Policy Important Rules for BoltTalk.com Members

I decided to create a thread that focuses on the IMPORTANT rules that we want to get across to our members. Again, these are the important ones. If you find yourself breaking these rules on a regular basis, you will no longer find yourself a member of this forum.

Posting Articles:

There has been a number of occasions where a user wants to post an article from another site. We are completely IN FAVOR of posting articles from another since that creates a good discussion on this site. However, there are some guidelines that need to be followed.

The most basic concept when posting articles from another site is to NOT copy the entire article and post it on this site. Ideally, you would ONLY be copying the first couple of paragraphs with a link back to the original article. Also, you should wrap those couple of paragraphs in a quote tag.

The one thing that NEVER should be done is copying articles from PAY sites. We do not allow this at all and could get us in trouble if we post content from paid sites.

Off Limit Topics:

The following topics are OFF LIMITS at this forum: politics(except in the appropriate forum), religion and sexual preference/orientation. These are all controversial topics that deal with MANY different opinions. I want to avoid these types of things in posts, conversations and signatures.

At the end of the day, we are a sports sites centered around the San Diego Chargers. I want to keep that the focus as much as possible.

Jersey Sale Sites:

I have seen these posts, random suggestions, signature links long enough and an official rule needs to be made.

We are no longer allowing ANYONE to post jersey sites in POSTS, SIGNATURES or ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE SITE.

Please listen to this warning. We are going to immediately ban new members that come here and post these links. Existing members will get ONE warning.

Members Trying to Advertise in Posts or Signatures:

The bottom line is that we DO NOT allow users to advertise with out PERMISSION from the site admin. We do make exceptions for ESTABLISHED members to advertise in their signatures or create a thread about whatever they are trying to sell. New members will NOT be allowed to advertise anything and will receive an IMMEDIATE warning. Second offense will most likely result in a BAN.

Conversations (Private Messages):

Please do not use this system to send out mass spam messages. This will result in an immediate ban.

Multiple Usernames/Accounts:

Starting at this point, the registering of multiple screen names for the any purpose other than technical malfunction is strictly prohibited. Anyone who purposely creates multiple usernames in order to 'mock' another user will be banned or have their account suspended.

This creates unnecessary stress on the database, and ruins the "recently registered users" feature.

At that point it was much more difficult to monitor IP address usage of multiple names, so people continued to ignore the rule and get away with it. This new software makes it much easier to figure out who's using what, so if I suspect you're using multiple names I will look into it.

Everyone knows that we have never been sticklers about anything. I probably have edited/deleted only a handful of posts and banned a handful of people since I have been here, but this is a site quality issue. When people rig the reps, polls, etc. it ruins many of the features the site has to offer.

YOU ONLY NEED ONE USERNAME. PICK ONE AND DO NOT CHANGE. If I find out that someone is logging in under four or five names to rig polls or damage someone's rep, I'm going to ban you.

Posting Getty Images:

This Policy is extremely simple: DO NOT USE IMAGES FROM GETTY IMAGES. Anyone can do simple searches through Google Images and find a suitable replacement.

If you suspect an image is from the Getty Images, please send an Admin or Mod a PM so we can deal with that situation.

Terms of Use & Privacy Policy:

Make sure to read the following pages for additional information about the site:
http://bolttalk.com/en/privacy/
http://bolttalk.com/en/tos/

*This post is subject to change without notice or warning...