Read the forum Guidelines

[+yiannisp]

Το παρακάτω κείμενο μπορείτε να το βρείτε και στο αντίστοιχο link στο πάνω αριστερό μέρος της σελίδας του forum.

Δεν είναι κακό να το ρίχνουμε που και που μια ματιά....

 

The goal of the Groundspeak Forum is to promote the activity of geocaching and GPS usage. It is an open forum sponsored by Groundspeak Inc. for discussing all aspects of geocaching, Waymarking, Wherigo™, benchmark hunting, GPS usage and other Groundspeak-related GPS gaming. It is a friendly social network for GPS enthusiasts around the world.

 

The forum guidelines for posting are important and should be read and accepted before you choose to participate. Groundspeak and the global geocaching community encourage contributors who are courteous, polite and respectful. We discourage those who choose to behave in a disrespectful and/or irresponsible manner. Groundspeak, its staff and volunteer moderators will take appropriate steps to ensure discussions adhere to these guidelines.

 

In general, we will leave it to you, the community, to manage your own conduct. We ask that you treat other forum participants with respect. Please remember that this is a public venue read by many people of all ages, from around the world, spanning all walks of life.

 

If you have any questions regarding the appropriateness of a forum discussion post, you may discuss that with the author of the post. Cite the appropriate portion of the guidelines if necessary. You may also use the ‘report’ icon found at the bottom of that post. This alerts a Groundspeak Forum moderator to look into that topic.

 

Forum moderators are generous volunteers that give up their time to help build a better community. Occasionally, our forum moderators will need to use their discretion to determine the best course of action. Groundspeak has entrusted these volunteers to do what is best for the global community, including regional communities, when appropriate. Volunteers assist with focusing topics of discussion and will gently enforce guidelines, as needed. They can edit/delete posts, move, close or delete topics, and temporarily moderate users’ posts. Our moderators are equipped with Kevlar flak jackets and an unlimited supply of admin bricks. Do not attempt to engage them in direct combat.

 

Discussion forums are moderated to preserve the spirit of an open, interactive discussion without offending participants. Please understand that we are not attempting to censor any messages or opinions. We (Groundspeak, Groundspeak’s staff, and the volunteer moderators) reserve the right to edit/remove inappropriate messages, or to lock a discussion thread. Before taking any of these actions, a moderator will attempt to steer the discussion back to the topic, if this is possible and appropriate. The additional step of editing or deleting a post will only be taken in appropriate circumstances. Again, the intent is not to censor legitimate discussion or to change the meaning of any post. If we edit your post and you do not like the changes, notify us and we can delete your post. Examples of posts that may be edited or deleted include those containing profanity, chain letters and other spam postings, those disclosing the tracking number codes for Groundspeak trackable items or those that reveal private information about another community member. Other examples are included below.

 

Here are some things to keep in mind when posting:

 

1. Forum courtesy: Please treat Groundspeak, its employees, volunteers, fellow community members, and guests on these boards with courtesy and respect. Whether a community member has one post or 5,000 posts, they should be treated fairly.

 

2. Foul language and obscene images will not be tolerated. This site is family-friendly. All forum posts must conform to a family-friendly standard and contributors must act accordingly.

 

3. Personal attacks and inflammatory behavior will not be tolerated. If you want to praise or criticize, give examples as to why it is good or bad. General attacks on a person or idea will not be tolerated.

 

4. Sock puppet accounts are not permitted. A sock puppet is an account made on an internet message board by a person who already has an account for the purpose of posting anonymously. Use your own account for posting personal opinions. Posts from known sock puppet accounts may be deleted and both the puppet and actual account may be banned from using the services of Groundspeak.

 

5. Keep on topic: Responses to a particular thread should be on-topic and pertain to the discussion. Users should use the New Topic button to start a new discussion which would otherwise be off-topic in the current thread. Threads that veer off topic may be closed by a moderator.

 

6. Private discussions: Sometimes, a discussion thread strays off into a friendly dialogue or a heated debate among a very small number of users. For these exchanges, we ask that you please use the Private Message feature that is provided through the Groundspeak forums, or the Geocaching.com e-mail system. Public forum posts should be reserved for matters of interest to the general geocaching community.

 

7. Spam: Posting the same message, or an unsolicited commercial message, to one or many topics or boards is considered spam. Duplicate messages may be deleted or consolidated by our moderators. Please do your best to post new topics to the appropriate forum board. Moderators can take action when a thread should be moved to a more appropriate section.

 

8. Commerciality and postings with a larger agenda: It is Groundspeak's desire to maintain forums for the purpose of promoting the activity of geocaching and GPS usage. As a result, we intend to limit forum discussions that promote a commercial, social, political or charitable agenda insofar as the agenda does not reasonably relate to the activity of geocaching and GPS usage. Therefore, threads or posts perceived to have been made with the intent of promoting any of the above agendas will not be permitted. Please note that our Volunteer Forum Moderators are authorized to exercise their discretion in providing some reasonable latitude for forum discussion postings relating to local events and issues in local discussion forums. Notwithstanding the above, Groundspeak reserves the right to include or permit the inclusion of limited commercial content in this forum, in its sole discretion.

 

9. We generally do not allow surveys to be conducted using this forum.

 

10. Personal classified advertising is permitted in the ‘GPS Garage Sale’ forum and, per Geocoin Forum Guidelines, in the Geocoin Discussions forum. Please note that Groundspeak is not involved in any related transactions.

 

11. Any messages you post in these discussion forums will remain available to the public for as long as this discussion board is online. Once you have posted your message, it will stay online. Please post carefully and with due consideration to the content of your post. We will not edit the content you wrote unless it does not conform to the forum guidelines. In the unlikely even that we do edit your post and you do not like the changes, we can delete the message at your request.

 

12. If someone has posted copyrighted material or otherwise illegal material, please notify Groundspeak so that we may take appropriate action.

 

13. Abuse of this forum will be not be tolerated.

 

Contact Us: Our main email address is: contact@geocaching.com

Comments specifically about the staff or one of the volunteers can be sent to: appeals@geocaching.com

 

Additional Terms: The Groundspeak Forums are further governed by the GEOCACHING.COM SITE TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT, the terms of which are hereby incorporated into these guidelines by reference. The Terms of Use Agreement may be found here: http://www.geocaching.com/about/termsofuse.aspx

Edited May 14, 2010 by yiannisp