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02-26-2007, 08:54 AM | #1 |
Forum Administrator
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Florida USA
Posts: 16,467
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The Rules Of Engagement
THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Spearboard is rapidly growing and a set of “Rules of Engagement” to facilitate order has been established as follows: 1.) PERSONAL ATTACKS - Do NOT attack other Spearboard members personally. If you must argue with someone, please keep it civil and polite. A lengthy personal attack policy has been created at the following thread: http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=27005 When you get into a heated discussion, please try to avoid "argumentum ad hominem", which is an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it. Ad hominem reasoning is normally described as a logical fallacy and is further explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem 2.) PHYSICAL THREATS - The threatening of physical violence on another Spearboard member is an especially serious offense which may result in you being temporarily or permanently banned from the board. Management reserves the right to implement this and any other action without prior warning. 3.) ATTACKS ON THIRD PARTIES – The personal attack policy concentrates on relations between members of Spearboard. In the past there has been some personal attacks on outsiders like dive industry manufacturers, fisheries scientists and government regulators to name a few. It is OK to criticize outsiders, but please do so in a reasonable manner . For example, if you have a complaint about a manufacturer, please contact that manufacturer first and seek satisfaction before posting your complaint on Spearboard. Please refrain from attacking outsiders personally like calling them obscene names.Repetitive negative posting that is like stalking of individuals, entities or brands (sponsors or non-sponsors) will not be tolerated. 4.) THREAD DE-RAILMENT – This is a difficult subject to define as some wavering off track for a few posts often happens. Please try to keep a thread on point and do not de-rail the subject started by the original poster. If you must digress, please consider starting a new thread of your own. 5.) SEXUAL AND VULGAR AVATARS & SIGNATURE LINES – Please do not use crude sexual or vulgar avatars or signature lines. These travel with you wherever you go and will be seen by all. You will be asked by Private Message or e-mail to take them down. If you do not do so, we will do it for you. 6.) OBSCENE IMAGES OR TEXT – Please do not post or describe obscene activity or subjects. This includes links to pornographic matter and descriptions of vulgar sex acts, violence, depravity or perversion. Again, enforcement of this will have to be a judgment call for the moderators and administrator. This includes abbreviated words that are obvious as to their intended meaning. This is a family-friendly website. 7.) TRIP REPORT PHOTO/VIDEO/TEXT POLICY – Please do not post photos or videos of fish, lobster or other catch that exceed the recreational one day limit for the number of people in the photo/video. The recreational limit is for the time of year when the fish were caught and based on the laws and regulations of the geographical area fished (not to exceed US laws). The camera operator may be counted as one of the people catching the fish or lobster. Should there be no people in the photo, the recreational limit shall assume the number of people depicted or described in the report fished that day. Photos/videos that do not comply with this policy will be taken down. If the photo/video requires a judgment call, the moderators have the sole discretion to do so. This policy also applies to the PhotoPost Members Galleries section of Spearboard in addition to the main forum. When you write text describing your dives and catches, please be careful in describing the very rare times when unintentional fishing mortality or wounding might take place. It is acceptable to post about such incidents,but moderators may use discretion if the post might be used out of context by anti-spearfishing groups or individuals. Please do not take any such moderator edits personally. The per person recreational catch photo/video policy was designed to help avoid misuse of our spearfishing catch images by anti-spearfishing groups and individuals who wish to further restrict our sport on an emotional irrational basis. On the whole, spearfishing is a very environmentally-friendly gear-type fishing sport that is already adequately regulated in terms of species, seasons and catch limitations. We will vigorously challenge any and all claims to the contrary. Because we can see underwater what we shoot with a spear and thus are highly selective with our legal take, we have little or no "bycatch" as that term may be considered by scientists and regulators. 8.) BIKINI THREAD RULES – The board has had a tradition of allowing a “Bikini thread” in the “Off Topic” section. Please abide by the following guidelines as posted at the beginning of that thread: “Please keep these simple guidelines in mind when posting on the "Spearboard Bikini Section": 1. Please keep bikini photos clean and tasteful. 2. Please post only full body shots and fully clothed in bikinis. Read...Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue type of modeling. Please don't post lingerie photos. 3. No Embedded URLs, copyright or photo credit text to pornographic sites. 4. No see-through bikinis. 5. All excess commentary will be deleted. This is a family site and we want to keep it as such. All other pics will be removed.” 9.) PRIVATE MESSAGES – By their nature, private messages are intended to remain private. No one else can see them, not even the moderators or administrator. Prior to posting any portion of a PM (Private Message) in the public forum, please acquire permission from the sender of the PM. 10.) SHOW TOLERANCE – There are many diverse people on spearboard with a wide spectrum of viewpoints. As Spearboard continues to widen its appeal into the international community, the diversity of the opinions expressed by our members is also expected to expand. Please allow members to express their viewpoints and show tolerance for those who might not be as experienced, knowledgeable, or as eloquent as yourself. We want to keep Spearboard a “wild and woolly” place without excessive moderation and control. To do that, we need your help by showing an attitude of acceptance of other people’s viewpoints. This also applies to acceptance and tolerance of differences in people and groups of a racial, gender, ethnic, political or religious nature. 