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Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 1:05 am Post subject: Welcome and the Rules.

This forum is for animal lovers 13 years of age and over. This may include, but is not limited to rescue workers, shelter workers, volunteers, people who have or are looking to adopt, as well as the general public with an interest in pets. It is here to help users to promote rescue and adoption, to share information about pets, to network, to educate about rescue, pet health, and responsible pet ownership, and to relax and 'chill out' with like-minded people.

Please enjoy your stay.

All users must read the following guidelines regarding the use of this board. We believe in the spirit of these rules and they will be enforced as such. No debate regarding the letter of the rules will be indulged.

This article may be changed and updated on an ongoing basis, and will be marked with the most current edit date. Users are responsible for any new rules added to this document at any time, so please check back.

Users:

This is a unmoderated public messageboard.
Users are solely responsible for what they post.

Everything posted is viewable by anyone with internet access.
Petfinder is not responsible for what other users or members of the public do with information posted here.
Do not post any information, pictures, etc you do not want publicly available/accessible to anyone/everyone to copy/repost/keep.
This includes all parts of the board, including Private Messages (PMs).

We will not remove any posts, information, pictures, etc. at a user's request, for any reason, even if they are that users own posts. We will also not manually delete user accounts. Users accounts will be automatically deactivated after 3 months of non-use.

In the day to day of all this, personality clashes or incompatibilities, heavy debates, and lots of drama are expected. However any such issues that harm the intent of this board in any way will not be allowed. This means that no user may be rude or mean to or alienate any other user, in any way, for any reason. This also includes snide, underhanded, or sarcastic comments directed at another user but in the form of a generalized statement.

Discrimination against or derogatory, rude, or mean comments about a nationality, religious or spiritual beliefs, income levels, sexual preference, or any other personal belief or any other group of people will not be tolerated.

You are allowed and encouraged to disagree with other users, but personal attacks will not be tolerated. Insulting or being rude or mean to another user will not be tolerated. Do not discuss anyones personal life in any way unless they request the conversation.

Do not post anyones personal information, or links to such information, unless they explicitly permit it. This includes but is not limited to real name (first and/or last), address, town, phone #, email address, nicknames from other boards, work information, organization affiliation, health information, etc.

Discussion or 'bringing up' of former members of the board is not allowed even if they are not specifically named.

Do not accuse a member of being someone other than who they claim to be. If you have proof that a user is someone other than who they claim to be send us the proof privately. Do not post the proof in the board.

The quick rule of thumb is, 'Argue with the user's opinion, do not argue with the user themselves'.

Content:

You may not promote, advertise, or post links to other pet related or pet/animal rescue related message/discussion boards or groups.

You may not promote, advertise, or post links to any Petfinder.com competitor, any competitor of the Petfinder.com owners (Discovery, Animal Planet, and any of their subsidiaries.) or any competitor of a Petfinder.com sponsor (Purina, Petco, Frontline, & Bissel.)

Discussion of the moderation, or lack of, of the board in any way is not allowed. Discussion of the effectiveness or appropriateness of any rule is not allowed. Being rude to or accusing Admin of ANYTHING, such as but not limited to having/playing favorites, allowing some users to get away with things, not caring, not doing their job, etc. is against the rules. There are no exceptions and no second chances regarding this rule.

Foul, inappropriate or offensive language is not allowed. Any attempts to avoid the word block for any word for any reason will not be tolerated.

Discussion of 'adult' themes is not allowed. Keep it PG-13.

Graphic images are not allowed in posts or as avatars or signatures. If you would like to post a link to a site with what might be considered a graphic image regarding animal welfare, you must make that very clear in the post Before the link. Still, please keep in mind that there are younger as well as more sensitive viewers that will follow the links anyway, and limit such links to things that are represented in an educational manner. We reserve the right to remove links we feel are too graphic or are inappropriate.

DO NOT post pictures or graphics that are stored in someone else's web space without their Explicit permission!
DO NOT post pictures or graphics that are not your own regardless of where they are stored without the picture owners Explicit permission!
Posting pet pics from Petfinder in this board is fine.
Posting them on any other site Requires them to be accompanied by a link directly back to the page they are copied from.

You may not copy to other places online, send via email, or put into print any posts from this board without express permission from the original poster. You may post links, in another forum or email, back to the post on this forum.

Do not post DNA (Do Not Adopt) information about anyone or any organization regardless if they are a member/user here or not. Also do not post link directly to DNA info elsewhere. All DNA posts will be removed immediately and the user deactivated.

No discussion supporting animal abuse or neglect will be tolerated and posters of such content will be reported with any personal information we have to the authorities.

Discussion of the promotion of breeding of animals is not allowed. Do not post recommendations of or information about or links to any breeders or suggest buying from a breeder over adoption. If you are a breeder that is also involved in rescue, spay & neuter clinics, or are interested in learning about animals and sharing your experiences and knowledge regarding animal care, you are welcome. However, do not advertise, link to, or discuss your breeding or available animals or start breeding over adoption debates.

Do not use any forum for 'chatting' except for the General Community forum where you can post 'chats' for everyone to join.
Use Private Messages to send messages directly to other users, do not post a thread to individual users in any forum.

Do not post off topic threads. Post threads in the appropriate forums. Off topic threads will be moved to the appropriate forum or deleted with no notice.

Do not post off topic in a thread. If you would like to continue an off topic conversation, simply start another thread in the appropriate forum. You may post a link to the off topic thread in the original thread.

Multiple copies of a thread or post or repeatedly posting the same info/content in multiple posts/threads is not allowed. Choose the one most appropriate forum/thread to post in. This includes multiple people posting the same information.

Do not post pet for adoption nor pet wanted ads in the messageboard. You may post such ads in the Classified Ads section. http://www.petfinder.com/classifieds/classifieds.html

Re-posting of a removed thread, its content, or a discussion about it, no matter what it was about, without permission, is cause for immediate account deactivation.

Bumping of posts is not allowed. Do not bump your own nor other users posts.

All language and subjects must be kept to a PG-13 level.

Conflicts:

DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS. This will be vehemently enforced.

No user may have more than one username at any time, for any reason. Any user that creates a new username after being deactivated, without permission, will be banned from the board permanently, even if the original deactivation was intended to be temporary.

The Petfinder.com messageboard is not moderated.
If you see something that you feel does not belong or someone being less than friendly, Do Not respond to their posts. Just click on the !report button on that message and we will look into it as soon as we can. If it is a PM, leave the PM in your box and email us about it.

Do not report a post unless the poster has broken a rule. Simply disagreeing with you is not breaking a rule. Users abusing this system will be banned from the board. Do not waste Admin's time.

Do not, under any circumstances, report a post and then respond to it, about it, or to the poster in any way regarding that posts content.

The report feature was created as a tool to allow the users to assist Petadmin. While we appreciate the help, Please keep in mind that you are talking directly to Petadmin when you report. Any use of inappropriate or offensive language in a report will not be tolerated. Also do not be rude to or accuse admin of allowing things to happen, etc. Just report the rule breach and admin will deal with it.

Deactivated users will not be notified.

If you have a question not answered above, email MessageBoard@petfinder.com
Thank you, and now go have some fun.

Posted Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:41 pm:

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