Forum Rules

Why these rules?

There aren't many rules on this forum - we like it to be an easy going place and like to avoid all the crazy restrictions that other forums place on people, but everyone needs to work together to achieve that.

Moderation here isn't normally strict (apart from removing spammers) but this easy going attitude relies on members being responsible for their own posts. It has worked so far and will hopefully continue to work while members follow the rules below:

General conduct

Be nice to everyone else on the forum especially new members. New members are important to the forum - they might stick around and contribute a lot in the future. If a new member asks something that has been asked a thousand times before then you might gently point them towards a thread that will answer their question. Better still why not answer the question yourself. You can use the stuff from the previous thread and look really smart. I do that all the time.

Flaming other members is not allowed here at all. If someone upsets you on the forum let a moderator know or use the report post function and let someone who is impartial sort the problem out.

Stick to safe topics

Please avoid religion, politics, criminal justice, or any non-welding related topic that is going to get members annoyed. Fight that out elsewhere - we'll not solve the world's issues in a welding forum.

Intolerance

This forum welcomes members of any skin colour, religion, race, sexuality, location or whatever. This is a welding forum and intolerance has absolutely no place on here. Please report any intolerant members so we can deal with them. Every post has a triangular icon with an exclamation mark to the top right. Use that to report posts that are not helpful. Don't reply to them - that just encourages them and makes a mess on the forum.

Winding up other members (trolling)

Don't do it on any account. If it looks like you are deliberately trying to wind people up you'll quickly end up on the naughty step.

Family friendly

All sorts of people are interested in welding and it's good not to exclude them. Please avoid 'adult content'. Also do not post or link to anything illegal, racial intolerant, or anything concerning violence, drugs, hacking, porn etc.

No advertising

Advertising is not allowed on the forum.

Copyright (Images and Text)

Do not post images that do not belong to you. Any photo not taken by yourself, or any text not originally written by yourself will be automatically copyrighted by another person. Also please do not use the forum to distribute any other material that might be copyrighted by others. You must seek the copyright owner's permission before reproducing their work otherwise this website will be in breach of their copyright.

Original text and images (content) that you add to the forum or other parts of this website remain your copyright, but by agreeing to the forum rules on registration you grant a licence for this website to display that content for an unlimited time. Moderators will be happy to remove anything you no longer want to remain on the forum.

Libel, and Naming and Shaming Companies

We do not allow naming and shaming, libel or slander on the forum. You may well have had a bad experience with a company, but as soon as you post about it on here about it you'll get a mass of people jumping in and upping the ante with every post. We always end up Libel by the second page.

This forum would likely be closed in the event of a court case. We cannot tolerate any form of naming and shaming even if the opening post seems reasonable.

Language

This is an English speaking forum so please post in English. Use the private message system if you want to talk to a member in another language. English is a second language for many forum members so please do not use abbreviated English of the type used in mobile phone text messaging. Please make an effort to spell correctly for the same reason.

Complaints

If anyone does have complaints about the information contained on the web site or the forum then contacting me is the best way to sort them out.

Respect Moderators

Please respect the wishes of moderators or admin. Moderating is not an easy job, so please don't make it worse by challenging moderators decisions. Accept and move on. If you do have a complaint about moderation please first calm down then politely private message the moderator concerned or politely private message the admin. There's probably a misunderstanding involved that can be sorted without argument.

Agreeing to the rules

A condition of using the forum is that you abide by the forum rules. We reserve the right to ban anyone who wilfully violates the forum rules, as access to our forums is a privilege and not a right.

The rules can change

The forum rules do evolve over time. Do check back every now and again for the latest version.