Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Rules - Regulations

[Sushubh]

I am just an individual who started this forum on a completely different subject but ended up with a platform focused on broadband services. I am not associated with any of the companies or services which are discussed here. But I do have personal bias and strong political opinion. More on this below.

Use the contact form to send me a message: Contact

IBF on Telegram: IBF Group | IBF Channel (Not really active though but I do see the messages posted on the group here so you can contact me through here as well)

If you want to support this forum, contact me directly or check this page:

Support

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You can submit your post by pressing control+enter key combo on computers. No need to actually press the post button.

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I expect every member of the forum to have gone through this thread. It gets updated regularly. I try to add a new marker in the top bar to indicate that some major changes have been made.

 

[Sushubh]

About the ads and other modes of revenue generation.​

I run Google AdSense, affiliate links and some other ever changing ad platforms. The point about affiliate links is important because I might edit your posts to add/change links.

I am currently not using any form of ad-blocker-blocker. I have no plans to add one for the time being. Focus has shifted to generating revenues through other modes like affiliate links and potential crowdfunded services. If you do find value being provided by this forum, and you want to support through donations, contact me or just use the UPI code here.

 

[Sushubh]

About content that is allowed or disallowed here.​

I do not like personal promotions. If you are here just to post about your new website or tool, I would probably remove your content and ban your account. If you do have a useful tool and you are looking for feedback or you are willing to respond to user queries and bug reports, I would be more than happy to accommodate that.

Users promoting Telegram/WhatsApp groups on telecom related topics would be blocked. There have been a few members who abused their private messaging privilege to contact other members of the forum privately. I largely ignored this behavior. Even encouraged users to chat in private on topics that should not be discussed on a public platform. I still do. But not at the expense of this forum's user base. PS: This doesn't apply on members pinging each other to chat privately.

I do not like content that infringes on copyrights. This includes software, music, movies, e-books etc. Discussion about content is all right. Sharing content that you do not own? Nope. Do not even link to file sharing and torrent websites.

Since I run my own affiliate links on the forum, I do not allow affiliate links from members. The reason is simple… If I allow one person to do it, this forum would attract people who would join only to post their own affiliate links. You probably have a personal blog or Facebook/Twitter account right? Use that.

Trolling is not appreciated. Abusive language is not tolerated. Personal attacks are not welcome at all.

I also do not like useless signatures that add no value to the forum. This includes speedtest images.

I also have little tolerance for outdated views and beliefs. Do not be surprised if I ask you to leave the forum in specific cases like these. This also applies to conspiracy theory videos. Keep that shit to your social media accounts.

Do not create duplicate threads. Do not post the same content in multiple threads. If you are here to leave a rant that you are replicating on x number of other outlets, please leave us out of it.

Do not use link shortening services. I have to check all links posted here for potential spam. Shortened links make it hard because I have to click on all of them to see where they point to.

Update

Be nice. This is currently my most important requirement from all members. Just be nice to each other. If someone is annoying you, and you cannot be nice, ignore. If someone is being stupid, and you cannot be nice, ignore. We are going through a global pandemic, the least we can do is to be nice to each other.

 

[Sushubh]

About sharing photos, videos and other kinds of files.​

Here are some web services that you can use to share files:
For images: Imgur
For videos: YouTube, Streamable, Vimeo
For other files: Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox
For audio files: SoundCloud, Clyp
For code/text content: Pastebin/GitHub Gist/Notepad.pw

Attachments​

File uploads are now enabled. Here are the current conditions (these might not be up to date)...

Maximum size: 300KB
Extensions supported: jpg png pdf

If there is a large file that needs to be uploaded for sharing on the forum (and you do not want to use a third party service), ping me and I would manually upload it for you.

Images are resized so if you want to share an image which should be posted in original size, use a third-party service like Imgur. If possible, optimize image before uploading... while I wait for an automated solution. I use Squoosh.

I should mention here that when I am bored, I go through large attachments and replace them with optimized versions. So do not be alarmed to get those notices.

On related note, I am also cleaning up dead YouTube videos on the forum from old threads. This means that sometimes I end up deleting posts or entire threads where the dead YouTube video was the core element. So you might see notifications for edits or might find some of your old posts/threads gone.

