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Terms of Service

Last updated: 27 February 2026

What This Site Is

silentstones.net is an independently run community site featuring a blog, forum, knowledge hub, and messaging system. It is operated by an individual and is not a platform, a service, or a product in the commercial sense. It does not sell anything, provide professional services, or make promises about uptime.

By using this site, creating an account, or posting content, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, you're welcome to read the public content but should not create an account or post.

Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years of age to create an account, use the forum, or send private messages. By creating an account, you confirm that you meet this requirement. If we become aware that a user is under 16, their account will be terminated and their content removed.

Accounts and Authentication

When you register, a secure password is generated for you. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. Do not share your password or allow others to use your account.

You may only maintain one account. Creating additional accounts to circumvent a ban or moderation action is prohibited.

The site uses session-based authentication with automatic expiry. Sessions may be invalidated at any time for security or administrative reasons.

Content Ownership

Site Content

All original content on this site — writing, design, and code — is the intellectual property of its author unless otherwise stated. You're welcome to quote, reference, and link to anything here. That's what the internet is for.

What you may not do: republish entire articles as your own, scrape the site for AI training datasets without permission, or use the content commercially without asking first. If you want to use something, just get in touch. The answer will probably be yes.

User-Generated Content

You retain ownership of the content you post on the forum, knowledge hub, and elsewhere on the site. By posting, you grant this site a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to display, store, and distribute your content as part of the normal operation of the site. This licence exists solely to allow the site to function — your content will not be sold, sublicensed, or used for purposes unrelated to the site.

This licence applies to all user-contributed content including forum threads and replies, knowledge hub guides and articles, poll content, profile information and biographies, and any other content you submit through the site's features.

You may request deletion of your content at any time via the contact form or by using the site's built-in deletion features. Upon deletion, your content will be removed from public display. Residual copies may persist temporarily in backups but will not be actively served.

Forum

The forum is a space for good-faith discussion. By creating an account and posting, you agree to the following:

  • No spam, automated posting, or advertising without permission.
  • No harassment, abuse, threats, or personal attacks.
  • No illegal content, doxxing, or sharing of others' private information.
  • No impersonation of other users or public figures.
  • No posting of malware, phishing links, or malicious code.
  • No content that sexualises minors in any way.
  • Keep discussions civil, even when you disagree.

Moderators and administrators may pin, lock, move, or delete threads and replies at their discretion. Content may be flagged by other users for moderation review. This is a privately run forum, not a public square — there is no obligation to host any particular content.

Knowledge Hub

The knowledge hub allows users to submit guides and articles for the community. The same conduct standards and content ownership terms that apply to the forum apply equally to knowledge hub contributions. Submitted guides may be edited or removed by administrators for quality, accuracy, or policy reasons.

Private Messaging

The site provides a private messaging system between registered users. The same conduct standards that apply to the forum apply equally to private messages. Harassment, abuse, threats, spam, or illegal content sent via private messages is prohibited and may result in account termination.

Private messages are stored on the site's infrastructure. While they are not publicly visible, they are not end-to-end encrypted. The site administrator may access private messages if required to:

  • investigate reports of abuse or violations of these terms,
  • comply with a valid legal obligation, or
  • address security incidents.

Do not share sensitive personal information such as financial details, government identifiers, or passwords via private messages.

Uploads and Profile Content

The site allows users to upload profile pictures and other images. By uploading content, you confirm that you have the right to use it and that it does not violate any third party's intellectual property or privacy rights.

Uploaded content must not contain:

  • illegal material,
  • explicit sexual content,
  • graphic violence,
  • malware or executable code, or
  • content that violates any other provision of these terms.

The site reserves the right to remove any uploaded content without notice. Uploads are stored on the site's infrastructure and may be cached or resized for performance purposes.

Prohibited Uses

In addition to the conduct rules above, you may not use this site to:

  • violate any applicable law or regulation,
  • attempt to gain unauthorised access to the site's systems, infrastructure, or other users' accounts,
  • conduct automated scraping, crawling, or data extraction without permission,
  • distribute viruses, malware, or any other harmful code,
  • use the site's features to conduct phishing, social engineering, or fraud,
  • commercially exploit the site's content or features without permission, or
  • interfere with the site's operation or other users' enjoyment of it.

Moderation and Enforcement

The site operates a role-based moderation system. Moderators and administrators may take action on content and accounts at their discretion, including:

  • editing, removing, or locking content,
  • issuing warnings,
  • temporarily suspending accounts, and
  • permanently banning accounts.

Moderation decisions are final. While you're welcome to appeal via the contact form, there is no formal appeals process and no guarantee of reinstatement.

Administrative actions are logged for accountability purposes.

Third-Party Content and Services

This site may embed content from third parties such as YouTube videos or links to external sites. These are governed by their own terms and privacy policies. Embedding or linking does not imply endorsement.

The site uses the following third-party services in its operation: Cloudflare for hosting, CDN, and infrastructure; Resend for transactional email delivery; and DiceBear for default avatar generation. Your use of the site may involve interaction with these services, which are subject to their own terms and privacy policies.

Email Communications

By creating an account and verifying your email address, you consent to receiving transactional emails from the site. These include email verification, password reset emails, notification emails for replies, mentions, and private messages, and moderation-related communications.

These are functional communications, not marketing. The site does not send newsletters or promotional emails unless you explicitly opt in to such a feature in the future. You can manage notification preferences through your account settings.

Intellectual Property Claims

If you believe content on this site infringes your intellectual property rights, contact us with details of the content in question, your claim of ownership, and your contact information. We will review and respond in good faith.

Disclaimer

Everything on this site is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Opinions expressed on this site are personal and do not represent any employer, client, or organisation. Nothing here constitutes professional, legal, financial, medical, or security advice.

The writing on this site reflects thinking in progress. Ideas may evolve, be revised, or be abandoned entirely. That's the point — it's a place for honest thought, not final answers.

Availability

There is no guarantee this site will be available at all times. It may go down for maintenance, change dramatically, or disappear altogether. Features may be added, modified, or removed without notice. No liability is accepted for any inconvenience caused by downtime, changes, or discontinuation of the site or any of its features.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the author and operator of this site accepts no liability for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special loss or damage arising from: the use of this website; reliance on its content; loss of data; actions taken by other users; or unavailability of the site or any of its features.

Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Changes

These terms may be updated from time to time. The date at the top will reflect the latest revision. Material changes will be communicated via a site announcement where practical. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. If you disagree with any changes, you should stop using the site and may request deletion of your account.

Severability

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will continue in full effect.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Use the contact form.