[Updated: 2/22/2013] Global Community Rules and Guidelines

[Mark]

Global Community Rules
Last Modified: 2/22/2013

DISCLAIMER: The content on RouterForums.com includes information and activities where the potential of serious injury or death exists. RouterForums.com does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information contained on this site. Please always use the proper safety equipment and safety precautions before attempting any woodworking procedure.

The RouterForums.com Rules and Guidelines are subject to change at anytime without warning. It is your duty as a registered member to remain up to date on the current RouterForums.com rules and guidelines. Furthermore, By registering, maintaining and using (posting threads, thread replies, uploading attachments, sending PMs etc..) an account at RouterForums.com you acknowledge that you fully understand and agree to abide by the RouterForums.com Global Community Rules and Guidelines.

* You are not allowed to post copyrighted material unless it is your work or you have written permission from the owner on file with the forums.

* However, you are allowed to post links to sites that offer free downloads of copyrighted material that they own the rights to.

By posting content or making content available for inclusion on Router Forums, including without limitation threads, attachments and comments you post to the forum, you grant Router Forums and its proprietors a world-wide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty free, non-exclusive, fully sub-licensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display, and to incorporate such content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

I: GUIDES AND INFORMATION
II: GENERAL COMMUNITY RULES
III: MEMBER RESPECT POLICY
IV: FORUM INFORMATION AND CONTENT REMOVAL REQUESTS
V: COMMUNITY ADVERTISING POLICIES
VI: USER GROUPS AND STAFF RANKS
VII: PRIVACY POLICY
VIII: ADMINISTRATIVE EMAILS
IX: OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

I: GUIDES AND INFORMATION

If you are seeking information on how to use the RouterForums.com community software, please visit our guide at: Beginners Guide to RouterForums.com. You may also wish to consult our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) database, which is located at: Router Forums. Or alternatively you may post any community software / functionality related questions in our Forum Help & FAQ section located: Forum Help & FAQ - Router Forums

II: GENERAL COMMUNITY RULES

Discussion Rules

• General Behavior: Forum users may not transmit any messages (text based or image based) that contain unlawful, illegal, fraudulent, offensive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, indecent, obscene, defamatory, invasive of another’s privacy, or discriminatory whether racially, ethnically, sexually, religiously or otherwise, or which may incite or instruct any person or organization to undertake such activities.
• Breach of Confidence: Forum users may not be publically transmit or re-transmit any messages sent privately via E-mail or Private Message. You must receive permission from the original sender before posting.
• Impersonation: Forum users must not impersonate or falsely state or misrepresent their affiliation with an individual, company or intellectual property.
• Illegal or Harmful Content / Activities: Forum users are not permitted to share or discuss any topics relating to illegal activities, media or content.
• Pornography: Forum users are not permitted to transmit (attachment, posts, private message, signature or avatars) any materials which are pornographic.
• Topics of Discussion: Forum users are not permitted to discuss any topics which are: sexual, illegal, political, offensive, potentially harmful to another user or company, or religious.
• Multiple Accounts: By using this site, you agree to maintain and use only one account. If you need to re-register for some reason, please contact a member of the Moderation Team. If you are found to have more than one user account, it will be evaluated by the Admins and will likely result in banning. As always, there are extreme exceptions that will be looked into at the Admins’ discretions.
  

Other

1. Members must have 10 posts before they're permitted to use the following forum features:
   • Forum Private Messaging (PM) System
   • Share links within posts, as well as images. ([url] and [img] bbcode tags)
   • Update signature
   • Set "Homepage URL" field in their profile.
2. Spam is strictly prohibited.
3. Any discussion of illegal action, links to illegal or harmful sites are strictly prohibited.
4. Posting of personal information, pictures, files or documents is strictly prohibited.
5. Posting of adult or hateful images / media is strictly prohibited.
6. Community member harassment or "flaming" (insults) is strictly prohibited.

Attachment Rules

1. You are not permitted to upload any malicious, hateful, insulting, racial, discriminatory or offensive images or documents.
2. You are not permitted to upload any adult or pornographic images or documents.
3. You are not permitted to upload any images or documents with the intent in using them for commercial advertising.
4. You are not permitted to upload any religious symbols or political messages either in image or document form.

