These are the terms of use that you as a member of BSLC Online agree to uphold:
Play Nice
The Boise Sustainable Living Community Online (hereafter referred to additionally as “BSLC Online” or “the Boise Sustainable Living Community”) serves an online community of parents, families, and individuals considering, learning about and working toward a more sustainable lifestyle in the Boise and Treasure Valley region of Idaho.
All users are required to follow the user agreement. User agreements are not intended to be burdensome and are ubiquitous among online communities at large. These guidelines serve to support our community in maintaining positive interaction.
Our discussions concern the real world of sustainable living and are, first and foremost, for support, information, and community. BSLC Online invites you to read and participate in the discussions. In doing so we ask that you agree to respect and uphold the integrity of this community. Through your direct or indirect participation here you agree to make a personal effort to maintain a comfortable and respectful atmosphere for our guests and members. We want to promote a clean, healthy, respectful atmosphere where people are not afraid to ask questions, participate in this community, and have a good time discussing the topic we’re all here for - sustainable living.
General Guidelines
The following posting guidelines are here to help you (and others) have an enjoyable experience:
There are going to be topics and discussions that will have heated debates. Please think before you post and re-read what you type before you post it. Keep your comments limited to the debate at hand and not make this a personal issue between you and another reader. There is tremendous diversity in our members and there will be a lot of varying opinions on different subjects. We're all human and we're all drawn to this site because we have a common interest in living sustainably.
Respect both forum moderators and administrators. It is a thankless job that we do, and cleaning up other people's messes is never fun.
No SHOUTING. Don't use all caps when posting. It is difficult to read and annoying.
Try to post to the forum that is most appropriate for the topic being presented.
No cross-posting. (This is posting the same topic in more than one forum)
Refrain from using profanity or cr3ative spell1ng to get around the censor filters. Posts that circumvent the censor may be removed.
Respect the privacy of other members and individuals. Do not post personal information about them (i.e. addresses, phone numbers, passwords, etc.)
Observe all copyright laws when posting copyrighted material.
Do not post messages that violate Federal, State, or Local laws which include, but are not limited to, anything that violates a copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or is bound by NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement).
The BIG Rules
Do not post in a disrespectful, defamatory, adversarial, baiting, harassing, offensive, insultingly sarcastic or otherwise improper manner, toward a member or other individual, including casting of suspicion upon a person, invasion of privacy, humiliation, demeaning criticism, name-calling, personal attack, or in any way which violates the law.
Do not post profane or sexually explicit text.
Do not post copyrighted material without permission. See copyright guidelines below.
Do not post to advertise your product or business. Acceptable advertising is available on the boards. Information may be obtained by contacting the administrators for banner ads. Advertising in signatures and in discussion board threads is strictly prohibited. Members may not use their buiness or product names as a username.
No flaming of other members to incite or perpetuate a conflict or argument. ANY personal attacks or name calling will get you banned.
No bombing forums or threads with pointless posts.
No linking or posting of pornographic or objectionable/inappropriate material.
Do not impersonate other individuals or falsely represent yourself.
Do not discuss, suggest, engage, or encourage any illegal activity on the forums. Linking to locations that deal with any such activity is also forbidden.
Posting under a secondary username for the purpose of arguing, degrading, or belittling other members is grounds for losing both your primary account and your secondary account.
You must have a valid e-mail account in your profile. This has been done to prevent and safeguard BSLC Online from random attacks and people looking to cause problems and spam these forums. BSLC Online does *NOT* sell or distribute your email address to any third parties. The option to have your email address visible in your posts on these forums is controlled and determined by settings in your profile which you control.
A forum like BSLC Online is not the place to post personal problems, questions about personal relationships, etc. These types of posts will be removed.
No BSLC Online-related user names are permitted by non-staff members and will be deleted or changed with or without notice.
Do not use a Private Message (PM) or email to deliver advertisements or business/product information and offers to our members without first having been asked for such information by them. This would be regarded as spam and may result in suspension or being banned.
Do not post to invite BSLC Online members to other boards for adversarial purposes or post inflammatory information about BSLC Online discussions at other boards, or about communities and discussions elsewhere, regardless of whether or not you link to that discussion or community. This is to maintain and respect the integrity of our own and other communities.
