1. Purpose
This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") is incorporated by reference into the Terms of Use and sets out what conduct the alphabell Site does and does not permit. It applies to every user of the Site and to every interaction with the Site's APIs and downloadable artefacts.
2. Permitted use
You may access the Site, read its content, download materials made available for download, follow links to the lab's open-source repositories, submit applications and enquiries through the published forms, and use lab-published code in accordance with its licence terms.
3. Prohibited conduct
You may not, and you may not assist any third party to:
- Scrape or download the Site at high rates. Automated retrieval is permitted at a rate of no more than 1 request per second per IP and only with a descriptive User-Agent identifying your purpose and contact email. Heavier or unidentified automated retrieval may be rate-limited, blocked, or referred for further action.
- Bypass technical access controls. Including but not limited to: circumventing rate limits, scraping CAPTCHAs, attempting unauthorised access to authenticated areas (the internal index, the proposal queue, the federated scheduler operator dashboard), or accessing content marked as held by the publication policy.
- Submit automated or fraudulent applications. Careers applications, newsletter signups, Talent Network signups, and contact form submissions are intended to be made by individual humans on their own behalf. Mass-submitted, AI-generated-without-disclosure, or impersonating submissions are not accepted.
- Reverse engineer or attack Site security. Probing the Site for vulnerabilities outside the scope and disclosure procedure described in our Vulnerability Disclosure Policy is prohibited. The disclosure policy provides a clear path for legitimate security research; please use it.
- Misrepresent affiliation with the lab. Including: claiming to be an alphabell contributor when you are not; representing communications from alphabell when they did not originate from the lab; using the alphabell name or word-mark in a way that suggests endorsement of an external product, position, or organisation.
- Submit malicious content. Including: uploading malware, attempting injection attacks via form fields, embedding executable code in CV or proposal submissions in a way that exploits parsers downstream of the Site.
- Use the Site for unlawful or harmful purposes. Including: harassment, threats, defamation, intellectual-property infringement, distribution of unlawful content.
- Re-publish content without compliance with its licence. The Site's editorial content is CC BY 4.0 except as noted, which is a permissive licence but is not a public-domain dedication; attribution and indication of changes are required.
4. Reporting violations
If you observe conduct that appears to violate this AUP, please report it to abuse@alphabell.com. For security issues specifically, please follow the dedicated Vulnerability Disclosure Policy.
5. Enforcement
Violations of this AUP may result in temporary or permanent blocking of network access to the Site, refusal of submissions, removal of content, and (in serious cases) referral to law enforcement. The lab does not maintain a graduated public sanctions ladder; enforcement is at our discretion and proportional to the conduct.
Version 2.0 · Last updated 2026-05-17.