One thing more​

I have another thing to say about this. This feature is mainly aimed at newbies, people on phones and of course images of long term value. It is not there to be used for shitposting or memes. Avoid using it for posting images that have very limited shelf life like speed test images and such.

Post values from router pages instead of posting a screenshot of the whole browser.
If you are posting speedtest.net results, use the bbcode they provide. I understand that they do not provide easy access to bbcode on mobile devices so sharing a link from the app is preferred.
If you are posting ping or traceroute result, paste the content instead of screenshot of the app.
Same for services like Cloudping.info... Their result is in a table format which can be copied and pasted in posts here.
Fast.com/Cloudflare Speed Test are of course complicated as they do not provide any bbcode or link. Try posting the result value in text format.

In most cases, these values have limited shelf value. Text is also indexable and searchable. Hence these guidelines.

Generally speaking, do not post your entire screen if the actual information is in an app window. And copy-paste textual/tabular data that can be copy-pasted instead of posting an image of it.

Repeat violation would result in uploading capability removed from your account.

The reason for these restrictions is that this forum is not exactly a high priority project for me. It does not make much money but does result in a lot of abuse. I am mostly running this as a hobby project with a lot of help from a few friends. Storage is cheap, but I am still responsible for every file uploaded here for the rest of the life of this website. It takes a lot of effort if I am migrating from one platform to another. This forum had no support for attachments for nearly 15 years but with most of the users accessing this site from their phones, I had to turn on attachments few months ago. I have seen forum owners who are managing more than 100,000 images on their platform. Eventually you reach a stage where maintenance/migration/backup becomes a mammoth task and storage/bandwidth costs become a concern. We are not going to get there any time soon. But using this feature judicially would keep things simple.

 

[Sushubh]

About maintaining sanity in conversations.​

Write a sensible thread title. Titles like Need Help/Help Me does not help anyone.

Please avoid using quote feature when you are responding to the active conversation. Quotes are better used when you are responding to a specific message earlier in the thread (or you are breaking your response into parts by responding to parts of the previous message). If a discussion is active, adding a quote just adds noise to the flow of the thread. Even if when you are replying to an older post, do not quote the entire freaking post. Select the relevant text and use the reply option that appears. If this bit is ignored, and quotes are used without any good reason, your account would get a ban.

Please avoid using formatting when not required. This is especially important when you are copying and pasting from another source. Use Control+Shift+V for pasting content without formatting.

About credits and posting information from third party sites​

Write your own headline. This applies specifically for new threads where you are posting a new topic. Post the important excerpt in quotes. Leave a credit link. Ensure that you did not copy formatting from the source (control+shift+v would paste text without formatting). Add your own views if possible. Some third party sources are not liked here so those would be removed (telecom talk, dream dth and right wing news sites are some examples of banned sources).

DO NOT COPY and PASTE THE ENTIRE ARTICLE.

In case of announcement of new plans etc., it's best to wait for them to be listed on official websites and then posting about it.

Search before you post​

Before getting excited about posting a breaking news, do search for it on the forum as someone might have posted it already.

 

[Sushubh]

About the moderation style on this forum.​

This forum has its own set of rules that have been refined over a period of 15+ years. They might be very different from what you are used to on other platforms which is why this thread is linked from the top of the website on ALL pages. Do remember, this forum does not make me enough money to bother about offending people which might lead to loss of members eventually resulting in a dead community. I do believe I am a reasonable guy. I have been publicly accessible to members on this forum since day one. I have met members of this forum. I have made friends. I have even had a few asshole members who have harassed me through abusive phone calls etc. There have been several threats of lawsuits. Even got invited to Airtel office few years ago about my 'motives' of running this website.

About the right to ban/suspend members.​

I reserve the right to ban/suspend/restrict any member on the forum. This is not a democratic platform where you have a right to challenge a ban. Just like a restaurant has the right to reject service to annoying customers, I retain the right to tell you to leave. I have a few friends who are active on the forum and have moderation rights. So, I am not the only one here now who gets to decide who stays or who goes.

Private Conversations​

So, because of some rogue ex-members... I would be keeping an eye on private conversations happening on this board from now on. Some of you would know what he has been doing over the last couple of weeks. Would try to add a warning indicating that private messages are not private any more at relevant place.

