Privacy notice

Who operates this community

DISCOWNED LLC, a Rhode Island limited liability company, operates the DISCOWNED community beta. The beta is for adults aged 18 and older. Privacy questions can be directed to the public project account @discowned on X. Never share a password or recovery code in a message.

What we collect

When you register with a password we store your username, display name, a salted password hash, a hash of your recovery code, the accepted terms version and account creation time. We do not store plaintext passwords or recovery codes. This release does not store an email address or provide email recovery.

We store the profile biography, shelf entries, posts, links, tags, comments, endorsements, follows, blocks, reports, mod cover images, screenshots, captions, videos, review subjects, discussion topics and optional ratings you submit. Reviews and discussions are public posts; your rating is shown with your username. Shelf entries use Everyone, Followers only or Private. Following is one-way and does not need approval; Followers and Following lists are public. You can unfollow or block a member at any time. Posts, comments, profiles and published videos are public; only you can view private shelf entries through your account.

Optional Google sign-in

When enabled, Google sign-in is an optional alternative. Password accounts do not require Google. If you choose it, Google processes the sign-in under its own policies, and we receive a signed identity token. We verify the token and store Google’s stable account identifier linked to your DISCOWNED account. We may use the display name you confirm during registration. Email and other token claims may be received transiently, but are not stored in your community profile or used to merge accounts.

The Google sign-in library loads only after you choose the Google option. We do not request access to Gmail, Drive, Calendar, contacts or social posts. Short-lived sign-in challenges and incomplete signup records are retained until expiry cleanup runs. You can unlink Google after confirming a working DISCOWNED password. Google-only accounts can use their saved recovery code to set a password, or confirm account deletion with their linked Google account. Deleting your DISCOWNED account removes the stored identity link; it does not delete your Google account.

Optional gaming-library connections

Steam linking takes you to Steam’s own authentication page. We verify its response and store your Steam account identifier in a private connection record. We never request your Steam password, session cookie or personal API key. A separate necessary cookie and a one-time, session-bound challenge protect this connection; challenges expire after ten minutes and are removed on use or later cleanup.

When library import is activated, we use the site’s server-side Steam API key to request visible game details for your connected account. You choose the titles and their audience: Everyone, Followers only or Private. The default is private. Followers only means people who follow you; access ends if they unfollow you or either person blocks the other. You can change a game’s audience afterward or update all imported games together. We store the selected titles, Steam app IDs, source, import date, available total played minutes and their last-check time. Playtime follows the game’s chosen audience. Missing or hidden hours are recorded as unavailable. The API can include free games you have played and does not establish permanent access or legal ownership. Existing entries retain their visibility when refreshed. We do not continuously sync or automatically remove entries when your Steam library changes.

Your connected account ID is not displayed publicly. Shared imported shelf entries expose the selected titles, app IDs, source, import date and available played hours to the chosen audience. Disconnecting Steam removes the connection and all Steam-imported entries; manually added titles remain. Deleting your DISCOWNED account removes both. Epic, Xbox, PlayStation and other direct library connections are not active; their titles can be entered manually or in a batch.

Game chatrooms and playtime

Game descriptions and catalogue information are open to everyone. Reading or posting in a game chatroom requires a signed-in account and at least five hours reported by Steam for that game. We check the linked account on the server and keep private verification results that can grant access for up to five minutes. Expired records are removed on a later verification lookup or when you disconnect. Manual entries and claimed hours cannot unlock rooms. Disconnecting removes this evidence immediately; changes to Steam privacy or hours take effect on the next check, within five minutes during an active room session. Steam-reported time can include idle time and is not proof of skill or active attention. Other platforms do not unlock rooms until a supported official verification connection is available.

We store chat messages with the author, Steam game ID and posting time. Messages are visible only to eligible room members and stay out of public search and feeds. Existing blocks hide messages in both directions. Authors can delete their messages, and members can submit reports. Disconnecting Steam removes imported games and verification records but leaves chat messages; deleting the DISCOWNED account removes its messages. Report records can remain for review without deleted message content.

Sessions and security

A necessary secure cookie keeps you signed in. The browser receives a random session token; the database stores its hash, a session-check token, last activity time and expiry. Sessions expire after 14 days or 2 days without activity. Signing out, password recovery and account deletion revoke sessions as applicable. Cookies are not used for behavioural advertising.

The service uses hashed IP-based and account-based rate-limit keys to reduce abuse. Expired keys are periodically cleared after a retention buffer of up to a day; dormant keys may remain until cleanup runs. Hosting and security providers may process IP addresses, browser details, request timestamps and technical logs under their own policies.

Direct messages and requests

Text-only direct messages are part of the free community beta. We store conversations, their participants, request status, message text, sender and posting time, and private read markers used for unread counts. Read markers are not shown as read receipts to the other person. Messages are stored by the service and are not end-to-end encrypted. They are available through the service only to their participants, subject to blocks and the reporting process below.

