Rules Of Conduct
1. Be respectful of others at all times.
The purpose of the forum is to provide a platform for the exchange of ideas. Occasionally, there will be conflicts that arise when people voice opinions. Be courteous when disagreeing with others. It is possible to disagree without being insulting.
2. Ranting is prohibited
A rant is a post which is long-winded, redundant and filled with angry, non-constructive comments. A free exchange of ideas is essential to building a strong sense of community and helpful in the support of others, but rants are disruptive and incite flaming and trolling. Please post your thoughts in a concise, clear manner and avoid going off on rambling tangents.
3. Personal attacks are prohibited.
Commonly known as flaming, personal attacks are posts which are designed to personally berate or insult another. Text of this nature is not beneficial to the community spirit and will not be tolerated.
4. Trolling is prohibited.
Trolling is the word used to describe a post that is deliberately designed for the purpose of angering and insulting the members of the forum community. Posts of this nature are disruptive and do not convey a friendly attitude.
5. No posting of personal information
Please respect the privacy of other forum members and do not give out information such as phone numbers and addresses.
6. Private communication between the moderators and administrators of the forum and the forum users is not to be made public on these forums or by any other venue.
You are not permitted to publicize any private correspondence (including petitions) received from any of the aforementioned.
7. Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and may lead to your account being banned.
8. Immediate banning from the forum can result from any of the following:
The posting of pornography; discriminatory remarks which are sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive; excessive obscene or vulgar language; posts which discuss or illustrate illegal activity; providing links to sites that contain any of the aforementioned.
9. Spamming, bumping and pyramid quoting are prohibited.
Spam is considered to be repetitive posting of the same topic or text or nonsensical posts that have no substance and are often designed to annoy other forum users. Bumping posts more frequently than once per day per thread in order to keep them near the top of the list is also prohibited. Pyramid quoting is a response to a forum thread which contains the quotes of four or more previous posters. Posts of this nature are not conducive to community spirit and are unwelcome.
10. Redundant threads will be deleted.
As a courtesy to others before beginning a new thread, please look to see if an active thread on that topic has already been established. If so, place your comments there instead. Multiple threads on the same subject clutter up the forum needlessly and many good ideas may be lost. Keep discussions about one topic to one thread only.
11. Impersonating another forum user, moderator, volunteer, administrator or employee is strictly prohibited.
You are expressly forbidden from impersonating anyone else, including those named above, on the forum, even in jest. This may be grounds for permanent loss of your account.
12. "Newbie" bashing will not be tolerated.
Regular forum users are encouraged to be helpful and courteous in their responses. All flames will be automatically deleted and the poster may be warned or permanently barred from future forum use.
13. You may not post advertisements.
Posts discussing or linking to online auction sites or the sale of goods or services are strictly prohibited.
14. Avoid using profanity.
Using partial masking (such as asterisks or punctuation marks) to bypass the profanity filter is prohibited and will result in the same action as if the actual word had been typed.
15. Post constructively.
Negative feedback can be very useful, provided that it is presented in a civil, factual manner. Tell us what you don't like and why and how you feel it could be improved. Posts that are insulting and rude may be deleted, no matter how valid the ideas behind them may be.
