FAQ

What is InterLinked?: InterLinked is a new approach on an old concept. It's a place where people can connect, inspire and be inspired, and share ideas with one another. We believe in making lightweight and accessible platforms without sacrificing form or function. We believe in a sanctuary from the bloat and tracking that characterizes so much of the rest of the web today.
Is InterLinked a social media site?: You mean a platform that's home to daily rants and back and forth banter between partisan politicans? No, it's not — we believe in construction, not destruction…
So, what can a project be?: Almost anything you want, as long as you've got an idea! It could be merely an idea for which you would like to seek community input or something you've started implementing and want to solicit feedback on. You might be seeking criticism and suggestions or an outlet to showcase and promote. The kinds of projects and the intentions behind them can vary, and we intentionally leave it open-ended.
What are the implications here for intellectual property?: We claim no credit for the content posted here, and we don't aim to stifle creativity, either. Collaborative improvement of projects and ideas through user interaction is encouraged. Project creators, however, are ultimately responsible for their own intellectual property. This might not be the best place to hash out your proprietary, closed-source, commercial application.
Where happened to your old projects?: Our old content can be find on the Pages page.
Where is InterLinked located?: This website was proudly made in the United States of America.
Why don't get I notified when somebody comments on my project?: To receive notifications about one of your own projects, you'll need to subscribe to it just like any other user might. This is an intentional balance of control and convenience. Rather than force you to receive notifications about all of your projects (or none of them), we let you control which ones you want to receive notifications about. You can also look at your profile page any time and see your projects sorted by last activity for a quick glance at 'what's hot' on the site.
Why does a project indicate recent activity when the creator hasn't edited it?: Activity also encompasses comments on those projects. This means that users who subscribe to projects are notified if either the owner makes a modification or somebody posts a comment.
I watched a project category, but it doesn't appear on my homepage. Why is that?: To economize on space, if you've watched a project category that doesn't contain any public projects, the tile for that category won't even appear on your homepage. It's still being watched, though — as soon as there are projects available in that category, the tile for that category will appear on your homepage.
I voted for a project, but my vote doesn't seem to be reflected.: You cannot vote for your own projects.
Why does a user's net votes not correspond to the sum of the votes on his projects?: Net votes include all votes across all projects a user has, including those that are unlisted or private. Inactive projects do not contribute to net votes. Thus, publicly displayed projects may not account for all the votes factored into a user's net vote score.
What does 'Regenerate Key' do?: The key regeneration feature allows you to regenerate the key for an unlisted project. This changes the URL for the project immediately, which decomissions the old URL entirely — this means people you've shared the project with may no longer be able to access it! Thus, you should not regenerate a project's key unless you would like to invalidate the URL you've previously shared. While this may seem like a security feature, please note that registered users who have subscribed to your project will continue to receive updates and will be able to see your project in their subscription list, regardless of how many times you regenerate your project's key. Also note that the key regeneration feature is only available for unlisted projects — not for public or private projects. Note that regenerating a project key will also reset the view count for the page to 0.
Why InterLinked Chat? Aren't there already other messaging platforms?: We had two primary goals in creating InterLinked Chat. The first was creating a lightweight but featured chat service that was fully functional without hogging excessive system resources. InterLinked Chat is completely bloat free — we're proud to say InterLinked Chat will work with as few as 35 MB of RAM. Additionally, we designed InterLinked Chat with compatability in mind. Although realtime messaging using websockets is the default, traditional polling is also supported for older browsers that do not support websockets, in order to allow for maximal compatability. On a side note, although most of our platform does not require JavaScript, InterLinked Chat requires it for most functionality to work properly. (However, this is true of most any web-based chat service, and our JavaScript is designed to be as lightweight and compatible as possible.)
Why do I keep seeing a message that says "an error occured" every now and then?: If you keep InterLinked Chat open for awhile, you may eventually see this error. This occurs because you are no longer authenticated with our system; if you are logged in persistently, a page reload will extend your session and you can continue using the site normally. This timeout is by design for security reasons.
