Urban Aquaponics Site Code of Conduct

[nwestwood]

Urban Aquaponics Code of Conduct

By registering and participating in UrbanAquaponics.com you agree to the following code of conduct. If you are unable to agree you have the right not to participate in the UrbanAquaponics.com at any time.

While this Code of Conduct specifically references the Forums, by registering you agree to the same Code of Conduct in all other areas of UrbanAquaponics.com, including the blogs, community, and wiki.

This is YOUR community. Most people have a common sense feel for what is and what is not appropriate in our forums and you generally do a great job of policing yourselves. We do, however, need to have a few set policies for everyone to refer to when the need arises.

While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible where acceptable, 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 web-master (except for posts by these people) and they will not be held liable.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated material or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing any of these may lead to you being temporarily or permanently banned from these forums (and your service provider may also be informed).

Posts which violate any part of this Code of Conduct may be deleted, edited or moved to a special holding area.

If you were to continue to break this code of conduct you could be banned. It is the sole discretion of the forum resolution team (currently the administrators) to ban violating accounts.


The IP addresses of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any post, topic or thread at any time they see fit following the guidelines outlined below. You agree that the web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to send a private message with a warning and/or censor any forum user who is in violation of forum policy.

1. Be respectful of all users at all times. This means please use etiquette and politeness. Treat people with kindness and gentleness. If you do this the rest of the code of conduct won't need more than a cursory mention.
2. Respect the forum staff. We provide a service in our free time to keep the forums running efficiently. We will occasionally ask for input, but in some cases we will not, please respect our decisions. Also, we do edit for content, if you have an issue with our moderation, please send us a private message stating your objection.
3. Profanity: Remember that the forums are used by people of all age groups and of all tolerance levels regarding profanity usage. In all areas of UrbanAquaponics.com, including the forum, please keep your language polite and courteous and refrain from the usage of profanities. A language filter may be in place to catch any profanities that you may have accidentally used. If so, Do not attempt to circumvent the language filter by using variations or slight misspellings of profanities.
4. Forum Threads and Flaming:
   • Flaming and condescending messages: Flames are messages that personally attack, call people names, or otherwise harass another forum member (or any person or group). These, along with any generally condescending posts will be moved or removed at the moderators discretion and the poster may be censored or banned.
   • If the thread is flame-bait (appears to be intended to start an argument or is likely to cause an argument rather than enhance discussion), it will be locked or removed without notice. Individual flame-bait may be deleted or edited at the moderators' discretion. Any users who continue to post in this manner or engage in other questionable practices, like trolling (posting in an attempt to engage people in arguments) may be subject to more serious sanctions.
   • If the thread turns into an argument, it can be locked or removed without notice. Sometimes a moderator may split the thread or delete certain portions in order to keep the discussion going, but that is not always possible.
5. If a post or thread contains spam (unsolicited advertising) it will be removed or quarantined to and the poster may be banned. Active users in good standing are allowed to have links to personal sites in their signatures, in their profile, and may post them in threads on occasion as long as the content of those links does not include abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated material or any other material that may violate any applicable laws, or the link is explicitly for the solicitation of members to buy products or services from them.
6. Multiple or repeated posting in order to increase your post count is not allowed.
7. Advertising, spamming and trolling is not allowed. This includes using the forum, email, visitor messages, blog comments, picture comments and private message systems to spam other members.
8. Discussion of illegal activities such as growing banned plants or substances or posts that violate intellectual property rights are not allowed.
9. Adult Content/Violence/Illegal Activity: Messages containing sexually oriented/violent/illegal dialog, images, content, or links to these things will be deleted. Messages with links to or suggesting illegal activity will also be deleted. Posting or linking to any of these could result in a permanent ban.
10. Thread Drifting/Steering: Please keep discussions on topic, related to Aquaponics.
11. Please remember that these forums are inclusive of ALL people, and we strive to maintain accessibility to everyone.
12. Please strive to communicate with other users as effectively as possible:
    • Please try to write your posts in English. We have many users from many different countries that visit here and English is the common language of these forums.
    • When writing a post, please space paragraphs with a blank line in between them for better readability.
    • Please do not write posts in all uppercase letters, as it looks as if you are screaming at the people reading your post.
    • Please refrain from using "leet" speak or slang.
    • Please do not shorten your words to acronyms or abbreviations. It is very difficult to read and understand.
    • Please use color and font properties for highlighting portions of your text, and not for all of the text in your post.
    • Typos and other errors can cause miscommunication between users on the forums, please preview your text before posting.
    • Please do not cross post, or post the same thing in multiple locations.
13. If you have found a post that you feel is inappropriate or that violates the forum code of conduct, please report the post to a moderator. Do not attempt to moderate discussions or correct other users yourself.
14. Please be prudent in your use of images; they may help to explain something more clearly or indicate a problem you are experiencing better but you have to remember that not everyone has the same bandwidth.
15. Forum signatures are limited to three lines of text, 10pt maximum font size. Signatures are also not a place for inappropriate material such as attacks, slander, harassment, political or religious remarks. We regret that users are not allowed to use images in their signatures (see staff signature guidelines below in Section III for an exception to this policy). The use of political images in avatars is also prohibited.
16. We do not allow people to post threads or to send private messages or emails to users here that advertise or solicit any products, services, funds or donations, except posts in the Commercial Forum through a paid subscription. Explicit advertising and solicitating in signatures is also prohibited.
17. If you feel someone has violated the UrbanAquaponics.com Code of Conduct you may open a complaint with the site administrator.
18. The web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum will preserve forum content when possible. However editing, locking and deleting content may be necessary and if so will be done at the discretion of the web-master, administrators and moderators when the forum code of conduct has been violated.
19. Users should only have one active account. If you feel you have justification for requiring a new account, please contact an administrator to discuss your situation. Users who have multiple accounts without approval of an administrator may be subjected to infractions or bans without notice.
20. By posting on this site, you release any copyright you may hold to the information posted and expressly grant Urban Aquaponics all rights to the your posting and that such postings may be reproduced in other forms, may by posted for an indefinite time, and may be used for other purposes as Urban Aquaponics deems fit in its sole discretion. You agree to indemnify, and hold harmless, the owners and editors of UrbanAquaponics.com with respect to any claim that results from the transmission, retransmission or publication or any of your posts, messages, articles, blogs, or other information posted or published herein.