Forum & Messaging System Rules & Guidelines For Use

Darren · Last edited by Darren on Fri Jan 30, 2009 1:54 pm; edited 5 times in total

In order to keep the forums running well and to prevent problems, please follow these simple rules. If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to contact one of the PocketGPSWorld Team or a PocketGPSWorld Moderator.

Forum Registration Issues
If you have any issue with your forum registration, i.e. you have not received the registration confirmation email or you have forgotten/mislaid your user-name and or password then you may request assistance by sending an email to subscriptionsATpocketgpsworld.com (replace AT with @).

Please Do Not create Multiple Identities for whatever reason. This creates unnecessary work when problems arise. If you have an issue contact us and we can re-advise you of your user-name and or reset your password as necessary.

1. General Rules
While debate and discussion is to be welcomed, we will not tolerate rude or insulting posts, personal attacks, unnecessarily inflammatory posts or posts of a sexual nature. Team members and Moderators have the final decision in these matters.

Discussion of illegal activities such as software piracy and other intellectual property violations are not allowed. PocketGPSWorld.com maintains a Zero Tolerance policy on piracy matters.
Before posting a query it always good practice to search the forums for previous postings. It is very likely that your issue may have been answered already.
Please ensure you use helpful topic titles, this ensures the best response from others. Titles such as 'Help!' are meaningless and will not increase your chance of assistance!
Multiple or repeated posting of the same question in one or more forums is not permitted.
Advertising, spamming and trolling is forbidden. This includes using the Private message system to spam other members or discuss illegal activity, commercial links in signatures or profiles etc. Users who flout this rule will have their posting privileges removed.
Each member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed and any user found to be posting under multiple identities risks having one or more accounts suspended and a forum membership ban.
We are quite happy to have constructive comparative conversations about products but we will not tolerate blatant advertisements for commercial products or services. We also reserve the right to ban anyone who wilfully violates the forum rules.
You cannot post any affiliate or referral links, or post anything asking for a referral. Such posts will be subject to removal.
The Personal Message facility is a service provided by PocketGPSWorld. The forum rules also apply to any PM messages. We reserve the right to monitor this system and have the facility to inspect individual messages. Anyone found abusing the system will forfeit their user account.
We reserve the right to remove offensive posts without notice.
Any threads/posts of these types may be deleted without warning.
Also while these rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused in any way.

2. Images in Forum Posts

If you link to any images in a post they should be no more than 600 pixels in width and no more than 800 pixels in height. Images that exceed this size limit may be removed or edited.
Offensive images or images that are otherwise considered unsuitable will be removed.

3. Commercial Advertising

You may not use forum posts or the private messaging system to advertise any commercial product or service that you or your company offers. Explicit advertising in forum posts, signatures, profile links or by the use of Avatar’s for commercial purposes is prohibited.
Should you wish to discuss a commercial product then you should email businessenquiriesATpocketgpsworld.com.

4. Forum Usernames
Usernames chosen when registering should follow a few basic guidelines:

Forum names that suggest you are officially representing a company, organization or official body when no such status has been granted are not permitted i.e. TomTomSupport
Usernames may not be sexually explicit, inflammatory or in any other way offensive.
Any user who registers with a username that contravenes these rules may have their registration cancelled or their forum user-name changed.

5. Avatars
Animated avatars other than those available in the Avatar Gallery on this site are not permitted. They must not be be sexually explicit nor may they violate any other forum guidelines. Any image must be no larger than 64 x 64 pixels.

6. Links in Signatures
Links in signatures must follow these guidelines:

Promotional text for a commercial product or service is not permitted without prior approval.
A link and promotional text for site's that are non-commercial and do not sell product(s) and/or service(s) is allowed, provided the site does not violate normal community standards. Links to other enthusiast sites are permitted in most cases.
IP identifiers and similar are not permitted.
Duplicate links to the same URL in a signature are not allowed.
The PocketGPSWorld Team shall be the sole arbitrator of what does and what does not violate community standards and what links are deemed permissible.

7. Signature Size Limits
All signatures should not exceed the following size limits, NOTE: you cannot have both text and images in your signature:

For text signatures: 4 lines maximum.
For images in signatures: 1 image up to 450 pixels wide, 125 pixels tall and 20k in size
Animated images in signatures are not allowed

If you wish to complain about any violation of the above you should contact a PocketGPSWorld Team member or Moderator in the first instance quoting the reasons for the complaint and providing a link to the post in question.

8. Forum Ranks
The Forum Rank System is structured as follows:

Occasional Visitor (0-59 posts)
Regular Visitor (60+ posts)
Frequent Visitor (250+ posts)

9. Lifetime Members
We also have a special rank of 'Lifetime Member'. This is awarded to new Life members automatically. However, as, in the past it was an opt-in rank, there will be some members who are eligible for it but do not have it shown. Anyone who was awarded a Lifetime membership may request it be added to their forum profile if has not already been added. New awardees have the rank added automatically.

10. Retailers to buy from or avoid forum
Retailers to buy from/avoid forum

In response to the rising number of posts from new users in praise of or complaining about retailers we have decided to implement a new rule. Users with less than 10 posts are now forbidden from posting in the Retailers to buy from or avoid forum. This requirement is intended to improve the confidence in such posts. Any posters ignoring this requirement will have their posts deleted.

Qualifying members wishing to display their Lifetime membership status should send an email to subscriptionsATpocketgpsworld.com with the Subject 'Lifetime Membership Rank' and we will edit your status. Please ensure you use the Subject Lifetime Membership Rank to ensure it gets through our anti-spam filters and we'll also need your user-name to speed up the process.

There is a Contact PocketGPS link in the top naviagation bar and left hand column of every page of this site or you may contact a Team member or Moderator using the PM facility in the forums.

Notwithstanding any of the above, PocketGPSWorld.Com reserve the right to add to, alter or remove any restrictions without notice or further reference.

Finally! We have very few problems within our forums, treat others as you would wish to be treated, be polite and we will all get along swimmingly Thumbs Up

_________________
Darren Griffin

	PocketGPS
	Web