Community and Forum Rules; please read before posting

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Community rules

These basic rules are intended to clarify the various responsibilities of all community members here on SoS PondLIfe. They have been compiled by the SoS PondLife Team and should be adhered to by everyone. Please address any questions on these rules or how to use PondLife forum to the SoS PondLife team.

Forum rules:

• Post with respect toward others. This site is aimed at a general audience, please be considerate of this.
• Please do not link to any material that does not respect copyright. No support will be provided to such sites.
• Please don't post on this site recruiting for personal projects or offer services outside of our For Sale or Giveaways forum. We consider this to be spam.
• Report any posts you feel contradict our policies by using the "post report" feature and the SoS PondLife team will handle them as needed. Please do not reply to these posts yourself.
• Please, no political discussions as they tend to be divisive and SoSPondLife should be a place of friends.

Ponding support:

• SoS PondLife is a group comprised of sharing and caring pond lovers, of all makes and models. We are experts only in the context of our own experiences, please bear this in mind. All support is on a volunteer basis and should be a labor of love, with a positive experience the goal. If we cannot help, we will endeavor to suggest an avenue for solution.
• Although we are happy to help if possible, problems with commercial projects is basically beyond our scope, but we’ll try to find a basis for improving your situation with the well being of the affected wildlife of top concern.
• Community support is offered on the board and on private message at the discretion of each member.
• The ability of edit and/ or delete a post is limited to 60 minutes.
• As SoS PondLife is an open community, all staff and community members are volunteering their time to support you. Please consider this before posting.
• At SoS, we value the interactions and relationships that ensue as much as helping solve problems for those that need them. As such, the lines of decorum are sometimes allowed to bend!
Linking offsite
• Linking to your own site or another in a support context is acceptable. It is also fine to link to your own site in your signature or website profile.
• General linking within posts to other sites is not necessary. Promotion of non-ponding and commercial or retail ponding sites, and other material unrelated to a pond support context is not permitted.
• Promoting your own site without a support related context is not permitted. Users wishing to advertise on SoS should contact the SoS PondLife admin for information.

Signature and Avatar rules

• Avatars should be no larger than 90x90 pixels and can contain animation if file size is under 6kb. All images should remember this is a family oriented site and be appropriate. Any avatar or signature that does not adhere will be deleted and the member given one warning. A second will include forfeiture of membership.
• Signatures may contain up to four lines of normal sized text OR can include an image that is no more than 100px high, 800px wide in size with three lines of small sized text. The font size of signatures should be normal or small only.
• Links in signatures are limited to a maximum of 3 links.

Moderating policies

• All rules apply to forum posts as well as private messages and cover all SoS PondLife forum.
• The SoS PondLife Team is responsible for the interpretation and enforcement of these rules. Warnings and bans or placement on the moderation queue will be utilized as necessary to run the site smoothly.
• Attempts to evade bans or moderation queue will result in further discipline. If you feel you have been treated unfairly by a team member, please contact the relevant team leader.