The SickthingsUK Message Board Rules and Guidelines - September 2005
(Adapted from the rules at http://www.black-sabbath.com written by Joe Spiegler).
In order to use with this Message Board, you must agree to and abide by the rules and policies detailed below. If you do not agree, please leave now. Please read these rules carefully - it might save you some headaches later.
First off, this is NOT an Official Web Site or Message Board for Alice Cooper. This is a fan based site and Message Board run by the SickthingsUK website.
Membership:
You must use a real and valid email address for registration purposes, as you will be sent a confirmation email containing a link to complete your registration. If you find you have registered but can`t post, nine times out of ten it is because you either haven't replied to the confirmation email or have tried to use a fake email address. Please check any spam filters/folders you may have before contacting a moderator to sort this out for you, and when contacting a moderator please use the email you registered with and include your chosen user name to help us locate where any problem may be.
Please note that your email address is not displayed to other users at any time; if you use the facility to allow them to send you email, it is all done anonymously. The administrators of this Message Board will not provide your email to anyone at any time, nor will we provide lost passwords or email accounts via request. Your details will NOT be passed to ANY third parties so you will not get any spam via this board.
By agreeing to these rules and registering for this Message Board, you agree that you, and you alone, are responsible for the content of your own posts. The owners and operators of the board are not responsible for what you post. You are.
The Rules:
1. Membership in the SickthingsUK Message Board is completely free and is open to anyone. As such please be aware that your messages are likely to be read by children as well as adults. Adult content, especially of an overt sexual nature, is not allowed and any post of that nature will be either edited or deleted at the discression of the moderators. Although the moderators will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this Message Board, it's impossible for us to spot everything immediately. Please help us keep things nice by using the "Report a post" function to alert the staff to a problem post and we will take care of it as soon as is possible.
2. You will follow any and all directions by the Message Board staff (administrator and moderators). The Message Board staff are the final arbiters of any disagreement you may have with another user in the context of posted discussions. Furthermore, if you have an issue with a decision made by the Message Board staff, you will bring it to their attention privately (either via a PM or an email) and will not discuss it in a public thread.
3. You agree, through your use of this message board, that you will not use it to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law. Message Board management holds the final say in what violates these conditions. Remember, it might not offend you, but it may offend someone else.
4. You agree not to post any advertising, URL's with affiliate id's or tracking numbers or anything else to "sell" items on these Message Boards (ie Spam). Any mailing to the Message Board members or any unsolicited spam e-mail will result in immediate suspension of your membership.
5. You agree not to use more than one registered Message Board account and not to represent yourself as another person, company or entity.
6. You agree not to post links to any officially released material. Nor will you advertise the sale of bootleg or pirate recordings on SickthingsUK. You can discuss the existance of said materials or ask about the availability ("does anyone have..?") but DO NOT publically offer to supply such materials, especially for money. Take it to private email/PM. Discussion on audio/video trading is permitted but you must not arrange trading deals on the message board.
7. This message board has ONE primary rule. Do NOT flame ANYONE.
This board does NOT allow personal attacks. Posting something to the SickthingsUK Message Board which personally attacks another Message Board member, a band member or band associate, or contains profanity or any type of racial or ethnic slur may result in some crcumstances with immediate suspension of your user account. The moderators reserves the right to determine WHAT is considered objectionable.
If you have a problem with what someone has posted click the "report this post to a moderator" button. A moderator will look at the post as soon as they can and if they agree with you, the offending post will simply be deleted (and any posts quoting the flame will also be deleted), or they will reply to show they have looked at it. That will be the end of it. In some situations the original poster will ALSO receive a warning box. 5 such warnings result in a ban (see below).
If the post is not deleted you are free to reply to it but keep in mind the same situation will exist for YOUR reply.
This will obviously mean that various members at various times will be pissed off at the moderators for deleting a post they thought was fine. Sorry but it's just an attempt to stop a flame war growing post after post. If the post is deleted, you have no need to reply to it, and so the argument can't escalate. If it does the thread will simply be locked or deleted.
Also remember that changing your post AFTER you post it does not mean people haven't seen it. So think first, post second and make sure you aren't attacking other members of the board or simply being rude. Changing your post after the fact is not acceptable and will not avoid you getting warning boxes. The edit button is for you to correct your post if needed, not to change it completely. Before you post a message, it is suggested you use the "preview Post" button and re-read what you have written to make corrections BEFORE you post it to the board.
I WILL be on the look out for the same person/people repeatedly complaining about someone in what I feel is an unjust way, and will also look at how many people are complaining about the complainer. So if you don`t want to get any warnings or risk a ban, just be nice!!
The administrator and moderators of the SickthingsUK Message Board reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason, and reserve the right to remove access to any user at any time without cause or explanation. Access and use of this message board is a privilege, not a right. This board is provided free of charge for Alice Cooper fans to hang out, chat and have fun. If it isn`t fun, the board will simply be closed.
Here are a few other smaller issues/points that are worth mentioning:
1. The fact that someone disagrees with you does not mean that (1) the person hates you, (2) the person thinks you're stupid, (3) the person is stupid, (4) the person is evil, etc. There are many things you can falsely infer from the fact that someone disagrees with you, especially on an international board like this. People often express themselves in differing ways, and use language in different ways, so don`t automatically read the worst into a post.
2. It is normally best to avoid some "hot topics" like religion, politics etc. We're here to discuss Alice Cooper and related matters. If you want to discuss those things there's plenty of places elsewhere for that. This isn`t really the place for those topics. This doesn`t prevent chat about current events in the OFF TOPIC Message Board. However if such a topic starts to become too heated through opposing views the moderators WILL close it or delete it.
3. Signiture images and posting images in messages are not allowed on this board and members are asked to keep any animated avatars to a reasonably small size. Also no excessively long signatures please. One line is normally enough. A couple of lines at most. You can include the URL address of your own site in any signiture files if you wish as long as said URL doesn`t lead to adult or illegal material.
4. Don't try and impersonate, or even take the username of band members, associates or other board members. That's not cool and could result in your membership simply being terminated. Many band member names are actually reserved for the REAL person of that name but it's impossible to cover every possible variation so be original and pick your own username! Just because you don't see them does NOT mean that band members, both old and current don't visit the board. In fact many band associates and management are on the board, so bare that in mind when you post about them!
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Despite all the above rules, this is designed to be a fun place. The reason there are rules is that quite honestly there's a lot of people out there whose sole purpose is to disrupt Message Boards and act like an idiot (often called "Trolls"). There are too many people who cause too many problems online, and unfortunately rules are here for a reason. They are here to try and foster a pleasent atmosphere, one that isn't trashed by folks who think it's FuNnY tO TyPe LiKe ThIS, and think that seeing the word f**k on a computer screen is amusing.
The rules are here to make this a good place. So hang out, get to know people, enjoy yourself in the company of fellow fans, and chances are you`ll never have a reason to worry about any of these rules the same as 99% of the other members that use the board.
Comments on the rules should be sent PRIVATELY to the site owner or a moderator please. We will be constantly looking to improve them, or reword them if needed to make a clear concise document and comments are welcome privately.
Si Halley
SickthingsUK Owner
September 2005 [Minor Update August 2011)
READ THIS FIRST - Board Rules and Guidelines
Moderators: Devon, Gorehound, Si, SickThings, Shoesalesman