| ACountryLife Articles > Site Administration FAQ > ACL - Acceptable Usage & Conduct Policy (AUCP) - Site rules - Please read, adherence is mandatory |
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Submitted by : Webby |
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ACountryLife.Com Acceptable Usage & Conduct Policy (AUCP) Updated: 15 Aug 2006 - 14:49 GMT By using the services provided to you by ACountryLife.Com and within the ACountryLife.Com community, you hereby agree to the following Acceptable Usage and Conduct policy. If you have issues with the following policies and guidelines, adherence is mandatory regardless of your opinion as long as you use ACountryLife.Com and the ACountryLife.Com services. Failure to abide by these policies and guidelines will result in account suspension pending review. Please be advised that the use of the terms 'ACountryLife.Com' and 'ACL' are, in the respect of ACountryLife.Com community considered by the ACountryLife.Com owners and administrators interchangeable when used either in this documentation, and indeed in any other ACountryLife.Com context. 1. User Interaction: ACountryLife.Com is a serious, forum-centric website community which encourages the open discussion of amongst other things, rural, downshifted and smallholding related topics: 1.01 : ACL members and Guests are expected to treat each other with respect. (Please note: Section 3.01) 1.02 : Actions intended to degrade another's experience are considered harassment and will not be tolerated. (Please note: Section 3.01) 1.03 : If you are, or suspect you are being harassed, please contact Webby or Editor by ACL Mail immediately - do NOT retaliate or take any form of offensive action. (Please note: Section 3.01) 1.04 : Accounts using a 'proxy', 'assumed name' or 'spoof'/fake email address, may be banned for no other reason than that. 1.05 : You are to register only one user account on ACL - i.e you are permitted one account only - you must not create further accounts with the purpose of gaining additional priviledges or for any other reason. 1.06 : When choosing your username for use on ACL, please be advised that confusion, such as to your gender, may arise amongst other members of the ACL community if you pick a username that gives no indication. This is your privilege but we ask you to bear this in mind and to not take offence should someone incorrectly assume something such as gender identity. 1.07 : When choosing your username, in addition to 1.06 (above) please note that offensive, racially discriminating (or racially offensive), pornographic or inciteful usernames arenot permitted. 1.08 User 'signatures' : You may add a signature to your profile, that will display on every message you post in the forums, however: - Commercial 'personal signatures' or signatures containing URL's or images are not permitted. - At no time is a user 'signature' to exceed 2 lines of screen text - Signatures must not contain advertising, defamatory, obscene, sexual or any other form of unacceptable content - Signatures must not contain reference to commercial or profit making company/organisation - this is strictly forbidden unless authorised, in writing by the administrative staff of ACountryLife.Com 2. Forbidden Content, Forums and Comments: Content on ACountryLife.Com is moderated for suitability, accuracy and ultimately, conformity with this AUCP. 2.01 : Please Do NOT email or use ACL Mail for technical support, ask in forums instead. 2.02 : Any post considered as "spam" will be deleted without question. 2.03 : If you cannot produce anything helpful or of value in a reply, don't post. 2.04 : New topics without section specific or related titles will be deleted - a clear question usually bring clear answers. 2.05 : Abuse/over use of coloured/enhanced text/ (BBCode) or oversize images won't be tolerated. Please see the F.A.Q for details of image submission. 2.06 : Intensive usage of uppercase or lowercase letters won't be tolerated - Please do not start any posting with all capital letters or by just using lowercase lettering 2.07 : Giving out the personal information of other users without their permission, will not be tolerated. 2.08 : This is an English Speaking Forum, please 'speak' in English unless otherwise warranted. 2.09 : 'Hate speech' is not permitted within the ACountryLife.Com community. Hate speech includes, but is not limited to, speech/jokes/articles which demeans specific groups of people on the basis of race, religion, ethnic background, nationality, disability, gender or sexual orientation. 2.10 : Pornography and sexual content of any description is not acceptable within the ACountryLife.Com community - no matter how innocent you believe it to be. We are not being prudish but we need to be aware that this is a multi-cultural community and as such, a 'generaly acceptable' standard has to be maintained. . 2.11 : Sometimes, in the relevant forums, it is necessary to describe/discuss the nature, habits, methods and anatomical components of animal/livestock reproduction. Only correct, grammatical and dictionary approved terminology and anatomical definitions should be used, however, non-offensive euphemisms can be used. However, the use of vulgar slang or 'common vernacular' will not be tolerated (for the same reasons outlined in para. 2.12) 2.12 : You should exercise caution when giving out personal, identifiable, information - we suggest that you only do this via ACL Mail, to persons you have come to know and not via the public forums. 