Evidence that IM apps are not IMBs, necessary?

[Teacake 76]

Hello, everyone! Thank you for putting up with me while I wrap my head around all of this.

 

One of the biggest headaches I’m facing right now is the issue of chat logs. I know lots of people use them as evidence of an ongoing relationship, so my USC fiancé and I have decided to include a few in our own packet. We’ve put them in a document with other things like receipts for gifts, scans of cards, etc. However, the apps we usually use to talk (“Couple” and “Between”) are not very well-known, so I worried that either may be misconstrued by the adjudicator as an IMB... I then wrote up an appendix providing the Terms of Service for both apps, but neither ToS explicitly says that they AREN’T IMBs, so they don’t really help my case... I already have a document giving evidence that Facebook isn’t an IMB (where we first met).

 

I’m beginning to wonder if attaching Couple and Between’s ToS are even necessary at all, or whether we should be using these chat logs in the first place because this is all just really confusing for us at this point.

 

Any help would be highly appreciated!

 

 

[geowrian 22,337]

The ToS should be sufficient. If you have you first messages sent, that might not be bad to include as well.

You may be able to get support/customer service to write that they are not an IMB as well.

Couple may be a difficult one...they seemed to have stopped development and support years ago (my wife and I used to use it as our primary messaging app as well).

[JFH 12,190]

But if they are just apps that you use to talk, like WhatsApp or Messenger, then the IMBRA rules don’t apply - since you didn’t use these services to “meet” each other. You say you met on Facebook. We already know that Facebook is not an IMB so that’s fine. The IMBRA rules only relate to the service or application that you were using when you first “met” each other. Your methods for continued communication are irrelevant. If you send letters through regular mail you don’t have to prove that USPS is not an IMB or if you speak on the phone you wouldn’t have to prove that AT&T is not an IMB. 

Edited September 22, 2018 by JFH

[Teacake 76]

10 minutes ago, JFH said:

But if they are just apps that you use to talk, like WhatsApp or Messenger, then the IMBRA rules don’t apply - since you didn’t use these services to “meet” each other. You say you met on Facebook. We already know that Facebook is not an IMB so that’s fine. The IMBRA rules only relate to the service or application that you were using when you first “met” each other. Your methods for continued communication are irrelevant. If you send letters through regular mail you don’t have to prove that USPS is not an IMB or if you speak on the phone you wouldn’t have to prove that AT&T is not an IMB. 

 

1 hour ago, geowrian said:

The ToS should be sufficient. If you have you first messages sent, that might not be bad to include as well.

You may be able to get support/customer service to write that they are not an IMB as well.

Couple may be a difficult one...they seemed to have stopped development and support years ago (my wife and I used to use it as our primary messaging app as well).

Thank you both so much! This has been so helpful.