Monday, May 4, 2026
[Transparency Report #004][COMMUNITY] Policy Consolidation Hobbyist Identity Reinforcement!
What are Transparency Reports?
As a community operated and governed virtual internet exchange, FurrIX has
to maintain and foster open and honest communication with our exchange
members. This means that from time to time, there will be items that come
up during our operations that could or do affect the exchange and our team
will publish notices in order to keep everyone in the know. As a community
internet exchange hobby project, FurrIX aims to have fully open communication
where practical.
What Happened?
FurrIX plays in the networking sandbox as a hobbyist experimental and research network,
not a service provider. Earlier this week it was brought to our attention that a lot of our
wording and policy language is possibly going to lead to us getting incorrectly categorized
and mislabeled by outside organizations and governing bodies. We want the FurrIX
vIX to be able to function and exist as a learning and experimental place for as long as
we are able to host it. That sometimes means learning from how others view our project
and adjusting our posture and documentation to be clearer about what we are—and
what we are not.
As a result, FurrIX is performing a complete rewrite of our public-facing policies and
associated documentation. This update consolidates previously scattered information,
cleans up various policies and will reinforce our hobbyist status and posture going
forward. We are working to codify what has always been true of our project and its
resulting operations: The FurrIX vIX is a hobbyist-operated, non-commercial research
and experimental network with no coperate structure, no financial activity and no
service guarantees. This rework will strengthen our transparency, clarify our operational
boundaries and remove ambiguity for our members, upstream providers and external
observers.
Why this rework is needed:
As FurrIX grew and matured, especially with the separation from MFN, some of our
operational and governing policies had some issues that could affect us in the long run:
- Some documents implied a level of formality or commercial structure that FurrIX does
not have. We aim to operate in a professional and well‑run manner, but without implying
any commercial or corporate structure- that’s not who or what we are
- Our technical architecture was described across various policies with inconsistent
or incorrect terminology; we’re working to resolve this
- Our legal posturing as a for fun project to learn from was understood internally but
was poorly reflected externally- meaning we need to be direct about what we are
- Logging practices were accurate but not documented in a direct enough manner
- Upstreams, researchers and other similar vIX projects may have a hard time figuring
out what we actually are doing and what we are emulating as a hobbyist project- We
want to make it abundantly clear that we are a hobbyist project focused on learning
and having fun, not a commercial service going onward in our journey
What this means for members of the exchange:
- Our team is working on a new document that will change how we approach the
exchange and its operations going forward, this document will be called “Technical
Architecture and Operational Disclosure” and will help keep us on track and within
our intended scope going forward - All our operational and governing policies will explicitly state that FurrIX vIX is
not a company, not a carrier, not a commercial ISP and not a legal entity going
forward. We are hobbyists who treat our project with the same level of respect,
technical standards, and professional appearance you would expect from a much
larger network—because it’s fun for us to do so and that kind of operation is
something to be proud of on a shoestring budget - The biggest thing is that we are clarifying that our project provides its members
with Layer-3 virtualized routing access and virtual interface termination. Meaning
that the FurrIX vIX is making it fully known that we operate no Layer-1 or Layer-2
gear what so ever. We are purely a virtualized environment - Further refining our Network Management Policy and Operational Framework to
reinforce the ‘looking and acting professional while being community driven’ mindset
and status that we openly embrace
Are exchange operations affected?
Functionally, nothing will change right now. We’ll let you know when and if that happens.
For now:
- No new member requirements
- No unfounded obligations or expectations for the exchange
- No new restrictions on or within the exchange
This reworking of policy and governance is being done to protect the virtual internet
exchange a little better and make our posturing and mission blatantly clear to our
outside observers. The entire aim of this rework is to make things clearer to outside
people who are curious and may be looking in. Think people like researchers, upstreams,
data centers, security folks, other vIX projects and anyone who may have to interact with
us as a non-member of the exchange.
Reaffirming Our Identity
The FurrIX vIX will remain exactly as we have been:
- A hobbyist-operated network for research and experimenting
- Non-commercial and volunteer-run
- Personally funded by its operators
- Not a carrier
- Not an internet service provider
- Not a legal entity
- A project built by a few nerds over several years meant for learning, experimentation
and sharing community
This policy rework does not change our mission. It simply documents it with the clarity,
precision, and professionalism expected of a modern network operator.