Terms and rules

1) Age Requirements, Legal Capacity, and Parental Responsibility:

1. This Service is only available to users who are at least 18 years old. If you are under this age, please do not register for this Service. By registering, you represent and warrant that you are of this age or older.
2. However, to upgrade to Vendor (VIP/Developer) status on the Platform and collect commercial payments directly via external payment gateways, it is strictly mandatory that you have reached the legal age of majority (18 years old).
3. Parents or legal guardians are directly responsible for all actions, purchases, data sharing, and rule violations of minor users (under 18) on the Platform.
4. Accounts will be immediately terminated upon detection of a false age declaration. XenForest accepts no financial, moral, or legal liability arising from such circumstances or from unauthorized transactions made by minors.

2) Multi-Accounting, Ban Evasion, and Account Transfer Prohibition:

1. Each member is permitted to have only one (1) account on the Platform.
2. If a user is found to have created a new account to generate fake engagement, manipulate vendors, or evade a penalty, all of their accounts will be permanently closed, and all license rights, active VIP subscriptions, or purchases associated with these accounts will be voided without any refund.
3. Additionally, your standard account or Vendor/VIP (Developer) status is non-transferable; you may not sell, rent, or transfer your subscription, vendor shop, or account to anyone else.

3) Account Security and User Responsibility:

1. While our Platform implements all necessary modern infrastructure measures for data security, maintaining the security of your XenForest account is ultimately your responsibility.
2. It is your sole obligation to use a unique, strong password exclusively for our Platform and to enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on your XenForest account to prevent unauthorized access.
3. XenForest cannot be held liable for account compromises, unauthorized transactions, license theft, or resulting damages due to the use of weak passwords, credential stuffing (from reusing passwords leaked elsewhere), or the failure to use 2FA on our Platform.

4) Impersonation, False Identity, and Staff/Corporate Impersonation:

1. Impersonating another member, vendor, third-party individual/entity, or especially XenForest administrators, moderators, and the official support team is strictly prohibited.
2. Registering similar/misleading usernames (typosquatting), using images or avatars that mimic official staff ranks/badges, or representing yourself as Platform staff to request passwords, license keys, or payments from users will result in an immediate and permanent ban with zero tolerance.
3. XenForest staff will never request passwords or direct account payments via private messages.

5) Privacy of Personal and Corporate Data, Doxxing, and Defamation:

1. Personal Doxxing and Privacy of Direct Communications: Sharing or threatening to leak the personal information (real name, home/work address, phone, email, IP address, etc.) of another member, vendor, or Platform official without consent. Furthermore; to justify oneself in a dispute, it is strictly forbidden to share screenshots, text transcripts, video, or audio recordings of private communications on our Platform, regardless of the platform or application used (WhatsApp, Discord, Telegram, SMS, social media DMs, Platform private messages, email, etc., including but not limited to all communication channels), whether or not the other party has given explicit consent.
2. Corporate Doxxing, Trade Secrets, and Trademark Infringement: Illegally acquiring and publishing trade secrets, confidential correspondence, or customer data of vendors or third-party brands on the Platform is grounds for immediate expulsion from the Platform. Additionally, the unauthorized use, copying, alteration, use in the sale of counterfeit products, or defamatory distribution of logos, trademarks, registered names, custom designs, software/source codes, and any copyrighted corporate identity materials belonging to relevant persons or institutions will result in the permanent closure of the associated accounts and the initiation of legal proceedings.
3. Blackmail, Slander, and Character Assassination: Using users' personal, financial, or corporate data for blackmail and threats; organizing slander, defamation, and organized lynch campaigns targeting individuals or institutions, whether within the Platform or on any off-Platform medium (social media, competitor sites, etc.), is subject to our zero-tolerance policy. All accounts, license rights, and balances of users participating in or encouraging such actions will be permanently voided without prior warning or refund. XenForest irrevocably reserves the right, in accordance with international cybercrime laws, to share all digital footprints (IP, device info, log records) of perpetrators who damage the commercial reputation of the Platform and vendors directly with official authorities, and to file international recourse and compensation lawsuits for resulting material/moral commercial losses.

1) Official Language and Common Communication (English Only):

1. Because XenForest is a global community, the common communication language of our Platform is English.
2. To ensure equal access to information, mutual assistance, and efficient support processes, all threads, messages, resource/blog posts, vendor communications, and bug reports must be in English.
3. Posts made in other languages may be deleted to prevent communication breakdowns; the accounts of users who insist on communicating in languages other than English and ignore warnings may be restricted.

