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Author Topic: 2010 BYLAWS - Simplified Rules for all members to know. PLEASE READ THIS.  (Read 26198 times)

Offline beemaster

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I first want to welcome you all to our Beemaster's International Forums; we have grown 37% in membership this year alone, that is about a thousand new members and growing every day. I ask EVERY NEW MEMBER TO "Introduce yourself to our family of beekeepers and then understand that we are very strict in maintaining our bi-laws which is used to keep our site FAMILY FRIENDLY at ALL COSTS, we pledge this and work hard to maintain a safe place for you and your family. Read BELOW for the complete updated Bylaws. Thank you and again, Welcome Aboard.

BEEMASTER FORUM 2010 UPDATED BYLAWS

RULE 1) KEEP CONTENT FAMILY FRIENDLY

This is a FAMILY FRIENDLY FORUM – if you have no idea what that means; I'll explain. You are expected to keep your language and content so that the youngest member of a family can read your posts WITHOUT the need of supervision by a parent or elder. This does not mean that parents should allow their kids to run free here or on any website on the Internet, but it is YOUR responsibility to be FRIENDLY to members of all ages, both in the wording and the meaning of your posts.

Some posts or replies can have wording that can easily go over the heads of younger members, be careful in this fact and do not use it as a tool in creating your posts. Keep in mind at all times that just because you intend a certain member to read and reply to your post, doesn't mean that EVERY member can also read that post: you need to understand, light adult content occurs and is acceptable, generally speaking we are adults to the most parts - but even adults are often offended by off-color remarks and any member at any age has equal protection against offensive content.

RULE 2) BE KIND and INTERACT, NOT REACT. AGREE TO DISAGREE EVEN IF ATTACKED BY ANOTHER MEMBER - WE WILL HANDLE THE OTHER MEMBER.

If you don't agree with someone's view, EXPRESS your views rather than tear down theirs. You have the option on EVERY POST to report that post to Moderators, use this to quickly make us aware of a possible problem, we will take it from there.

Be kind to other members, do not put them down, bait them into fighting or do anything to create a fight whether in open forum or private messaging. Trashing another member will surely lead you toward the banishment door quickly. New members are expected to abide by the same rules as seasoned members. We believe that Ignorance of a rule is NO excuse to break it – you are expected to read the bylaws and strictly abide by them.

RULE 3) DO NOT TRY TO ADVERTISE HERE, WE ARE COMMERCIAL FREE

We do NOT allow Commercial Advertising, it is not done by us, so it will not be done by you. We strongly believe that our forums shall always be FREE of commercials, we do not promote any Goooogle ads, Beekeeping Supply Companies, etc.. There is a difference if you are asked about a product and reply because you have used it and either like it or don't "compared to" bragging about how wonderful a product is and then we find out you work for the company who makes or sells it. Just use common sense here, if what you say in anyway puts money in your pocket, then you are selling something - your endorsement of such a product is advertising and again advertising is NOT allowed.

You may notice we have a TRADING POST, this forum is for SWAPPING items for other items. But if there is something you want to sell and you are not looking for items in exchange, then in your POST mention that you have something for sale, noting that you can be contacted by Private Message (PM) but do not list the price of the item(s) in your original post or followup posts.

Feel free to detail the items, but keep prices in PMs NOT in public forum. If prices are found in the forums a second time (especially if the price had to be removed by a moderator) then the entire post will be removed and you will likely be banned.

This also means that if you have (let's say access to an unlimited supply of feeder jars) you cannot go into the trading post, give the impression you have a few available and spend the next 3 years making money in PMs - go to EBAY where you belong. The trading post is to buy or sell used or excess equipment that you no longer need, not a place to set up a store front.

NOTE: by not allowing ads by Goooogle and other search engines, we are doing ourselves a disservice, it can reduce our placement in the “Search Engine Ranking's which I think is EXTORTION but that is just my belief on how most search engines work. We'd rather not be no.1 in any search engines, than have their ads plastered on every page of our forums. Again, we don't accept ads or subject you to any, this promotes the idea that we are not swayed by anyone and our forum remains completely neutral - don't try selling things to our members.

RULE 4) WE FILTER WORDS and SOME WEBSITES WHICH HAVE TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING OUR "NO FIGHTING and FAMILY FRIENDLY POLICY

We use our forums filtering technology to assist us in protecting the members from spam and from sites that we deem offensive. If a link is placed here, we believe it is the same as placing the content of that page or site here as well. To protect our members from sites or language that is abusive, blocks have been put in place to reduce issues that could lead to conflict or subject members to harmful content.

Purposely posting links to objectionable material likely will lead to immediate banishment here in the forums. Exact details of what is and is not appropriate can not be covered here due to forum security reasons, but if we believe you have "unintentionally" committed an offense, you will be notified and an explanation may be given - at the very least each case is handled by the moderators and whatever is best for the forum is the deciding factor.

If you find a particular website has been blocked and you receive a warning message during your posting, again do not try going around any word filters, they are in place for a reason. We reserve the right to block any website we find to be offensive to the members here. This is an administrative decision that likely is in place due to security reasons. If you knowing break up a websites address so that it gets past our filters, you will be caught and banned with no prior warning given.

NOTE: all new members go through a short period of time that they can not post links to pictures, websites, etc., to protect against pornography or other inappropriate content. If a new member attempts to post a link of photo,  they will get an error message to remove the link.  Again, don't try to bypass this restriction by posting partial or broken up links and telling people how to reassemble the link.  You will be caught and banned with no prior warning given. You can email the link(s) to photos@beemaster.com (please no photos, just links to hosted photos), and a moderator will gladly post the link for you. Shortly after, you gain full member privileges and you can post links and photos here. This step is to assure we don't have a spammer purposely signing to cause havoc to our membership.

CONCLUSION:

Rule Breaking can result from a warning, to immediate banishment – each case is independently weighed by the moderators and is final. All you need to do is treat the forum as a place your children and grandparents BOTH could easily enjoy without being subjected to the wicked things the Internet often fills our screens with.

I hope this simplified Bylaws is easier to follow. The bylaws are subject to modification as spammers or troublesome violators find new and harmful ways to attack our forums. But it all comes down to one sentence: be kind to everyone, make friends not enemies, if you need to sell something go to Ebay and always remember that your children and grandparents alike could be reading what you have written, so be on your best behavior or find somewhere where civility is not a priority.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2010, 03:07:24 am by beemaster »
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