Private Messaging Rules

1. You are not permitted to private message any malicious, hateful, harmful, racist or insulting messages, images, media or content of any kind (including links [urls]).
2. You are not permitted to private message any illegal, pirated or stolen media or links to pirated materials.
3. You are not permitted to insult or harass any members of the RouterForums.com through the private messaging system or anywhere else on RouterForums.com for that matter.
4. You are not permitted to request personal information over the private messaging system (address, phone number, etc..).
5. You are not permitted to send any adult or pornographic materials through the private messaging system (links, images, content, files or documents).
6. You are not permitted to request any illegal, adult or pornographic materials through the RouterForums.com private messaging system.
7. You are not permitted to solicit users through the RouterForums.com private messaging system.
8. You are not permitted to send any commercial advertisements through the RouterForums.com private messaging system.

Signature and Avatar Rules

1. Your signature or avatar must not contain any hateful, insulting, racial, discriminatory or offensive images or messages.
2. Your signature or avatar must not contain any commericial advertising (including images and website links) unless you received direct permission from the forum Administrators.
3. Your signature or avatar must not contain any adult or pornographic materials, content or messages (including links).
4. Your signature must not include any links to harmful, malicious, illegal or adult websites.
5. Your signature must not contain any religious or political messages, quotes or references unless you have received permission from the forum Administrators.

III: MEMBER RESPECT POLICIES

Respect Other Members

You have the right to read the information found on the community. You also have the right to share your ideas and opinions about the discussions without fear of personal attacks. You have the right to a friendly atmosphere where members will respect each other regardless of skill level, opinions or personal feelings. This means you are not permitted to attack other members, question their integrity or openly trash their reputation. On a first offense you will be spoken to by a moderator about the issue at hand, on a second offense you will be spoken to again by a moderator about the issue at hand, on the third offense you will be suspended from the RouterForums.com community for a 24 hour period, any further offenses will result in another ban (the length will depend on the severity of the offense). If you persist on causing problems in the community you will be permanently removed.

Community Discussions

Act mature and respect the other members opinions, you are not permitted to attack their idea you must only post your thoughts and leave it at that. When you are posting something towards another member, ask yourself if this is something you would say face to face, also ask yourself if this is something you would like said to you. If you have an issue with a member, do not harass, target or insult that member, contact a moderator immediately!

How to deal with a complaint

Contact either a Moderator, Senior Moderator or Administrator if you have any issues with a post. You may also use the Report This Post link which is found in the top right corner of every single post on the community. You are not permitted to post a thread about a complaint towards a user in any of the open forums. You must either private message a community staff member (Moderator, Senior Moderator or Administrator), or use the "Report This Post" link found on every post (In the top right corner). Please do not take matters into your own hands and try to deal with the situation yourself, contact a staff member (listed above) and trust us to deal with the issue.

New Members

RouterForums.com is open for registration to any individual interested in joining the community, every member is to be treated equally regardless of their post count or join date. New members may be unfamiliar with how the community works; you are not permitted to insult or act arrogant toward a new member. Almost all new members will try to break the ice by introducing themselves, if you decide to share your feedback in their "Hello" thread in the Introductions forum; you are required to be respectful and kind to welcome them. If you have an insulting, or personally offensive remark do not post it. Remember; respect every member as you wish to be respected. We are a community of friends there is no need in disrespecting other members of the community.

Member Respect Policy: Other Considerations

Respect all members of the community, treat people how you wish to be treated, we are taking a stronger stance on disrespect and personal attacks on RouterForums.com, it will no longer be tolerated to any degree!

On a friendly note: We ask that you treat each other like friends, the community is warm and welcoming place for new individuals to meet people and share ideas. Please do not complicate issues by insulting members and making them feel inferior to you. It is much better to be looked up to for the knowledge you share and bring, than looked down upon for hateful and degrading comments. You will not be respected regardless of your contributions if you do not treat others with the respect they deserve. Again, RouterForums.com is a friendly and helpful woodworking community put in the effort and help us keep it that way.

IV: FORUM INFORMATION AND CONTENT REMOVAL REQUESTS

Any thread or post may be removed without notification of the thread creator by the RouterForums.com community moderation team.

Content Deletion

As a registered member of RouterForums.com you are permitted to modify any content (community posts [excluding private messages and file attachments]) you contribute to the community within 7 days of posting. Beyond the 7 days you will be unable to modify said content. If you require a post to be modified or removed you must put in a request to the RouterForums.com administration. You will be required to provide a valid reason for the post modification / post removal, such requests are only accepted through our contact form which is located: http://www.routerforums.com/sendmessage.php (maximum of five content removal requests per 24 hours).

