GuitarTalk Community Rules
? The overriding rule of the community is: Be nice! ?
Always treat fellow members with respect and consideration. Bear in mind that this is a family community with no age restriction, so your words may be viewed by minors, persons with strong religious convictions or persons who are just plain "delicate souls". So we ask that you always be considerate of these when posting.
1. CONTENT RULES
We do not allow any user names, signatures, images, posts or messages which we interpret as:
a. containing bigoted, hateful or racially/sexually offensive statements, images or language that defames, abuses, harasses or threatens others;
b. having content which advocates illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them;
c. containing unauthorized copyrighted material, or links to such - e.g. software, audio files, tabulature, lyrics or any other material not listed here specifically;
d. having religious or political content;
e. explicitly advertising commercial products, manufacturers or their distributors, retail stores, commercial services or other web sites. Those wishing to advertise please see this link.
f. having URLs as user names - i.e. "yoursitename.com", "yoursitename.co.za" or "www.yoursitename" are not allowed, but "yoursitename" is.
g. containing banners or text links to affiliate advertising services, or any other method to capitalise on partaking in the community.
2. CYBERSTALKING
"Cyberstalking" will result in us encouraging the offended member to press charges and supply the authorities with any records neccessary to aid in any subsequent investigation or prosecution.
3. PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
a. If you have any affiliation with any individual or company that engages in the business of making, selling or repairing music gear, that offers services to musicians (including owning or working for such companies or being an endorser of their products), you must include your affiliation in your profile. No exceptions. The affiliation must take the form of "Affiliations: Company 1, Company 2, Brand 1, Brand 2", etc. ONLY. One company name may be hyperlinked to the company web site, but one only and no further advertising taglines or solicitous messages are allowed. Text style is to be kept standard colour and size (or smaller).
b. If you do have a professional affiliation with a product or manufacturer, you are expected to refrain from entering into discussion on or explicitly promoting those same products or services directly or commenting on any competing manufacturer, product or service.
4. MUSIC-RELATED COMPANIES
a. While advertising posts are not allowed, per rule 1.e above, you must use the "affiliation" discussed in rules 3a above, which also serves to mention your site, product or service in your signature. This means that each time you make a worthwhile post to the community, you will be promoting yourself and your business at the same time as adding to the value of this community. For those wishing to undertake more direct advertising, please see this link, or contact @NorioDS or @V8 for options.
b. You may not respond publicly or via PM (Private Message) to any public community post enquiring about your product, services or pricing. The exception is if a member PMs you directly, then you may respond by PM with details. Community members making public enquiries will be encouraged to PM you directly for details.
c. You may not enter into any discussion about your product. You may also not comment on a competing manufacturer, product or service, and especially not to devalue their reputation - please treat them as you would like them to treat you and your product or service.
d. If you are a retail outlet and have details of a sale, workshop or other worthwhile event you think will be of use to our members, please contact one of the administrators for clearance before posting details.
5. OTHER (NON-MUSIC RELATED) COMPANIES
Regular members may list their non music-related website in the space provided but may NOT link to it from their signature or place any other text in post or signatures to promote such. Accounts we judge to have been created with the express purpose of presenting links to promote other sites in this way will be deemed as link spam and the member will immediately be banned and their account deleted with no warning.
6. "CLASSIFIEDS" SECTION
a. The Classified ads section is for our Southern African members only.
b. Ad posts in the "Classifieds" section are only for secondhand goods, not new items.
c. Ads are also only for items which are being sold by individuals, not for retail outlets or traders for profit in secondhand goods. The one exception is for those individuals offering services (teachers, repairers, equipment hire, studios, etc.)
d. Please be aware that buying and selling items in the classifieds is at your own risk. Guitar Talk cannot be held in any way responsible for any unsatisfactory transactions you might have buying or selling items in the classifieds.
e. If you feel an ad misrepresents the item or in some way transgresses the community rules, please notify us and we will investigate and take any action.
7. VIDEO & AUDIO CLIPS
Only Junior members (100 posts or more) and above may post video and audio clips in the "Video" and "Clips for review" boards. Posting nothing but clips without otherwise taking part in the community is not allowed and such posts will be deleted without warning. Repeated posting of clips by "Newbie" members will result in a permanent ban.
8. MODERATION
a. Any moderation action taken, such as edited or deleted posts, is final. Moderators may choose to enter into discussion to clarify their reasoning for an action taken, but this is entirely at their own discretion.
b. Any discussion about matters pertaining to moderation to be carried out by PM (Personal Message) only, and not on the community itself. This applies to all discussion, whether the moderation applies to you directly or not. Enquiries should be addressed to one of the moderators.
c. If you are unsure about a post you want to make or other moderation matters please ask the moderators or administrators before posting.
FURTHERMORE:
We, the administrators, reserve the right to delete any topics or posts, including but not limited to those which we feel violate these rules. We also reserve the right to suspend or ban users who we feel have transgressed these rules seriously enough to warrant such.
DISCLAIMER
GuitarTalk.co.za (GuitarTalk) is a distributor of content supplied by third parties. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over such content. Any opinions, statements or other information in content available on or through the site are those of the respective author and are not necessarily the same as those of the owners and administrators of GuitarTalk.
Under no circumstances will the owners and administrators of GuitarTalk be liable for any loss or damage caused by content available on or through the community. It is the responsibility of users to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any content available on or through the community.
