Terms of use

Translation for convenience. Only the German version is legally binding.

1. What this is about

knoten.chat is a Matrix homeserver, run by a private individual and funded by voluntary donations. By registering you agree to these terms.

They describe what you can expect here, what is not allowed, and what happens when someone does not keep to them.

2. What you can expect — and what not

There is no availability commitment. The service is run by a single person alongside other work. It may fail, be under maintenance or be unreachable for longer periods. If you depend on guaranteed availability, this is the wrong place.

There is no commitment that the service will exist permanently. Should operation end, we will announce it at least three months in advance so you can save your data and move. Three months, because your address @name:knoten.chat ends with the server: moving means telling everyone you talk to a new address, and that takes longer than saving files.

You pay nothing, and you acquire nothing. Donations are voluntary and give no claim to service, priority or a say.

3. Your account

• You may register from the age of 16. Younger people would need their parents' consent, and we cannot verify it.
• An account belongs to one person. Sharing the login is not permitted.
• You are responsible for the security of your password and your recovery keys. We cannot replace lost encryption keys; encrypted messages then remain unreadable for good. By us as well.
• Accounts that were never used are deactivated after 30 days. Accounts without activity are deactivated after 180 days; before that you receive a message with 30 days' notice.
• You can have your account deleted at any time.

4. What is not allowed here

In particular:

• Illegal content, namely incitement to hatred, depictions of violence, depictions of sexual abuse, threats and insults
• Harassment of individuals, including across rooms
• Racist, antisemitic, queer-hostile and comparable content, expressly also when wrapped as irony or "satire"
• Advertising, mass messages, automated account creation
• Attempts to overload or intrude into the service
• Use as storage or distribution point for files unrelated to conversation

On encryption: That we cannot read content in encrypted rooms is not a licence. These rules apply there just the same, and we act on reports.

5. What happens when someone does not keep to them

Depending on severity: a word with you, removal of individual content, a temporary suspension, permanent suspension of the account. For criminal content we reserve the right to involve the authorities.

You will learn what happened. Anyone suspended is given a reason and can object — in writing to the postal address in the legal notice or by e-mail to abuse@knoten.chat. We will answer. Decisions are currently made by a single person; that is a weakness we name rather than hide.

We publish the number of moderation cases in the transparency report.

6. Your content

Your content belongs to you. You grant us only the rights needed for operation: storing it, delivering it to your devices and to the servers of the people you talk to, and backing it up.

About the network: As soon as you write with people on other servers, your content is transmitted there. We can neither delete nor influence it there. Deleting a message here does not delete it elsewhere. Details are in the privacy policy.

7. Limits of the service

Counted from last access, not from upload: what keeps being viewed stays.

Fair use. There is no fixed storage quota per account. If the use of a single account endangers operation for others, we will contact you and set a deadline; if that does not help, we limit uploads or remove content. Before, not after.

We deliberately name no number here. A number would be a commitment binding us without the server being able to check it — and a limit that is measured nowhere is not one. In exchange this rule is less precise than a number would be; that is the price, and we state it rather than conceal it. Should the service later be able to enforce a quota, we will name it here and announce it under section 9.

8. Liability

We are liable for intent and gross negligence. For simple negligence we are liable only for breach of essential contractual obligations, limited to the foreseeable damage typical for the contract. Liability for injury to life, body or health remains unaffected.

Users are responsible for content they post. We are not liable for content on other servers in the federated network.

9. Changes

We announce changes at least four weeks in advance in the announcement room and on the website. If you do not agree, you can have your account deleted.

Four weeks, so that those who rarely look in also notice a change before it applies.

10. Governing law

German law applies. If you are a consumer living in another state, you retain the mandatory protective provisions of your state of residence.

As of: 06.10.2026