The Aussie Bloggers Forum Rules.

The following rules exist for good reasons. Please note the rules are subject to change if we feel that we've missed something or a new issue arises. Plenty of notice will be given to all forum users via the Forum Guidelines forum of any intended change to the rules.

The Aussie Bloggers Forum Rules -

• No abuse, insults or personal attacks
• No offensive language
• No trolling
• No inappropriate or illegal material
• No "For Sale" or "Wanted to Buy"
• No crossposting
• No forum spamming
• No "religious" debates
• No "political" debates
• No "racial" debates
• No defamatory comments
• No Affiliate links
• No Links to "Splogs"
• No animated graphics in posts, avatars or signatures.

The rules apply to all areas of the Aussie Bloggers forums

Advertising - Fundraising - Announcements -

This forum does not allow advertising in the form of "for sale" or "wanted to buy" or similar. There are other places where you can do and find these advertisments.

We will allow announcements which:

* notify members of something directly related to the purposes of this forum
* notify members of a benefit they can obtain as a result of their forum membership
* are made by people who are active and frequent participants of the Aussie Bloggers forum community
* seek members help on blogging related activities
* are not for employment or commercial purposes (some very small leeway may be permitted if the employment/commercial aspects are very peripheral to the main purposes of the announcement

Such announcements will be permitted solely at the discretion of the moderators. It would be in your best interests to ask the Moderators and/or the Administrators prior to posting such a post.

Private Forum Areas - (New - 9/06/08)

Members are not permitted to take quotes from the private areas of this forum and post them anywhere else - that includes a blog, in a public area of this forum, or on another forum.

The private areas are provided for the use of forum members. The private areas can not seen by the search engines. Access to these areas is a privilege, not a right - and if members choose to abuse the trust of their fellow members by publicly posting information that was not intended to be made public, they can be removed from the private areas and/or be banned from the forums entirely.

Not every forum member has access to these areas - access may be determined by membergroup. For example - the events and meets forum is only seen by members with more than 20 posts. Private areas available to forum members are clearly defined - such forums have "private area" in their title.

Our Policy On Offensive Language -

The following points outline the basic moderation policy regarding offensive language on the Aussie Bloggers Forum, and applies to posts, usernames, custom titles, personal text, signatures, and any other content members post on the forums.

• Content containing "heavy weight" swear words, specifically the F, C and MF words, are completely inappropriate on the Aussie Bloggers Forum. All content containing such words - hidden or not - will be removed.

• Content containing lesser swear words will not normally be moderated, provided the words are used sparingly (e.g. once in a post), and the content is otherwise on topic and useful. Use of such words in reoccurring content (custom titles, personal text, signatures, usernames) may be allowed if those words are the name of your site/blog, or appear as the tag line of your site/blog but otherwise is frowned upon.

Copy And Paste Content -

We request that users do not copy and paste jokes, recipes, stories, blog posts, or any other content from the web. Excerpts are allowed within a quote (guideline - perhaps less than 10% of the original) and a link to the original source - be it the poster's own blog or another. Posts that do not follow this rule will be deleted on sight.

There are good reasons for this other than the obvious copyright infringement issues - it is not good SEO to have duplicate content on a website. A recently deleted post appeared 520 other times on the web when you searched for a unique sentence in it.

Consider how you would feel if someone stole your blog post and pasted it into a forum - without any notice that they did not write it originally or that it came from somewhere else.

Use Of The Private Messaging System (New - 9/06/08)

Forum members may not spam other members using the private messaging system or use it to promote commercial, illegal or objectionable activities. Forum Members are not permitted to use the Private Messaging feature to circumvent any of the forum rules. Specifically this includes (but is not limited to): Advertising and Sending Spam or Scam Content or Abusive Messages.

Forum members may not take information provided to them in a private message and make that information public - for example posting it on a blog. Any member found quoting a private message in a public location may lose the right to use the private messaging system and/or be banned from the forums entirely

Any member of the forums who receives a message they feel is an abuse of the private messaging system should contact a moderator immediately or use the "report to Admin" feature found at the bottom right corner of any private message.

Use of the private messaging system is not a right and will be removed if other users feel uncomfortable or threatened with a member's private messages.

Linking Out To Other Sites -

We're bloggers. We love to link. However there are times when a link can be inappropriate or unacceptable. If you are not sure whether your link is suitable please ask a moderator before posting it.

- If you are linking to a site that contains material not suitable for children, please state this clearly BEFORE the link.
- If you are linking to material that is "Not Safe For Work" - that may include sites that contain offensive language or images - please state this clearly BEFORE the link. We would ask you to consider whether you should link to that material carefully.
- Links to websites containing offensive or unacceptable material, such as inappropriate images (images of a violent or pornographic nature), racial vilification (hate sites), warez links, etc., are completely unacceptable and will be deleted.
- Links to "Splogs" - blogs that steal content from blogs whether an entire post or a partial post - are unacceptable.

About Moderation -

Please note that the administrators and moderators of these forums are all volunteers - nobody is paid to be here. Moderators are simply here to ensure the rules are followed. If you do not like the rules here feel free to create your own set of forums.

In general our moderators operate on a "three strikes and you're out" basis.

If you break the rules once - your post will be moderated.

If you break the same rule twice - your post will be moderated and you will receive a warning via private message.

If you break the same rule three times - we may take further action which could include restricting your posting ability or banning you from the forums entirely. We would prefer not to do that, so please work with us to ensure the rules are adhered to.

Any moderation decisions are final. If you feel a mistake has been made DO NOT contact the moderators via private message for discussion of moderation issues and DO NOT post a message in the forums questioning the decision. The moderators are all volunteers who have given up their spare time to provide a moderation service here on the forums. Any abusive messages towards a moderator may result in the immediate termination of your forum membership.

You may contact an Administrator for further discussion, but be aware that any discussions you may have with a moderator or administrator via private message may be made available to the other moderators and administrators for discussion in the Moderation area which is available to both Moderators and Administrators only.

Administrator Contact Links

PM All Admins

For individual PMs...

Anonymum
Gemisht
Lani
Meg
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