Forum Rules

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Forum rules
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Forum Rules

Postby Pufferpunk on Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:12 pm


Rules of the Forum


Thank you for taking a few minutes to read the rules of our community here at The Puffer Forum. No one likes to have too many rules, but it is in everyone's best interests to have some guidelines. We all want this to be a good experience, and we thank you for helping make The Puffer Forum one of the most helpful and friendly sources of aquatic information on the web!

We highly encourage all new members to "jump in and get your feet wet", however there is a lot more to The Puffer Forum than you see at first glance. Please take some time to look around the site and get used to our layout, forum topics, Library, Pufferpedia Species Profiles, Chat Room and many other features we have here to help you find information on puffer species and share your experiences with others!

How can YOU help keep The Puffer Forum a great place? In addition to respecting the rules of our community and following The Golden Rule, TPF Staff greatly appreciates members letting us know if they see a problem, either among members, posted topics or the software. If you run into anything you consider to be a problem or potential problem, please contact the a staff member via Private Message (PM), addressing your PM to the appropriate group. Or, if it is a specific topic or reply that is inappropriate, in the wrong location, getting out of hand or simply questionable, please use the "Report This Topic" feature of the board. Every post has a small icon of an exclamation point in the top right corner, clicking on this opens a window where you can specify why the topic should be reviewed by the staff, and it will automatically bring it to the attention of the team.

Now on to the rules of our community...



1. General Rules

a. Keep discussions civil! We are all here to learn and share information. That means we may not all always agree about methods, theories or anything at all. However, every member's experiences and thoughts on the topic are just as valuable as everyone else's. Be open to new ideas and respect other members of the forum! Debating a topic is fine and welcome, insulting or degrading another member in the process is not acceptable. Any flaming, harassing or personal attacks will not be tolerated by the management, and will lead to warnings and/or banning of the offending member. It is always a good idea to stop and re-read your post before hitting the "submit" button, and think about how other members will react. The written word is much easier to misinterpret than talking to someone face to face, so keep that in mind. And as always, there are times when members will just need to "agree to disagree".

b. Forum content must be kept PG-13. There are many young members on this site, as well as adults who do not want or need to see inappropriate content. Any profanity, racial slurs or spam content, images or links will be deleted by TPF Staff, and will lead to warnings and/or banning of the offending member. This includes links or other content in member profiles, albums or any other part of The Puffer Forum.

c. Copyrighted content such as but not limited to, photos and articles, may only be posted on TPF by the owner of the content, or with the stated permission of the owner of the content. If posting content with permission from the owner, the TPF member posting the content must identify the owner of the content and state they have been given permission to use the content. When it is not possible to obtain permission, a text link to the source should be used instead of quoting or posting an image. Any member posting content they do not own or have rights to will be warned and/or banned.

d. Commercial advertisement is allowed on The Puffer Forum on a limited basis. Members are welcome to post an ad in the Classifieds section, with a limit of one bump (replying to your own topic to bring it back to the top of the forum) per month. Any members spamming the community with their service or product will be contacted by the team to discuss the situation. Members interested in commercial advertising are encouraged to contact the TPF Staff for further information.

e. Slander or libelous content will not be tolerated. Reviews, recommendations and actual experiences are welcome, intentional trashing of a vendor, company, group, person or their reputation is not. Members posting such content will be warned and/or banned.

f. Each member of The Puffer Forum is allowed one Login Account. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed, and any member found doing so to intentionally appear as multiple members will be dealt with accordingly by the staff.

h. Content of The Puffer Forum is protected under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) copyright. Any use of this content, including but not limited to, images and articles, must follow the Creative Commons usage guidelines found by clicking on the link above. This is solely to protect our members from plagerism and other abuse of the material they worked hard to produce and share with the public, and it does not limit the owner of the material from using it in a commercial fashion if they choose.


2. Posting Rules

!! If you need information quickly, be sure to use our search function and check the Library for articles that may help. There are years of stored information on The Puffer Forum, all at your fingertips. Most topics have been covered at least once, and 9 times out of 10 you can find the answer to your question or problem in only a few seconds.

a. New Topics should be created in the appropriate forum (note there are forums for fresh/brackish/marine puffers, hospital, non-puffers, off topic, classifieds, etc). In emergency situations, please use the Hospital forum and answer all the questions listed in the red section at the top of the page. This will get you the fastest, most helpful advice. Topics should only be posted in one, topic-appropriate forum, not in multiple forums, to keep all the information organized and on topic. Topics posted in inappropriate forums will be moved or deleted by the staff.

b. Topic titles should clearly reflect the content of the post. Avoid titles such as "Help!", "OMG", "I have a question", etc, as this makes it harder for people to know what to expect, and to find the post later if they want to check its status or post a reply.

c. Stay on topic! While it is unavoidable that off-topic discussions will naturally form during conversations, members are asked to take their discussion to the our off topic forum, The Lounge, and start a new, appropriately titled topic when they see this happening. This is so we do not forget what the original post or question was about, and ensure the original poster receives and understands the information they need. The team will try to catch these situations and split the off topic replies into an appropriate topic of their own, but we mainly rely on you, our members, to be considerate of other posters and not "hijack" their topics.

d. Spamming or trolling will not be tolerated. Do not post multiple posts to increase your post count, repeatedly bump a topic within an unreasonably short amount of time, harass another member or the board in general, or promote a product, service, website or other subject. This also includes spamming via Private Messages (PM's).

e. Please avoid the use of ALL CAPS, annoying large or small fonts, etc. There are tools you can use to increase the screen size if needed, including the "change font size" feature found at the top right of our header bar (next to the printer and mail icons) and your own computer display settings.

f. When posting images, all members are expected, as stated above, to respect copyright laws. Do not post content you do not have rights to. Images you do own may be posted using either the attachment feature, linked from your personal Gallery on this site, or also remotely hosted from a source such as Photobucket.

g. Keep discussions in the forums, not in PM's. While this is not so much a "rule", it helps keep the information out where everyone can learn and benefit from it, as well as introducing new ideas and views.



3. Other Rules

a. For classified advertising of personal items, see the rules displayed in the classified forum.

b. Signature lines and avatar images are a great way for members to personalize their posts and create their own "persona". Please do not abuse this feature by creating extremely large signature lines that take up an inappropriate amount of room on the page. This distracts from the content of topics and posts, and causes problems for members on slower connection speeds. A good guideline is a signature should not take up more than 6 lines of "normal" sized text worth (this includes images and text combined). Feel free to use the "My Puffers" section of your profile to list the species you own under your avatar, instead of listing them in your signature.

c. All rules that apply to the community in general also apply to The Chat Room and Private Messaging system. If it would be inappropriate anywhere on the forum, it is also inappropriate in all other areas of the community.

d. Remember to check and clear out your Private Message Inbox and Sentbox on a regular basis. They do have a limit of 100 messages each, and if they are full, you will no longer receive PM's.

e. Donations to support the ongoing hosting and domain costs of The Puffer Forum are always welcome. For more information about how you can make a monetary donation, contact Pufferpunk, or use the Donate buttons at the top header or on our home page. Also consider shopping in The Puffer Store, where a small donation has been added to each sale to help maintain this community. Thank you for your support!


While these rules cover most of the common situations often found in message board forums, we can not anticipate every problem or situation that may develop. Therefore, The Puffer Forum reserves the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure the stability and reputation of The Puffer Forum are not put in risk abused or disrupted in any way.

Thank you, and enjoy your visit!

- TPF Staff
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
 
Posts: 28222
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Location: Chicago
TPF Gallery: Visit Gallery
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Chicago

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