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We have set a list of rules to keep the board peaceful and fun. Please take the time to read these rules! Thanks, GTF Administration |
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GayTeenForums Terms of Service Version 1.4 - November 5, 2007 Before you will be permitted to post, you must read, accept and agree to be bound by the following terms of service. OVERVIEW Introduction Membership to the forums on GayTeenForums.org is a privilege, not a right. GayTeenForums.org is a private website directly run by the Administration team. Who can post? COPPA laws prohibit us from allowing persons under the age of 13 years to register or post on websites such as GayTeenForums.org. In addition, we do not permit anyone to register who is over the age of 21, as this site is intended for teenagers. Other than this there are no restrictions on any person from posting on GayTeenForums.org. It is a public website, privately run. GayTeenForums.org is aimed at, and caters, solely for the interests of teenagers. If you can abide by our rules then you are allowed membership. Why are there so many rules? We are forced to painfully explain each and every rule out loud because there are always people who will protest that the offence they were banned for wasn't covered in the rules. If you want a simple summary of all rules then that is "behave". Keep the boards clean and use common sense. These are our rules, if you don't like them then there may be other forums that better cater towards your preferences. RANKS Administrators Administrators, or "Admins", have full control over the forums and over the database. Administrators can at any promote, demote, edit the profile of, or completely terminate the membership of any other member regardless of their "rank", with or without warning or explanation. Administrators can also make changes to the structure and forums of the website at any time. Global Moderators Together with the Administrators, Global Moderators make up the executive team. These two groups collectively control the structure and layout of the site. Global Moderators are essentially Moderators over every forum on the website. Global Moderators can aid in conflict resolution between any Moderator and Member or Member and Member. Global Moderators have full control over posts and threads in every forum. Under emergency circumstances Global Moderators can terminate any user's account. Moderators Moderators are assigned to a group of forums and are responsible for the smooth running of each forum within. To do this, they have the power to lock or edit threads and posts. They also may issue infractions against users for infringing any rule within their moderated forum. Moderators are responsible for their own actions and must act how we expect every other member to act or they face losing their title. Registered Users This is the standard user account. Registered users must ensure they abide by the forums rules. Remember also to treat people as you expect to be treated yourself and remain friendly to maximise your experience on GayTeenForums.org. CONCEPTS Moderation GayTeenForums.org operates on a moderation policy and moderators are required, whether you agree with it or not. This policy is required to maintain the high degree of constructive and friendly discussions that GayTeenForums.org is built upon. The decisions of Moderators are final. Protests can be made directly to the Moderator, Global Moderator or to an Administrator. Public protests will be deleted without consideration. Ownership of Posts The original poster remains the legal copyright owner for all creative content. Posting to GayTeenForums.org signifies that you permit GayTeenForums.org to use and display your material on the forums, for as long as needed. GayTeenForums.org is a non-profit site and will not use any creative material for profit. Due to the flow and progression of threads, however, it is not possible to request to have your posts removed for any reason. Moderators and Administrators reserve the right to edit, move or remove your post for any reason. Banning The Administrators strongly prefer not to have to ban people. After all we want more people on this site posting. Sometimes it becomes clear that a member is not wanted on GayTeenForums.org for a particular reason, normally for infringing a forum rule. It is very clear when members are re-registering due to a ban and these users can expect to be re-banned at any time without reason. It is the user themselves that is banned, not just the account. Please do not ask GayTeenForums staff members why a user was banned. You can rest assured that it was due to a violation of this TOS, and the banned member can contact the staff via email for more information. Freezing Members that are "Frozen" are being banned for a temporary time, normally for infringing a forum rule. These temporary bans are the same as a normal ban, while active, and may last one week or more. Any Frozen member who re-registers during this period will have their original account and new account permanently banned. Restricted Membership Sometimes if a member is systematically trolling or spamming threads or forums for any reason, then instead of a Ban or Freeze that member will be placed on a restricted membership. Meaning they cannot post more than five posts per forum per day in the main forums. This measure is to combat the offence without banning the user. This restriction is server-controlled and cannot be circumvented. If a member re-registers a new account to get rid of the restrictions, the new account will probably be restricted as well. Infractions All moderators and administrators can issue infractions for any offence. If you accumulate three infractions your account will be reviewed and you will probably be banned. While you may be banned at any time for any reason without infractions, generally you are advised to ensure that you do not repeat offend for anything you are infracted for. Infractions last for twelve months before they expire. Any member is entitled to protest a infractions privately with a moderator, global moderator or an administrator and if successful can have their infraction reversed. Public protests of infractions will be deleted without consideration. Complaints All personal complaints, whether about a moderator or member must first have been attempted to be resolved privately. If not-successful, take your complaint to a Global-Moderator or an Administrator. If it comes to this make sure you build a case, justify it and include links and examples. Neither Global Moderators nor Administrators have the time to search the boards for posts about a certain member if links are not included in your complaint. Failure to support your complaint will probably result in no further investigation into your issue. Never post your complaint publicly on the forums or risk the complaint being deleted without consideration or investigation. Complaints about the layout or structure of the forums are to be turned into a suggestion or constructive criticism and posted in a relevant forum in the Headquarters category.Sometimes it may be necessary to complain about a member publicly, these include such times where it is necessary to warn other members of incoming spam or harassment. Such warnings are accepted on the boards. Private Messaging The private message system exists as a means to communicate with other members in a non-public forum. While they are called "private messages," you are accountable for anything you send using this system. If the administration has a reasonable suspicion that you are using the private messaging system for any activity which breaches the TOS (including, but not