Terms Of Use
This website is offered for use "as is". Users cannot hold this website or its parent company, CampusKiwi, liable for any damages that may occur while using this website. This website may only be used for personal, non-commercial use, and only for typical web-browsing usage. United States Law or laws within a user's local jurisdiction and/ or in California apply. Violations may be reported to local authorities. By uploading content to the site, you hereby grant the Company the rights to a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use the material uploaded without restrictions. This agreement may be changed at any time for any reason without prior notice.
Section I – General Use
By registering and participating in the Discussion boards you agree to the following code of conduct. If you are unable to agree you have the right not to participate in forum discussions at any time.
This is YOUR community. Most people have a common sense feel for what is and what is not appropriate in our forums and you folks generally do a great job of policing yourselves. We do, however, need to have a few set policies for everyone to refer to when the need arises.
While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible where acceptable, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or web-master (except for posts by these people) and they will not be held liable.
You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated material or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing any of these may lead to you being temporarily or permanently banned from these forums (and your service provider may also be informed).
If you were to continue to break this code of conduct your account would be reviewed and you could be banned. It is the sole discretion of the forum resolution team (currently the administrators) to ban violating accounts.
The IP addresses of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any post, topic or thread at any time they see fit following the guidelines outlined below. You agree that the web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to send a private message with a warning and/or censor any forum user who is in violation of forum policy.
- Be respectful of all users at all times. This means please use etiquette and politeness. Treat people with kindness and gentleness. Slander, harassment, and/ or instigating remarks will not be tolerated. If you do this the rest of the code of conduct won't need more than a cursory mention.
- Respect the forum staff. We provide a service in our free time to keep the forums running efficiently. We will occasionally ask for input, but in some cases we will not, please respect our decisions. Also, we do edit for content, if you have an issue with our moderation, please open a request in the forum resolution center.
- Forum Threads and Flaming:
- Flaming and condescending messages: Flames are messages that personally attack, call people names, or otherwise harass another forum member (or any person or group). These, along with any generally condescending posts will be moved or removed at the moderators discretion.
- If the thread is flame-bait (appears to be intended to start an argument or is likely to cause an argument rather than enhance discussion), it will be locked or removed without notice. Individual flame-bait may be deleted or edited at the moderators' discretion. Any users who continue to post in this manner or engage in other questionable practices, like trolling (posting in an attempt to engage people in arguments) may be subject to more serious sanctions.
- If the thread turns into an argument, it can be locked or removed without notice. Sometimes a moderator may split the thread or delete certain portions in order to keep the discussion going, but that is not always possible.
- If a post or thread contains spam (unsolicited advertising) it will be moved to the forum jail and the poster may be banned. Active users in good standing are allowed to have links to personal sites in their signatures, in their profile, and may post them in threads on occasion (just not often, please) as long as the content of those links does not include abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated material or any other material that may violate any applicable laws.
- Adult Content/Violence/Illegal Activity: Messages containing sexually oriented/violent/illegal dialogue, images, content, or links to these things will be deleted. Messages with links to or suggesting illegal activity will also be deleted. Posting or linking to any of these could result in a ban.
- Thread Drifting/Steering: Please keep discussions on topic.
- Please remember that these forums are inclusive of ALL people, and we strive to maintain accessibility to everyone.
- Please strive to communicate with other users as effectively as possible:
- Please do not write posts in all uppercase letters, as it looks as if you are screaming at the people reading your post.
- Please use color and font properties for highlighting portions of your text, and not for all of the text in your post.
- If you have found a post that you feel is inappropriate or that violates the forum code of conduct, please use the report post function. Do not attempt to moderate discussions or correct other users yourself.
- Forum signatures are limited to three lines of text, 10pt maximum font size. Signatures are also not a place for inappropriate material such as attacks, slander, or harassment. We regret that users are not allowed to use images in their signatures (see staff signature guidelines below in Section III for an exception to this policy). The use of political images in avatars is also prohibited.
- The web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum will preserve forum content when possible. However editing, locking and deleting content may be necessary and if so will be done at the discretion of the web-master, administrators and moderators when the forum code of conduct has been violated.
- Users should only have one active account. If you feel you have justification for requiring a new account, please contact an administrator to discuss your situation. Users who have multiple accounts without approval of an administrator may be subjected to infractions or bans without notice.