2) Respect, Tone, and Prohibition of Toxic Behavior:

1. Members must use a respectful, constructive, and professional tone in their communications with each other, vendors, or Platform staff.
2. Profanity, insults, passive-aggressive attitudes, and deliberately provocative statements meant to incite arguments (trolling/flame wars) are prohibited.
3. Furthermore, producing hate speech based on race, belief, gender, or orientation, harassing members (stalking/bullying) via private messages (DMs) or threads, and exhibiting an arrogant, mocking, or exclusionary (elitist) attitude toward less knowledgeable users will be met with zero tolerance.
4. The authority to interpret which statements and actions are "toxic" rests entirely with XenForest management, and these decisions are not open to debate.

3) Politics, Religion, Geopolitics, and Off-Topic Discussions:

1. The primary focus of our Platform is software, web development, XenForo, and related digital ecosystems.
2. As a global community, local/international political discussions and geopolitical conflicts that may cause polarization or hostility among members are strictly prohibited.
3. Similarly, imposing any religious belief, preaching by sharing sacred texts, or engaging in missionary activities (inviting to one's own faith, gathering disciples/members, requesting donations for religious groups) on behalf of a specific religion, sect, cult, or spiritual movement falls under our zero-tolerance policy.
4. Likewise, spreading baseless conspiracy theories or repeatedly creating "off-topic" clutter that deviates from the Platform's core purpose is prohibited.
5. Such content will be immediately deleted, and users who persistently impose politics, ideology, or beliefs will lose their Platform access permanently.

4) Commercial Defamation, Targeting, and Public Shaming:

1. Calls for boycotts, organized lynch campaigns ("witch hunts"), and character assassinations targeting vendors, developers, products, or Platform management will result in the immediate and permanent closure of the account.
2. Even if a user believes they are right about a product or vendor and has concrete evidence, they may not use this situation in public Platform areas to cause commercial damage, conduct summary judgments (public shaming), or sabotage sales.
3. Any vendor-customer dispute, fraud allegation, or grievance cannot be discussed in public threads; they must be submitted directly to management with accompanying evidence exclusively via the official Dispute/Ticket and Reporting systems.
4. We reserve the right to seek international financial compensation for resulting loss of revenue against individuals who write manipulative (fake) product reviews for defamatory purposes or unfairly interfere with the commercial activities of the Platform and vendors.

1) Obscenity, Child Exploitation, and Terrorist Propaganda (NSFW & CSAM):

1. Pornography, nudity, sexual violence, extreme gore, or terrorist organization symbols may not be shared anywhere on the Platform (including messages, resources, avatars, profile cover photos, signature areas, status updates, and private messages).
2. All user-customizable profile areas are subject to this rule.
3. The unauthorized distribution of intimate images belonging to others (revenge porn) and AI-generated (Deepfake) explicit materials are strictly prohibited.
4. In particular, the sharing of any material (whether real, illustrated, or AI-generated) containing or implying child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or pedophilia is grounds for immediate, permanent banning.
5. The IP records, device information, and all digital logs of those who commit this crime will be immediately reported to international law enforcement agencies (Interpol, FBI, NCMEC, etc.) without exception.

2) Illegal Activities, Fraud, and Glorification of Crime:

1. You may not use the Service to praise, glorify, or legitimize terrorist acts, violence, crime, illegal organizations, or criminals, to share recipes for explosives/weapons, or to encourage suicide/self-harm or aestheticize and romanticize them.
2. Additionally, organizing stolen credit card trades (Carding), identity theft, money laundering, illegal gambling, pyramid schemes (Ponzi/Crypto scams), drug trafficking, and cyberattack networks (DDoS, Hacking) is strictly prohibited.
3. Directly hosting such activities or sharing third-party links/sites that conduct these activities will lead to permanent account cancellation and reporting to judicial authorities.

3) Pirated Content, Intellectual Property Infringement, and Group Buys:

1. Requesting, sharing, or providing torrent/cloud (Mega, Drive) links to any copyrighted material (movies, digital courses, licensed themes/plugins, etc.) and unlicensed (nulled/warez) software within the Platform is prohibited.
2. Discussing methods to bypass software license verification (crack, keygen, reverse engineering) is grounds for account closure.
3. Furthermore, organizing or participating in "Group Buys" or engaging in account sharing to reduce license costs through the Platform is penalized with zero tolerance, and all existing licenses of the involved users will be revoked.
4. Open Source & Code Plagiarism: Developers are strictly prohibited from misappropriating open-source code (e.g., GPL, MIT licenses) and repackaging it as proprietary, closed-source products for sale on the Platform without complying with the original license terms. Plagiarizing another developer's work, removing original copyright headers, or falsely claiming authorship of a third-party script will result in immediate vendor suspension, product removal, and potential permanent banning.