11.) COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY RULES ON SPEARBOARD A.) Unauthorized Promotion on Spearboard - Substantial resources have been and continue to be invested in Spearboard to maintain its leading role as a free resource to spear fishers throughout the world. Spearboard's leading role also means we need to take steps to protect our name and reputation with a worldwide audience. The use of company or brand names and website links as screen names, in avatars, in linked videos, in signatures, in body text, or in posted images to promote products, services, media, technology, events, raffles, contests, tournaments, competing forums, banned individuals/entities and other ventures without the prior written permission of Spearboard management is generally prohibited. Activities aimed at the collection of contact information of Spearboard members are especially subject to scrutiny as are affiliate program links. You may be asked to remove your promotional effort, especially if it is of a continuing or repetitive nature. Alternatively, you may be invited to become a sponsor of Spearboard in order to continue your promotional effort in designated forums on Spearboard. Decisions about the implementation of this policy will be in the sole judgment and discretion of Spearboard’s moderators and administrator. B.) Use of Spearboard to Sell Your Goods or Services - Spearboard has always provided a members items section which is intended to allow individual divers to sell personal items including used gear and sometimes even new gear. As the board has grown many companies and individuals have seen the value of advertising and making other divers aware of their products and services. This unique mix provides our individual members access to a broad array of diving-related businesses. It has allowed “little guys” who run a charter operation or who make custom dive gear in their garage to garner national and even international exposure. In order to continue to provide our many members FREE and unfettered access to Spearboard and this unique collection of resources it is necessary that commercial entities contribute something to defray the costs of providing the board. We have many wonderful sponsors who have shown a huge commitment to the sport and also to this board. As the board has grown we have sometimes allowed the “little guys” to gain exposure without falling into the “commercial entity” classification and being required to become sponsors. However, in order to be fair, it has become necessary to clarify some of our rules with respect to commercial entities. Please be assured that we intend to make no changes to the “members items" section or policy. We have modified our sponsor support tiers matrix to specifically accommodate the smaller commercial entities who do not have a huge advertising budget. We have initiated an entry level sponsorship tier that approximates a “dollar-a-day” cost. We feel that anyone who is attempting to market a service or product on a long-term basis will need to accept some sponsorship level. Those businesses that want to do more extensive marketing can do so with banner ads at higher levels of cost. Spearboard Sponsors are indicated by the color blue on their screen name. C.) Gear or Service Advocacy on Spearboard - We will continue to allow individuals to provide links to their favorite businesses within their signature line. They are what we call "Proponents." However, as stated above if an entity or individual (Spearboard screen name) is clearly associated with a commercial enterprise, then in order to continue to provide links to a particular business, answer customers questions, introduce new products (in other words, engage in marketing), then it is necessary for these individuals/Commercial Entities to accept a sponsorship role. Many small and large enterprises have gladly accepted this responsibility and in order to be fair to everyone, it is necessary for us to enforce this policy uniformly. Brand Ambassadors of non-sponsors may have their signature and avatar abilities restricted. If it appears that you are a Gear/Service Advocate who actively markets for your favored products or services by providing gear/service reviews or having signatures with links or ad banners or "Team" designations which essentially promote the gear or service you are advocating, then you may be asked to cease that activity or accept a special color for your screen name Title or some other indicator that designates you as a Gear/Service Advocate. An example of this designation is two sponsored divers here at this link: http://spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=128045 One intention of this policy is to make consumers aware that you may be functioning as an advocate for a particular company regardless of the details of any compensation or other consideration that you may or may not receive for these activities on Spearboard. Another intention is to allow the manufacturer or service provider to approve or deny your advocacy role. The Gear/Service company for which you are advocating must have an agreement with Spearboard to enable your advocacy activity and you must provide links to the company and a banner ad for the company in your signature that are approved by Spearboard. Decisions about the implementation of this policy will be in the sole judgment and discretion of Spearboard. D.) Company Customer Service - Spearboard can be a tremendous resource for rapid and effective customer service by manufacturing, retail or service companies. Quite often, members will seek advice on Spearboard before contacting the manufacturer or retailer of the product or service in question. Companies often choose to let other members provide answers without commenting themselves. Other times, Companies chime into the discussion and show the fine customer service they provide or address a product or service problem publically on the forum, especially if it involves a subject possibly negative to their brand reputation. Companies must be sponsors to provide customer service on Spearboard. Otherwise, they must deal directly with their customers through e-mail, telephone or in person instead of using the resources of Spearboard without being a sponsor. 12.) MULTIPLE SCREEN NAMES - Only one screen name is permitted per user (defined as a person, not an email address or account). If you wish to change screen names, please contact a moderator. Use of multiple screen names is grounds for revocation of your right to post under ANY screen name and may lead to banning of the offending user. We reserve the right to block your access to this site or refuse, edit, or remove postings for any reason. An exception to this policy is the case when a Sponsor uses an official company screen name for promotion or customer service and a personal screen name for non-company personal posting. 13.) CHALLENGING MODERATION - Please do not post public challenges or criticisms of the moderators of this site or of any disciplinary measures directed at you or anyone else. If you feel you or someone else has been treated unfairly, please address the issue with the Forum Adminstrator Spearmax via PM. His decision is final. 14.) OTHER MATTERS - This forum is, on a sporadic basis, moderated by volunteer moderators only for basic etiquette in an effort to improve harmonious relations among its members. No attempt shall be made at investigating the veracity of any postings or intellectual property issues pertaining the postings. Members agree to participate and post "at their own risk." Unlike a public forum, Spearboard is a private forum open to the public. As such, Spearboard and its moderators reserve the absolute right, in their sole discretion and without accounting or prior notification, to grant or revoke access of any member, to edit, refuse to post, remove, or refuse to remove any material submitted to or posted on any forum or in its messaging systems. Threads with many views and posts may not be deleted if deemed unfair to others who contributed or deemed useful in content provided. Users agree that all materials submitted to Spearboard for posting or posted on Spearboard are deemed non-confidential and non-proprietary materials. Last edited by SpearMax; 11-14-2014 at 10:26 PM. |
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