Your first message to someone is a request. The recipient can accept or decline. You can choose whether new requests may come from everyone, people you follow or nobody. This setting does not close chats you already accepted. Blocking a member hides the conversation and prevents either person reading or sending messages through it while the block remains. Participants may have retained copies outside the service.

You can delete your own message text; a placeholder remains to keep the other participant’s replies in context. Deleting your account blanks your authored message text and removes its displayed author, while the other participant’s messages and necessary thread placeholders remain. Ordinary messages have no automatic expiry in this beta and remain until removed. Direct messages are excluded from public search, feeds, Trending, site-traffic page counts and campaign contribution counts.

Reporting shares a snapshot of only the message you select, your explanation, related message and conversation references, reporting status and available participant identifiers with designated operators. It does not automatically share nearby messages or open an unrestricted view of your conversation. You can report a loaded message by its retained reference after blocking. The selected-message snapshot and explanation may remain for private safety review after message or account deletion; deleted account references are removed where applicable. Do not send passwords, recovery codes, unnecessary personal details or copies of suspected illegal material in messages or reports. The beta does not provide continuous moderation or a guaranteed report response time. See the child-safety reporting guidance.

Site traffic

We collect first-party traffic estimates to understand which public pages people use and how they find DISCOWNED. This traffic counter uses no advertising service or tracking cookie. The browser sends a public page path and, when available, the referring site’s origin. Apart from the recognised campaign codes described below, search parameters are excluded, along with fragments, referral paths, search terms and private shelf contents. Only the referring hostname is stored.

The server briefly uses the request IP address and browser user-agent to make a secret-keyed identifier that changes every day at midnight UTC. Neither raw value is saved in the traffic records. We store that daily identifier, date, page paths, counts, first referring hostname for the day and a short timing marker to avoid duplicate views. These ordinary traffic records are not linked to account IDs, usernames, Steam identities or individual shelf entries. Daily counts are estimates: shared connections, changing networks, disabled JavaScript, blockers and hidden referrers affect accuracy.

For a small list of recognised promotional links, we also read the known utm_campaign value, such as yt-profile-oct16 or paid-villagers-oct16. Other query values are not saved by this counter. A separate secret-keyed daily identifier deduplicates campaign visits and matches the first recognised campaign visited on the same network and browser to a new signup that UTC day. This identifier is separate from ordinary traffic and game-interest identifiers. No campaign code is saved in browser storage.

When a signup matches, a separate conversion record stores the new account ID, the known campaign code, signup time and, if it occurs within seven days, the time of the account’s first accepted public contribution. It stores no visitor hash, page path, referring site, post text or comment text. Public posts, reviews, blogs, comments and published accepted mods can count; private chat, shelves, reactions, votes, reports and drafts do not. Deleting a contribution does not remove the recorded fact that it happened. Account deletion removes that account’s conversion record and its contribution to these conversion counts.

Campaign reports follow accounts that joined during the selected dates, including their first contribution on a later day within the seven-day window. Visits are summed daily estimates, not unique people across the period. Shared connections, changes of network or browser, signing up after midnight UTC, privacy settings and blockers can leave activity unmatched. A copied or altered campaign link can affect attribution; these counts do not prove that a particular paid ad caused a signup.

Known bots and signed-in owner visits are excluded. Ordinary traffic and campaign collection, including signup and contribution matching, respect Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals. Traffic reports are available only to the designated owner account and show aggregate figures, without account lists. Traffic and campaign records outside the rolling 30 UTC days are removed in bounded batches during later accepted activity; dormant records can remain until cleanup runs. Earlier visits are not reconstructed.

Why we use it and who processes it

We use account and content data to run the community, display your submissions, personalize following and block filters, rank posts and games, prevent abuse and handle reports. Cloudflare infrastructure provides database, object storage and website delivery through the hosting service. Data may also be processed by hosting and security providers or disclosed when reasonably necessary to comply with law or protect users.

This beta has no third-party advertising trackers, no active payments and no sale of personal information. External links take you to services with their own policies. Optional supported library connections are separate from DISCOWNED sign-in. A shelf does not change or certify game licences.

Game trends reflect activity on DISCOWNED and show aggregate interest, without naming contributors. Steam and RAWG supply game information and artwork; their popularity charts do not determine our trends.

Your controls and retention

You can edit your display name and biography, choose the visibility of each shelf entry, delete your posts and comments, remove games and clips, block members, sign out on all devices or delete your account in Account & security. You can export your entire game shelf as JSON, including private entries. Broader account export and username changes are not available in this beta; contact the project account for requests.