2.13 : Placing Buy/Sell/Barter/Trade advertisements is only permitted within the 'Trading Post' forum which is provided to allow ACL members and guests to Buy/Sell/Barter/Trade single, or 'non-commercial' items that they no longer require. No warranty of 'fit for purpose' is implied by the submission of such advertisements and ACountryLife.Com accepts no responsibility or liability as a result of your sales/purchases/barters or trades through this method. It is the responsibility of the vendor/vendee to ensure 'fit-for-purpose' and all liabilities lie with the vendor/vendee. As always, caveat emptor. 2.14 : Advertisements for items 'open to bid' or 'tender' are not permitted and are not to be placed at any time, any advertisements of this nature will be deleted without question. 2.15 : At no time, are advertisements for the provision of services you provide or 'retail' items you sell, permitted. If you wish to advertise your services on ACountryLife.Com, please refer to Section 9. 2.16 : At no time, should any 'generic' or personal emails be posted to any part of the website, this includes, but is not limited to ' virus warning', chain-type letters, public appeal notices or charitable requests - without prior authorisation, in writing, by the administrative staff of ACountryLife.Com 2.17 : Posting advertising or 'personal profit' links within messages will not be tolerated. If you want to advertise on ACL please see Section 9. 3. The 'Magpie' Effect: 3.01 : During ACountryLife.Com's history, there have been occasions where topics discussed within the forums have turned into heated debates - where often, very strong arguments/counter arguments have been fielded. Part of what the ACountryLife.Com community is about, is the freedom to discuss controversial 'country' related issues & practices and we will do nothing to stop this, (in fact, we actively encourage it) however, it must be remembered that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and as long as conduct is cordial, should not make them a better or worse person, in the eyes of others. Sadly, in the past we have lost readers as they believed the site had a 'pro this' or 'they support that' attitude because we allowed the free dialogue. Nothing could be farther from the truth, we remain impartial - unless we express an opinion in a 'personal' capacity. We appreciate that there are some subjects covering hunting, culling and even personal/family issues that are likely to stimulate some heat but often, an issue discussed by those actually affected by it (as opposed to political gesturing) will frequently open avenues for education and understanding. In all events, Section 1 of this AUP applies. 4. Attacks: Any attack on our network infrastructure will be considered computer trespass and will result in an immediate ban from the site, reports to your network provider(s) and/or legal action. This includes but not limited to, any portscan/ICMP/FTP/Telnet attempts on our servers and/or systems. 5. Access Privileges: Use of the ACountryLife.Com services is a privilege granted to you, these are not rights. Violation of this AUCP may result in your removal from the site and/or loss of access privileges. ACountryLife.Com is a private system, provided as a public service, and your account may be terminated at any time, at the sole discretion of ACountryLife.Com's owners. Continuing to access, or attempting to access, after your access privileges have been terminated may be considered computer trespass. 6. Editorial Changes: We reserve the right to edit any (and at any time) user contributions submitted to the site, this includes, but is not limited to Forums, Articles, Recipe Book, Links, Images etc. Edits will (in general) be made for the sake of grammatical clarity or typographical error correction only, we do not censor controversy unless, the content falls foul of any of the other sections of this policy. In the case of images, we reserve the right to, but not limited to, edit, crop & manipulate accordingly, to fit into the 'look and feel' of the site. 7. Copyright: The ACountryLife.Com community is provided as a public service, where we encourage the sharing of 'free' knowledge and ideas, we therefore take it and you accept that, anything submitted to the ACountryLife.Com community is given in the form of 'conversation' or free speech. We therefore reserve the right to assume copyright on user contributions submitted, this includes, but is not limited to the Forums, Articles, Recipe Book, How To.. and other sections of the website. 7.01 : However, we will not assume copyright of private or commercial previously copyrighted material including, but not limited to, song lyrics, photographs, articles, recipes or published quotations/speech, unless we are specifically authorised to do so by the original copyright owner - where this ownership is not conferred, copyright remains with the original author. 7.02 : You are responsible for ascertaining and acknowledging credit for any song lyrics, photographs or published quotations that you may use as part of your submissions. If in doubt as to the copyright status of any material you are considering for submission, do not submit the material. 7.03 : You are not permitted to pass off, as your own work, work created by another. The submission of such material is in direct breech of the originators copyright and we will provide all assistance to that individual/organisation possible to ensure that they are able to assert their rights. 