Responsibility should not be a luxury
Tools that protect data, govern access and make decisions more reliable should not be reserved for organizations with large budgets.
Understand without compromising respect.
We did not build LogsCord to let people see everything. We built it to help communities understand incidents and make informed decisions without compromising respect for the people within them.
Our ambition is to make moderation more reliable, proportionate and responsible, whatever the size of the community.
What guides us
Our principles
These principles are not promises added on top of the product. They guide its design, its limits and its model.
Power requires limits
The more a platform can reconstruct context and retrieve evidence, the more demanding it must be about the conditions for accessing that information.
Evidence does not automatically grant a right to view it
Every access must be justified, proportionate and tied to a clear purpose. Collection must never be used to bypass a community’s permissions.
Good retention also means knowing what to forget
Not all data should remain available forever. Responsible retention distinguishes what is useful, who can view it and for how long.
Small communities deserve the same standards
LogsCord is completely free for servers with fewer than 100,000 members because good data protection practices should not depend on a community’s size or budget.
Hard questions
Straight answers.
The answers we would want before entrusting a platform with a community’s data.
Power and purpose
A powerful platform must be accountable.
Why create such a powerful platform?add
We built an exceptional observation capability. We therefore refuse to let it become an unlimited right to look.
A responsible platform is preferable to scattered screenshots, recordings and copies that are rarely governed or limited in time. LogsCord does not seek to see more: it makes evidence more reliable and lets communities control who can access it, why and for how long.
Doesn’t LogsCord resemble a surveillance tool?add
Observability helps understand an incident. Surveillance means watching without limits. We reject that confusion.
LogsCord was not designed to let everyone see everything. Every access should be limited, justified and proportionate. A powerful platform must be more demanding about its access rules than its technical capabilities.
What is the LogsCord philosophy?add
The more a system sees, the more accountable it must be.
The value of an observability platform is not measured by how much data it collects, but by its ability to turn that data into useful evidence while respecting the people it comes from. Power only has value when it remains responsible.
Why talk so much about responsibility?add
We build tools for a generation that was given the means to publish, manage and retain data before being given a genuine culture of protecting it.
Millions of people run communities, manage conflicts and retain evidence without always having suitable tools. LogsCord embeds good practices in the product itself: limited access, controlled retention, separation of responsibilities and transparency.
What is your ultimate goal?add
We do not want to build the system that collects the most data. We want to help shape a generation that handles it more responsibly.
Our ambition reaches beyond LogsCord. If more communities naturally limit access, define retention policies and think before sharing data, then the platform will have fulfilled part of its mission.
Data and access
Collecting evidence does not grant every right.
Why focus so much on privacy when LogsCord is so powerful?add
Privacy is not there to compensate for a LogsCord weakness. It exists because LogsCord is powerful.
The more a system can reconstruct context, correlate events or retrieve evidence, the more transparent it must be about its limits. Technical power is not authorization; it is a responsibility.
Why create such detailed access policies?add
Being able to access data does not mean you should access it.
A moderation team does not always need the same information as a server owner. Every piece of data has a purpose and every access must be justifiable. This logic guides LogsCord policies.
Why retain deleted messages?add
Deleting a message does not always erase the consequences of what happened.
A deleted message may be essential to understand a sanction, impersonation or incident. That does not mean it should remain accessible forever or be visible to the entire staff: LogsCord separates retention, access rights and viewing duration.
Why not simply show every message to moderators?add
The existence of evidence does not automatically create a right to view it.
If a moderator cannot access a Discord channel, LogsCord should not reveal its messages simply because they were recorded. The goal is to provide reliable evidence within the rules defined by the community, not to bypass its permissions.
Why not retain everything forever?add
The best retention policy is not the one that keeps everything. It is the one that knows what to forget.
Every piece of data must serve a purpose. Retaining it simply because it is technically possible is neither a strategy nor a responsible practice.
Why talk so much about GDPR?add
Respect for personal data does not begin when a lawyer steps in. It begins when a developer writes the first line of code.
Why is this data collected? Who can access it? How long is it retained? Is it necessary? These questions concern every community, not just large companies.
Model and communities
Good practices must remain accessible.
Why is LogsCord completely free for servers with fewer than 100,000 members?add
We do not want to reserve good practices for communities that can afford to buy them.
Volunteers, nonprofits, students, creators and small groups also make important decisions about data, sanctions and access. The tools needed to exercise those responsibilities properly should not be reserved for large organizations.
Why offer such an expensive platform for free?add
We do not make LogsCord free because small communities matter less. We make it free because they deserve the same standards of responsibility as larger ones.
Small communities explore a wide range of moderation models and uses. Their feedback improves LogsCord before the same needs appear at larger scales. Every community therefore helps build a better platform for others.
Why help communities that may never become customers?add
Because ideas rarely start in the largest organizations. They start where communities experiment.
Small communities are not reduced versions of large ones. Their constraints and ideas reveal uses we would not have imagined alone. They are our main innovation laboratory, for the benefit of the entire platform.
Why not simply do what other log bots do?add
Recording an event is not the same as understanding an incident.
Log bots mainly record events. LogsCord seeks to reconstruct a situation, because an important decision deserves more than a sequence of messages in a Discord channel.
Independence and impact
Our technical choices reflect our commitments.
Why develop LogsCord in Europe?add
We do not only want to host data in Europe. We want to build a platform that shares a particular vision of how it should be protected.
Our approach prioritizes transparency, proportionality and control over processing. This choice influences both our architecture and the way we design the product.
Why Switzerland?add
Independence is an architectural choice as much as a location choice.
Switzerland represents a stable and durable environment in which to develop LogsCord. This is not a legal promise, but a long-term direction.
Why not publish all of the source code?add
Transparency is not only about showing code. It is also about explaining choices.
LogsCord is a commercial product. We nevertheless publicly document our architecture, security, privacy policy, retention mechanisms and limitations. We prefer useful transparency to technical opacity.
How can I trust you?add
Trust is not requested. It is built.
A trustworthy platform must explain what it collects, why it collects it, who can access it, how long data is retained and where its limits are. An administrator should never have to accept a black box.
Why discuss sustainability on an observability platform?add
Processing more data is not a goal. Processing it intelligently is.
Optimizing queries, limiting unnecessary processing, choosing suitable infrastructure and avoiding waste are part of our product vision. We would rather measure our impact than multiply promises.