limited to picture trading or webcamming requests), they may conduct an audit of your private messages. Any breaches of the TOS committed through the private messaging system are punishable the same as if they took place on the forums. FORUM RULES Racism and other Intolerance Any form of racism will see you banned without warning. Everyone on this board is equal as a person and everyone is entitled to their opinion and is entitled to argue their opinion. However, directly insulting or bashing another person for their beliefs or non-beliefs or their sexuality or their lifestyle, is not accepted. Undesirable Post Content The following types of posts are strictly prohibited, but not limited to: • Any kind of nudity, with the exception of cartoon images intended solely for educational use. Nudity is not appropriate for this site, given our target audience (which includes teens as young as 13). If you have a question regarding an image, it is best to contact a moderator prior to posting it. • Links to pornographic sites. • Links to web-pages with images of illegal pornography, eg: underage, rape or bestiality. • Links to web-pages with images of legal pornography without posting a warning about the content. • Links to any type of illegal activities including; warez, use of illegal drugs or underage use of restricted drugs. • Seeking for naked photos, or the personal details of other members. • Graphic description of grotesque acts of sex or violence. • Stories that you have made up and are passing as factual events, possibly to make yourself look good. Nobody likes a liar. Note: Posting messages entirely in Capitals or in "Sticky Caps" may result in your post being edited for clarity. Bashing or Harassing Members Any member seen bashing other members will be issued an infraction. If you provoke any member, then that sends a clear invitation for that member to say what they want to you in return. Although this negates their ability to complain about you, you may find that you are the only person issued an infraction for the incident. Spamming, trolling and other worthless posts Spamming the forums to advertise for another website will see you immediately banned. The only time links are permitted to other websites are if they are related to the discussion or are of genuine interest to readers. Trolling threads, meaning any posts that are deliberately off-topic and only serve to annoy other members or seek to start a fight or complaining about how bad they are or how members need to be banned or how thread needs to be locked is not tolerated. So unless the thread is intensely retarded, if you don't like it, simply vote it a "1" or complain to a relevant moderator. If you post something like "Postcount++" or other nonsense, one word posts, expect to be issued an infraction for spamming. These suggest that you have nothing worthwhile to contribute to the discussion, and are a gross waste of server time, space and bandwidth. If you are systematically infringing this rule then you will be frozen or banned as a spammer. Unsavory Characters If you show yourself to be someone that represents values that contradict values that GayTeenForums.org represents then you will be removed. Some examples of unsavory characters are: • Unfriendly attitudes • Looking to start fights • Spamming other members privately • Asking personal details of, or requesting naked photos of, other members • Promoting illegal activities, including the use of illegal drugs or the underage use of restricted drugs • Posting the personal details of any other person. It does not matter where you got the details from or whether they are available from a whois search, we will still ban you for it. Contempt for Moderators Insulting or harassing or bashing moderators, or editing a post back to original content after a moderator has edited it, or failing to do something that was requested that you do is not tolerated. If you start a thread on the boards to complain or protest about a moderator, whether the issue is real or imaginary, then your thread will be deleted without consideration. Take any issues up with the moderator, global moderator or an administrator privately. Identity Fraud It is important to realise that some forums on GayTeenForums.org contain discussions which may appeal to people wanting to take advantage of the stories and members. For this reason it is vitally important that we can trust what you say about your identity. While we rely entirely on the information you provide, if we have reason to suspect at all that you are a different person than you say you are, then we will give you a chance to provide photo identification to verify your identity. If you are unable or unwilling to provide identification we will see you removed immediately and you will not be allowed to return. If you lie to us once then we cannot be able to trust you again on these issues. This rule is purely for the protection of other members and to ensure that we run a safe website. Picture Trading / Webcamming / Soliciting GayTeenForums is a website for teens to have fun, meet new people and use our forums to discuss current issues and socialise. It is NOT a place to "pick up" people or find people to trade pictures with or hook up with them on instant messenger programs. THIS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED and the whole administration team will enforce zero tolerance on this matter. People who have AT ANY POINT in their time here traded pictures using the PM system or solicited details for doing so, will be banned. Please note that either sending or consenting to receiving pictures of another member, regardless if anything is sent in return, is considered a violation of this rule as well. Multiple Accounts Users are only permitted to have one account at GayTeenForums. Any member who has more than one account will have the additional accounts terminated without notice. Continued violation of this rule will result in disciplinary action. Moderator Begging Moderators are not made by request of the user. If you are interested in becoming a moderator, then show your interest and maturity in the forum you would like to moderate by frequently posting friendly constructive posts. Existing moderators do notice people with these attitudes. When the time comes that a new moderator is needed then you might be asked. Posting on the forums that you would like to be a moderator happens frequently and serves only to annoy the people that you do not want to annoy. Do not do this. If you are a new member then it's guaranteed you will not be able to become a moderator until you become more experienced with the site. Circumventing Rules If we find that you are breaking a rule in some subtle way that you obviously think is intelligent and hilarious then you can still expect to see you treated in the same manner as if you directly broke the rule. It doesn't matter how you broke the rule in the end. Note Some of the offences may bring different actions against different members. For example if an old member, who we know well and who has been on the site for a long time and has contributed a lot to the website, posts a racist comment in a forum then they may not necessary be banned straight away, whereas a new member will. This does not mean that your post count will allow you to do anything on the site. What it means is that for every action, especially banning, the administrators weigh up the contributions made by the member and the history of the member compared to the offence they have committed or the damage caused. CONTACT INFORMATION Please click the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of any page, or click here to go there now. |
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