Privacy policy

This policy explains what the CodeLifter Forum at forum.codelifter.com stores about you, why it stores it, and what you can do about it. It describes what the forum software actually does today, and it is meant to be complete.

If you only read

If you only read threads, the forum asks you for nothing and sets no cookie. We do not run advertising trackers or third party analytics, and we do not build a profile of you or follow you to other sites. Our host serves a cookieless analytics beacon at the edge, which counts page views and measures how quickly pages load. It sets no cookies. Our host also keeps short technical logs so the forum stays running and abuse can be stopped. We do not use them to identify readers.

What the forum stores when you post

To post a question or a reply without signing in, you give a display name and an email address. The forum then stores the following.

• Your posts. The questions, answers and replies you write, with the time you wrote them. Posts are public. Search engines may index them and other websites may quote them. If you edit a post, the earlier wording is kept as a revision so moderators can see what changed.
• Your display name. The name you chose appears beside your posts and on your profile. It is public, so do not use your real name unless you want it shown.
• A hash of your email address. The forum does not store your email address in readable form. It stores a one-way hash of the address, combined with the forum's name, and uses it only to recognise that later posts come from the same account. The address itself is not shown, not sold and not shared.
• Your activity on the forum. If you vote, follow a thread or accept an answer, the forum records that against your account so it can show the right state to you.
• Rate limit counters. To stop floods of spam, the forum counts how many posts come from one connection and one account in an hour and a day. The connection is recorded as a shortened hash of the IP address, not the address itself, and the counters are used for nothing else.
• Form check values. Each form carries a one-time key so the same post is not saved twice, and a hidden field that people never fill in and automated spam usually does. The one-time keys are kept briefly, and the hidden field is not stored.

The cookie we set

The forum sets one cookie, a session cookie named _fs. It is set the first time you post with a new email address, and it keeps you signed in on that browser so you can vote, follow threads, edit your own posts and accept answers. It holds a signed value made of your account number, a version number and an expiry date, and nothing about your browsing. It lasts 30 days, it cannot be read by scripts on the page, and it is sent only over secure connections. Signing out removes it. There is no cookie banner because there is nothing optional to consent to.

Signing in

Email sign-in links depend on a mail provider that is not configured yet, so the forum does not currently send email. Until it does, you stay signed in only in the browser you posted from. If you post again from another browser with the same email address, the post is added to your account, but that browser is not signed in.

How long we keep things

• Posts and revisions stay until you or a moderator delete them.
• Rate limit counters and one-time form keys are deleted automatically after seven days.
• Unused sign-in records are deleted after they expire.
• Your account record, including the email hash, stays while the account is open.

Your choices and deletion requests

You can ask to see, correct or delete what we hold about you. Write to editor@codelifter.com from the email address you used when you posted, with the subject line "Data request", and say what you want done. Because we only hold a hash, we match your request by hashing the address you write from. Posts are public, so deleting one here cannot remove copies held by other sites.

Children

The forum is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has posted, tell us and we will remove the account.

Changes to this policy

If what the forum stores changes, for example when email sign-in is switched on, we will update this page and the date at the top.