Account deletion removes your profile, sessions, shelves, library connections and challenges, posts, comments, endorsements, follow and block records, uploaded clips, mod pages and mod files from active storage. Reports may remain without the deleted account ID for safety review. Provider backups and technical logs follow provider retention and operational requirements. Copies of public content made by others may remain outside our control.

Mod drafts, file quarantine and antivirus

Mod descriptions, permissions, versions, your optional IP-rights declaration and file metadata are stored with your account. Making the declaration is not required to upload or publish. Draft pages and new files are private until you explicitly publish accepted releases. Every accepted ZIP, mod image and video is checked by a DISCOWNED-operated ClamAV scanner on Amazon Web Services in Ohio, United States. The complete file, including private drafts and clips, is transferred over HTTPS to a private, encrypted scan bucket. Scan jobs use random identifiers, the file size and its SHA-256 checksum. We do not send your account password, recovery code or original filename to the scanner. See AWS’s privacy notice.

The temporary scanner accepts files up to 100 MB and uses a bounded archive inspection limit. Encrypted archives, incomplete scans, stale signatures, detections and service failures block acceptance. AWS scan copies become eligible for lifecycle expiry after one day; noncurrent versions become eligible after a further day. Lifecycle deletion is asynchronous and can happen later. Scan-job metadata is eligible for deletion after seven days; database cleanup can also occur later. The original stored file and its acceptance or rejection record follow the retention rules below.

Unfinished ZIP uploads are temporarily stored in quarantine and expire after 24 hours; expired uploads are removed during later upload activity, so cleanup can occur after expiry. Scanner errors keep a completed ZIP private for retry until expiry. Mod scan identities and verified transfer checkpoints let the site recover the same scan result after a lost connection. Cancelling stops that attempt from being accepted; a scan already queued at AWS may still finish. Saved chunks or ZIPs stay private and can be resumed or checked again after a cooldown, without bypassing antivirus. Short-lived admission records retain a random file/job identifier, hashed member identifier, size, checksum and timing/status for up to 24 hours, with later activity performing expiry cleanup. These records can remain after file or account deletion so cancel/delete/recreate cannot bypass concurrency and retry limits; they contain no filename, payload, password or raw account identifier. Rejected ZIP payloads are removed; file metadata and the rejection status remain until you delete them or account deletion removes them. Rejected mod-image and mod-video payloads are removed; their metadata remains until you remove the item or account. Failed new profile-video uploads are removed from active storage. Older unscanned clips are blocked until a clean rescan or deletion. Mod images and videos use the same recoverable scan identities, cancellation guards and shared admission limits as ZIPs. New mod media stays private until you publish it, select Publish as cover, or publish the draft mod with its accepted gallery items. You can change captions and covers, make individual media private, or remove media and mod pages through My mods and drafts. Unpublishing or holding a mod blocks all its public media immediately. Image files can contain embedded metadata; remove location or other personal metadata before uploading if you do not want to share it.

Mod comments and replies are public and include your username, display name, text and posting/edit times. Authors can edit or delete their comments; deleting a comment removes its text and author from the displayed thread while preserving replies from other people. Deleting your account removes your mod-comment text and displayed attribution, leaving anonymous thread placeholders where needed. Creators and designated operators can lock new comments and replies; designated operators can remove comments. Blocks apply to reading and writing. Mod and mod-comment abuse reports include their text and status and are visible only to designated site operators, not the reported creator. Public technical support belongs in Comments. Reports and their review status may remain after a comment, mod or account is removed, without the deleted reference. Do not include unnecessary personal information or copies of suspected illegal material in a report. Mod-file downloads require sign-in. New download-request counters use a daily hashed identifier derived from your account ID. Older anonymous request records may remain until their normal cleanup. Mod Trending uses the last seven UTC days of these records for currently public, accepted releases. Repeat requests across the same mod’s files count once per visitor per day, and newer days receive more weight. These signals measure download requests, not completed installs. Discovery filters, counts and rankings exclude private and held releases and respect member blocks. Mod cards may load clearly labelled game art from the same Steam or RAWG image providers described below. These records are periodically pruned after 30 days when downloads occur; dormant records may remain until cleanup or file deletion.

Game shelf artwork

Catalogue-selected and Steam-imported entries may load game artwork from Steam’s or RAWG’s content delivery network. Those image requests disclose your browser’s IP address and the game image requested to that provider. Unmatched manual entries and unavailable artwork use a title card. Catalogue searches send the entered game query from our server to RAWG or Steam; we cache public game metadata, query-to-title matches and refresh times to reduce repeat requests. The site’s API keys stay on the server. Your linked Steam account identifier, personal library and individual played hours are not sent to RAWG for catalogue searches. Selecting catalogue artwork does not verify ownership or personal playtime. Collection status and notes follow each entry’s Everyone, Followers only or Private audience.