4) Spam, Repetitive Content (Flooding), and Synthetic (AI) Junk Content:

1. Unauthorized advertising, SEO manipulation (stealth backlinking), sending unsolicited marketing (spam) messages to members via DMs, and sharing masked affiliate links are prohibited.
2. Repeatedly copying and pasting (cross-posting / flooding) the same thread, message, question, or resource file into multiple categories or threads is strictly prohibited.
3. Additionally, submitting untested, misleading, or "junk (spam) content" generated using Artificial Intelligence (e.g., ChatGPT) to the Platform or Resource Manager purely to farm engagement, inflate message counts, or feign expertise will result in permanent account restriction/banning.

5) Malware, Backdoors, and Code Obfuscation:

1. Deliberately uploading files containing viruses, trojans, spyware, ransomware, unauthorized cryptomining (cryptojacking), or backdoors onto the Platform (especially in the resource manager, blog, marketplace, or plugin areas) is strictly prohibited.
2. Obfuscating codes (e.g., encoding with base64, ionCube, etc.) without a reasonable commercial licensing justification to evade review or hide malicious code is grounds for rejection and a permanent ban.
3. The accounts of those who upload malware will be closed, legal prosecution will be initiated to cover damages, and this situation may be shared (named and shamed) with other developer communities to ensure industry security.

1) Business Model, Direct Payment Structure (P2P), and Unauthorized Trading Prohibition:

1. XenForest offers "VIP/Developer" membership groups so developers (Vendors) can manage their own storefronts.
2. Vendors collect payments from sales made on the Platform directly through their chosen external payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, etc.).
3. XenForest takes zero commission (0% commission) from the sale of individual plugins, themes, or services and is not involved in product pricing.
4. Our Platform acts solely as a digital storefront directory where verified vendors and buyers meet.
5. Unauthorized Commercial Activity (Shadow Selling): Offering, advertising, or soliciting commercial products, custom development, design services, or paid support via forum threads, private messages (DMs), user signatures, or profile areas without holding an active, official Vendor (VIP/Developer) subscription is strictly prohibited. Accounts engaging in unauthorized off-store trading or soliciting members via DMs to bypass Platform vendor subscriptions will be permanently terminated without warning.

2) Responsible Disclosure and Bug Extortion Prohibition:

1. If you find a security vulnerability (exploit/zero-day) in the Platform infrastructure or any third-party product (plugin, theme, etc.) sold on the Platform, publishing it in public Platform areas, "showing off," or demanding a ransom/reward from the vendor/management in exchange for patching the vulnerability (bug extortion) is directly considered the crime of cyber extortion.
2. All security disclosures must be made directly to management (or the relevant vendor) under the principle of confidentiality.
3. The accounts of individuals who exploit the vulnerability or put data security at risk by publishing it on the open Platform will be deleted, and legal action will be taken against them.

3) Data Scraping, AI Indexing Rules, API Abuse, and Cloning Prohibition:

1. Protecting the Platform's server infrastructure and intellectual property is essential.
2. Using unauthorized automated tools, malicious bots, or data harvesting software to scrape private user data, protected source codes, downloadable product packages, or member-only content is strictly prohibited. (Legitimate search engine crawlers and AI discovery/answer assistants indexing public pages in compliance with our robots.txt protocol to provide accurate information, summaries, and source citations directing users to XenForest.com are expressly permitted.)
3. Additionally, unauthorized copying of XenForest's interface design (UI/UX), logos, and infrastructure codes to create competing, misleading, or cloned (phishing) sites is strictly prohibited and is a direct cause for legal action (compensation and access blocking).

4) Weaponization of the Reporting System and Unfair Competition:

1. The "Report" and "Dispute" functions on the Platform are strictly for notifying management of genuine rule violations.
2. Weaponizing the system by continuously submitting false reports, sending fake copyright (DMCA) notices against competitors' products, bringing personal vendettas to the Platform, or attempting to sabotage competitors' sales constitutes unfair competition.
3. Users attempting to manipulate or waste the time of the management team will have their reporting privileges revoked, and if they hold vendor accounts, their commercial activities will be suspended.

5) Export Controls and Embargo Compliance:

1. By purchasing a "VIP/Developer" membership directly from XenForest or obtaining digital products from vendors on the Platform, you represent and warrant that you are not located in a country subject to an international embargo (e.g., regions subject to comprehensive US/EU sanctions) and that you are not listed on any international prohibited/restricted parties list (e.g., the US Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals List).
2. Platform membership transactions originating from individuals or regions under embargo will be canceled immediately upon detection.

6) Tax Obligations:

1. XenForest is only responsible for the legal taxes (if applicable) arising from the sale of Vendor (VIP/Developer) group memberships.
2. Any local or international tax liabilities (VAT, Income Tax, Customs Duty, etc.) arising from third-party product/service sales made by vendors from their own stores using their own payment infrastructure are entirely the legal responsibility of the transacting vendor and buyer.
3. XenForest cannot be held responsible for the tax declarations of third-party sales.

