Community Guidelines (Rules)

This page is a ‘shorter and simpler explanation/summary’ of the XNL Future Technologies Community Guidelines (the ‘Community rules’). When you are using the XNL Future Technologies Community and/or it’s features (and sub-platforms like the forum(s)), you agree to abide by the following conduct rules (also known as the ‘Code of Conduct‘).

Basic/General rules:

• The minimum age allowed to create an account and use our platform(s) is 16 years. This is due to all kinds of complicated regulations and laws explained here. This made (forced) us to decide that we (unfortunately) had to ‘age-restrict’ our platforms. We would have loved to learn younger members more about electronics, 3D Printing and more of the alike, but these regulations and laws just make it a ‘bit to complicated’ to allow registration under the age of 16 without making it very complicated for us while fully complying with all the laws and regulations.
• Play nice, be nice, have respect for each-other, be kind and don’t make others feel unwelcome or unsafe. Not everyone is at the same level, not every one has the same experience, and not everyone has the same learning speed. Keep these things in mind and try to be helpful and understanding where you can and want to. If you don’t have enough patience for it: That’s also okay, but then try to refrain from helping and/or getting frustrated towards others.
• Realize that despite the fact that we’re honored that you want to be part of our community, that being a part of this community is a privilege, it’s not a right. Embrace our topics, hobbies, projects and users, and don’t just try to ‘test the limits’. These rules are here to actually create a nice and welcome environment, not to bully you 😉
• Watch your language (as in with being rude and ‘swearwords’), despite the fact that we are (due to legal limitations) not allowed to let minors (<16) register on our community and/or forum(s), it doesn’t mean they aren’t able to find and read the (public) pages on the internet. Aside from this, we want to keep this a civilized and decent community. A bit of frustration or ‘light swearing’ in a post can sometimes be understandable (in certain situations), but do realize that it’s a very fine line between accepted and not accepted! When in-doubt: Don’t type/post it, and a ‘simple string’ of ‘#$%@#$@$*$%^%$’ would also express your frustration and/or anger just fine.
• Don’t ‘just bash’ other people’s idea’s, projects, work and posts. Constructive (and thus helpful!) criticism is welcome and possible, but ‘just bashing’ on someone or their work/efforts will not be tolerated. If someone has a very unrealistic (or even impossible) idea and you want to explain why it’s (near) impossible to achieve, that’s all fine (and allowed). But comments/replies like “That’s the dumbest sh*t I’ve read today“, or “Do you even know what you’re talking about? Are you stupid?” are not allowed (and will not be tolerated)
• No grammar policing (more on about that here in our Dyslexia Disclaimer)
• Only ONE language is allowed on our platform(s): English! Although we do live in The Netherlands, I’ve decided to (no longer) allow/use Dutch on our platform/forums (Effective October 2024). I want to keep the platform and forum(s) in English so that it is available for everyone worldwide!
• Don’t be easily offended (and then go into ‘attack/defense mode’!) Keep in mind that there might be people from all over the world on our platform(s) and/or forum(s) and that the meaning of words, and the way in which people communicate can vary greatly! So it is very well possible that someone (whom isn’t natively English) has said something which you might have interpreted as ‘offensive’, while it wasn’t meant as offensive at all. So please don’t instantly assume it was meant offensive.
• Don’t feed the trolls, and don’t take troll bait. If you are (almost) certain that something has been said/posted just to ‘trigger’ you or others: Ignore it (and in serious cases report it). Life is way to short already to waste your (and our) time on trolls.
• You (obviously) DO have the right to be offended. However: be mature and think wisely on how you are going to respond to it: It could bite you ‘in the butt’ as well if you start a ‘big fight’ about it. Some basic tips: If it’s just a ‘minor remark’: Just ‘walk away and ignore it’. If it is indeed ‘way out of line’: Report the post/comment and/or contact us directly. Avoid escalation and like mentioned before: Do not feed the trolls.
• We (XNL Future Technologies and her staff/moderators) reserve the right to edit, delete or otherwise modify any post deemed not to be in the best interest of the community, platform or forum(s). Same goes for any post(s) which might (in our opinion) contain harmful, hateful, illegal, useless, dangerous or (to much) off-topic content(s). When we do so, we have no obligation to tell you (or anyone else) why we did this (often we will, but again: we are not obligated to do so!).
• Do not create accounts with the only (or main) intend to spam or to primarily promote/advertise ‘your stuff’.
• Do not share personal (or identifiable) information on our platform(s) and/or forums either from others or your own. This includes (but is not limited to): (home) addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, bank accounts, Paypal accounts and more of the alike. Unless this information is intended and meant to be public like business addresses or so.
• IF you absolutely have to share your personal information with another user (for example if you’re using the ‘offered’/’wanted’ or ‘for sale/trade’ sections of the forum (Marketplace), then you are required to do so over private messaging via other social media like X, Instagram or whatever. We do not allow sharing of personal identifiable information via the forums or our community pages!
• The XNL Future Technologies Community, the platforms (comment sections for example) and the forum(s) are designed and intended to be ‘self moderated’. Which basically means that every user is expected to behave civilized/decent and that they ignore other users whom are causing ‘havoc’. Basically if you ‘don’t feed the trolls’, it has no use for them to ‘keep going’. This also means that other users should not start behaving like moderators or like ‘they are an admin’! If it is really necessary that a moderator ‘intervenes’ you can notify us by ‘reporting the situation’, our team will then ‘intervene’ when we notice the ‘situation at hand’. If we however notice that other users are ‘taking the bait of the troll’ and thus ‘escalating’ the situation, we will also take action against this. Which is why we say (yet again): Don’t feed the trolls, ignore them, walk away and if necessary: Report them. IF a users starts to ‘drift too much off-topic’ you can of course kindly request to stay on-topic once by saying something like: “@OffTopicUser, please try to stay a bit on topic please, otherwise it will get difficult to understand what this topic is about.“. If the ‘off-topic’ user keeps (or stays) going off-topic: Ignore him/her and in ‘extreme cases’ just report it (again: Don’t let it escalate into an argument!).
• We (XNL Future Technologies and her staff/moderators) reserve the right to ban, suspend or permanently remove any user (account) from our community at any time for any given reason or even without having to give an reason. This is not something we would usually do ‘without cause’, but we do reserve the right to do so if we think this is necessary. More about this in our Terms and Conditions.
• Don’t be cocky or brag about ‘stupid things’ like your post count, “your amazing computer specs” or anything else ‘useless’. You can have/earn profile badges and be on something like ‘The Supporters wall‘ or ‘community leaderboards’, that is already more than enough ‘bragging’ on/within our community. We don’t need, nor do we participate in or allow “e-penis measurement contests”!
• When using content (articles/publications, files, projects, products or anything of the alike) from our platform(s), then you will agree to respect the license(s) and/or copyright stated at or supplied with said content.

