SFF Net

Last Update

These policies are a work-in-progress, updated from time to time as the situations and needs of our members change. The last update was on Wednesday, 07 March 2001, and supersedes all previous policies.

Service Availability

We make no promises, guarantees, or warranties about this system. The system is usually up, and usually working, and should stay that way most of the time. In the event something doesn't work the way you expect, or stops working the way it used to, please be patient. We'll try to resolve your problems as quickly as possible. We provide this service "as is." By using it, you expressly waive any rights to damages, whether real, consequential, punitive, or otherwise, arising from or due to use of this service, or failure to be able to use this service at any time. We reserve the right to cancel the service for any or all users at any time without prior warning.

Opinions

Postings on SFF Net newsgroups or web sites do not reflect the opinions of SFF Net or its staff unless we explicitly say they do.

General

SFF Net is primarily designed to support genre writing and the fans, writers, and publishers of genre literature. SFF Net is a membership service with rules designed to enhance the membership experience for all members. We want your feedback on these rules, so we can let them evolve as the membership's needs evolve. Mail your feedback to Yog Sysop, or fill out our Feedback form.

Some of you may be offended that we have membership rules. Frankly, we're not happy about having them. The world would be brighter and happier if everyone played nicely and shared their sandbox toys. Unfortunately, anyone over the age of seven understands that not everyone will share, or stop calling names, or behave politely. In those cases, it's better to have rules laid out beforehand, so everyone knows what behavior is considered acceptable and what is not. Our fondest wish for SFF Net is that we never have to refer to these rules (or refer you to them) again.

Censorship

Please do not confuse SFF Net with the government. Freedom of speech and First Amendment rights do not apply to private services. We want you to speak freely, and we're very liberal in our interpretation of what's okay, but we will enforce these policies by deleting your posts or blocking your access if necessary. We don't want to spend our time being censors, so please help us by honoring the rules.

Copyrights, Trademarks, and Such

Do not use a trademark name or symbol that you do not own or have rights to use. Do not violate copyright. Posting of MP3s, magazine or newspaper articles, emails, newsgroup posts, books, stories, song lyrics, and so forth, is forbidden unless you have the copyright owner's permission or the work is in the public domain.

The doctrine of "fair use," although often needing teams of lawyers to work out the details, is a fairly simple concept. You may quote small portions of a work as part of a review. You may quote portions of a newsgroup post in your reply to that post.

Deliberate misquoting, or quoting out of context so as to give a false impression of the original author's intent, is not allowed. You should give proper attribution for all quotations.

Anything posted in a public-access newsgroup on SFF Net may be freely quoted in other public or private newsgroups, as long as the above guidelines are followed.

Anything posted in a private-access newsgroup on SFF Net may not be quoted, directly or indirectly, outside the newsgroup hierarchy in which the quotation first appeared, without the author's explicit permission. Information in private-access newsgroups may not be distributed by email, reposting, or other methods.

Newsgroup posters, email senders, and web page maintainers are assumed to hold copyright to the things they post, email, or display on a web page. SFF Net retains the so-called "compilation copyright" pertaining to newsgroups and web pages.

Business Use

Web pages on SFF Net must be non-commericial. This doesn't mean you can't advertise your latest book, or put in a plug for your home business, but it does mean that your web page should be about you rather than your company. If you want a business page, please ask -- we'll be happy to sell you one.

Note: Hosting a site for someone else (or another company, group, organization) within your site is considered business use.

Newsgroup posts must be non-commercial, except in newsgroups specifically designated for advertising.

Electronic Mail

SFF Net's mail servers let you communicate with the world -- your friends, business acquaintenances, relatives, fans, mailing lists, online shops, and so forth.

Privacy
Your email privacy is very important to SFF Net. We do not monitor the contents of your email, and access to your mailbox is very carefully controlled. Tech support will examine your mailbox only in case of system problems or at your request. Logs are kept only for the purposes of resolving system problems and/or generating statistics on the overall load and performance of the mail system. SFF Net shall not reveal personal information about a member to any individual other than that member without a specific court order.

Incoming mail and mailbox maintenance
SFF Net employs a custom mail program, SMTPFS, that handles aliasing, spam filtering, embedded script disarming, attachment renaming, mailbox limits, and removal of old mail. Most aspects SMTPFS may be adjusted on a user-by-user basis (see the Member Services page for links to controlling your email box).

SMTPFS will automatically block incoming mail that is (a) malformed, having incomplete or invalid headers; (b) from sites that have spammed us in the past; or (c) that contains known spam markers. Users may not turn this automatic filtering off for their accounts; automatic filtering is system-wide.

SMTPFS uses various rules and lists of criteria, somewhat the same way a virus-protection program identifies viruses by their electronic signatures. The rules and lists are updated continuously to reflect the nature of the incoming email. If you believe a rule is incorrectly rejecting your email, please write to tech support and tell us about it.

Warning: SFF Net can accept no responsibility for mail lost due to server problems, connection problems, or spam filtering. Use of the SFF Net service constitutes agreement to imdemnify and hold harmless SFF Net for any loss, financial or otherwise, caused by undelivered mail.