Please note that the RouterForums.com administration reserves the right to deny any content modification / content deletion request. In light of the administrations option to reject a content removal request you are required to review and confirm any and all content you share (threads, attachments etc..) prior to sharing it on the community.

Account Removal Policy

It is our policy that user accounts and or posts will not be deleted unless a valid reason compelling the Administration to do so. If you have privacy concerns please choose a different username from the one you'd normally use and do not to post anything that you do not want to be kept on public record. Please note that this is done to ensure the continuity of the forums and integrity of discussions.

V: COMMUNITY ADVERTISING POLICIES

Community Advertising

1. Direct Commercial Affiliation
   Posts or threads made by community members with direct commercial affiliation, and with the intent of using RouterForums.com for the sole purpose of promoting a product or service will be subject to removal.
2. Indirect Commercial Affiliation
   Members may wish to expose other topics of interest, commercial topics included, but may only do so for the purpose of promoting discussion on the forums.
3. External Linking
   Links to other websites are allowed in posts. In fact, they are encouraged. However, links for the sole purpose of marketing, generating traffic to a site, or any other commercial advertisement deemed to solicit commercial benefit are not allowed. Links should be submitted as references, for the sole purpose of generating or supporting discussions on RouterForums.com.

Partner Companies

RouterForums.com recognizes certain companies as "Partner Companies". Partner Companies are provided with special privileges as far as advertising goes. These companies are permitted to share information and promotional materials pertaining to their product / service anywhere on the RouterForums.com community providing the posted advertisement is not abusive or "spammed" in any way. In addition, the posted advertisement is required to follow the Global Community Rules.

The following companies are the ONLY companies which are considered "Partner Companies":

1. the Router Workshop, (Routerworkshop.net AND Router Workshop: Home)

RouterForums.com Advertisement System

RouterForums.com permits vendors to advertise their company products and services in certain areas of the community (More details) at set rates. RouterForums.com does briefly review each company prior to advertisement implementation, although RouterForums.com does not guarantee the legitimacy or creditability of the said company. It is the duty of the user who visits the advertisement to make their own personal assessment of the visited website for it's legitimacy and policies of private information and security. If you feel that an advertiser is a threat to the community or the visitors of RouterForums.com, we encourage you to report it to the administration (contact the RouterForums.com administration).

VI: USER GROUPS AND STAFF RANKS

Router Forums organizes members into a wide variety of users groups and each group holds a special meaning and/or function. All of the below user groups are expected to follow ALL community rules and guidelines outlined in this document.

GUEST: These are unregistered visitors of the community.

REGISTERED USER: This is the default member group.

OFFICIAL GREETER: This rank is given to a member who shows special interest in greeting new members to the community.

FORUM CONTRIBUTOR: This rank is granted to one member per year during our annual Forum Contributor nomination and voting threads. The community nominates helpful and outstanding members for this rank, then everyone votes on all nominees and the winner is labelled the Forum Contributor for that year.

COMPANY REP: These are representatives of a specific company and they actively participate in the community by answering product related questions or comments. (More Information: Here).

VENDOR: These are owners or representatives of a specific company which actively participate in the community, with this rank comes the privilege to advertise in the Vendor Announcements forum. (More Information: Here).

RETIRED MODERATOR: These are past members of the Moderation Team and their past efforts are honored with this rank.

FORUM LIAISON: These are representatives of Router Forums and members of the Moderation Team who take an active role in promotion of the community using online and offline mediums.

MODERATION TEAM: These are the staff members and moderators of Router Forums. They help keep the community free from problem posts and users.

ADMINISTRATOR: These are the owners, managers and founders of the Router Forums community. They oversee all administrative and management decisions.

VII: PRIVACY POLICY

Information on the RouterForums.com privacy policy can be found here: Router Forums

VIII: ADMINISTRATIVE EMAILS

By registering and maintaining an account on RouterForums.com you authorize the Router Forums Administration to send you the Router Forums email newsletter and any automated system notifications. In addition, you understand that if you no longer wish to receive emails from Router Forums, that you can get information on how-to unsubscribe by contacting us. (Link: Router Forums - Contact Us).

IX: OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

By registering and maintaining an account at RouterForums.com you acknowledge that you fully understand and agree to abide by the above rules and regulations.

If you have any questions or concerns, you may directly contact the RouterForums.com administration via (Router Forums - Contact Us).

Addition (4/18/2010): The Marketplace rules are posted in this thread: http://www.routerforums.com/routerfo...ace-rules.html.