, and your browser information.

Cookies. Discourse uses cookies to keep you signed in and to remember your settings.

Analytics and advertising. The community uses Google Tag Manager to load these services:

• Google Analytics records the pages you visit, the site or link that brought you here, how you interact with pages (for example, clicking links and submitting forms), your device and browser type, and your approximate location, which Google estimates from your IP address. Google explains how it uses this information at How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
• Google Ads records visits that come from our ads, counts actions that follow them, and records your visit so we can show our ads to people who have visited the community (“remarketing”).

These services use cookies. Section 8 explains how to opt out.

Do Not Track. The community doesn’t change what it does in response to a browser’s Do Not Track signal.

Videos. Videos posted from YouTube or Vimeo load only when you press play. Until then, those companies receive nothing from your visit.

4. How we use information

We use the information described here to:

• run the community and show you what’s new;
• send the notifications and summary emails you can control in your preferences;
• prevent spam and abuse;
• learn how people use the community and improve it; and
• measure and improve our ads.

The community shows its own notices, such as Bible verses and invitations to Friends Following Jesus. They come from us and don’t track you.

5. Who we share information with

We don’t sell or rent your personal information. We share it only:

• with other members, as described in section 2;
• with the services that run the community for us: Communiteq (hosting and email delivery), Automattic (Akismet spam checks and Gravatar), Microsoft (advertising measurement), and Google (analytics and advertising measurement); and
• when the law requires it, such as in response to a court order.

6. How long we keep information

We keep your account, your posts, and the activity records Discourse stores with them for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, or ask us to, we delete it or anonymize it. Anonymizing removes your name, email address, and profile, and leaves your posts under an anonymous username so conversations still make sense. Text that other members quoted in their own posts stays in their posts.

7. Your rights

• See and download your information: your profile and preferences show what you’ve shared, and you can download a copy of your posts from your activity page.
• Correct it: you can edit your profile and your posts at any time.
• Delete it: you can delete your own posts. You can delete your account from your preferences if you’ve posted very little; otherwise, email us and we’ll delete or anonymize it.

We honor these requests from anyone, wherever you live.

8. Your choices

• Email: you choose which notifications and summary emails you get in your preferences, and every email has an unsubscribe link.
• Cookies: you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, but you’ll need cookies to stay signed in.
• Analytics and ads: Google offers a Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. You can turn off personalized ads in Google’s ad settings and in Microsoft’s ad settings.

9. Children

You must be at least 13 to join the community, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has joined or given us personal information, email us and we’ll delete it.

10. Members outside the United States

We’re based in the United States. Our host and the other services listed here may process your information in the United States or other countries. By using the community, you understand your information may be processed outside your country.

11. Security

The community is served only over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, and passwords are stored only in hashed form. No system is perfectly secure, so use a password you don’t use anywhere else.

12. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we’ll post the new version on this page and update the effective date at the top.

13. Contact us

Uncommon Pursuit, Inc.
Our contact page.