Section II – Support Policies
When asking for help and support:
- There are no stupid questions. You're not a stupid person simply because you do not know how to do something, or do not have the answer to a question. Everyone was a green user at one point in time. :)
- Try to give information in the title of your post. Instead of using a title like "can't find it," use a title that is specific, such as, "Where is our financial aid department?" A clear title will attract more views to your thread, as it gives a clear indication of the content of the post to the people that are willing to help you. Ultimately this will allow you to get more help of a better quality. Also, please resist the urge to use a sensationalist, extreme, and flame-baiting title like "I've had it with this website!" "I bet you can't solve my problem" or "This website sucks!". Your problem is important, but so are other people's problems. The best way to get good help is to be specific and unemotional in your original post and its title, as you describe the problem.
- While we are happy to serve as a resource for hints and for asking questions when you get stuck and need a little help, the Discussion boards should not be thought of as a homework service. Please do not post your homework assignments expecting someone else to do it for you. Any such threads will be taken offline and warnings or infractions may be issued.
Section III – Forum Staff Policies and Expectations
Staff duties are based upon the following:
- Dealing with Profanity:
Mild profanity/swearing is allowed in the context of general speech. Explicit profanity/swearing is not allowed, and under no circumstances will we allow any profanity to be directed toward another person. If you feel a user is out of line please contact an administration with the details, they will issue a warning to the user.
- Editing of posts:
When a post breaks guidelines and requires editing in order to bring it back under compliance with the rules, the moderator should generally copy the un-edited post to the jail first or issue an infraction which will keep a copy of the original post in the staff area. Only then should the original post be edited after the original content was preserved as evidence. In the private message automatically sent when the infraction is issued the moderator should specify or describe which guideline(s) the post did not follow.
- Thread Closing:
If a thread has run its course and posts have begun repeating themes a thread may be closed - if possible, announce that the thread has run it's course before closing so that people may add closing statements - don't forget to thank all users involved in the discussion. If a thread has become a situation where people are simply too personally involved in the issue a thread may be closed and / or jailed. If a thread is a duplicate of another thread, it may be closed (please provide a link to another open thread on the same topic.) It is always a good idea to post an explanation in a thread that is closed.
- Jailing of posts/thread:
If a post/thread would require a lot of work to bring it into compliance, or if editing the violations would result in a nearly blank post/thread, the post/thread should be moved to the jail instead.
- Adult Content/Violence/Illegal Activity:
Messages containing offensive / sexually oriented / violent / illegal dialog, images, content, or links to such should be jailed, depending on the information contained. Use your best judgment. Messages with links to or suggesting illegal activity will soft deleted by an administrator. Any of these actions could result in a ban for the user.
- Keeping an open mind:
Sometimes you will be faced with a thread you might not agree with it's imperative you keep an open mind towards all inclusive people, and keep a neutral focus when replying. It is our duty to steer the conversations back into a positive nature without engaging in negative behavior.
- Posting and moderating in the same thread:
This is generally discouraged. If you have participated in a discussion and later find there is a problem in the thread contact the other staff and have someone else who is uninvolved moderate. The exception would be if no one is available, you can close the thread temporarily with a post stating that it will be looked at by a non-involved staff member as soon as possible. If you aren't sure what to do, please contact a moderator or an administrator.
- Signatures:
While we do not have guidelines for staff signatures, please try to keep them moderate and within reason.
Forum Moderators are chosen by the site administrators. Users who have demonstrated a consistent attitude of friendliness and kindness and who have shown a pattern of helpfulness in their posts may be contacted and invited to serve in an even more official manner. Recommendations can be made by current staff in the staff forums or other users by private message. All recommendations are considered. Due to time constraints and privacy issues the administrators are unlikely to comment publicly on these recommendations.
It should be noted that, like all things, this code of conduct will continue to change and evolve with constructive feedback from users and from experience. It is our hope that these policies will create open, honest, and civil discussion. As always, we welcome feedback about any concerns that you may have so feel free to post in the forum feedback section of the forums. It is the users' responsibility to check this page for updates.
Adopted from http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php?page=policy and modified as allowed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Public forum data is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Last Updated 21 August, 2009.
