What is stijlnet.com's List X99?

stijlnet.com's List X99 is merely the internal terminology we use for those individuals or companies to whom we will, as a matter of policy, refuse to provide custom, goods, services or benefit. The stijlnet.com network works with success and enthusiasm for or alongside numerous individuals and companies and believes in the ethical and sustainable development of the internet. In many instances our services are actually provided for free or at subsidised rates to projects we believe warrant such treatment. We hope that what we do benefits everyone involved. Naturally we have no intention, however, of directly or indirectly offering benefits to those who we believe will discredit the network or have by action suggested that they cannot necessarily be trusted with clients, work or custom.

How does someone or a company get onto stijlnet.com's List X99?

Those that have made their way onto List X99 are believed to have been persistently guilty of one or more of the following : suspected plagiarism or 'passing off' substantially plagiarised work to clients or included it on their own sites for the purpose of content generation, defrauding clients, abandonment of clients, non delivery or inappropriate revocation of goods or services, persistent non payment of fees for goods or services, making persistent and untrue statements or suggestions about the stijlnet.com network, its members or affiliates in order to divert potential custom or existing clients away from the network, utilising unethical or illegal methods of promotion such as suspect mailing lists, message board spamming or any other reason that we deem to be a negative development in web publishing and internet work. These are people or companies who, by virtue of their past record of behaviour on the internet, two or more members of the network have decided can under no circumstances play any part in or benefit from the actions and scope of the stijlnet.com network in the future.

We realise, however, that through no fault of their own many perfectly reputable and well intentioned individuals may have ended up working with companies or individuals on List X99 and in such circumstances our only intention is to withold services that we believe will directly or indirectly benefit those that we would rather avoid benefitting. In other words, if your company happened to purchase, quite unwittingly, a computer system from a company that was guilty of non-supply to one of our clients and you then wanted to receive free links, purchase internet services or promotion placements from us your previous actions would in no way be prejudicial. However, if a member of your online project, be it designer, host, financial backer or anyone else with a close and ongoing involvement happens to be on List X99 then we are afraid that we will not be able to offer any free or paid services at all to your project until such relationship has been permanently and irrevocably terminated. We hope that we take a reasonable and equitable approach to this arbitrary area as we have no desire to deny services to any companies or individuals who have the best intentions when it comes to internet development and customer care.

Why is it called List X99?

As any of our members with a background in the education world will be aware, in such an environment 'List 99' includes those who will be denied, for any of a number of reasons, a position working in an educational establishment. The only similarity stijlnet.com's List X99 bears is in the sense that we believe that our list seeks to exclude those individuals or companies from our network whose role should be to provide to, guide, assist or even mentor the inexperienced yet whose past record on the internet suggests may instead have a negative or even degrading effect on a project, finances or the repuations of those involved. Stijlnet.com's List X99 makes no implication of criminality or reference to off-internet behaviour, nor is it prejudicial towards anyone with a criminal history; what we do have, however, are our own experiences and observations of trading, behaviour and interaction on the internet and that is the yardstick we go by. We come at our work from academic, commercial, professional and technical backgrounds where behaviour is a valid and respected benchmark. We only want to work with those who carry similarly reasonable values that successfully manage to combine self-interest (the desire to be successful and profit) with dignity and pride in those endeavours.

I've been told stijlnet.com cannot work with me / us because I / we are on List X99. What can I / we do?

Absolutely nothing! Only if you believe that someone else has deliberately and criminally impersonated you on the internet in the past to carry out such actions as would cause inclusion on List X99 would we be receptive to an appeal against our decision not to offer free or paid services, partnerships or any other involvement within the stijlnet.com network that may be available to others.

I've been told stijlnet.com cannot work with me / us because another of our partners / providers is on List X99. What can I / we do?

Find someone else to fulfil that provider or partner's role. It may well be one of the wisest moves you make

I / We will sue you for including me / us on List X99!

That would be unwise. List X99 is not published anywhere or otherwise transmitted in hard copy or digital format and it is merely a statement of fact that the individual or company referred to is one that we do not believe we can have a profitable and ethical working relationship with due to past actions towards our own network or observations we have made. Potential customers, clients and partners are reminded that we reserve the right to 'refuse any service to any organization or individual for any reason.' Only when we are approached to provide to others do we make use of the internal List X99. Individuals or companies do not make it onto the list for nothing as we try to be an inclusive network; indeed one thing we pride ourselves on is trying to throw internet services and promotion open to as many people as possible who may not otherwise believe they can afford or benefit from them. What we do not want, therefore, is to be involved with or see anything done under the banner of our network that would work contrary to this approach.

How do I / We avoid getting onto List X99?

Simple. Play fair and respect the intellectual property and financial commitments of others when working, selling or operating on the internet.