How private is InterLinked Chat?: InterLinked Chat is designed to be security and privacy-conscious from the ground up. We allow you to easily remove your data at any time. Once you delete chat messages you have sent, they are immediately purged from the server. We do keep regular backups of all site content, including chat messages; however, our backups are regularly cycled, so there are no permanent copies of deleted messages saved long term. Unfortunately, our backups are for our use only, and we do not restore individual data from backups (furthermore, our backups are destroyed once they are superseded, so it's unlikely we'd be able to restore a message even if we tried). Please do not use InterLinked Chat as a permanent archival medium — if you accidentally delete an important message, you can't get it back. Additionally, channel owners could delete any message(s) at any time.
Video calling doesn't seem to be working for me.: Video calling is only supported if your chat update frequency is set to Realtime (which is the default). If you are using a slower setting that periodically polls for new messages, video calling is not supported. Video calling is also not supported on the InterLinked Chat homepage (since the homepage allows for multiple simultaneous chats) — it's only supported on the dedicated page for that room. Additionally, although newer versions of Internet Explorer support realtime chat, they do not appear to work with video calling. This is a known bug for which we hope to devise a workaround soon; most other modern browsers are fully supported.
How does the video calling work?: Video calling takes place using a service called Jitsi. InterLinked Chat coordinates connectivity for private video facilities per room, but our servers do not host the video calls themselves. Our server instructs your browser how to connect to the video call, and your browser establishes the connection on demand.
If you don't host the video calls, how do I know it's secure?: InterLinked Chat coordinates your connection to a private video room, access to which is restricted to members of a particular room. The room remains the same as long as there are chat connections open in that room with a Realtime update frequency. This means members can open a room after a call has started and join the same call. However, these connection details are discarded once all clients have disconnected or closed their chat windows. Thus, even if the connection details for an ongoing video call are leaked by a channel member, they will cease to be valid once there are no longer any active members in that channel. Thus, you can be assured of the integrity of these video calls.
Somebody infiltrated our chat room — how do we kick him out?: Due to the way InterLinked Chat is designed, it would be almost impossible for a malicious user to somehow infiltrate your video call. More likely, a member in that channel (purposely or inadvertently) leaked the connection details for the video call outside of the channel. A new video call is appropriated to the room upon the connection of a user to a room that doesn't have any other active websocket (realtime) users. Thus, having legitimate members of the call reload the page will not work, because some reloads will re-establish a connection to the chat before all the others have been terminated. The easiest thing to do is close out of the chat completely and reopen it after a few seconds, to guarantee all active members have had a chance to close it. A new video call is automatically appropriated once you open the channel again.
For how long does the Remember Me feature remember me?: For 30 days, although you can log out at any time. After 30 days, you will need to log in again. While it's possible to continue to extend the lifetime of cookies each time the site is used, we believe this offers the best balance of security and convenience.
Can I change my username?: No. You are not allowed to change your username, so please choose yours carefully. If you have an important reason to change your username, please contact a site administrator with your request. Note that username change requests must be handled by administrators, not moderators.
How compatible is this website?: This site is more compatible with a variety of browsers than are most modern websites. The prevailing sentiment that websites seem to espouse today is "If it ain't broke, break it." That's not what we do. We maintain complete control over all the code used on our sites, and only use third-party JavaScript libraries sparingly and when necessary for specific site functionality. Most of our pages do not require any JavaScript at all. Generally speaking, any version of Chromium, Firefox, Pale Moon, or Internet Explorer, etc. from the last ten years should work fine. If something doesn't work, please report it.
Why are there so many options I can customize?: We believe that user choice is a good thing. We aim to allow users to customize their experience and control their settings as much as possible. Many of our settings allow for increased compatability or control over various aspects of site operation. If there's something you'd like to customize or control that's currently not customizable, let us know! We're always improving the user experience.
Why the #$%@ do you require 14-character long passwords?: It's long been known, at least amongst password experts, that requiring complex passwords is an obsolete and ineffective practice. They don't add security, and they annoy users to no end. Password length, not complexity, is what contributes to security. Consequently, we don't have any specific complexity requirements. If you want your password to be 111111111111111, go wild. However, we require your password be at least 14 characters long, which is really just the bare minimum length for a password to be considered even remotely secure. We recommend a password of 20 characters or greater, as a best security practice.
