Rules And Guidelines For Forum Use
I. POSTING RULES
Note: rules of conduct apply to posting and all profile fields of your user account, including, but not limited to username, user title, web site, avatar, signature, location, or any other informational field that is available for edit in your personal profile.
While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.
You agree not to post or link to any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, and sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.
BASIC RULES
1) Flaming : Do not post any messages that harass, insult, belittle, threaten or flame another member or guest. Debates are fine, but argue with the point, not the person.
2) Trolling: Do not come to this site with the purpose of starting a dispute. Note that a person disagreeing with your opinion is NOT trolling; keep it civil, even if you're sure the other person is wrong. Anything seen as trolling will result in you being banned.
3) Spamming: Please do not double post or cross-post the same message in multiple forums. You will not mass-PM or mass-email multiple members of this site the same message. This includes "bump threads" and posts intended merely to increase one's post count. Worthless posts with no content and nonsensical posts eat up space and waste everyone's time. These are not allowed on any of the forums.
4) Offensive Posts, Links or Images: Do not use profanity, racial, ethnic, religious, or other slurs, or post, or any other offensive material. This includes:
We have members from different countries, religions, backgrounds. Even if you express a point of view that is very popular in your culture, it may generate a negative reaction from members in another part of the world so please exercise tact.
CEP707.ca does not filter your words because we do feel that our members can act like adults. Please understand there is a difference from stating your personal feelings of a group, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, or background versus that of a sports fan's comments about an ahtelte.
5) Advertising: Posting of advertisements for products or services, links to auctions, affiliate links, links to promote websites, and so forth is not allowed.
6) No Disclosure of Personal Information: Do not disclose any other member's email, real name, address, phone number, IP address, or other personal information. This includes the posting contents of emails and private messages without the sender's consent. Do not bring personal disputes into the forums. Bans and warnings issued to other users are considered personal information.
7) Misleading Titles: The subject line of the post should be as informative as possible about the content of the post. This also reduces duplicate posts.
8) Duplicate Posts: Check the first 2 pages of the board before posting and make sure someone has not already done a post similar to yours. Duplicate or similar threads are subject to being merged or closed at the discretion of the moderator.
9) Libel: Any posts libeling workers, prospects, or staff personnel. It's not acceptable to post that you heard Person X has a drinking/drug/sex/personal problem from a "good" source. A link to a credible media source must be posted to support such claims. Other forums and personal websites are not credible.
10) Claiming to be a public figure: If you are one and wish to post as such, contact an administrator for verification.
11) Playing the Role of Moderator: You're not a moderator so don't correct posters like one. If you have a problem with a post, use the "Contat Us" at the bottom of the page and let the webmaster know what is going on.
12) Attacking/Disobeying the Moderators: If you disagree with something the moderators did, fine, disagree and let us know, but do it politely through PM or email. Dancing around the rules, purposely skirting them just to see us twitch will not help you out much, either.
On the same note: No posting on behalf of someone who's banned. That'll probably get you banned, too. The idea of being banned is that they're no longer a part of this online forum community and are no longer allowed to interact here. No making threads that give glory to banned people. It's not a violation to mention them in passing but no threads that focus on them. Prohibited threads include "What banned member do you miss/would you bring back?" type of threads. They're banned; don't give them that attention. If a moderator gives you specific instructions in a warning, and you blatantly disregard it, you are subject to being banned.
13) Discussion of illegal drugs: Discussion of illegal drugs should be kept within academic or newsworthy limits only. "How to" discussions and "I'm so stoned" posts may result in repercussions ranging from a warning to immediate and permanent banning, depending on previous history, context of post and nature/content of post.
14) One Account per User: multiple accounts are not permitted. If you have a good reason for needing more than one account, contact an administrator and ask for permission.
15) Thread Hijacking: taking a thread off-topic to pursue one's own agenda.
16) Shouting: excessive use of caps, large fonts.
17) Ban Circumvention: The actions of trying to get around a certain ban that has been put on you such as registering under a new e-mail, username, or IP address will not be tolerated. This will result in a permanent ban on all levels and contacting your Internet Service Provider.
18) Abuse of Report Bad Post: Multiple reports per thread, duplicate or frivolous reports will be deemed abuse and subject to warning. Every report is addressed. Please do not report something more than once.
19) Ignorant Trouble Making If you are thought to be causing trouble by a moderator, you will be removed from the forum. This includes leading another poster into a thread or “board trap” where one member tries to make the other one snap by messaging them or subtly suggesting something that would cause one to argue back. Our staff is fair and if they pass judgment that you are here to cause problems, you will be removed. NO QUESTIONS ASKED. We have had enough problems here in the past and would like to operate in a civil manner. This is a publicly run website and will be treated like that for the members.
These rules are subject to change. We reserve the right to remove, edit or move posts at our discretion.
II. POSTING GUIDELINES
When posting, understand that you're trying to communicate with others. Although we have several members that aren’t fluent in English this forum is an English language forum. So here a some important guidelines on this:
1) Write in English.
2) Always do a quick check for spelling/grammar mistakes.
3) Format your post in an easily legible manner. Use the preview button often.
4) Be concise and articulate as much as possible.
5) Use enter for paragraphs.
6) Capitalize Correctly. All uppercase or all lowercase is hard to read.
7) Use correct punctuation. Avoid run-on sentences.
8) Try to avoid a lot of “text speak”, “net speak” or slang. The purpose of language is being understood, not sounding cool.
9)Never invent acronyms, use as few acronyms as possible.
10) Read your post over before posting it. Try to catch typos.
11) Please check to see if a topic is already posted. Do not post multiple topics on the same subject.
12) Post topics in the appropriate forum.