Our conduct rules state the following “dont’s” and that you will not:

• Create user accounts to impersonate other people (or business entity’s). This rule also applies for usernames where where it can be ‘quite obvious’ that others might read/interpret it differently than you’ve typed it (on purpose). For example: BiII Gates (using Capital i (I) instead of l (L)) ‘to fake you’re account name is Bill Gates‘ is not allowed.
• Impersonate, pretend or behave like you’re a moderator or ‘XNL Future Technologies Staff Member’ while you’re not.
• Share your account and/or login details with anyone else (with the exception of your direct spouse/partner/significant other for example).
• Violate any applicable laws or regulations (including but not limited to copyright and privacy laws), this also includes spreading (or linking to) viruses, trojans, worms, backdoors, ‘illegal firmware (hacks)’ or other harmful software and/or (source)codes.
• Use our platform(s), content or projects and products in connection with surveys, contests, pyramid schemes, chain letters, spamming (email or otherwise) or in any other form of unsolicited messages (commercial or otherwise), unless you have explicit permission (for example in/with partnered giveaway’s and/or sponsorships).
• Harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including but not limited to e-mail addresses.
• Trade, share, sell or in any other way (re-)publish XNL Future Technologies (or ‘affiliated’) content which is limited to (Patreon) members only. This also includes license and/or product keys (Unless otherwise stated, like for example the ‘student license keys (CYL)’).
• Sell, (Re-)publish or in any other way (re)distribute XNL Future Technologies content, files, projects, products or any other publication unless it is clearly stated that you can do so for the specific publication/release, either on the page, project, or in the license terms for this project, product or publication. Linking to from your own blog or website etc is (obviously) exempt from this rule. This rule basically means that you will not download (or take/copy) ‘something’ from our platform(s) and them (re-)upload it somewhere else without our explicit permission, unless it is stated that you are allowed to do so.
• Re-brand XNL Future Technologies projects, products, posts, content or any other of our files and/or publications as ‘your own’ and claim they are yours.

Forum Specific Rules:

This section has some forum specific rules, aside from the fact that the forum (and it’s sub forums) also have their own rules and/or guidelines, these rules are ‘important enough’ to emphasize.

