Public and private information

You can prepare an inquiry without an account. Its unfinished draft stays in this browser tab for up to 24 hours and is not uploaded as an inquiry until you sign in and choose to save. Signing in does not send messages to suppliers.

Reading the library does not require an account. An account stores a username, password hash, hashed recovery code and session records. We do not require an email address to register.

For new accounts created under the current Terms of Service, we store the accepted version and a server timestamp with the account. This record is included in your private account export. Earlier accounts are not backfilled or treated as having accepted a new version.

Approved posts, replies and optionally published profiles are public. Your username remains attached to your published contributions. Profile affiliations are self-declared. First contributions may be held for moderator review; pending content is visible to its author and moderators.

Saved items, followed discussions and account settings are private account features. Named collections start private and can be deleted by their owner. If you submit a collection for publication, moderators can review it; approved collections are public with your username. Saving changes to a published collection makes it private or returns it to review, depending on your choice. Submitted reports and account-help requests are visible to moderators. Do not include passwords or recovery codes in any post or support message.

Private supplier inquiries

While you prepare an inquiry, unfinished answers and the current step are kept in this browser tab’s session storage, scoped to your signed-in account. This lets you recover after a reload. The tab draft expires after 24 hours and is cleared when you save the inquiry, select Start over, or sign out in that tab. It is not a saved account inquiry until you select Save inquiry & prepare messages. Browser storage restrictions can prevent draft recovery; the form will tell you if it cannot keep progress.

If you use our supplier inquiry service, we store your task brief, selected suppliers, optional name/organization and your follow-up status in your account. These inquiries are not public, indexed, shown to other members or shared with suppliers unless you explicitly send them. Account owners can download or delete individual inquiries; the account export includes briefs and sending records. They are retained until you delete them or request removal. Deactivation blocks access but does not delete saved inquiries.

Website sending is optional and requires a verified reply email. We store that address, a time-limited hashed verification code, and sending records. After your explicit send confirmation, Resend processes each selected supplier’s address, your brief and verified reply email. Suppliers receive separate messages; replies go directly to your email inbox. “Send me a copy” is on by default for new messages and can be unchecked before sending. When enabled, your verified reply address also receives a blind copy of each supplier email through Resend. The copy choice is stored with that message and stays unchanged on retries. Copies appear in your inbox, not your email account’s Sent folder. Dexhands does not collect their replies. “Accepted” means the sending service accepted the message, not that it reached an inbox. Resend and recipient systems apply their own retention policies. When you open a draft in your email app or submit a supplier contact form, you choose to share the message with that supplier through an external service. Its handling and retention are outside Dexhands. Deleting an inquiry clears its stored message payloads here but cannot recall sent messages or delete provider copies. Minimal identifiers, timestamps and a deleted marker remain to prevent duplicate sends. You can remove your verified reply address on the inquiry screen; previously sent inquiry records retain the address until you delete those inquiries. Do not include confidential designs or sensitive personal data. A published contact route does not establish a partnership or a promise to respond.

Cookies, infrastructure and external links

An essential, secure session cookie keeps you signed in for up to seven days. The application uses hashed IP-derived keys and expiring counters to limit abusive requests. Hosting and security providers may process request metadata and retain their own operational logs; their retention is not controlled by the community interface.

Catalog images are served from this site where available. Some external media is loaded only when selected. Following an external link or loading external media sends a request to its provider and is subject to that provider’s policies. Public posts can be indexed by search engines or copied by others.

Research workspace

Lesson progress, followed resource records and read-update markers are private to your account. Maintainer requests store your organization, role, evidence URL and explanation for moderator review. Only approved names, roles, organizations and evidence links appear publicly; your explanation and review notes remain private. You can reset learning progress, unfollow resources and withdraw a maintainer request in your dashboard. These features do not send email or automatically track upstream repositories. Account export includes this data; deactivation also hides approved maintainer associations.

Recovery and account controls

Save the recovery code shown at registration. Password recovery uses this code, not email. If you can still sign in, Account settings lets you change your password or generate a replacement recovery code after confirming your current password.

You can download your account data or deactivate your account. Deactivation ends sessions and hides your public profile and collections. It does not delete published posts, replies or all stored records. Removal requests need moderator review, including how to preserve other participants’ discussions.

Account records and contributions are currently retained until an account or content request is reviewed; this site does not claim automatic deletion after a fixed period. You can remove individual saved items directly.

Anonymous usage totals

We count a limited set of actions by UTC day: searches with or without results, comparisons opened or saved, inquiry steps and registration steps. These counters contain no search terms, inquiry contents, member IDs, email addresses or session identifiers. Application counters are retained for a rolling 90 days; hosting providers may maintain separate operational logs. Counts are not unique visitor statistics.

We respect Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control for this measurement.

Contact form messages

The Contact us form sends your optional name, reply email, selected topic, message and any related page link shown in the form privately to info@dexhands.org through Resend. Your reply address is self-reported; it is not an account-verification or password-recovery method. We do not publish contact messages or send automatic copies to the address entered.

The community database keeps a submission identifier, keyed message fingerprint, sending state and timestamps to prevent repeat sends. It does not store the form’s message text or email address. Receipt records older than 30 days are removed when new contact submissions are processed. Expiring, hashed IP-derived counters limit abuse. The submitted message and your email address are processed and retained by our email providers and inbox so we can respond; their retention is separate from these application receipts. A confirmation means the email service accepted the message, not that it was delivered or read.

Unsubmitted text stays in the current page and is not deliberately saved as a draft by Dexhands. For a deletion or privacy request, contact info@dexhands.org and include the submission reference if available. Do not include confidential material, passwords or recovery codes.

Questions, corrections and account help

Email info@dexhands.org for account help, privacy or removal requests, including when you cannot sign in. You can also use Account help from your account for a private moderator request. Email correspondence includes your address and message and is handled by our email providers so we can respond. For a factual correction, include the page, field, proposed change and an original source. Do not post private account details in a public discussion.

Community guidelines · Evidence and editorial standards