Turtle Forum Posting Guidelines

[Frodo]

RULES:

• NO ADVERTISING OF ANY WEBSITES, SERVICES OR PRODUCTS IS ACCEPTABLE IN THE FORUMS.   Any posts in violation of the rules will be deleted with or without notice, and you may be warned, and or banned from the site.
  
  • Allowed exceptions:
    -You may include links to websites you wish to promote in your signature, so long as these are done in a simple and non-distracting manner.  Simple links, like those found in my own signature are a good example of how to accomplish this.
• NO PORNOGRAPHY OR LINKS TO PORNOGRAPHIC SITES IS ACCEPTABLE.

    * Only one account per person is permitted.
    * The Turtle Forum is about people, domain names in forum/login names are not allowed.
    * Keep all posts on-topic.
    * All posts must be in English.
    * Do not astroturf or pretend to be/represent somebody else. Your account will be deleted if found to be in breach of this rule.
    * Do not discuss illegal activities. Our server is hosted in the USA and so is subject to US law. Please do not expose us to any unnecessary legal liability.
    * Check that your question has not been answered anywhere else on the site. Use the search feature.
    * Post your comment/question to the most appropriate place. Any posts deemed to be in the wrong forum will be moved. Do not cross-post the same question to multiple places.
    * Make sure you have read the parent article/post completely before posting a reply
    * Use your own words. If you wish to use the words of somebody else, quote them, citing the source. Plagiarism is unethical and is illegal in many countries.
    * Choose an appropriate subject line. Try to summarize the problem briefly in the subject, and elaborate in the message itself. Repeat the subject in the body if it will make things clearer. Do not use all caps and do not add false information just to get attention (e.g. ;read this or you will be arrested;). An example of a bad subject would be "HELP ME". A good subject might be, "Ankle Pain - Need Help!". Do not use a URL as a thread title.
    * Include as much information as you can when seeking help. This may include logs and command line output. Nobody will be able to help you if you don't give sufficient detail.
       * No useless posts. This includes: Thread bumping, useless one liners, Flamewars, Trolling and Spamming.  What is spamming? Read this.
    * Thank those who help you. Acknowledgment of a helpful suggestion not only placates those who helped you, it may also help others with a similar problem. All those who have been helped on this forum are invited to help other users by responding to their questions when they know the answer and /or to consider donating to the project.
    * Do not link to any site that contains adult content, sexually oriented material or might otherwise be considered offensive. Any post containing an inappropriate link will be deleted and the poster will receive a warning.
    * Do not propose/link to any site that contains warez/copyrighted software/materials that can be downloaded illegally.

Signatures:

    * Must be setup in your Profile (link up the top right, next to WAP) , and not manually added to your messages.
    * May NOT contain any images.
    * May not contain any pricing, sales, product etc. details.
    * May contain a maximum of two smilies. Or one animated smiley.
    * May include two clickable links. URL's or mailto: - No duplicate links
    * Only exact URLs allowed ie not: LOOK HERE - No tinyurls etc either, only exact, literal URLs
    * May include two colors. Hyperlink color is set by the forum and is not counted as a color.
    * Maximum font size cannot be larger than normal.
    * Must be kept to a maximum of four lines (at 1024 resolution).
    * May not contain links to other threads or posts for the purpose of self promotion
    * Your signature is your signature. It is not for sale or rent.
    * Any signature or avatar that is offensive or insulting to either us, our members, or our staff, are prohibited.
    * We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature or avatar at any time, for any reason.


At all times:

    * Keep all commentary civil, and be courteous at all times. Constructive criticism is welcome, but insults directed towards other users or the site admins will not be tolerated. Coarse/insulting language will not be tolerated.
    * No commercial advertising is permitted.
    * Any posts deemed to be self promotion, advertising, or spam can and will be removed. NO SPAM - NO ADVERTISING eg. Posting and making excessive, inappropriate and unnecessary references to your products and websites is self promotion.
    * This is not the place to settle a commercial disagreement for custom development or to be a 'wall of shame'. Any posts deemed to be of this nature will be removed. Settle your disputes in private please.
    * If you feel a post violates any of these rules, or you need to bring it to the attention of a moderator (move threads/close/split), please use the ‘report to modertor’ link to notify the moderators.
    * These forums are centered on running, health and fitness, and running and health & fitness matters. They are not a place to promote ideological, religious, or political matters. All such discussions will be deleted/closed.

Failure to abide by these rules may result in an editing, negative moderation or deletion of your post. We reserve the right to ban abusers from the site. We reserve the right to change these rules at any time.

- Turtle Forum Mods

[Frodo]

Yes, English only in the forums, please.  And those who know me know that has nothing to do with anyone's political motives or thoughts.

I will be happy to add an International board if anyone wants to converse in another language.  However, our character sets currently will only support the English alphabet.  I don't want to deal with people complaining because they cannot write with foreign accent marks or proper letters.  Having studied six languages besides English, I know all too well that if words are not spelled properly, they can be wildly misinterpreted or even insulting.  Polish alone has three different ways to write an "s" and two to write an "L", "N", "O", to name a few.  Miss one, and instead of saying, "Please help me," you're really saying, "Pig, help me."