Game discovery and weekly votes

Game pages, developer news, upcoming releases and public discussions can be read without played hours. Artwork on discovery pages loads from Steam or RAWG, with the same provider-request disclosures described above. We cache public catalogue, release-date and announcement data; requests for these lists do not include your Steam identity, library or played hours.

Weekly hype ratings and release picks are stored with your account, game, voting round, rating and submission times. Public pages show aggregate totals and winners, not voter identities or individual ballots. You can change or remove an open-round vote until Friday at 9 a.m. America/New_York. Account deletion removes your ballots and withdraws their contributions from an open round; anonymous closed-round totals and results remain. Results become available at the cutoff and are saved when first requested.

Trending looks at seven days of activity here: searches that clearly identify a game, search results people choose, visible game and mod-page visits, public shelf additions, game posts, blogs, reviews, comments, reactions, weekly votes, published accepted mods and download requests. Repeat actions are limited by activity type, game and day, with a daily contribution cap and less weight for older activity. At least three registered members must contribute before a game appears; anonymous activity can support a ranking but cannot qualify a game alone. Private and followers-only shelves, drafts, private chat, Steam identities and played hours are excluded. Removing a ballot or making a shelf entry private removes that contribution from later rankings. Trending stays empty when there is not enough qualifying activity.

For visits and searches, the server briefly uses the request IP address and browser user-agent to make a secret-keyed identifier that changes daily. It is separate from the identifier used for Site traffic reports. These interest records contain the game, activity type, daily identifier and time, plus your account ID when signed in. They do not store raw IP addresses, browser strings, search text or page paths. Known bots and signed-in owner visits are excluded, and collection respects Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. Records cover the current and previous six UTC days; older rows are removed in bounded batches during later activity, so dormant records can remain until cleanup runs. Account deletion removes interest records linked to your account.

Movie and music discovery

Movie and music catalogue searches use Wikidata. Available reusable images load from Wikimedia Commons, with source and licence credits. These providers receive ordinary network requests under their own policies. We do not send them your DISCOWNED account, votes, posts, shelf or private library. Catalogue information and release dates are community-maintained and may be incomplete.

You can link a public post or review to a catalogue title. Weekly movie and music ballots are tied to your account so you can change or remove your votes; public totals and weekly results do not show who voted. Open-week votes are removed when an account is deleted. Closed weekly aggregate results stay available. Movie and music Trending uses the same daily privacy protections, short retention and member threshold described for game interest, with a separate daily identifier. It counts public title-linked activity, weekly votes, clear title searches and visible title-page visits. Private activity stays out.

Game follows, mod follows and notifications

Game and mod follows are private preferences. We store the chosen game title or mod reference, your account, follow time and whether you want release updates. They stay until you unfollow or delete your account; deleting a mod also removes its follows. These preferences help For You find public posts about games you chose, including games connected to mods you follow. People you follow, recent public engagement, freshness and a mix of authors also shape that feed. Following keeps posts from followed people in time order. Private shelves, messages and Steam playtime do not personalise either feed, and follows do not add points to Trending.

Notifications shows recent replies to your public posts and mod comments, new public mods for followed games, and published files for followed mods. Release updates begin after the follow; you can switch them off separately for each game or mod without unfollowing. We check current publication, file-scan and block rules before showing an update. Notifications are shown inside DISCOWNED; this feature does not send email or browser push alerts. We store private read markers with your account and event references. The list covers a bounded selection from the last 30 days; older read markers are removed during later notification activity, so dormant records may remain until cleanup. Account deletion removes your preferences and read markers. Other members cannot see your notification list or whether you read an update.

Official updates and patch discussions

Our server checks Steam developer announcements and a curated set of official publisher feeds. We store the matched game, update title, short excerpt, source link and publication, discovery and checking times. We keep a last-request time for each game to prioritise background checks; this is shared source-cache state, without an account or individual browsing history. Source checks do not send your DISCOWNED account, library, playtime, comments or messages to the publisher. If a RAWG game needs a Steam source, the server may request its public store links and verify the matching game edition. Coverage depends on the sources available, and a failed source check may leave older saved notes visible.

Patch discussions are public and show your submitted text, username and posting or edit times. You can edit or delete your words; anonymous placeholders preserve other people’s replies. Account deletion removes your patch-comment text and attribution. Blocks apply to discussions, and held notes are hidden. Reports contain the selected comment reference, your explanation and review status and are available only to designated site operators. Reports may remain after account or content deletion without the deleted reference. Do not include unnecessary personal details or copies of suspected illegal material in a report. Public, undeleted patch comments can contribute to the same capped game-interest ranking described above. Collecting official notes creates no member activity or Trending points.

Future features

File uploads require scanner activation and live verification. Longer video, subscriptions, email recovery and two-factor authentication need further development. We will update this notice before adding new intentional collection or payment features.