Forum Rules - Updated December 17, 2010

[KyleT]

Please see the updated rules below.


Acceptable Use Policy (Rules)

You understand that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages, tags, or other materials (herein after "Content"), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. This means that you, and not The Planted Tank.net, herein after “The Planted Tank”, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, post, email, link, transmit or otherwise make available via the Service. The Planted Tank does not control the Content posted via the Service and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. You understand that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable to your own personal beliefs. Under no circumstances will The Planted Tank be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Service.

You agree to NOT use the Service to:

1. upload, post, email, link, Private Message, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
2. harm any person (minor or adult) in any way;
3. impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, the Planted Tank administrator, a forum leader or moderator, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
4. manipulate in any way identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Service;
5. upload, post, email, link, Private Message, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (this includes, but is not limited to inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
6. upload, post, email, link, Private Message, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights (herein after "Rights") of any party;
7. upload, post, email, link, Private Message, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation or self promotion;
8. upload, post, email, link, Private Message, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
9. disrupt the normal flow of posting or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in accessing and utilizing the site (e.g. posting in a thread, accessing The Planted Tank, registering with The Planted Tank, etc);
10. interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
11. intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law and any regulations having the force of law while using the Service;
12. "stalk" or otherwise harass another; and/or
13. collect or store personal data about other users in connection with the prohibited conduct and activities set forth in paragraphs 1 through 13 above.

You acknowledge that The Planted Tank may or may not pre-screen Content, but that The Planted Tank and its moderators shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse, delete, or move any Content that is available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, The Planted Tank and its moderators shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable at their sole discretion. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content. In this regard, you acknowledge that you may not rely on any Content created by The Planted Tank or submitted to The Planted Tank, including without limitation information in all parts of the Service., which includes forum board posts.

You acknowledge, consent and agree that The Planted Tank may access, preserve and disclose your account information, including your ISP address, and Content if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce the TOS; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; or (e) protect the rights, property or personal safety of The Planted Tank, its users and the public.

You understand that the technical processing and transmission of the Service, including your Content, may involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.

You understand that the Service and software embodied within the Service may include security components that permit digital materials to be protected, and that use of these materials is subject to usage rules set by The Planted Tank and/or content providers who provide content to the Service. You may not attempt to override or circumvent any of the usage rules embedded into the Service.

Membership, use and permissions on this site are at the sole discretion of the site owner. The Planted Tank reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread or account for any reason. Some, any or all permissions to view and/or use this site are subject to change, for no reason and no advance notice.

By accessing and using this site/forum, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, violate any of the listed additional rules, or otherwise violative of any laws. In addition, you also warrant that you will not hold The Planted Tank net Forums or any of its subsidiaries responsible for any post, image, or link posted from a forum member as the moderators cannot catch everything at the instance it happens.
Additional rules:

1. Spam, self promotion and referral links are not allowed.
2. Do not discuss how to perform, elude capture, or profit from illegal activities.
3. Do not post nudity or graphic descriptions of sex.
4. Do not post links to sites with grotesque, gruesome or disgusting pictures/videos.
5. Do not insult/attack other users.
6. Do not use vulgarities & obscenities.
7. Do not post under the influence.
8. Do not taunt the moderators to delete your post. If you create a thread that you know will be deleted, it will be DELETED.
9. Do not start threads about "why was my thread deleted." Private message a moderator to resolve the issue.
10. Do not post inappropriate images.
11. Do not abuse the pTrader system.
12. The Planted Tank cannot be held accountable for any bad trades, bad sales or members. Please trade and sell at your own risk.
13. If there are additional rules specific to each forum they will be stickied.
14. Positive and negative reviews of online sellers (including hobbyists) and brick and mortar stores are disallowed.
15. All AquaBid/Ebay links (or any other auction source) are not allowed in any fashion. They will be deleted! No exceptions!
16. Group buys are not allowed unless permission is explicitly granted by the moderators or the administrator.
17. Use of any means to hide or mask your true identity is strictly forbidden including but not limited to registering under more than one username, using an IP Address Obfuscator or an IP proxy.
18. Links to a website in which items related to the aquatic hobby are for sale are prohibited unless explicit permission is given.

