Friendship and Love Poetry Forum - FORUM INFORMATION and RULES and GUIDELINES

Friendship and Love Poetry Forum - Rules and Guidelines

FORUM INFORMATION:

Welcome to the Friendship and Love Poetry Forum. The forum was originally started (October 8, 1999 on ezboard - moved to friendshipandlovepoetry.net on June 18, 2002 - again updated to a php forum and reopened on December 3, 2003) due to the many poems that individuals sent me for possible posting on my website. Because I post very few poems sent to me, I developed the forum in order to give all individuals a chance to have their poem posted on my site. The forum has gone through many changes in the past. For example, the one forum had over 2,000 members and over 17,000 posts. Another forum had over 500 members and 15,000 posts. Unfortunately, in both cases the posts/members were deleted and I had to start with a fresh install.

ATTENTION WEBMASTERS: If you are spamming my forum in order to get visitors to your own forum (many have done so), it may not be a good idea. I will ban anyone I find doing this. This is very sneaky, and I will not tolerate it, since I never did it myself.

You must read and accept the following in order to join the poetry forum.

RULES AND GUIDELINES:

Although this forum is intended to be a place to express yourself, there are some rules and guidelines which everyone needs to follow. If you break any of the rules, your account may be deleted, and your IP may be banned.

Any and all decisions are final and rules and guidelines are subject to change without notice at the discretion of the administrator (Cindy).

1. The first and most important rule is to be respectful to all members. Being disrespectful to other members will NOT be tolerated. You also must respect me as the owner of the site, as well as the moderators who have been chosen by me because of their dedication to the site. One sure way to get yourself banned is to disrespect me or the moderators.

2. Post no more then 3 poems per day.

3. Comment and post at least 3 comments for every poem you post. This should be done before you post your poem. In other words, comment on at least 3 other posts before posting your original poem.

4. Each poem should only be posted in one forum. For example if you have a poem that is about love and friendship, you have to decide whether you wish to place the poem in the Love forum or the Friendship forum. No double posting is allowed.

5. Only original poetry should be posted. DO NOT place a poem on the site and claim it as your own original work. If you do so, you may find yourself faced with a lawsuit from the author. The Friendship and Love website, as well as administraton, is not responsible for individuals who commit plagiarism. YOU are solely responsible for any acts of plagiarism. Administration and its moderators will not become involved with disputes regarding who owns a particiular poem. However, administration reserves the right to reveal your identity in the event that a complaint or legal action arises. Please educate yourself on the copyright laws by visiting the following webpage http://www.loc.gov/copyright/ In addition, do a search on the internet on copyright information. There is a vast amount of information readily available.

6. No advertisements/links of any kind are allowed in the forums. The only advertisement/link you may place on your post is a link to YOUR personal home page in your signature or a link to your website in your profile. If you are not the owner of a site, do not link to the site. Other advertisements/links are not allowed.

7. No spamming or bumping is allowed.

8. Posts containing violence, hate, racism, etc. will be deleted.

9. Any swearing or vulgar slang is strictly forbidden.

10. Harassment will not be tolerated.

11. Absolutely no poems containing sexually (pornographic) explicit language.

12. If you wish to have your poem critiqued, please place your poem in the critique forum. Only constructive criticism is allowed.

13. Always make back up copies of your poems as posts may be periodically deleted after 150 days or less. In addition, please remember to always keep a back up copy of your poems in a safe place and never rely on a web site (including this one) to store your poetry.

14. Only one membership per IP address is allowed - if you use more then one membership per IP address, you will face being banned from the forum.

15. You may not link to a graphic from another website to use in your profile or any other posting unless you have permission from the website owner. Linking to a graphic on a website without a website owners permission is bandwidth stealing and it is WRONG.

16. Do not give personal information in your profile, such as address and phone number. Be smart and safe!!

17. Periodically, old posts (appoximately 100 days or older) will be deleted. (this is done due to the fact that I have a limited amount of files on my server and in addition, to keep the forum current)

18. If a member is inactive for over 30 days (has made no posts) their user name may be deleted.

19. I recommend that all individuals copyright their poetry. For more information please visit http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

20. This is an english speaking poetry forum, therefore only english should be posted here.

Have fun and enjoy the forum. :-)