Forum & Main Site Rules

[chris.p]

Forum Rules
and
Site Guidelines for Acceptability

Please read these rules before posting. Some of them apply to the main Website as well as to this Freeware Forum.


1. You agree that your use of the Website and this Forum is governed by these Rules. Failure to respect their content may result in a ban.

2. Registration

a. Your email address: we require you to have a valid and correctly-working email address. Disposable/temporary addresses are not permitted.
b. Your username: you are not permitted to register a username that is your email address, may cause offense to other members (including usernames with religious meaning), or consists entirely or largely of symbols / punctuation and numbers. If you register a name that matches or resembles a commercial software or service, or promotes another type of product, service, website or blog, or is associated with a red rated WOT (Web Of Trust) site, it will be rejected by the moderators and any associated posts removed. Usernames that imply an official connection with this website will also be rejected.
c. Multiple identities are not permitted.

3. Signature: you are permitted a single line signature, which may include one link to your own website (see also rule #14)

• A text link is allowed. Graphics, linked graphics and animations of any type are not permitted.
• You may link to an internal page on your site.
• The link may not be to a product, a download, or an affiliate link.
• The maximum length of your signature is 80 characters including spaces, and the maximum font size is 2.
• A signature must not be deliberately made to stand out visually. It may be smaller than the standard font size, and/or of a less-noticeable color - but it may not be larger or brighter.
• No links (including in signatures) are allowed to websites either for, or that feature prominently, or with commercial links to: commercial software**, pharmaceuticals, porn, gambling, violence, loans, credit, political parties, religious views, information considered illegal in most countries, or any other website or material that we decide is inappropriate.

A signature is a privilege - not a right - and can be withdrawn at any time for any reason and without notice.

4. Avatar: a photo or graphic is allowed. The maximum dimensions are 80px per side and 20kB. Animated graphics are not permitted as avatars or in forum posts.

5. You warrant that you will not post any message that is obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, discriminatory, in breach of copyright, of religious or political content, or otherwise in violation of law or accepted community standards.

6. When addressing another forum user, you will be polite and treat others as you would expect to be treated yourself. Courteous discussion is welcome here but heated and abusive argument is not. If attacked you are not allowed to respond in kind. Instead use the Private Message system and try to resolve matters privately and amicably. If problems persist ask for the help of a Moderator.

7. In addition to the above, the following types of activity are expressly forbidden:

• Flaming - posts of an inflammatory or insulting nature.
• Trolling - this includes (but is not restricted to):
• Complaining about third party offer terms over which we have no control.
• Flooding the board with comments coming from a single point of view in multiple posts.
• Posting something which is against our forum rules.
• Posts of a nature that might start a "flame war" or simply to cause difficulties for the moderators. This includes unsubstantiated claims made against products, web sites or services, so always include links to back up your claims. Single line posts containing arguments such as "fail!" or "doesn't work" will be regarded as trolling and may result in a ban. When you then compose several paragraphs to complain about the ban, don't expect a reply.
• Posting defamatory comments about another member. “Attack the post, not the poster.” You can disagree with the subject matter of a post, but never personally attack the poster.
• Posting continuous criticism of moderators and their moderation activities. You may criticize a moderator, or how the site is run. However, such comments should be made privately not publicly.
• Engaging in behavior which is disruptive to the general operation of the forum or community*.

* This includes bumping threads. Please be patient, our editors and other members will respond to your post as soon as they can. Attempts to speed up this process will result in a warning followed by a ban if repeated.

A breach of any of the above rules may result in removal of your privilege to participate in the forums or main site comments.

8. Stick to the topic. Do not deviate from the subject being discussed in a thread. Open a new thread if a new issue arises from the discussion so others can always see by the title what the thread is about.

9. Do not post the same topic in several forums - no double posting or cross-posting.

10. Freedom of Speech: your contribution to this forum is not a right but a privilege. As a privately owned, financed and operated website, we have the right to allow or deny any content we decide. The rules we have in place are to protect the site, and to provide a convivial environment for our users. Any content that we believe conflicts with this requirement will be removed.

11. Although the administrators and moderators of Gizmo's Freeware will attempt to keep all objectionable materials off this forum, it is impossible for us to review every message. All messages express the views of the author alone, and neither the owners nor staff of GF will be held responsible for the content of any message.

