Forum Rules & Guidelines

Forum Rules and Guidelines for Temperate Reef

Thank you for taking the time to view and go over the rules and guidelines for conduct at www.TemperateReef.com and its forums. The following rules below explain appropriate conduct at the Temperate Reef marine center. Failure to abide by these guidelines could result in possible expulsion from our forums, depending on the severity of the situation, and will most likely, if not always, include a warning. While every possibly situation can not be covered in our rules, it is therefore appropriate for Temperate Reef to act as it feels appropriate to protect the reputation of the site as well as to maintain a forum stability.

Temperate Reef encourages new visitors and members to connect with the marine center and join interactive discussions taking place in our many forums.

1) General Rules

a. Discussion - Discussion in our forums at Temperate Reef must be kept civil and appropriate. We ask you to take care in what you post in forums at TR. Temperate Reef encourages members to keep discussion in the forums and not in private messages (PM's). Please take a moment to re-read posts before submitting them, often to many mistakes and errors as well incorrectly phrased content is posted when submitted. The forum asks you to be open minded and respectful to members and their ideals. Members may at times have to agree to disagree. Behavior such as but not limited to, personal attacks, insulting or degrading members, and harassment, is absolutely not tolerated on our forums.

Due to the relatively small amount of information available to temperate marine enthusiasts and aquarists, the forum is often host to members from many countries. While the dominant language of the forum is English, we ask you be mindful and respectful of non-English speaking members and their knowledge of the English language. At times it may be useful to use a language translator. A suitable one can be found here.

b. Forum Content - Content posted and submitted to the forum must be keep appropriate. Temperate Reef entertains a large audience, with a wide range of age groups. It is therefore a necessity that you act in a respectful manner to all age groups. A suitable guideline for conduct on the site is to keep behavior at a PG-13 level. Explicit actions such as but not limited to the posting of racial slurs, pornographic material (images and/or links), or the exhibition of profane material is not tolerated on Temperate Reef. Violation of this rule will most likely always result in temporary and/or permanent expulsion from the forum.

c. Copyrighted Content - Content posted to our forum such as but not limited to photographs and articles may only be posted by owner of the content or with permission from the copyright holder. If permission is not obtainable by the owner then it is appropriate to provide a text link to the source of the obtained material. Text links must be provided when posting complete or portions of an article. However when posting copyrighted images, the image may act as a link to the source (if this step is used it must be stated in the post). Always be sure to check the copyright of content.

b. Login Accounts - Each member of Temperate Reef is allowed only one login account. If members are found to have more then one login account, a private message will be sent to inform the user and he or she may choose which one to keep. Members found to intentionally be creating multiple accounts to appear as multiple users will be warned and/or banned.

2) Posting Rules

a. Posting Topics - New topics should be created in the appropriate forum. The topic posted should have relevance to its parent forum. Topics posted in an inappropriate forum will be either moved or deleted by forum staff. Controversial topics will be moved to a hidden forum for review by the Temperate Reef administrators and moderators.

b. Posting Conduct - When posting in our forums be sure to avoid typing in slang or hard to read forms. Also spamming and trolling is not tolerated on our forums. We also ask members to stay on topic and to respond in an appropriate manner. Again we ask you to respect copyrighted material as stated above. While this is not a rule it is a guideline: we ask that you keep discussion in forums so all members can be involved. Private or personal discussion can be assumed through E-Mail or private messages.

You assume full responsibility for anything you post or submit. Temperate Reef makes no claims of ownership to any material you post.

Miscellaneous Rules & Guidelines

a. Advertising - Though commercial advertising is generally not tolerated in any other forums except for our sponsor forums and sponsors page, it is allowed in our classifieds forum under a limited basis: members our allowed only three bumps and commercial advertisements must be aquatic related or pertain to the aquarium hobby. Sponsors of Temperate Reef are given banner space and/or a forum to promote their business in accordance with the sponsor agreement. Temperate Reef is exempted from any loss or injury or any direct or indirect damage of merchandise.

Spamming is not tolerated on the forum and links in signatures etc. deemed spam will be deleted.

b. Donations - As Temperate Reef is at the moment supported by it's members only, we encourage you to make donations to our forum. Links to our donating page our located on our homepage and footer.

c. Where Rules are Applicable - Rules are applicable in our forums, chat rooms, and private messages.

d. Private Messaging - Be mindful of rules regarding private messaging as stated above. We also ask that you clear messages after a while as they do have a limit. If this limit is reached no messages will be received.

Temperate Reef reserves the right to change it's rules. Thank you again for taking time to read our rules.

- Temperate Reef