Full Use Terms and Conditions

The following rules govern the use of the forums. You are also responsible for observing the registration agreement which you agreed to when registering. Members should observe both the letter and the spirit of these rules. Users are also responsible for following forum-specific rules posted at the tops of specific forums.

Each member is responsible for only his or her own posts. If another member breaks rules, you may ignore them or report the problem to the moderators, but you may not use it as an excuse to break rules yourself.

Volunteer moderators help us manage the forums and enforce the forum rules. The moderators cannot read every message, so they rely on members to report problem posts that they encounter. The point of moderation is not to limit discussion, promote or suppress points of view, or any other secret agenda. The goal of moderation is to keep the forums enjoyable and free from problems that detract from the experiences of our users.

Instantly Bannable Offenses

These offenses can result in temporary forum suspensions or permanent bans. If you get a warning, heed it!

1. Insults. Direct personal insult of another forum member (e.g., "You are an idiot.") and other name-calling. Why? Because this isn't grade school. People should be able to discuss or even dispute other's posts without insulting people. You may dispute somebody's opinion but not attack/flame the person who stated it. There are a lot of other non-direct-personal insults that won't necessary get you banned instantly, but depending on the context/nature may lead to post editing, post deletion, warnings, or time-outs. They include telling people to shut up, describing a member as an ignorant person (rather than ignorant about a particular topic) or obtuse or as an apologist, and being extremely or repeatedly rude or sarcastic. It's not your place to tell other users they are not welcome; if they follow the rules, they are welcome. Bottom line -- don't try to tick off others and don't make discussions unnecessarily personal. If somebody else insults you, report their post; their post does not give you a license to break the rules by returning their insults. Although we do not read Private Messages sent between forum members, the rules for appropriate and inappropriate content apply to them as well.
2. Harassment. Purposely intimidating a particular member, harassing them, sending them rude or unwanted private messages, etc. This includes personal attacks on moderators for doing their jobs.
3. Threats. Any threat or intimation of a threat.
4. Registration rules. Violation of the rules you agreed to when registering for the site: that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.
5. Multiple registration. You may register only one account. Reinstatement of banned or cancelled accounts can come only from an administrator.
6. Hoaxes. Purposely misleading other members to their detriment. Giving advice you know to be incorrect or harmful. Sensationalism.
7. Trolling. Do not post in order to anger other members or intentionally cause negative reactions. For a given post, this can be a subjective call, but a pattern of such posting or an especially egregious case will get you banned.
8. Hate speech and group slurs. Discrimination, abuse, threats or prejudice against a particular group, for example based on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation, in a way that a reasonable person would find offensive.

9. Debates. If you engage in debates, which cover rules and policies for Respect, Debate, and Moderation, including requirements that users be willing to provide a basis for claims of fact and that they avoid stereotypes and negative generalizations that inhibit constructive debate, plus reminders that the general forum rules prohibit name-calling, personal insults, taunting, hate speech, group slurs, and other forms of trolling.

Advertising/soliciting/self-promotion

Your purpose in joining Team 4X or posting should not be to promote, advertise, or otherwise call attention to your site, blog, product, or business.

Self-promotion is not fair to our paid advertisers. Forum posts should be free of ads and promotions that benefit the poster. Legitimate recommendations and requests for help are permitted, but in ambiguous circumstances users without a previous forum track record will not be given the benefit of the doubt.

Rules:

1. Advertising. Using the forums for advertising, site or product promotion, or for business deals and offers. You may not make posts to promote commercial, personal, or not-for-profit websites, products, or services. Threads will be deleted if their purpose is to advertise, announce, or promote products, services, or organizations, build traffic at other websites, carry out business activities, or for similar purposes that do not benefit our forum community.
2. Shilling. If you pretend to be a consumer who recommends your own product(s) or favors your own product(s) over others, without admitting your affiliation, you will be banned. Vendors who post in threads only to criticize a competitor's product while promoting their own will also be banned.
3. Soliciting. You may not use the forums to solicit donations, votes, or participants for surveys, contests, petitions, or product testing. Employment requests/offers are limited to the Marketplace forum and subject to the Marketplace Rules.
4. Self-promotion. Self-promotional links to your blog, video channel, product, business, etc. are limited to your forum signature and your personal details even if you have a wonderful and useful site, blog, product, or business.

