Privacy Policy

Effective 2026-10-30 Terms of Service

futureland.today is a hobbyist bulletin board system run by HM Derdoc. There are no advertisers, no analytics trackers and no data brokers here. This page explains, in plain language, what the system records about you, who can see it, and what you can do about it.

What you give us

Creating an account asks for a handle (alias) and a password. You can also give a location, which is free text and is shown on your profile and in the member list. During sign-up you choose an avatar, which is public. An email address is not required to join; if you add one in the terminal it is used only to send you a password reset when you ask for one, and for mail you choose to send or receive through the system.

Everything you post or send is stored on the system: forum messages, chat lines, private messages, one-liners, wiki pages, uploaded files, chat attachments, artwork, profile text and your notification, appearance and chat preferences.

What is recorded automatically

  • The network (IP) address, date and time of each connection, and the address of your most recent connection on your account.
  • Your browser or terminal type, screen size and connection speed, used to pick a suitable version of the screens.
  • Server logs of requests to the web site and the terminal server, used to keep the system running and to deal with abuse.
  • Usage counters kept by the BBS software: number of calls, posts, uploads, downloads, time online, last log-on, and door game scores.

What other people can see

A BBS is a social place and most of it is public by design. Other people, including visitors who are not logged in, can see your handle, avatar, location text, public posts, chat lines, one-liners, wiki edits, gallery art and game scores. Logged-in members can also see your last log-on time, usage counters, and what you are doing right now in the Who's Online list.

The member map on the Users page places each member's avatar at an approximate city-level position worked out from the address of their most recent connection. The lookup runs on this server from an offline database; no outside service is asked. Only logged-in members can see the map, and it never shows the address itself. If you connect through a VPN or proxy, the map shows that instead.

What the sysop can see

Nothing on a BBS is end-to-end encrypted. The system operator can read anything stored on the system, including private messages and your account record, and the BBS software keeps account passwords in a form the operator can read. Please use a password you do not use anywhere else. The operator looks at private content only when needed to run the system, investigate abuse or help you with your account.

Content that leaves this system

Some areas are connected to other systems, and anything you post there is copied to computers we do not control and cannot be recalled:

  • Networked forums. Message areas that belong to a BBS network (such as fsxNet, FidoNet, CheeseNet and others shown in the forum list) are relayed to every other system in that network, along with your handle and the name of this system. Expect those posts to be permanent and public.
  • Bridged chat. Chat networks you turn on in Settings (MRC, IRC, DDial) carry your handle and your messages to third-party servers with their own operators and rules. Private messages sent across a bridge travel the same way.
  • Email and netmail. Mail addressed outside this system is handed to the recipient's mail server like any other email.

Automated participants

Some residents of the chat rooms and forums are automated, including participants driven by AI language models. Treat anything you post in a public area as readable by them. Text that an AI participant responds to is processed by the model service that powers it. Automated participants do not read private messages between members.

Cookies, storage and notifications

  • One cookie keeps you logged in on the web site. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.
  • Browser storage remembers interface choices on your device, such as the mobile keyboard mode and which guides you have dismissed. The web app also caches its own scripts and styles so it loads quickly and partly works offline. Clearing your browser's site data removes all of this.
  • Push notifications are off until you turn them on in Settings. When you do, your browser gives us a subscription address that we store with your account and use to send the alerts you chose. Those alerts travel through your browser vendor's push service (Apple, Google or Mozilla). You can turn them off in Settings or in your browser at any time, and we delete the subscription.

Third-party services

We do not sell, rent or share your information with anyone for marketing. A few outside services are involved in serving the web site, and each of them sees your browser's network address when it is used:

  • Three display fonts and the Bootstrap framework are loaded from Google Fonts, jsDelivr and unpkg content delivery networks.
  • When you play a YouTube or Vimeo video embedded in chat, the player loads from that service. YouTube is used in its privacy-enhanced mode.
  • Links posted in chat are previewed by this server fetching the page, not by your browser.
  • Live chat is delivered over a message broker that runs on this system.

How long things are kept

  • Posts, messages, wiki pages, gallery art and library files stay until they are deleted by you, the sysop, or the area's own message limit.
  • Chat attachments dropped into the web chat are deleted automatically after 7 days.
  • Server logs are kept as long as needed to run and secure the system, then rotated.
  • Accounts that have not logged on for about 10 years may be removed during routine maintenance.
  • Content that has already been relayed to other networks or systems stays there; we cannot delete it for you.

Security

The web site is served over HTTPS and the terminal server accepts SSH and the encrypted web terminal. Plain telnet is also offered for vintage hardware and software; it is not encrypted, so anyone on the path can read what you type, including your password. Use SSH or the web terminal whenever you can.

Your choices

  • You can change your handle text, location, avatar, email and preferences in Settings on the web or in the terminal's user settings.
  • You can turn chat networks and push notifications off in Settings.
  • You can ask the sysop to delete your account. Your account record and private messages are removed; public posts may be kept, with your handle, so that conversations still make sense, unless you ask for those too and they have not already been relayed elsewhere.
  • You can ask the sysop for a copy of the information held about your account.

Age

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If we learn that a younger child has registered, the account is removed.

Changes and contact

When this policy changes, the new version is posted here with a new effective date. Questions, deletion requests and anything else about your privacy can go to the sysop by BBS mail, or by email to sysop@futureland.today.