General guidelines for images & avatars:

* Images and avatars must be PG13 rated.
* No animations are allowed
* No thongs or g-strings.
* No see thru clothing.
* No pics of sexual acts.
* Clothing, undergarment or swimsuit is required and cannot be partially undressed.
* No images promoting for profit organizations or institutions*

General guidelines for signatures and Avatars

* Any image displayed must be banner size (100px high, 400px wide) or smaller. No animations are allowed as they are very distracting. One image per signature only.
* Avatars and Signatures should contain no explicit or implied libel against any vendor, group, or individual. They should be free of political or religious commentary, or any other message that might be considered offensive or inappropriate.
*Pictures, quotes, and links should "PG". Anything you wouldn't want a 6 year old to see should not be displayed.
* Signatures should be limited to 5 lines or less to conserve space.
* Pictures which contain scripts are not allowed.
* Avatars, Banners or Signatures that are "for profit" endeavors are disallowed *unless* you are the owner of the endeavor and specifically request permission from Planted Tank Forum Administrator.
* Moderators have the final say in what is and what is not appropriate. Moderators will talk to individuals if they feel something is offensive, but Moderators reserve the right to remove and/or change signatures at our discretion.

Although the administrators and moderators of The Planted Tank.net Forums will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of The Planted Tank Forums, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. will be held responsible for the content of any message.

Failure to follow the Acceptable Use Policy (Rules), Additional Rules, General guidelines for avatars or General guidelines for signatures can be met with an infraction point, ten day suspension of forum posting privilege, a longer period of suspension of forum posting privilege or a permanent suspension of posting privilege (ban). Infractions, temporary suspensions of posting privilege and permanent suspensions of posting privilege will be determined and enforced by The Planted Tank ownership, administration and moderators on a case by case or incident by incident basis and at the sole discretion of Planted Tank ownership, administration and moderators.

Please keep in mind that whenever you give out personal information online --- for example, via message boards or chat --- that information can be collected and used by people you don't know. While The Planted Tank.net strives to protect your personal information and privacy, The Planted Tank cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose online; you make such disclosures at your own risk. However, if you violate the rules, The Planted Tank.net Forums reserves the right to disclose any and all user activity to the public, third parties and or law enforcement agencies.

Note that the Planted Tank reserves the right to make updates to this policy including removing, editing and adding any part. Reasonable efforts will be made after each update in order to make all relevant parties aware of the changes.

[rich815]

Is the RED part the NEW part or are you just emphasizing that? If the latter can you highlight the NEW parts of the rules please?

[Momotaro]

I cleared out the red portion to eliminate any confusion.


Mike

[rich815]

So it's ALL new? Not to be flippant, but was there any relevant changes in particular we should be aware of?

[Momotaro]

Just consider it a comprehensive set of rules.

[rich815]

Originally Posted by Momotaro

Just consider it a comprehensive set of rules.

Sounds good. I'm fairly new here and based on the subject line thought maybe there had been some incidents lately that may have caused some rule changes and I just wanted to be aware of them.

Thanks.

[Gatekeeper]

Originally Posted by rich815

Sounds good. I'm fairly new here and based on the subject line thought maybe there had been some incidents lately that may have caused some rule changes and I just wanted to be aware of them.

Thanks.

Not necessarily rule changes, just some emphasis and grooming on some of the rules in general as well as spelling out some more clearly.

[Gatekeeper]

Please note that it is implied that * No images promoting for profit organizations or institutions* is also for signatures as well as avatars.

[sewingalot]

Please make sure you are reading these guidelines.

[KyleT]

The rules have been updated. I have added the following:

14. Positive and negative reviews of both online and brick and mortar stores are disallowed.

This has always been an enforced policy but I have included it is in the official rules now just for clarity.

[KyleT]

The Following has been added to the rules:

16. Group buys are not allowed unless permission is explicitly granted by the moderators or the administrator.
17. Use of any means to hide or mask your true identity is strictly forbidden including but not limited to registering under more than one username, using an IP Address Obfuscator or an IP proxy.

Note that the Planted Tank reserves the right to make updates to this policy including removing, editing and adding any part. Reasonable efforts will be made after each update in order to make all relevant parties aware of the changes.

[KyleT]

The following have been added:

18. Links to a website in which items related to the aquatic hobby are for sale are prohibited unless explicit permission is given.