Memberships created solely for these purposes will be banned.

Exceptions:

• Users may embed YouTube videos in their forum posts, using the media tag as long as it suits the thread discussion and their purpose for posting is not self-promotion.
• Established users may post links to answers, reviews, or videos that answer specific questions from other users, even if it's their own site, as long as they don't use the forums primarily for such posts. New users without a history of other forum participation should not post self-links since it will be considered to be advertising/promotion.
• As a representative of a vendor business you may post about your company or products or services when the following 5 conditions apply:
  1. You have made your vendor affiliation clear in the Occupation and Home Page fields in your Personal Details page and setting "View your details on your profile page" to "All visitors" on your Privacy Page.
  2. You represent, work for, or own a manufacturing, wholesale, distribution, or retail business (including software vendors).
  3. You are replying to forum posts to answer questions when your product/service is particularly relevant to the question. Example: Your company or product was mentioned by name or your product suits a specific requirement being discussed.
  4. The purpose of the post is to help forum members, not merely to benefit your organization.

Vendors must not use these privileges to

• repeatedly mention their products in general discussion threads, even those about their market area
• start threads to discuss, promote or advertise their business, products, or services
• "badmouth" competing companies or products
• use the forums to carry out business operations, e.g., solicit feedback, provide customer service, announce special deals, promos, or new products

Things Not to Do

These habits can produce warnings and repeated violations can produce bans.

1. Inappropriate posting in a debate. The Rules for Appropriate Debate apply when users disagree with each other. We insist on a certain level of respect and civility toward other users, even when your viewpoints differ, and prohibit posts that attack posters personally or serve only to anger others (see "trolling" above).
2. Frivolous posts. Posts that contain no relevant or constructive commentary. This includes one- or two-word posts such as "cool", "LOL", "I agree", "+1", "this", "me too", "no way", other equivalent comments of any length, posts consisting only of smilies or overused memes, posts about being the first post in a thread, posts about your lack of interest in the thread (ignore the thread instead), and posts with irrelevant images or videos, especially those without text. If your post will add nothing to a discussion, don't post it.
3. Overposting. Making the same post many times, making multiple pointless posts in the same thread, making numerous posts with no real content, or posting for the purpose of gaining a higher post count.
4. Reposting. Please don't repost entire articles from other sites. To initiate a discussion about an article, post a link to the article, quote a bit of it if you like, and include your own comments or questions so people know why you think it's worthy of discussion.
5. Referral links and pyramid schemes. 4XPEDITION does not condone multi-level marketing schemes (e.g. free gear if you refer X number of people). Members who post referral links to these or other sites will have their posts/signatures edited and may be warned. New members who post solely for this purpose will be subject to bans under the Advertising rule.
6. Off-topic posts. Off-topic posts will be deleted/edited. If you keep doing it see "Repeated problems" below. Threads and posts on controversial political, religious, and social issues are to be limited and made only by those eligible for those forums.
7. Instructing other members to search. Instructing members to search themselves for an answer or responses such as LMGTFY ("Let me google that for you") are experienced as rude and condescending. We don't have an issue with people linking to Google search results, although we prefer that members also link to a specific page that addresses the question being posed. A few words explaining how you got your search results makes your response even more helpful.
8. Warez/Serials/Keys. Do not post software serial numbers or keys or refer people to specific websites, software, or techniques whose purpose is to break or bypass software licensing methods, distribute cracks, or obtain or use commercial software or media in violation of its license and/or for copyright violation. Do not ask for or give such help.
9. Shared accounts. Accounts are to be used by only one person, and not shared between family members, friends or any other people. Registration is free, so there is no reason not to create a unique account for each person. You are responsible for any posts made with your account.
10. Profanity. The profanity filter is there for a reason. Do not circumvent it by using the language we intend to exclude or disguising those words. If a word is replaced by asterisks when you Preview or Submit a post, you know it's on the list.
11. Selling outside the Marketplace. All threads offering items for sale or trade or for free, or asking to buy or receive items must be posted in the Marketplace forum, which is accessible only to qualified members and subject to additional rules; see the Marketplace Rules for details. Members not eligible for the Marketplace forum may not start threads elsewhere for such purposes.
12. Don't discuss blocking ads on the site.
13. Repeated problems. Any ongoing actions that make more work for the moderators and administrators or regularly annoy other members and require moderator action. We have hundreds of thousands of forum members to serve and can't spend a disproportionate amount of time dealing with problems caused by any one member. If your membership is an ongoing detriment to our community then your membership may be terminated.

