Talk ShopBot Forum Guidelines
------------------------------

-We do not allow posts that are threatening, abusive, obscene, or sexual in nature or that violate ShopBot community standards.

-Discussion of illegal activities such as software piracy or other intellectual property violations will not be permitted on the Forum.

-While debate and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks, purposeless inflammatory posts, or posts intended primarily as put-downs or one-ups.

-Posts or threads containing misleading information or misrepresentation, distortion, or frivilous malignment of ShopBot, ShopBot products, or ShopBot people will be deleted.

-Meaningless threads, one word (or short) nonsense posts, personal conversations and the like should be posted elsewhere or taken private.

-We are happy to have informative posts about after-market products and enhancements, or competitor's products. We will not accept blatant advertisements or repetitious discussions of other products here. We have no way to validate such information and do not want to find ourselves in the position of having to constantly monitor and correct product portrayals.

-Advertising, spamming and trolling is not allowed. This includes using the Forum email or message system to spam other members.

-Registration is now required for posting. Each member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed.

-Suggestions for Forum management or improvements should be emailed to the Forum administrator for our consideration in improving the Forum. We are always happy for and appreciative of good suggestions and will work to continuously improve the site, but how the Forum is operated is not a useful Forum topic.

-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 the Forum is not disrupted or abused, and that will insure its continuation as a source of information and inspiration.

-Our decisions may be arbitrary ... and, they will be final. Repeat offenders will have their posting privileges suspended.

-Access to this Forum is a privilege that we grant. In using it you acknowledge these guidelines and accept your responsibility in maintaining the value of the Forum.

[These Forum Guidelines were inspired by studying the guidelines of several other open forums struggling with the issue of maintaing helpful and upbeat discussions (e.g. vBulletin site).]

Advertising & Promotion

We intend our Forum to be a site for information for ShopBotters. As such, we believe posting information alerting participants to the source for a product or the availability of a new product, after-market product, or competitive product can be useful and helpful. However, such postings will be limited to a single, brief introduction and description with links to the appropriate sites or contact information. As indicated above, extended discussion on the use of other products should be carried out on sites appropriate for those products. We will not accept blatant adverts or repetitious discussions of competitive products. We have no way to validate such information, and do not want to find ourselves in the position of having to constantly monitor and correct product portrayals.

We have a designated area for posting information about ShopBot-related items that a participant wishes to sell. You may make one post calling attention to one of these items if it seems appropriate.


Looking for ShopBotter

If you are looking for a ShopBotter to do a job for you or as a demo site, post in the "Looking for ShopBotter" topic. At this time, this topic does not require registration to post. (edited Mar 2007 - registration required to post to all topics now thanks to spammers)You can also send an email to the forum administrator with the info you want posted. We are happy to help you find someone for a job.

Dealing with a Post that You Feel Violates the Guidelines

We are not able to monitor the Forum 24 hours a day, and we do not want to queue messages for approval before they are posted. That means that it is possible for a post to appear in violation of our guidelines. We will do our best to remove these as soon as possible.

In the meantime, do not fall into the trap of responding to a post which violates the guidelines or which you find offensive. That is just what the offender wants, and it means that your post could disrupt the continuity of the thread if we don't also remove it. Just send the forum administrator a note indicating the problematic post and we will check it out as soon as possible. Just respond to earlier posts without reference to the offending post to contribute to the topic. If you mention the offending post, there is a good chance that your post will be removed also.

May 2006