There is a report button even on personal conversations! Use it if you get message that you think I should be made aware of! I was informed by two members through other routes.

Some more information here.

Limited privileges on some accounts​

New accounts would be quite restricted. Even older accounts with suspicious behavior (or repeated violation of these rules) would see their functionality restricted.

 

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[Sushubh]

General Statements​

If you do not like me or my style of moderation... Leave.

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This is regarding the growing anti-China sentiment here in India. I do not care if you hate China or Chinese products. I just do not want that propaganda being pushed here on this forum. It should generally be fine to seek recommendations for products that are not manufactured in China. It is however not recommended to start pushing your anti-China stance on others. People are smart enough to make decisions for themselves. There are tons of outlets where you can probably find like-minded people to express your dislike for this country (Reddit should have plenty). This is not that place.

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I cannot believe I have to say this, but I guess I must. If you have a problem with my political ideology, please leave. It makes no sense to badmouth me behind my back when you do not even have to deal with me. There are plenty of other platforms where you can be yourself without being judged for it. I hear the folks at dreamdth launched a general tech forum. Join that site. I am sure they would be pleased to have you considering how much time they appear to be spending here (from what I have been told) replicating what I have been doing for over 15 years. Anyhow… This forum is not even a hub of exclusive private information that you need to be here. I mostly consider this a space of like-minded people who want to chill out and resolve their problems without diving into personal attacks.

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If someone wants to pay for a legit service. Do not barge into the thread sharing your gyan on how he can get away without paying for that service. We have all been on the web for years to know the workarounds. A lot of services are now reasonably priced for Indian audience. If the price is reasonable, and you find value for the product or service... Pay for it.

 

[Sushubh]

About getting your account deleted.​

I would probably not mind deleting your account. I might however not delete the content posted by you because it affects the overall structure of the forum and conversations. If there are posts that contains content that affects you, send me links through the proper channel and I would do the needful (remove personal identifying content etc.).

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Here is an expansion of my stand on deleting accounts. I have mentioned this before that I would try to accommodate your request to the best of my ability. But I need to clarify this a bit more.

Best case scenario would be that I delete your account while renaming your account name to a generic name. Your handle would no longer be on any of the content. Existing threads would retain their continuity, and all should be well. If you want any specific posts or content removed which contain private information, I would be more than happy to get rid of that.

In case you really want your content gone. The best I can offer is to delete all your posts while renaming the ownership of threads you started. This would preserve the posts shared by others as threads would be retained. I would again delete any posts or threads that are personal in nature.

I personally think that this is a very accommodating policy. I have tried to get my content removed from Team-BHP in the past, and they do not seem to even allow renaming of account handles. I am not sure how other Indian forums treat such requests.

I have read that even GDPR does not force online communities to remove non-personal content on requests by EU citizens. I could be wrong though. Indian data protection bill is yet to be passed so there’s that. I should make it clear once again. I would remove any content including private information from the board on demand.

You can now apply for a name change through an option available on your profile pages. It requires approval and is generally processed within minutes if I am online. Otherwise, when I come online.

I really really want to accommodate all such requests but not at the cost of breaking up the structure of popular threads with useful content shared by tens of people.

 

[Sushubh]

Anonymity​

There is no requirement for you to use your real name here. In fact, it's a good idea to use anything but your real name or online handle here. Forum software now support user name change from your profile page though it requires approval. I highly recommend using it if you are using the forum with your real name. It is a bit complex to change your account name in existing post content. If you find some post that has your personal information, please report it and I would make the relevant changes. In most cases, you should be able to edit all your existing posts yourself. This feature is not available on all accounts.

We do ask for your location and ISP which appear in the postbit with your posts. This information is useful as other members do not have to ask for them in case that information is useful in providing an answer to your query. Just city name is usually enough for location. In case that is too personal, I imagine even state name would help others. If you are an older member who still hasn't filled in these fields, please do so in your profile settings.

Honestly, I have no interest in seeking or storing your personal data. I do not send mails. I don’t intend to. Ever. I do not even run Google Analytics here. All I ask for is a functional email id so that mails don’t bounce back and land in my inbox.