Do not post to debate or challenge the BSLC Online User Agreement, the moderators, administrators, or their actions. Constructive criticism and questions for purposes of clarification are best addressed directly to the moderator or administrator by private message or personal e-mail. If this is not successful, see Recourse below.
Do not start a thread to discuss member behavior or statements of members made in other threads or to criticize another discussion on the boards. Do not post to a thread to take direct issue with a member. If you feel a member has posted or behaved inappropriately in a discussion, communicate directly with the member, moderator or administrator privately and refrain from potentially defaming discussion in a thread.
Follow the rules and guidelines specific to individual forums. These will be posted at the top of the forum.
Posts are an integral part of the discussion threads of BSLC Online and you may not delete your posts. Though you are free to edit your posts, we do not allow members to delete large numbers of their posts.
BSLC Online reserves the right to change this User Agreement as necessary to meet any future needs that may arise. It is our customary procedure to submit revised rules and guidelines to the membership for a 30-day comment period prior to adoption.
Copyright Guidelines
Part of our responsibility in administrating and moderating BSLC Online is to assure that the posts made to our boards by our members do not violate copyright law.
Please refrain from posting:
Private emails and Private Messages (PMs)
Messages from other discussion boards
Articles without permission to reproduce
You may post:
A link directing readers to a discussion or article
100 words or less from an article as long as those 100 words are not a substantial part of the piece. If you are quoting from a short work such as a poem or a short article then 100 words may not be an acceptable fair use allowance. You should restrict yourself to a minimal quote from the piece. Anything more requires permission to print/reproduce in writing from the copyright holder and placed within your post.
Any posts that do not adhere to these guidelines will be deleted by the moderator or administrator.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter.
Violations of the User Agreement
Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by email or private message. We will make every effort to remove objectionable messages within a reasonable time frame, if we determine removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. If you feel another member is behaving in a manner that is in violation of these rules, do not take matters into your own hands. Let us try to resolve the situation. Simply alert the moderator of the forum or the Board Administrator.
Upon finding a post in violation of this User Agreement, a moderator will lock the thread as a preventative measure, or remove it from the public forum, posting a note of temporary closure - "This thread has been temporarily locked/removed due to a user agreement violation. The thread will be reviewed and if possible the violations will be addressed and the thread returned for discussion.
The moderator will then alert the member who violated this User Agreement by PM and will ask the member to reword the post
Should the violation be a severe one or the member be unwilling to reword the post, the moderator may elect to remove the contents of the post and issue an Alert.
Once a violation in a thread has been addressed and returned for discussion, the moderator will warn the thread that further violations within the thread could result in closure and /or removal.
In the event of another violation, the moderator will PM the member(s), notify the thread of closure and close the thread.
The moderator will inform the administrator of the incident.
Alerts are issued by a moderator. Warnings are issued by an administrator. Three alerts equal a warning. Three warnings result in a suspension for one month. Suspension may be from a specific forum or all of the BSLC Online website. Two suspensions may result in removal of membership. Based on the severity of the violation or the number of previous violations by a member, the Administrator may issue a warning, suspension or ban.
We reserve the right to delete any message or to remove the registration and membership of any individual at any time.
Recourse
If you object to a board policy, an alert, warning, ban or suspension:
Email or discuss the situation with the moderator.
Email or discuss the situation with the board administrator.
- Submit a request for review to the BSLC Online Administration. The request will addressed at the monthly BSLC Online meeting or, if of a timely nature, will be brought before a group of members for review.
Disclaimer
Considering the real-time nature of this bulletin board, it is impossible for BSLC Online to review all messages or confirm the validity of information posted. Please remember that BSLC Online may not actively monitor the contents of posted messages and are not responsible for any messages posted. BSLC Online does not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and is not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of BSLC Online or any entity associated with BSLC Online.
As a member you remain solely responsible for the content of your messages and behavior, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Boise Sustainable Living Community, SMF and their agents with respect to any claim based upon messages. Please be cautious in posting information of a personal nature or anything that might create legal concerns for you or others.
Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement. We reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of legal action arising from any information and/or message posted by you.
Also note that the software places a cookie, a text file containing bits of information, in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out. The software does not collect or send any other form of information to your computer.