12. You must not post copyrighted material here unless it is done so under a Fair Use agreement. In the absence of any permissions being presented to us, we require that a maximum of 200 words be reproduced here, and a link shall be given to the original website.

13. You retain copyright to any original content you contribute, but agree to assign to this site and its successors perpetual and unlimited license to use such content free of charge as we see fit.

14. You must not use this forum for advertising. This includes linkspam, personal referral links and developers trying to promote their own software whether free or not. Any post or material that seems to have been made for the purpose of advertising will be deleted.

15. No direct link to any type of file or automatically initiated service is allowed in the Forum or in Comments on the Website. Link instead to the page the file or service link is referenced on.

16. For safety reasons, personal email addresses must not be included in either forum posts or main site comments. Any so included will be removed by the moderators and the membership may be terminated if the intent was judged to be promotional.

17. No links to websites we determine to be unsuitable are allowed. Websites should have a green rating or no rating (showing as "?") at WOT* in order to be allowable. Links posted on the main site and in the forum will now display the corresponding WOT rating logo so long as you have the WOT extension installed. This is available for several of the leading browsers, and we recommend you install this to aid your own safety online (see our article here). Links to WOT red-rated sites are not permitted**. Links to orange-rated sites are not normally allowed except by direct reference to and permission of the Forum Manager: forum [AT] techsupportalert [DOT] com

• Posts containing references to any products or services where the originating website has a poor WOT rating are likely to be edited or removed, even if a link is not included.

• We are always grateful for software suggestions made via our main site comments. These suggestions however should be accompanied by a link to the vendor's product page. Posts containing lists of suggestions in particular will just be deleted unless the appropriate links are included.

17a. Gizmo's Freeware is an international community with English as the base language. Do not refer or link to non-English content.

18. References to commercial software : Members/visitors may refer to commercial products in either forum posts, or main site comments, but may not include links** to them. The content in such posts must be relevant to the topic being discussed, and not posted as an endorsement for promotional purposes ("I use" etc) or discuss the features and abilities of a commercial product. Links to sites containing freeware and commercial content may be acceptable, providing that the pages linked to, do not open with words such as “trial”, “buy now”or "try it free", prominently featured. Posts containing monetary references will be edited out, or the whole post deleted. Anything deemed not to comply will be removed, and the decision of moderators will be final. Doubts or queries relating to post content should be addressed with the moderators before posting and not via a discussion topic. No correspondence will be entered into, about the removal of commercially related content.

If you "reference" a product in a forum post or main site comment, make sure to include a link to the freeware source. Moderators will not spend time hunting for these themselves so genuine posts may be lost if an appropriate link is not included. This is especially relevant where two products may have the same or similar names. Moderators may substitute links if they believe the original was posted for promotional reasons.

**Posts deemed to be commercial spam and/or containing links to WOT red-rated sites will result in an immediate ban.

19. The owners or staff of GF are not responsible for the content of any website linked to. You must decide if you wish to visit any such site or download any materials from another site. The responsibility is entirely yours and you must employ due diligence.

Gizmo's Freeware uses WOT ratings to benchmark safety but other options are available. Some are reviewed here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...fety-check.htm We also suggest using a DNS filter for added security, examples of which are discussed here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...under-hour.htm

20. Advice given on this forum or in the main site comments by staff, members or visitors is not to be taken as fact. The owners and staff of GF are not responsible for the accuracy of any advice or information. The user must determine the suitability of the advice or information and GF cannot be held responsible for loss or damage caused by the use of any advice or information. Please note we are unable to provide advice concerning legal matters and anything posted of this nature will be deleted.

21. The staff of Gizmo's Freeware reserve the right to edit, move, delete or close any comment, post or thread for any reason. In the event of any dispute the decision of the moderators is final. Members who re-edit comments or posts that have been moderated will be banned.

22. List of names
The "Website" is this website, Gizmo's Freeware at www.techsupportalert.com .
The "Forum" is the forum at www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/ .
The "Rules" are these rules.
A "Moderator" is a website official whose duty is to enforce the Rules.
"Comments" are the user-contributed posts at the foot of articles on the Website.
"GF" is Gizmo's Freeware, this website.

* Web of Trust at www.mywot.com

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