• Read, respect and follow the rules of each forum and/or board/sub-forum you’re using.
• Do NOT nag about people resurrecting old/”dead” topics! (Often called necroing a topic). If someone needs more information or help with a project or a topic which is “10 years old” while you already finished it “10 years ago”, then “that is your problem”. This ‘new users’ needs help and/or information now (not “10 years ago“). I personally really hate it when forum users (on other forums) nag about “this topic has been dead for years! buzz off!“. All fine by me that you already resolved that issue, but I need help/info now!
• On the other hand, it is obviously not allowed to ‘resurrect’ an old topic by just posting “Thanks this helped me!” without adding any additional value to the ‘old conversation/topic’. Same goes for replying to ‘super old topics’ where users back in the day posted something like ‘Well that part costs $55‘. Where you only reply with (“X years later“): “No, that’s incorrect, that part (now) costs $30,-“. These kinds of replies are not needed on old(er) posts!
• If you post or reply on a topic (be it a new(er) topic or an old(er) one), then always make sure that you are already part of the ‘active conversation’, or that your post/comment actually has additional value to the conversation and information posted.
• Do not just post/reply to have ‘the final say’, if the conversation is (clearly) over, it’s just over.
• No spamming, trolling etc (the ‘standard rules’ once again).
• Don’t harass/bug moderators etc with ‘every tiny detail’ which bugs you. It’s the Internet and ‘the internet if full of it’ (things that bug you/others), if something is really worthy of being reported then do so, otherwise just ‘let it pass’.
• If someone is going (way) off-topic, then don’t engage and/or go-along with it but instead politely request to stay on-topic or ignore it.
• Don’t post things you might regret or don’t want others (including but not limited to: your family, parents, kids, significant other, employer, the authorities, your teacher etc) to know/read (now and in the future). Remember this: Once on the internet, always on the internet!
• If you are in doubt if your post, reply or comment might be illegal, against the rules, useless etc: Play it safe and just don’t post it.

Our conduct rules state the following in regards of ‘on-topic posts and replies’:

Note: This section is not only restricted to the forum(s), but also to (all) the other sections of our platform(s) and/or websites (including comment sections).

• You will remain ‘on-topic’ as much as possible in regards to the topics of our platform(s), which means that your posts and/or replies should directly or indirectly be about: Electronics, 3D Printing, 3D Modeling, Programming, Game/Mod Development, CAD and texture ‘drawing’, DIY projects and more of the alike. Going a bit off-topic (or doing so in sections which are intended for this) isn’t much of a problem, but (try to) keep it ‘in control’.
• The ‘Forbidden Topics‘, there are ‘certain topics’ which (almost) always get out of control (fast) on forums and platforms which are namely: religion, politics, guns (or gun control), drugs and conspiracy theories. These topics are 100% forbidden on our platform(s) and/or forums. Our platform(s) and/or forum(s) are meant for topics mentioned in the previous point, and we want to keep it like that. There are plenty of other websites and forums for and dedicated to these ‘forbidden topics’, but ours ain’t one of them (sorry).
• We want that everyone can be and feel safe and welcome on our platform(s) and forum(s), therefor obvious things like hate, racism and discrimination are not welcome either on our platform(s) and/or forum(s), this includes (but is not limited to) racism and/or discrimination against: race, religion, skin color, someones origin/heritage, sexual preference or orientation, gender, disabilities, age, education, income or any other form of racism, discrimination or hate. Provocative ‘on the edge’ behavior in regards to the ‘forbidden topics’ will not be tolerated either.
• Some other topics (and content) which are not allowed to be posted (or linked to) on our platform(s) and/or forums are: Porn, Extreme violence, unnecessary gore, (animal) abuse and other ‘use your commonsense’ topics. Unless these topics are ‘in-context’ with the topic they are related to. This means that if for example certain 3D Models are related to a certain video game which contains a certain amount of ‘violence or nudity’ (which is again: in-context with the game!) it will be allowed up to certain levels. Obvious topics like ‘straight up porn’, animal abuse, and unnecessary gore are still considered a ‘hard-no’ on our platform(s).

We ‘hate’ the fact that we have to limit certain topics on our platforms and forum(s), and before we get those political discussions that we are ‘limiting the right to free-speech or expression‘: No we are not! We are all for free-speech and free expression, however this is a platform and forum dedicated to the aforementioned topics like electronics, 3d printing, programming, 3d modeling, DIY etc. And If I/we would allow just any topic and/or discussion it will get out of hand and off-topic fast, and considering that there are many issues on where people might draw the line on things like free-speech, racism, discrimination, politics (or not) and the ‘grey area’s around it‘ etc, we’ve decided to just ‘ban’ these topics on my platform and domain(s) and keeping it on-topic as much as possible.

Extra (but important) note on data/post removal: Make sure to read the Privacy Policy in regards to data and/or post & comment removal before posting and/or commenting anything!

Please do note that these community guidelines and/or rules do not invalidate any other terms or conditions which are for example set in the Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Refund and Returns Policy etc. This page is just an ‘simplified and easier to read‘ explanation of our Community Guidelines and thus ‘the rules’.

Last Updated: 04-10-2024