Outgoing mail
SFF Net does not permit its servers to be used for sending spam or other unwanted email (as specified below). Anyone receiving unwanted email from SFF Net should forward a copy of the email to abuse@sff.net, and we will take prompt action.

The following types of email are not permitted:

Spam (or mass mailings)
Unsolicited commercial, political, or religious advertisements
Get-rich-quick schemes, pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, or other frauds
Chain letters
Mail with forged headers, or with a return address other than your own
"Warez" (illegal/cracked copies of software, or keys/information to bypass or circumvent licensing schemes)
Harassment, or so-called hate mail
Continuing to send email to someone after that person has asked you to stop
Viruses, Trojan Horse programs, or other destructive items
Pictures or other materials deemed illegal or pornographic by the US government or the state of Texas

If you commit any of the email abuses listed above, we will close your account. You may or may not get a first warning. We take email abuse very seriously.

Web Pages

In the personal web pages, you're in complete creative control. We'd like to ask, though, that you refrain from publishing anything that might cause the authorities to kick down our door and confiscate everything in the vicinity powered by electricity.

We will delete blatantly illegal pictures, and anything else that in our judgment causes problems. This isn't a Constitutional issue; we'll decide as we see fit. Try not to let the matter come up. We don't police your pages, or peek into your directories regularly. Pretty much the only time we'll get involved in your page's content is if we receive a complaint.

News Server

On the news server, we ask you to keep the discussion somewhere within shouting range of the group's apparent topic. Our goal is a favorable signal-to-noise ratio.

SFF Net is designed and run primarily for the benefit of "those who like to read" -- which is why our emphasis is on reading, writing, publishing, and other aspects of genre fiction. We understand that in the course of normal conversation, the topic may range wide and far. This is perfectly acceptable. People who like to read like to do other things, too, and therefore like to talk about them. However, we reserve the right to decide what's appropriate for the server.

Any Basic member (or above) may have a personal newsgroup (sff.people.yourname). A personal newsgroup is for the newsgroup host to interact with others about their daily lives, their favorite things, their activities, family, interests, hobbies, and so forth. A personal newsgroup is a virtual living room. Personal newsgroups should not be commercial, or for advertisments, or dedicated to things that are not about the newsgroup owner or SFF Net's primary focus of genre fiction.

For example, if you sew, overhaul engines, or train horses, and you and your guests want to talk about these things in your personal newsgroup, that's fine -- but the newsgroup should be about you, not the activity.

We have general-topic newsgroups for group discussions that aren't related to individuals. For example, the sff.games hierarchy is where people can talk about games with other gamers, while the sff.publishing hierarchy is for discussions about publishing. Upon request, and if we deem the general topic is of interest to SFF Net as a whole, we will create new hierarchies for general discussions.

We do not police the newsgroups, review or pre-approve posts, or even look at all the posts regularly. If someone complains, we'll look at the situation. If we happen to notice a problem while wandering by, we may say something. Otherwise, the staff are just members of SFF Net.

The following things are tacky, and may be subject to action if we receive a complaint or notice them while wandering through:

Posting copyrighted works without permission.
Personal attacks. If you disagree with someone, discuss why you disagree, not why the other person is a slime-covered maggot.
Abusive obscenity, vulgarity, and profanity.
Posting private e-mail (or other correspondence) without the permission of the original sender.
Using a personal newsgroup for non-personal purposes.

Some newsgroups have special rules. For example, the sff.workshop.critters group requests that no manuscripts and no critiques be posted in that group. Fair enough. Please abide by the posted FAQ for each group. (A FAQ is considered official once it's been posted in the sff.admin.just-the-faqs newsgroup.)

We can, and will, delete newsgroups or individual posts from time to time. Groups that that don't fit in with SFF Net's genre-fiction focus, or that duplicate existing groups, may quietly disappear. We may also delete any group that hasn't had a post in sixty days. Any SFF Net member is welcome to restart a group.

Upon noticing, we will delete these kinds of posts:

Spam. Make Big Money!!! Swedish Sorority Girls Dial 1-900....
Advertisements, commercial plugs, for sale notices, etc., in groups not specifically for these types of posts
Actively illegal stuff. Please post kiddie-porn binaries, pyramid schemes, and chain letters on someone else's server.
Things that violate the special rules of individual groups.
Things that violate SFF Net's Policies and Procedures.

IRC Server (Chat)

IRC is mostly unmonitored and unregulated. We don't care what you talk about with each other. This does not mean you are free to harass others, or that you can make the chat experience unpleasant with rude remarks, abusive language, or unwanted sexual content. If someone says stop, then stop.

Termination of Service

We reserve the right to revoke or suspend your membership if you violate the membership rules. Depending on the severity of the current offense and taking into account your past behavior, you may or may not receive a warning before service is suspended or terminated. We don't have the time or the energy to arbitrate endless squabbles among members, or argue whether or not your e-mail spam was really spam or just UCE. Please follow the rules and play nicely. If you don't, you probably don't want to be here anyway.