7.04 : You are not permitted (and ACountryLife.Com will aggressively assert it rights in this matter) to make reference to or use the acronym 'ACL' or the phrase 'ACountryLife.Com' in any way as to imply association with, or approval from ACountryLife.Com, including but not limited to, your own domain name, website, user group, forum, commercial venture or project. 7.05: If you wish to be considered for association or affiliation with ACountryLife.Com you must first seek approval (in writing) from ACountryLife.Com owners, prior to any implementation. The owners and administrators of ACountryLife.Com will not be held responsible or indeed liable, for any expense or penalty incurred by you, in the preparation of any of the above (but not limited to) suggested uses, prior or following a request for association/affiliation, in the event that said request be rejected. 8. Fit for Purpose: ACountryLife.Com makes every effort to ensure that information placed within the content of the website is accurate, it does not give any warranty or representations, express or implied, about its accuracy, completeness, or appropriateness for a particular purpose. You, the user who has access to this Website has to assume full responsibility for any outcome from using any information on this website, and that you accept that ACountryLife.Com will not be held liable for any action you take in reliance on information on this website. By this, we mean that in no event shall ACountryLife.com or it's owners or administrative staff be liable for any damages whatsoever, including (but not limited to) special, indirect, consequential or and other form of damages, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the content available or referred to on this website. In particular: The content of any (but not limited to) Chat or Forum areas including material placed by ACountryLife.Com users, those which are hosted by ACountryLife.Com or material on 'third-party' websites which are accessible by the use of related links within the site, over which, ACountryLife.Com has no control. 9. Indiscriminate and/or unsolicited advertising: Indiscriminate and/or unsolicited advertising of any kind is not permitted on ACountryLife.Com. If you wish to advertise on ACountryLife.Com, please see our Advertising Documentation for complete details. 9.01 : At no time, and without exception shall any guest or member of ACountryLife.Com community, post advertising of any kind or for any purpose unless authorised in writing prior to posting, by the administrative staff of ACountryLife.Com 9.02 : At no time, and without exception shall any guest or member of ACountryLife.Com community include in any area of the ACountryLife.Com community, reference to any commercial venture of any kind or for any purpose to which the guest/member has an owing or personal interest, unless authorised in writing by the administrative staff of ACountryLife.Com 9.03 : At no time, and without exception shall any guest or member of ACountryLife.Com community use the ACL Mail facility in relation to any commercial venture of any kind and for any purpose to which the guest/member has an owing or personal interest, unless authorised in writing by the administrative staff of ACountryLife.Com 10. Privacy: We appreciate that some members of ACL may wish to preserve a degree of disguised identity - this in itself is fine but could potentially lead to the incorrect assumptions by other ACL members of perhaps age group and gender if a none age or gender related usename is chosen. We therefore ask ACL members not to take offence should such a mistake be made by another ACL member as a result of use of an unidentifiable username. One way that could alleviate this potential issue is for all ACL members to complete the 'Gender' portion within their profile however, the choice remains that of each member." In addition, please see our Privacy Document for complete details of what member/session data we may collect and how it is used. 11. Interpretation: ACountryLife.Com administrators will interpret this AUCP if there is any ambiguity in interpretation by (but not exclusively) ACL members & guests. Footnote: ACountryLife.Com is a responsible but friendly forum and user contribution site, we encourage people to share their smallholding and other experiences with us and also, the opportunity to ask questions on a variety of country related matters. We also allow the discussion of what could be considered 'controversial' issues such as hunting etc. However, it should be clear that ACountryLife.Com neither promotes, encourages or supresses these issues. We wish only to encourage 'informed' debate. It is only through discussion that both sides of an issue can be both heard and understood. Opinions expressed are the sole responsibility of the poster, and as long as they fall within the terms of the ACountryLife.Com Acceptable Usage & Conduct Policy (AUCP) they should contribute to that 'informed' debate. Use of ACountryLife.Com is subject to our Acceptable Usage & Conduct Policy (AUCP). All users agree to be bound by this AUCP upon account sign-up and adherence to its terms and conditions are mandatory. Members, guests and visitors are therefore encouraged to review the AUCP on a regular basis. - End - |
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