The HOUSE RULES for you to play by:
(Updated 7/12/2006)

Catchride’s forums, chat, blog, and gallery services are a privilege, not a right.
The site is not a public site, it is a private board that selectively reviews requests for membership. We may revoke your rights for any reason at all, at anytime, any day, and without any notice.  This Conditions of Service lists just a few rules of the site. It is not a complete list of all rules. Do not think for a second that doing something wrong is allowed simply because it isn’t mentioned in this document.
 
YOU MUST be over 13 years old to use these boards. This is the law. We do not check up on this information, but if proof comes to us that a certain member is under 13, they can’t post without parents written approval.
 
 
RULE #1: Don’t piss off the Moderators. This will result in disciplinary action (note: posters are welcome to have differing opinions from the moderators, but actively pursuing annoying or harmful actions toward the Mods or other members of the boards goes above and beyond simply disagreeing with them)

Below is a list of guidelines for basic behavior boundaries for users to follow (note that this list is just a guide to remain a member who can post in all forums here, moderators reserve the right to decide exactly what is and is not allowed):

  • Be polite! Don't be rude or abrasive. If you're pleasant to others, they'll be pleasant back. We all have disagreements now and again but "agree to disagree" in a civil manner.  Remember to be articulate and witty, we like that. Forget about being rude or annoying, we don't like that!  Also, offensive, illegal or mature-themed material is not allowed.
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    • Have fun...but not at the expense of others! We like to have fun; we enjoy a laugh and a joke as long as that's all it is. We don't like the ridiculing of fellow community members. If you keep clear of doing that, we'll keep clear of doing that to you.

    • Harassment is not allowed. The definition of harassment is defined by the Catchride Moderators, not the users. Light banter and heated debates are always allowed here.
  • Keep all your topics in the correct forum. -- horse debates in horse themed forums, and light, playful banter in the immature forum. Pictures may be posted in the PICTURE FORUM ONLY. If you post pictures in another forum, they may be selectively moved, locked, or made invisible.

  • Avatars and Signatures -- like you, we enjoy them and don't mind anyone having them, but try to keep them reasonable.  Huge pictures (either in pixel or byte size) can get really annoying, especially to those on dial-up.  Visit THIS LINK for a  visual guide of the maximum signature size allowed -- please note that this includes lines of text and/or images.  We'll ask you to change your sig if it's too big, if our request is ignored, your sig will be deleted.  Also do not post pornography or anything that will violate 'RULE #1.'
                                       
  • NO SPAM!!

    • We don't like it and we're sure you don't either. We're proud of our site and want it to be the best. We don't mind it if you're from a competing site but we don't like it if you spam your site here. So don't advertise your site on ours and we won't come and advertise our site on yours. We're also not at all keen on you posting and asking for people to visit your site and become members. We wouldn't do that to you so it's only right you don't do it to us.

    • Posting same topic on multiple forums, because you feel it might get more posts, is also considered spamming.

    • Posting frivolous posts in order to gain post counts for whatever reason is considered spamming.  Post counts accumulated in this manner will be reverted.

    • CLASSIFIED ADS ARE NEVER ALLOWED. Classified ads and spamming are one of the only things we are strict about, aside from 'RULE #1'.  If you post classified ads and spam the board with them, you WILL be suspended. Perhaps even you WILL be banned!
  • Free speech is very important to us. If you notice, we almost never ever edit a member's post or delete a post altogether. Actually, no posts are ever truly deleted, they are saved in an invisible archived forum incase they are needed in the future for some reason. We very rarely edit the content of a post, except to remove personal information. Moderators will edit out title lines of posts that are misspelled or misleading. Topics may be locked when they violate 'RULE #1'.

  • Our moderators are a fine bunch, but you might not always agree with them and they may not always agree with you.  If you happen to disagree with something one of them has done, or your topic or post has vanished or moved with no explanation, don't get all angry about it and begin posting rude messages. Instead, contact one of the Admins by PM or e-mail and explain your point of view. These things can generally be resolved pleasantly.

  • Sometimes, people might post an inappropriate topic or reply, or it may be in a place where a moderator hasn't noticed it. If you stumble across one of these, please use the Report Post to Moderator feature. You don't need to respond to the post saying it's in the wrong place or not really acceptable. Just report it and we'll deal with it.
  • Do not give your password out to anyone ever. Only one person is authorized to use each account. Failure to comply will result in your termination (on all accounts involved).
  • Alter Egos fall into a gray area. They are not allowed, but we do not actively enforce this rule. New members are usually screened sometime after they register. Generally, we let alter egos slide, as long as they don't violate Rule #1.  Alter egos are not allowed to set up Blogs and/or Gallery accounts.  Sometimes alter egos are restricted to the 'Naughty Member Group'. Be advised that what you do on an alter ego may result in complete suspension of all privileges to ALL ACCOUNTS ATTACHED.

  
FINALLY, we're a forgiving community. We realise that sometimes things can be said that aren't meant or are taken the wrong way. We also realise that sometimes people's emotions get the better of their judgement. We're not quite so forgiving of people who just seem to want to cause trouble. We will normally contact you at first and ask you to remember these guidelines. If the guidelines continue to be ignored, then a warning might be issued. And if you're a serial spammer or insist on causing problems, we have many ways of dealing with you.

Here is a list of what we may do (although not limited) to troublemakers:

  • We can totally ban your IP address, your e-mail server, and everything else. We can disallow you from even viewing the entire website.  Please note that by hiding behind proxies or disposable email addresses will not fool us.  We are a pretty tech savvy bunch here, and we are quite good at tracking the real identities behind proxies and free email accounts.  This is the reason we don't have any proxies blocked from our site, we are that confident.
  • We can restrict just your posting ability, and you can still use the PM system, Blogs, Gallery, and Chats.
  • We can place members in the 'Naughty Member' group if they don't follow RULE #1. This restricts you in several ways, one of which is that you may only post in the Immature Forum.
  • We can suspend you, which automatically disengage after a preset number of days or hours. This disallows you from viewing the boards and all services included. Our standard procedure is to suspend someone for 3 days or one day. Longer suspensions may be given as needed. Sometimes a 12 hour suspension is placed upon a member by a moderator until an administrator can review it. When you are banned for 12 hours only, expect to have that time period lengthened. If you are suspended, check your email account that you registered with, it will have mail.



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