SFF.Network (SFF.N) is an online community for Small Form Factor (SFF) enthusiasts: system builders who prize space efficiency and thoughtful design in what they create, use, and enjoy. For our users, our aim is to be a resource for sharing builds, experiences, and knowledge; for our creators, our goal is to provide a hospitable platform from which SFF-related projects and products can flourish.
In addition to our Terms of Use, here are the rules for members of SFF.N across our entire web presence (including our forum and Discord):
Most other forums use a member's number of posts as a filter with respect to who can post buy/sell/trade solicitations. These same forums, by their own admission, recognize that this is a poor method of filtering out 'bad' folks from 'good' folks. We don't want to use a method that's known to be bad. So instead, we require that thread starters be 'supporters' of the forum. Those who are already supporters, already qualify to post threads (and thus initiate solicitations); for all others, this effectively requires that such users spend $2 on a monthly Bronze Supporter subscription (Bronze is just the minimum required, higher tiers are also supported), at the time that they first post in this section.
Here's why we do this: Post counts, or account age, do not prevent spammers from polluting buy/sell/trade sections. Making posts or waiting a while costs next-to-nothing and scales nearly infinitely. Furthermore, such a policy also blocks out a substantial portion of genuine users, because of its imprecision. Requiring that thread starters be forum supporters, comparatively, places a very low cost on genuine users, but makes the cost of spamming SFF.N prohibitively high for bad actors.
To be clear, this policy is not going to be a substantial revenue-driver for SFF.N. Furthermore, this only prevents non-supporters from creating threads that initiate buy/sell/trade transactions - all members are able to post on threads (if they want to purchase an item someone is selling, for example).
Unlike many other forums, vendors are encouraged to interact with the community and are free to discuss their SFF-related products on SFF.N. This includes posting links to their own products, where appropriate.
Please keep in mind that this is for the purpose of allowing the community to provide feedback and ask questions. Vendors who don't engage with the community, or post where it's not relevant, will see their posts deleted or accounts banned at the discretion of SFF.N staff. Basically, don't abuse the community!
Vendors must clearly specify the nature of the product(s) for sale - whether they are in stock, pre-order, group buy, delayed, etc. Regular communication is a requirement - keep your buyers, current and prospective, up to date with any issues, updates and the like. Posting these updates in the forum thread is needed as soon as possible after stock supply changes.
It is important that vendors contact SFF.N such that they can be given a banner confirming their status as a representative of a particular brand. Please contact an admin to request a user banner displaying your company affiliation, which we use to ensure transparency and verify identities for users.
Buyers and sellers are themselves wholly responsible for complying with all applicable laws, regulations, tax codes, tariffs, or other requirements enforced by governments, throughout the execution of any transaction.
SFF.N automatically overwrites certain e-commerce links (such as Amazon and Newegg) across the forum to remove the referral code. We do this to help enforce our ban on referral links. SFF.N also displays network ads to all unregistered guests, though anyone who is logged into a (free) SFF.N account is not served these ads. Finally, we occasionally work with vendors on sponsored or similar content that is served to ll users; this is typically in support of news coverage (such as Computex) or is otherwise part of a direct sponsorship, and in either case is always prominently labeled as such.
All forum members are allowed to post direct links to online deals on products and services, in order to share such buying opportunities with other members of the community. However, we have a few rules in place that are meant to keep such a resource healthy and valuable for all of us. They are as follows:
Building and running a website and community is time consuming and costly! If you enjoy SFF.N and want to support our work and reporting – in exchange for some perks and benefits – consider some of the supporter subscriptions made available to the community.
User banners are intended to identify certain kinds of users, and to certify that particularly important community members are who they say they are. To this end, SFF.N staff members have either an Editorial Staff or Moderator banner under their avatar, to indicate their role; these are red and blue. Users who are new to SFF.N have green New User banners; be sure to welcome them to the community! Finally, users who have projects, businesses or similar roles may have verification banners; these are grey banners with checkmarks issued by SFF.N that are meant to reflect that a user has been confirmed to be who they claim by SFF.N staff. If you are interested in receiving a banner, please reach out to an admin to request one.
The providers ("we", "us", "our") of the service provided by this web site ("Service") are not responsible for any user-generated content and accounts ("Content"). Content submitted express the views of their author only.
You agree to not use the Service to submit or link to any Content which is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spam or spam-like, likely to offend, contains adult or objectionable content, contains personal information of others, risks copyright infringement, encourages unlawful activity, or otherwise violates any laws.
All Content you submit or upload may be reviewed by staff members. All Content you submit or upload may be sent to third-party verification services (including, but not limited to, spam prevention services). Do not submit any Content that you consider to be private or confidential.
We reserve the rights to remove or modify any Content submitted for any reason without explanation. Requests for Content to be removed or modified will be undertaken only at our discretion. We reserve the right to take action against any account with the Service at any time.
You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content.
These terms may be changed at any time without notice.
If you do not agree with these terms, please do not register or use this Service. If you wish to close your account, please contact us.
Account deletion may be requested by contacting a staff member. All deletions will be done as per GPDR Regulations, and your account will be anonymised, rather than deleted. Posts will remain. XenForo, the software platform we use, does not allow for users deleting their own accounts.