Privacy
We keep as little as we can. This page lists everything.
What we do not do
- No analytics, no advertising, no tracking pixels, no social-media buttons.
- We set no cookies. Moderators use a login handled by Cloudflare Access, which sets its own cookie for them only. Cloudflare Turnstile, on pages with a form, may store its own data in your browser; see Cloudflare's policy.
- No third-party fonts or scripts, except the Cloudflare Turnstile check on pages that have a form (see below).
- No accounts, and no email address is asked for when you post.
What we store when you post
| Item | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your message and the display name you typed (optional) | To show the post if it is approved. | Until you ask us to delete it, or a moderator deletes it. Deleting erases the text and the name. A hidden post keeps its text until it is deleted. A post nobody reviews within 30 days is deleted automatically. |
| The channel, the time, and the post's status | To run the discussion and the review queue. | With the post. |
| A pseudonym for your network: a keyed hash of your IP address (for IPv6, of its network prefix). It is not the address, and it is not anonymous. Whoever holds the site's secret key can work out the pseudonym for a given address and match it, which is how limits and bans work. The address cannot be read back out of it. | To limit how often one visitor can post or report, and to block abuse. | 30 days, then it is erased from the post. Erasure runs in the background and can lag a little. |
| A ban entry, if a moderator bans a visitor | To stop repeat abuse. | For the length of the ban, then it is erased. |
| A moderation log: who approved, hid, or deleted a post, and when | So decisions can be checked and appeals answered. | Kept. It holds no message text after a deletion. |
If you report a post, the report stores the post, your reason, the time, and the same pseudonym for 30 days.
Cloudflare may keep database backups for a while, and a moderator can download an export of everything, so erased text and expired pseudonyms can survive in those copies until they expire or are deleted.
Who else sees data
- Cloudflare hosts the site and the database, so it handles requests and keeps its normal operating logs.
- Cloudflare Turnstile runs on pages with a posting form. It checks that you are a person and may process technical details of your browser. Read Cloudflare's privacy policy for what it handles. Pages without a form do not load it.
- Other sites. The Buy link takes you to Amazon, and a book page may link to the author's site, continuous.engineering. Each has its own privacy policy. We send them nothing about you.
We do not sell or share posts or data with anyone else.
Your choices
To see, correct, or delete something you posted, or to ask what is stored about you, write to us from the Contact page. Give the book, the channel, the date, and the first few words of your post, because you are not given a post number. We can match a network address you give us against the pseudonyms we still hold, for the 30 days they are kept.