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Community Rules

 

Community Rules

Participation in the World Smart City Forum community constitutes agreement to the following guidelines, which apply to posts, profile information, avatars, signatures, any other content on this site and participation in general. This includes private messages, which we have the ability to read, but only do so when a violation is reported to us or we have a legitimate reason. Although rare, it does happen.

Because of the live nature of the discussions on this community, it is not possible for us to review and/or confirm the accuracy or validity of a message before it is posted. If you believe that someone has violated our Community Rules or you have spotted content that may otherwise require attention, please contact us with a link to the content and a brief description of what you believe is wrong. Notification is voluntary and anonymous, but in no case should a user respond to a situation personally, thereby aggravating the situation further. Responding to a violation in an inflammatory manner is a violation in itself and will result in appropriate action.

Any content that violates our Community Rules will be removed. Interpretation of our guidelines is at the discretion of the community administrators.

  1. Cross posting is not allowed and will result in the removal of one or more posts. Cross posting is defined as posting the same information in two or more locations. When posting your topic, please try to post it in the most appropriate place within the organizational structure of our community. Identical topics posted in the same or different forums will be removed.
  1. While member post count has meaning, it should not be taken too seriously. Attempts to artificially increase your post count are prohibited. This includes the mass creation of short or meaningless posts. When participating in game threads such as “Word Association Game” or “What song are you listening to right now?” please do not post consecutive replies within a short period of time.
  1. Advertisements are not allowed. Generally speaking, posts made specifically for the promotion of a website, product or service are considered advertising. Posts that send people to a website that you are in some way affiliated with are also considered advertising. It does not matter if it is a commercial website, a personal website, a non-profit website, etc. For repeat offenders membership is revoked.

All signature links must be kept in your signature in your profile. Anyone found to be posting excessive links to their websites or suspected of using “sneaky” advertising methods is in violation of this guideline. You may only post a link to your site/a site that you are in some way affiliated with if the link specifically answers the question that is being asked and the answer cannot be simply posted without the link. If you are found to be excessively posting links to your site (or you appear to be seeking out threads where your link may be relevant, so that you can post it), you may lose the ability to post links.

  1. You are not allowed to post an affiliate URL that will result in you earning cash, banner impressions, credits, points, etc. Such links are only allowed in signatures and profiles, but may not be referred to in posts.
  1. Do not post personal, real-life information such as home addresses and home phone numbers. This is to protect your own safety and privacy.
  1. As this is an English-speaking community, we require that posted content be in the English language, so that it can be well received and properly monitored. Posts in any other language will be deleted.
  1. Vulgar language and inappropriate material is not allowed and will be removed. Abbreviations, self-censoring, and attempts to circumvent the word censoring feature of the community software also violate this guideline. If your post contains a word that is censored by the software, you must remove that word or the post will be removed. If you feel that the censor is acting in error, please contact us.

We try to maintain a family and gender friendly atmosphere within the subject matter of this community. Please keep this in mind when participating.

  1. When linking to outside websites, you must ensure that the content of the link is appropriate for our community, in line with the guidelines laid out here. This includes mentioning or referencing a site, even if the mention is not hyperlinked. If you post a link and that link is automatically censored, it is considered to be an inappropriate link and you should remove it from your post immediately. All posts that feature inappropriate links will be removed.
  1. Posts that discuss illegal activities, transactions, or websites such as warez, cracks, etc. will be removed. This includes the posting of information that you have obtained illegally.
  1. Political and religious discussions are not allowed on this website. If it is believed that the end result of a discussion will be political or religious, the post may be removed. Likewise, strong political and religious sentiments should be kept out of profiles, signatures, and other content.
  1. Do not post copyrighted materials (articles, videos, audio, etc.) of which you are not personally the owner or have express permission to reproduce or distribute. In the case of documents or articles, copyright law allows you normally to quote a small portion (usually no more than 1/5 or 1/6). You must provide a link to the source (if online) or provide details of the source (if offline). Posting a full article, even when mentioning the source, constitutes copyright infringement.

The community does not permit trade or distribution of illegal or copyrighted materials (including those with questionable copyright status). This interdiction extends to all media, including text, video, audio or images.

  1. When posting and linking to images, videos, files, etc., please refrain from hotlinking. This is the direct linking to images (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, etc.), video (.avi, .mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv, etc.), audio (.mp3, .wav, etc.), archives (.zip, .rar, etc.) or otherwise downloadable or streamable files, on servers that you do not have permission to link to, instead of linking to the page where the item can be found. This includes providing a direct link to the file, even if that file is not embedded into your post. This practice costs the server owner money and resources.
  1. To participate in the community, we request that you respect your fellow members. Please refrain from inflammatory and defamatory comments as well as flaming, taunting, and general disrespect. Do not belittle or denigrate the opinion or advice given by others. If you don’t agree with them, explain why - respectfully. Do not make uninvited remarks about typos, duplicate posts, posting styles, etc. Not everybody posting is of English mother tongue.

In opinion-based discussions, do not state things like “there is no argument” as if your opinion is the only one or the only one that matters. When someone has clearly stated their opinion, do not say things like “Are you serious?” and “Are you kidding me?” Remember, this is not a debate club. This is a friendly discussion community. Allow people to have their opinion. No one is to act as some sort of opinion judge, responding to each one to say whether they agree with it or not or whether or not it is a valid, well thought out opinion.

  1. Signatures are limited to five lines of text. This includes blank lines. No images. The text in the signature may be customized by the BBCode in use on the forums. It is recommended that you stick with readable fonts and colors and that the size is not too large. You may mention websites and ventures that you are in some way related to, as long as they are otherwise appropriate for this community. Focus on things that you like, not things that you don’t.
  1. Each user is allowed to create one account. If you would like to change your username, please contact us and, most likely, we can do it for you while you can keep all of your profile data, posts, and other content.
  1. Automated account creation, participation, and content scraping is not permitted.
  1. We know that people will have to leave our community (of their own free will or otherwise) from time to time and to that end, we do not delete accounts, posts, or other content posted on our community. All content is granted to us with perpetual electronic publishing rights because any content posted on this community becomes a part of the community, even if you no longer are. You may request an item to be removed at any time, but we will decide when and if to remove content from our community. If you wish to no longer be identified with our community, we will be glad to close your account and alter your profile information to remove all identifying characteristics. After account closure, you will no longer be able to participate in this community and this action is not reversible.
  1. Community administrators have the final say on anything. If you have a problem, you may make a complaint to them directly and not publicly on the website. Creating threads or posts that question or reference administrative decisions or potential administrative decisions, such as post removals and thread closures, is not permitted. We are not perfect and if you feel that we have made a mistake, please privately contact a staff member and we will review the situation. If you would like a copy of your removed post so that you can adjust it and repost, please contact us. As long as we wouldn’t prefer you to simply start over, we’ll be glad to send you a copy.
  1. Whenever you are participating in this community, please keep in mind that we strive to create a solution driven, friendly and inviting atmosphere. So, please keep this in mind, when you contribute!

Freedom of speech rights do not extend to privately owned websites, such as this one. These guidelines detail the types of behavior and activities that are allowed here.

If a user violates our guidelines and shows a disregard for them, our staff and our community, they run the risk of losing their account. We reserve the right to deactivate any account and to edit or remove any content without warning. These guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice.

Do you have a question about our Community Rules or anything else? Do you have a suggestion? Do you want to offer some feedback? Or are you experiencing some trouble with the site? Well, no matter what it is, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be glad to help in any way that we can.

Thank you