Minor Problems

1. Chattiness. Use the forums to discuss the topic of the thread, not as a substitute for Instant Messaging.
2. One thread. Do not post a thread more than once. Post a new thread in the proper forum. If the topic is relevant to more than one forum, pick the best fit or most specific forum and post it only once.
3. One post. Do not post multiple messages with the same content. One post in the most appropriate thread is sufficient.
4. Signature size. Signatures may not be over 4 lines in height. Signatures may not be more than 200 characters and spaces in length and at most 400 characters including the tags. They should not have blank lines or lines consisting solely of punctuation (dashes, equal signs, etc.), or use forum features, such as "INDENT" and "QUOTE" tags, that produce unnecessary vertical space. We recommend using a single paragraph, without linebreaks.
5. Avatar and signature content. Avatars and signatures, as well as other profile fields, must comply with all forum rules, including those against profanity, explicit sexual content, insults against groups or individuals, referral links, and cannot be in other ways offensive. Members will be required to change avatars or signatures that are deemed too controversial or that are particularly annoying or distracting to other members. Note that signatures may include links to your own site or business as long as you do not make posts whose purpose is to call attention to your signature.
6. Simulated signatures. Signatures must be set on your Forum Signature page and not simulated within posts, so that other members can choose whether or not to display them. You may not use automated software such as FoxyTunes Signatunes to insert content into your posts. You may use a salutation, i.e., put your name or user name at the bottom of your post.
7. Bumps. Posts that bring a thread to the top of the New Posts list but add no content to the thread (bumps) are not permitted. This applies not only to posts that say "bump" but to those with the intent to bump, e.g. posts saying "anyone?" or the equivalent.
8. Corrections. There is no need to point out another poster's spelling or grammatical errors unless you think it is causing confusion. Remember that not all members are native English speakers. Communication, not correctness, is our goal. Examples: Don't correct members who spell Standup Paddle Boarding as SUP in all caps or who call a Subaru a Subi. When other people (especially new members) fail to search and start new threads on old topics, don't scold them or make them feel unwelcome. The best way to be helpful is by posting a link to a relevant thread or specific instructions for problem-solving. Set a good example yourself by searching first before starting a thread if you have a question that may already have been answered in the forums or you want to discuss a topic that may already have been discussed. The exception is articles appearing on our Front Page. These entries are created by our professional staff. If you notice a spelling or grammar error in these articles, please complete the form on our Suggestion Box page in the portal.
9. Sequential posts. We ask that you try to avoid making multiple posts in a row within a few minutes of each other, if you can avoid it, as a courtesy to other users. You can use the Multi-Quote feature to reply to multiple posts at once or you can edit your previous post to add new information.
10. Team 4X and 4XPEDITION are English-language sites, so we ask that posts in the forums be written in English.
11. Common sense. In the end, use common sense. When you are about to post messages just to increase your post count, or post something you think is funny at someone else's expense, think to yourself "Is this annoying?" If the answer is yes, don't do it.
12. User names must begin with an alphanumeric characters so that the forum's mention (tagging) feature will work. (To mention a user in a post, put  @ before their user name.)