Terms of Use

benlambert.tech is my personal website. I, Ben Lambert, build and run it alone, as an individual and not a company. These terms apply to everyone who uses the site and to holding an account on it. By using the site you agree to them; if you do not agree, please do not use the site. How the site handles your information is described in the Privacy Notice.

Using the site

The site's content is there for you to read. Please do not:

• try to gain access to accounts, servers, or data that are not yours;
• interfere with the site or place an unreasonable load on it, for example with automated requests;
• create accounts or submit forms with automated programs, or bypass reCAPTCHA;
• use the site for anything unlawful.

Accounts

• You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, or older if the law where you live requires it.
• Give accurate details, and keep the email address on your account one that you can read: it is the only way to verify your account or recover your password.
• Keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for everything done with your account, and I will never ask you for your password.
• Create one account for yourself. Do not create accounts for other people or pretend to be someone else.
• Choose a username you would be happy to see in public. The site tries to refuse offensive usernames.
• I may suspend or delete an account that breaks these terms or that appears to be abusive or automated. You may delete your own account at any time from your settings page.

Email from the site

By creating an account, you agree to receive essential email from the site at the email address on your account. As well as the verification and password reset links described in Accounts and Email, I may email you:

• to tell you that one of the site's notices has been updated:
  • Privacy Notice
  • Cookie Notice
  • Terms of Use
  • Accounts and Email
  • Source and Licenses
• with an urgent notice about your account, such as a security problem that affects it, or its suspension.

These emails are part of having an account and are not marketing, so there is no way to unsubscribe from them while you have one. Deleting your account stops them. Newsletter emails and product and marketing emails are separate and optional: the site sends them only while you have agreed to receive them, and you can change that choice at any time on your settings page.

Content and copyright

Unless something says otherwise, the writing, photographs, and other content on this site belong to me. You are welcome to link to any page and to quote short excerpts with credit, but please ask before republishing anything in full. The source code of the site is published on GitHub under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or later, which lets anyone read it, learn from it, change it, and use it for any purpose, as long as they share their own changes under the same license when they distribute the code or run it as a service. The license covers the code, not the site's content. Source and Licenses has the details.

Other services and links

Google reCAPTCHA protects some of the site's forms. Google provides it to this site as a service, and the Privacy Notice explains what it collects. The site links to other websites, such as GitHub. Those sites have their own terms and privacy practices, and this site is not responsible for them.

Paying for the site

Today the site is free to use, shows no advertising, and sells nothing, and I pay for its hosting myself. To help cover that cost, I may in the future do any of the following, all of them, or none of them:

• show advertising;
• publish sponsored posts, each prominently labeled as sponsored;
• offer products or services for sale;
• add a part of the site that only paying members can use.

Before any of these begins, these terms will be updated to describe it, and so will the Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice if it changes how the site handles your information or which cookies it sets. Anything that costs money will show its price and its terms before you pay, and having an account will not, by itself, commit you to paying for anything.

No warranty

This is my personal site, built and run by me alone and not by a company, and it is offered as it is and as it is available. It may change, break, or go offline at any time without notice, and nothing on it is professional advice.

The site's notices describe how it is meant to work, and I keep them accurate on a best-effort basis. Software has bugs, though, and code written in error can have consequences nobody intended, so the site may not always behave as the notices describe. If you find that it does not, please email me at benlambertdottech [at] gmail [dot] com, and I will do what is reasonably possible to put it right.

To the fullest extent the law allows, the site is provided without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, I am not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the site or your inability to use it, including loss or damage caused by software bugs, mistakes in the code, or other unintended consequences of how the site was built. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

Changes

These terms may change. The date at the top shows when they last did, and using the site after a change means you accept the new terms. If you have an account, I may also email you about a change.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, and any dispute about them or about the site will be heard in the state or federal courts located in Denver, Colorado.

Contact

If you have questions about these terms, email me at benlambertdottech [at] gmail [dot] com.