| What are the OGF Forum Rules? |
Ohio Game Fishing Membership Terms of Service (aka Forum Rules/TOS)
You agree, by registering with the Ohio Game Fishing forums, and (or) through your use of the Ohio Game Fishing forums, that you will not use this message board to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, race discrimination, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law.
General Forum Rules
OGF and its staff reserve the right to alter, modify or change these Terms of Service at any time.
Posting of external web site addresses: Are allowed provided they are not for advertising purposes (financial and/or bulk traffic), and must be pre-approved by OGF staff. This includes other fishing websites. Content on external websites must not be offensive, abusive, and/or adult oriented.
Email Addresses: You MUST provide a valid email address that you have been assigned by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) at time of registration in order to use our forums. Please remember, you email information is secure, and OGF never sells or distributes our membership email list.
Private Messages: As OGF respects the privacy of our members, we expect our members respect each other's privacy as well. The content of private messages should never be posted publicly, on OGF or external sites. Violation of this will result in immediate account suspension for 30 days.
Content: All posts (and their contents), pictures, messages remain the property of OGF unless copywritten elsewhere. Duplication of these is not permitted without permission.
Avatars: Custom avatars may be used, however they will be subject to OGF Staff approval, and can be removed if they are deemed offensive or disruptive to the forums.
Signatures: Members may use signatures in their posts, however they are to adhere to the same standards as avatars, posts, and pictures as outlined in this Terms of Service. All graphics in personal signatures are limited to (1) graphic not to exceed 200 pixels x 80 pixels, and no larger than 15K in total filesize. Signatures may contain ONE HYPERLINK to an external website, provided the content of the site isn't offensive, abusive, and/or adult oriented. The link used must be in the default color and font size, with no verbage before or after the link. For example, a link to "www.ohiogamefishing.com" is acceptable, however "goto www.ohiogamefishing.com" is not.
Posting Pictures: Picture posting is encouraged at Ohio Game Fishing, both in our forums and member galleries. Pictures must adhere to the same standards as avatars, posts, and signatures as outlined in this Terms of Service.
Usernames: Only 1 handle per person on Ohio Game Fishing forums will be permitted. Any violation of this term will have all of an individual's handles immediately and permanently banned. Usernames must adhere to the same standards as avatars, and posts as outlines in this Terms of Service.
Software: Pirating of software, posting of warez related sites, or .MP3's will NOT be tolerated. Any breach of these terms will immediately call for a permanent ban of the offender from the Ohio Game Fishing Forums.
Conduct: No obscenities, personal attacks, character assassination, etc. will be tolerated. Bad-Mouthing, slander, or obscene words of other Internet websites will not be permitted. Any posts of this nature will be removed immediately. Posts with the sole intention of causing problems on the forums, will not be tolerated.
Political and Religious Posts: Historically, OGF prohibits all political/religious posts. That policy remains, however if the subject directly effects sportsmen's rights or issues, posts will be allowed provided they don't evolve into non sportsmen's topics.
Advertising: Will not be permitted on Ohio Game Fishing forums, unless pre-approved by OGF staff. Any unapproved posts of this nature will be removed immediately. Chain letters, pyramid schemes, solicitation, and other similar activities are considered inappropriate use of this message board. Advertising of tournament trials, tournament results, fishing get-togethers, will be permitted as long as 1.) They abide by these terms of service, and 2.) They are for non-profit motives. Charities and Fundraisers will also be permitted as long as they are fishing related.
Ohio Game Fishing reserves the right to remove any post(s), avatars, pictures, and signatures without notice. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages. All posts, pictures, and user content on the Ohio Game Fishing website remain property of Ohio Game Fishing, and using or altering them without permission is a direct violation of these Terms of Service.
We don't intend to censor messages based on the opinions expressed within those posts, but we will enforce the policies outlined both here and within the Forum. If you have any questions, please contact the administration staff of Ohio Game Fishing.
Members who have been using the Internet for any length of time have seen other message boards shut down completely because of inappropriate and uncontrolled behavior by users. This will not be the case with the Ohio Game Fishing Forums. When/if disruptive non-productive thread(s) are initiated, it is best to ignore them (as difficult as that might seem) and not engage in conversation (either publicly on the forum or privately via e-mail or PM) with the offender. More often than not the initiator(s) of such thread(s) is not interested in dialogue but rather simply in disrupting the message board and detracting from the usefulness and purpose of the Ohio Game Fishing forums. Do not add fuel to their misguided fire. It is far more intelligent and productive to report this person to us privately so that we can investigate further and take the appropriate action.
How we moderate posts
Considering the amount of posts our forums get, our intervention is on a very small scale. However, if a post does require our attention, we prefer to work the issue out with the poster(s) before taking other action. If it requires further attention, we then will try to lock or close the post, to prevent the problem from escalating. In extreme cases (such as improper language) we may even delete the post, with a PM sent to the poster giving them an opportunity to correct the problem. Deleting posts is always a last resort, but sometimes is necessary.
Offenders will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, which might include a warning, or might not, depending on the severity of the infraction. Please be advised that if you were banned due to inappropriate behavior, you will not be allowed access to the forum again. We have a zero tolerance policy towards misconduct on this forum. Typically, a 3-strike policy will be incurred with Ohio Game Fishing forums. 1st offense: warning. 2nd offense: warning and 1 month suspension. 3rd offense: permanent ban from Ohio Game Fishing Forums. In extreme cases, the 3-Strike policy may not apply, and we reserve the right to remove a member immediately under those circumstances. The management of OGF retains the right, at their sole discretion, to exclude anyone from membership, or re-instate membership at any time.
These rules are in place to provide fellow anglers with an enjoyable atmosphere where we can discuss our favorite pastime: The Great Outdoors!
We welcome your feedback! The only way we can make this community a better place to become part of is by incorporating YOUR ideas within this website and forums. Feel free to contact us with your ideas, requests, etc. You WILL receive a response regardless of the topic of the questions.
All we ask is for you to please use this message board responsibly.
Thank You!
The OGF Development Team |
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