Rules and Regulations - Please read before posting

[fishfreek]

While its our goal here at AquariumAdvice.Com to have a nice peaceful community there are always items that must be covered. So here is the legalize...

Access to this web site and use of the message board forums and other services offered here are subject to the terms and conditions of this user agreement and copyright notice and all applicable laws and regulations, including laws and regulations governing copyright and trademark. By accessing the services, you accept, without limitation or qualification, all of the terms and conditions in this user agreement. AquariumAdvice.Com reserves the right to change these terms and conditions at any time. The changes will appear on this screen. By using the services of this web site, you agree in advance to accept any changes.

1. You agree not to post or transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, violate the rights of others, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law. You will be responsible for, and indemnify and hold harmless AquariumAdvice.Com and representatives against, any claim arising from any material that you post or transmit. We reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

2. You acknowledge that AquariumAdvice.Com does not control the information available on the message boards, that any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content presented or disseminated on any bulletin board, or on any other user or member-generated pages are those of their respective authors who are solely liable for their content. AquariumAdvice.Com may from time to time monitor or review discussions, postings, transmissions, and other user and member-generated pages on this web site, neither AquariumAdvice.Com nor any of its agents, representatives or licensors is under any obligation to do so. AquariumAdvice.Com reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to refuse to post or remove any material submitted to or posted on the message boards or on any other information posted on our servers.

3. The member-generated content of this web site contains information, facts and opinions from various individuals and organizations. They are provided on an "as is" basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, other than those warranties which are imposed by and incapable of exclusion, restriction or modification under the laws applicable to this agreement. Neither AquariumAdvice.Com nor its affiliates endorse or are responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement on the service or the sites.

4. Any communication or material you post or transmit is, and will be treated as, non-confidential and non-proprietary. You assume full responsibility for anything you post or transmit, and you grant AquariumAdvice.Com the right to display this material on its web sites. AquariumAdvice.Com makes no ownership claims to any material you post or transmit and agrees that all submitted materials, text, graphics and files remain the sole property of their creator, with individual exceptions such as contest entries specifically labeled as such when solicited.

5. Your use of this web site is at your own risk. Neither AquariumAdvice.Com, nor any of its agents, representatives or licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any loss or injury or any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive or similar damages arising out of your access or use of, or your inability to access or use, the services of this web site and the information available on this web site or arising out of any action taken in response to or as a result of any information available on this web site. You hereby waive any and all claims against AquariumAdvice.Com arising out of your use of the services of this web site and the information available thereon. AquariumAdvice.Com may review or monitor any web sites linked to the member-generated content of this web site. AquariumAdvice.Com nor any of its agents, representatives or licensors is under no obligation to do so. In the event that any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material is located on a member generated page that is linked from this forum please contact AquariumAdvice.Com so that we can remove said link. Your linking to such web sites is at your own risk.

6. We will not offer any information about you to any company. However, you should be aware that if you voluntarily disclose personal information (e.g., name, email address) on a bulletin board, or on any other user or member-generated pages, that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other parties. As a general rule you should never give out any information in the message boards unless you wish it to become public domain.

7. Commercial Posting

7a. Commercial Posts
AquariumAdvice.Com exists for the non-commercial exchange of information. Hobbyest users of this site are given a "classifieds" forum and a "barter/trade" forum to sell or trade goods and frags. Sponsors of this site are given a sponsor specific forum and a "Sponsor Specials" forum to promote their commercial interests. All other posts deemed to be commercial in nature are a violation of this user agreement and will be removed. As it pertains to the User Agreement, AquariumAdvice.Com defines commercial post as knowing and willful posts made by private individuals or businesses, directly or indirectly seeking commerce. Additionally, posts made by individuals or businesses in regard to other commercial activities, in anticipation of direct or indirect economic benefit or relief from the subject activity, will generally be regarded as commercial. At this time, AquariumAdvice.Com will continue its policy of allowing business to link to their web site via their signatures. These signatures will still need to conform to the specifications outlined elsewhere in this User Agreement. Recognizing that it is impossible to construct a definition which will satisfy every situation or circumstance, AquariumAdvice.Com reserves the right to determine whether or not a post violates the intent of the commercial post policy or definition. Violation of this policy will be grounds for removal from our community.

7b. "Barter and Trade" and "Classifieds" Forums:
Hobbyest users of this site are provided a "Classifieds" and a "Barter and Trade" Forum to trade and sell animals, goods and equipment (non-commercial entities only). These forums are for members that contribute to this site, therefore, posting and/or replying in this forum requires a minimum of 50 posts in the general forums. If you are new and wish to purchase merchandise from members selling/trading equipment, animals and/or goods, you should utilize the Private Message system to conduct your business. Members with less than 50 posts, posting "for sale" or "for trade" topics, in the other forums, will have those threads deleted.

8. Signatures
8a. Sig Pictures
Signature pictures are defined as any graphic posted in your signature. Sig pics are allowed, but must be no larger than 350 X 125 (pixels) and 15 KB in file size. Sig pics must also be tasteful and conform to a family friendly atmosphere. What is "tasteful and family friendly" will be determined solely by the administration and moderators of this site.
8b. Sig Length
Signatures can be no longer than 12 lines in total length when viewed at 1024X768 resolution. Sig images will be included in the line count. A signature image can span over multiple lines. As a point of reference most sig images span 4 to 5 lines of text space.
8c. Links to other sites in your signature
Links to other sites, that conform to the family friendly environment we try to uphold here at AquariumAdvice.com, are allowed, whether aquarium related or not. No other form of typed advertisement for any site is allowed in your signature. You may, in addition to a link (or instead of) link with a sig pic, provided it conforms to the guidelines in 8a. Violation of this rule will result in the immediate removal of your signature.
8d. Penalties
Should your signature be found to contain a questionable image, verbage or be longer than the maximum length an advisor or admin will PM you explaning the issue and will request resolution within 24 hours. Failure to correct the issue within the first 24 hours may result in the removal of your signature. Numerous violations of our signature rules will result in your removal from our community.

9. Posting about other aquarium related sites.
Posting about other aquarium related forum based web sites is allowed however:

a) Posting about other sites, aquarium related or not (with the intent to encourage members of this forum to join another forum), must be done in the lounge. Violation will get your post moved to the lounge.

b) Posting about other sites, aquarium related or not (with the intent to encourage members of this forum to join another forum), should be limited to once per month.

c) Violations will earn you the title "spammer" and excessive violations could prompt the removal of your account.

10. Solicitation

AquariumAdvice.Com exists for the non-commercial exchange of information.

Soliciting of donations or monies (without prior approval from the Administration) from the members of AquariumAdvice.com is strictly prohibited and may result in the removal of your account. The only exceptions to this rule are posts involving the sale of goods from one hobbyest to another and sponsor posts in the sponsor specials forum and their sponsor specific forums.

11. IRC Chat

Aquarium Advice operates three IRC chat channels, #aquariumadvice, #reefchat and #freshwater chat. Reference the chat room specific rules and regulations here http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=52301