Forum Rules! - You must read.

[Malvolio]

By using the forum or any other feature(s) (public or contributing member) /software or by simply being registered at the domain uspoliticsonline.com you agree to the following in whole:

Disclaimer:

You agree to NOT use this site or its affiliated sites, services you may have access to as a result of being a member here (subscriber or otherwise), to post items (images, textual material, etc.) that are pornographic in nature, illegal in the United States and/or the country you reside in, support or encourage illegal activities (e.g., terrorism), advertise for your own personal profit, or send unsolicited messages (i.e. SPAM) to members or non-members.

--AND--

You agree that if any clause or component of this document is found to not be legally binding in a court of law of proper jurisdiction then the remainder of this document shall remain deleted as fully binding and in full force.

--AND--

You agree to NOT hold Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (makers of the forum software), uspoliticsonline.com, sites affiliated with uspoliticsonline.com, its administrators, its moderators, others associated with its operation, and its owners liable for any and all of the following (in whole or in part):

1. Personal insults/attacks by other members.

2. The content posted by other members, whether directed at you personally or a label/classification you associate with. This includes remarks you consider to be libelous or slanderous in any way.

3. Any financial or time loss due to your participation here or as a result of something you read at this site, including posts/PMs by other members and feature(s)/software available at the domain uspoliticsonline.com.

4. The dissemination of any personal information about you as a result of either your negligence (e.g. staying logged into a computer that others have access to) or willingness to post such information on a public forum. This includes using your real name or other details that could allow other members and/or the general public to determine your true identity. You are prohibited from using your real name on these forums, either as your username or in posts / PMs you write.

Forum rules, in addition to the Disclaimer:

1. You cannot attack and/or personally insult someone. You cannot bait other forum members. Please, remain courteous and respectful to all forum members at all times.
a. You agree to take responsibility for reporting such posts when you come across them.
b. Please, use the ignore feature if need be.

2. You cannot simply cut and paste. You MUST provide the identifying information (source, author, date, and URL). You must also offer some original thoughts along with the cut and paste. You may copy and paste an excerpt or series of excerpts from the article. Excerpts really shouldn’t be more then a paragraph or two. Furthermore, if you use images or other copyrighted material in your posts or signature you must have permission of the copyright holder unless you know for a fact that the image is in the public domain.

3. You cannot post the same thing in multiple forums. You must not open similar threads about the same or a similar topic. You cannot spam the board or send unsolicited messages to members via PM, email or any other means.

4. Do not post off-topic. You cannot derail a thread with off topic posts.

5. You cannot shout in posts. This includes posting in all CAPS, bold, lIkE tHiS, and extra large font. Posts should also be one color, although you may use an additional color for highlighting ideas you wish to address.

6. You may not alter quotes in a way that misrepresents what was originally said.

7. You cannot sexually harass other members. If you are not sure if something you write is inappropriate or not then don't say it. Error on the side of caution.

8. Multiple accounts are not allowed. If you are found to have more than one account all accounts will be permanently terminated.

9. You cannot have a user name, avatar, signature or post images that are deliberately offensive. That includes the display of overly explicit or graphic images that may not be suitable for minors.

10. Signatures cannot be any larger then the site banner. Animation is okay, but it should not interfere with how long it takes a page to load. Please try to keep them no bigger then 250 pixels high X 800 pixels and 75k bytes. Hotlinked photos should not be any larger then 800 X 600 pixels.

11. You cannot embed sound or video within a post.

12. You are prohibited from taking any action to disturb the use of the services by others, distribute material that contains viruses, spyware or any other malicious code or harmful programs. This includes interfering with the working of the network, attempts to gain unauthorized access to a service or other computer systems that are part of the site or any other site, by use of the available services.

13. Discussion of moderation actions in the public forums is not permitted. Moderation actions include warnings, suspensions and the editing or deletion of posts. If a member has a concern about a moderation action, he or she is invited to address it with the board staff via Private Message. This rule exists to protect the privacy of all posters with regards to disciplinary action. The moderator team will never publically discuss the warnings/suspensions of any posters, and we ask that you return the favor, whether about yourself or another poster.

14. Do not ignore moderators or administrators. Do not repost something a moderator or administrator has deleted. You cannot have moderators or administrators on your ignore list.

15. Only post in English. Short passages in foreign languages may be acceptable if it's use seems helpful for the ongoing discussion and when there is no indication of a potential violation of the forum rules. Always provide a translation into English in such cases. In case of doubt, the incident will be regarded as a violation, no matter of the actual meaning of the foreign language text.

16. Please pay attention to the additions to the forum rules and board policies that will be found in the announcements forum from time to time.

The administrators and moderators reserve the right to edit and/or delete a post and/or close a thread and/or delete a thread at any time if he/she is of the opinion that the post is too obscene, inappropriate, or has simply run its course.


Consequences:

Failure to comply with any of the forum rules may result in your posts being edited or deleted and/or your account being temporarily or permanently banned from the forums.

U.S. Politics Online uses a warning system that generates an automated Private Message to members when they are in violation of forum rules. The decision to issue an alert or warning is left to the discretion of the moderator or administrator handling the violation. If a member does not agree with an action taken by a moderator he/she can appeal to an administrator after he/she has sought clarification from the moderator and appealed to him/her directly. Members MAY NOT harass a moderator or administrator by sending excessive PMs when they are discussing an appeal; doing so will not help your case and will most likely only speed up the process to have the violating member suspended or permanently banned.

Violations are assigned a point value. Points are valid for 30 days. A member will be automatically suspended for five (5) days when they earn 10 points. The duration of suspension times begin to double when points are awarded after the initial five (5) day suspension (10 days, 20 days, permanent ban). If you choose not to receive PMs from moderators or administrators and end up suspended, please, don’t let it be a surprise to you since you chose not to communicate with us.

Point values are as follows:
Zero (0) points - Alerts
Two (2) points - Off topic posts / spamming / discussing mod actions / other minor violations
Four (4) points - Baiting / implying an Insult / altering "quotes" (academic dishonesty) / other less major violations
Six (6) points - Direct insult at another member / ignoring a mod (or a mod decision) / other major vioalations

The administrators and moderators also bear the right to issue warnings, temporarily suspend or ban posters for continued trolling or other serious misconduct (e.g. professional spamming, violent threats or other attempted or actual intimidation, call for criminal conduct, etc.) even if the poster has not yet reached the maximum warning points or suspensions level.

Other options if the above consequences do not seem adequate include placing the member on the global ignore list or in a moderation queue. Global ignore list means that every post you ever posted will not be seen by other members here until you have been taken off of the global ignore list. Moderation queue means all your posts will have to be approved before they are posted to the board.


Privacy Policy:

All information obtained by the end user via the registration process is for internal purposes only and will not be sold to or shared with any third parties.

However, if the end user participates in illegal activities and a court of proper jurisdiction orders U.S. Politics Online to release certain information about said user then we will act according to the law. Furthermore, no information will be released on threat of a lawsuit, attempted or actual intimidation, or due to any other reason except as notated in the first sentence of this paragraph.

Nonetheless, keep in mind that the information we do have is very limited and generally only consists of the IP address a member uses.

Subscriptions:

U.S. Politics Online offers several subscription plans to help cover the operational costs of the site. As a thank you for your donation, you will receive special added benefits meant to enhance your U.S. Politics Online experience. Plans vary in price, starting at only $0.05/day, and benefits vary with the price. Benefits include ability to go straight to new posts, to search the forum, larger avatar, private forums, invisible mode, photo gallery, email, web hosting, and no advertisement banners. Please, click here for more details.