7) Chargeback and Refund Liability:

1. Since the Platform membership fees (VIP/Developer Group) paid directly to XenForest are instantly activated digital services, no right of withdrawal or refund is offered, in accordance with our Refund & Cancellation Policy.
2. If you file an unjustified dispute/chargeback with your payment processor (e.g., PayPal or your bank) for these payments, your account will be immediately suspended or permanently deleted.
3. Because XenForest is not involved in the payment process for plugins sold in stores, "Refunds" or "Chargeback" disputes for purchased plugins and services are strictly a matter between the buyer and the payment channels of the relevant vendor (Developer). XenForest cannot process refunds for any third-party products.

4) Platform Continuity, Content License, and Feedback:

1. You retain the copyright to the content (code snippets, messages, guides, etc.) you submit to the Platform.
2. However, by submitting any content to the Platform, you grant XenForest a worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, and perpetual use license to publish, copy, reproduce, and sublicense this content.
3. Furthermore, any feedback, comments, and suggestions you provide for the improvement of the Platform become our sole and exclusive property.
4. We may (or may not) use and disclose this feedback as we see fit and for any purpose, without providing you with any additional notice or paying any royalties/compensation.
5. To preserve the information integrity (discussion flow) of the community; if you close your account or are permanently banned from the Platform, your posts (messages and threads created) will not be deleted.
6. In accordance with international privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.), only your personal data (account name, etc.) can be anonymized, but requests for wholesale deletion of content (abuse of the Right to be Forgotten) will be categorically rejected to avoid creating information asymmetry.

5) Copyright (DMCA), Notice and Takedown, and Perjury Penalty:

1. As a "Service Provider", XenForest respects intellectual property rights.
2. If you discover content that infringes upon your copyright, you are obliged to report it to us via our official Contact channel in accordance with the international "Notice and Takedown" procedure.
3. Infringing content is immediately taken down in accordance with valid legal notices.
4. However, the accounts of users who are found to have submitted fake, baseless, or manipulative (perjury) DMCA notices to sabotage competitors will be permanently closed, and legal action will be taken against them for resulting commercial damages.

6) Service Interruptions, License Infrastructure, and Force Majeure:

1. XenForest cannot be held responsible in any way for platform interruptions and data losses caused by extraordinary situations (Force Majeure) beyond XenForest's reasonable control, such as cyberattacks (DDoS, etc.), infrastructure failures, data center crashes, natural disasters, war, pandemics, or government interventions.
2. Official plugins and software belonging to XenForest are designed, thanks to their licensing architecture (OEM key system), to continue operating uninterrupted on your own website even if our license servers are temporarily offline.
3. Therefore, potential downtime on XenForest servers does not cause a loss of functionality in customers' own projects.
4. However, the inability to access the XenForest Platform, the unavailability of the store, the inability to generate new licenses, or delays in technical support services during such force majeure downtime periods can under no circumstances be accepted as a legal fault, grounds for commercial compensation, or a refund reason.

7) Termination Without Cause and Unilateral Amendment:

1. XenForest management reserves the right to partially or completely suspend its services at any time; to delete, ban, and terminate the account of any user who violates the rules or is deemed harmful to the Platform, without showing any reason (for any reason or no reason), without prior notice, and in a way that no refund (including active VIP, etc.) can be claimed.
2. XenForest has the right to unilaterally amend these rules, policies, and conditions at any time.
3. Updates take effect as soon as they are published on the Platform, and your continued use of the Platform implies your tacit (silent) acceptance of the new rules.

8) Severability, Applicable Law, and Dispute Resolution:

1. If any provision or clause of this agreement is found to be illegal, invalid, or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction; that clause, rather than being voided, will be deemed reinterpreted (flexed) to best fit the original commercial intent of the parties and the law.
2. Even in situations where the relevant clause is completely unenforceable, all remaining rules and clauses will continue to be fully valid, binding, and protective without interruption.
3. In any dispute arising from the application of the rules or the use of the Platform; the laws of England and Wales (United Kingdom) will apply, and the courts of London will be considered exclusively competent.
4. Informal Dispute Resolution & Arbitration: Before initiating any formal legal proceeding, you agree to first attempt to resolve any dispute informally by contacting us directly. If the dispute is not resolved within thirty (30) days of submission, both parties agree to resolve the claim through binding arbitration, rather than in court, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

9) Class-Action Waiver:

1. In any legal dispute the user may have with the XenForest Platform, they may assert claims only in their individual capacity.
2. It is strictly forbidden to sue the Platform by joining other users as a class representative or through a Class Action, to be a party to class actions, or to consolidate arbitration/court proceedings, and by using this platform, the user is deemed to have irrevocably waived this legal right.

10) Contact and Legal Notices:

1. If you wish to close your account, issue legal notices (DMCA), initiate an official Report/Dispute, or contact platform management, please use our Contact page.