Maintenance and Outage Communication Policy

Effective Date: August 31, 2026
Last Updated: August 31, 2026

This Maintenance and Outage Communication Policy explains how HostFlow Network LLC (“HostFlow,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) schedules maintenance, responds to service incidents, and communicates service-status information.

This policy applies to HostFlow game-server hosting, Discord bot hosting, website hosting, networking, control panels, the Client Area, and related infrastructure.

This policy forms part of the HostFlow Terms of Service.

1. Types of Service Events

HostFlow classifies service events as:

• Scheduled maintenance

• Emergency maintenance

• Major outages

• Partial service disruptions

• Individual customer incidents

• Third-party service incidents

The communication method and frequency may depend on the event’s scope, severity, and expected customer impact.

2. Scheduled Maintenance

Scheduled maintenance is planned work intended to improve security, reliability, capacity, or performance.

Examples include:

• Hardware upgrades

• Network improvements

• Operating-system updates

• Control-panel updates

• Security patches

• Storage maintenance

• Infrastructure migrations

• Software-version changes

When practical, HostFlow will provide at least 24 hours’ notice before scheduled maintenance expected to cause a material service interruption.

Minor work that is not expected to interrupt customer services may be performed without advance notice.

3. Scheduled-Maintenance Notices

A scheduled-maintenance notice may include:

• Affected services or locations

• Planned start time

• Estimated maintenance window

• Expected impact

• Reason for the work

• Recommended customer action

• Notice of completion

Maintenance times are estimates. Work may finish earlier or later because of technical conditions discovered during the maintenance.

If the expected impact or duration materially changes, HostFlow will provide an updated notice when practical.

4. Emergency Maintenance

Emergency maintenance may be required without advance notice to:

• Address an active security threat

• Prevent hardware failure

• Repair critical infrastructure

• Respond to a network attack

• Protect customer data

• Correct severe instability

• Comply with an urgent legal requirement

• Prevent a wider outage

HostFlow will provide notice as soon as reasonably practical when emergency maintenance is expected to affect customers.

Restoring and protecting services may take priority over issuing an immediate announcement.

5. Major Outages

A major outage is an unexpected incident that substantially affects multiple customers, an entire node, a network location, or a core HostFlow system.

Examples include:

• Complete node failure

• Widespread network loss

• Major storage failure

• Large-scale provisioning failure

• Control-panel failure affecting service management

• Serious security incident

• Extended data-center interruption

HostFlow will prioritize service stabilization, damage prevention, restoration, and customer communication.

6. Partial Service Disruptions

A partial disruption affects a limited function, service group, location, or number of customers.

Examples include:

• Degraded network performance

• Intermittent panel access

• Delayed provisioning

• Affected backup functions

• Reduced performance on one node

• A problem limited to one hosting product

HostFlow may provide a public notice or contact only the affected customers, depending on the scope.

7. Individual Customer Incidents

Problems affecting only one customer should normally be reported through a Technical Support ticket.

Examples include:

• A single server not starting

• A customer configuration error

• A plugin or mod conflict

• Incorrect DNS settings

• Customer software failure

• Resource exhaustion

• Account-access problems

Individual incidents are handled according to the HostFlow Support Policy.

HostFlow may reclassify an individual report as a wider outage if investigation shows broader infrastructure impact.

8. Communication Channels

HostFlow may communicate maintenance and outages through one or more of the following:

• HostFlow Client Area

• Official HostFlow status page, when available

• Email

• Discord announcements

• Support tickets

• Website notices

• Control-panel notices

Not every incident will be announced through every channel.

The Client Area, official status page when available, and direct email notices should be treated as the primary sources for service information.

Social media and general Discord conversations may not contain complete or current incident information.

9. Outage Updates

For an active major outage, HostFlow aims to provide updates when meaningful new information becomes available.

When practical, HostFlow will aim to provide an update approximately every 60 minutes during an extended major outage, even if restoration work is continuing.

This is a communication target rather than a guaranteed interval. Updates may be delayed when:

• Staff are actively restoring service

• Information is still being verified

• Disclosure would create a security risk

• Third-party providers have not provided new information

• Communication systems are affected

• The incident requires urgent technical action

HostFlow will avoid publishing unverified estimates or speculation.