Do you require two-factor authentication?: 2FA is available, but it is not required, and this is intentional. Two-factor authentication alone is not an adequate safety precaution. A strong and unique password is essential, and we also provide users with tools to monitor for suspicious activity. Many two-factor mechanisms are simply insecure (e.g. SMS), and if somebody can log in to your account, he probably can access your email as well. For this reason, we do not require two-factor authentication, as it usually provides merely the illusion of security without the benefit. The best way to protect your account is by using a long, strong, unique password that you commit to memory, not saving your password in your browser, and only remembering logins on trusted computers. Also familiarize yourself with the settings and information available on the Security tab of your Account portal.
A lot of platforms will forcibly lock me out of my account. Will you ever do this?: No, because we know how annoying and frustrating this can be. Some platforms (e.g. Google) will prevent you from signing into your account, even if you use the correct password, if they detect the login is from an unknown IP address that you haven't used before. Sometimes, they ask you to verify the login, and sometimes they block it outright. This can be frustrating if you are legitimately trying to access your account. Even if additional verification steps are available, if you are travelling or at a new location, this can lead to a while goose chase of chasing different two factor methods down the MFA rabbit hole. Our policy is to inform you of suspicious login attempts, but we will never lock you out of your own account by proactively preventing access to your account even if all authentication steps (password, optional 2FA, etc.) succeed.
What platforms like Google should really do is add a feature that allows you to inform them in advance that you will be travelling or accessing your account from a new IP address and not to worry. Then, they could not treat those logins as suspicious, since you've told them not to. This will probably alleviate lockout risks, and indeed, this is standard procedure for most credit card companies if you travel to another country. Why don't the tech companies do this? Food for thought?
What information do you store about users?: InterLinked does not extract data about its users. We store only the minimal amount of data required in order to make this site function well for you. This includes data you provide to us in your account portal to personalize your site experience as well as cookies to maintain session state (that's how the Remember Me feature works!). We do not store other data about our users, and we certainly don't sell anything to third parties. This means less overhead for us and a better experience for you.
Why does this site feel so simple?: We strongly believe that sometimes less is more. Modern platforms do their best to slow down your experience with much unneeded bloated content. Not us. We write all of our code ourselves for a minimalist codebase and maximal simplicity. This means minimal JavaScript, minimal server queries, and no unneeded resources loaded. We believe the web should be accessible to all, including those who continue to use dial-up Internet connections. We make the user experience pleasant and enjoyable without overdoing it. Enjoy!
This site seems simple… should I be worried about security?: You should always be worried about security, and know that we take security very seriously. We use modern web development techniques and use the latest industry-grade security protocols. You'd be surprised how many large Internet platforms or sites store your passwords in plain text. We don't. That means if you forget your password, you can't get it back (you can reset your password, though). We also require HTTPS connections to our site to protect all data in transit.
While we believe in security, we don't believe in pointlessly annoying our users. That's why we have minimal password requirements. You're not required to include Greek symbols or squirrel noises in your password. Length contributes significantly to password entropy, so use a long and secure password that you'll remember.
Does this site contain advertising?: No, this site does not contain advertising. We realize that in choosing not to do so, we forgo significant advertising revenue. We choose not to allow advertisements for two main reasons. The first reason is this goes against out accessibility principle of making our site accessible to all, especially those on slower connections. You could use an adblocker and just block our ads, but why play cat and mouse with our users? It doesn't feel right. Advertisements detract from site accessibility and user experience, so our primary platforms and services don't include ads.
The second reason is more one of principle than practice. The web is full of ads today, and many other platforms now treat expression like commodities to be bought and sold. In order to protect and preserve the intellectual freedom of this site, we don't allow third-party advertising.
Can I support InterLinked?: Thanks for asking! We rely on donations and sponsors to keep our platform going. If you've found something of value here, please consider donating or sponsoring us. Thanks — we really appreciate it!

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