10. Information Included in Updates

Incident updates may include:

• The affected service or location

• The approximate start time

• Current known impact

• Investigation status

• Actions being taken

• Temporary workarounds

• Estimated restoration time when reasonably reliable

• Confirmation of restoration

• Monitoring status after restoration

HostFlow may withhold technical details that could expose security controls, customer information, confidential provider information, or ongoing investigative activity.

11. Restoration Estimates

Any estimated restoration time is provided in good faith based on information available at that moment.

Restoration estimates are not guarantees and may change because of:

• Replacement-hardware delivery

• Upstream-provider response

• Data recovery

• Network routing changes

• Security investigation

• Unexpected system damage

• Failed repairs

• Additional testing requirements

HostFlow will update an estimate when materially better information becomes available.

12. Incident Resolution

An incident may be marked resolved when:

• The affected service is restored

• Core functionality is operating normally

• Monitoring shows stable performance

• Reasonable verification has been completed

HostFlow may continue monitoring after marking an incident resolved.

If the issue returns, HostFlow may reopen the incident or create a new incident notice.

13. Post-Incident Reviews

HostFlow may conduct an internal review after a significant incident.

A public or customer-facing summary may include:

• A general description of the incident

• Customer impact

• Corrective actions taken

• Steps intended to reduce recurrence

A detailed report is not guaranteed for every incident.

HostFlow may limit information when disclosure could create a security risk, violate confidentiality, affect an investigation, expose personal information, or reveal protected infrastructure details.

14. Third-Party and Upstream Incidents

Some HostFlow services depend on:

• Data centers

• Network carriers

• Hardware suppliers

• Payment processors

• Cloudflare

• Discord

• Domain registrars

• Game publishers

• Software developers

• External APIs

HostFlow may communicate information received from these providers but cannot guarantee their update frequency or restoration estimates.

HostFlow is not responsible for inaccurate or delayed information supplied by a third party.

15. Security Incidents

During a suspected security incident, HostFlow may temporarily restrict access, network traffic, control-panel functions, or service features.

Public information may be limited while HostFlow:

• Investigates the incident

• Protects customer information

• Preserves evidence

• Coordinates with providers

• Resets credentials

• Applies security updates

• Complies with legal requirements

Affected customers will receive legally required security or privacy notices when applicable.

16. Customer Responsibilities

Customers should:

• Maintain a current email address

• Monitor official HostFlow notices

• Follow maintenance instructions

• Keep independent backups

• Report outages with accurate information

• Avoid opening duplicate tickets

• Avoid making unnecessary changes during an incident

• Protect account credentials

• Test customer-controlled software after maintenance

Customers should include the affected service, approximate time, error messages, logs, and recent changes when reporting an issue.

17. Duplicate Outage Tickets

During a confirmed widespread outage, opening multiple tickets does not speed up restoration.

HostFlow may merge or close duplicate reports so staff can focus on restoring service.

Customers should follow the official incident notice for general updates and use a ticket only when:

• Their issue appears different from the public incident

• They need account-specific assistance

• Their service remains unavailable after the incident is resolved

• HostFlow requests additional information

18. SLA Treatment

Scheduled maintenance, emergency maintenance, third-party failures, attacks beyond reasonable mitigation, customer-caused problems, and other listed exclusions may not count as qualifying downtime.

Eligibility for account credits is determined exclusively under the HostFlow Service Level Agreement.

A maintenance or outage announcement does not automatically mean that SLA credits apply.

19. Notice Delivery

HostFlow will use reasonable efforts to deliver applicable notices but cannot guarantee that every message will be received.

Delivery may be affected by:

• Incorrect customer contact information

• Spam filtering

• Full email inboxes

• Discord notification settings

• Customer network problems

• Failure of an external communication provider

Customers are responsible for keeping their account contact information current.

20. Changes to This Policy

HostFlow may update this policy to reflect changes in infrastructure, communication channels, maintenance practices, or incident-response procedures.

Updates will be posted with a revised “Last Updated” date. Material reductions to customer communication commitments will receive reasonable notice when appropriate.

21. Contact

Outages and technical problems can be reported through:

https://billing.hostflow.cloud

HostFlow Network LLC
Website: https://hostflow.cloud
Client Area: https://billing.hostflow.cloud