Greenskeeper.org Community Rules - Greenskeeper.org Free Online Golf Community

Greenskeeper.org Community Guidelines

Welcome to our community guidelines! Like most places, we also have certain rules and guidelines we enforce concerning our Guests or Members that use our community services.

This includes, but is not limited to; All Forums, Chat/Chat Server, and/or Golf Course Feedback Boards.

They ARE simple rules, so if you tell us you did not understand them, that's not an excuse;)

A staff member will warn you if you go too far. Either by email, or in chat, or a post in the forums. Please take this warning seriously. We do not like bothering with banning or revoking membership accounts. It is a total waste of our time and a pain in the arse! We would rather you come back and participate over and over again.

Ammended/Added on 10/21/05

The Top No No's (Site-wide Rules)

These rules pretty much covers all features that may or may not have direct contact with the public.

DO NOT SPAM OR POST UNSOLICITED ADVERTISING
No spam. No, we are not talking about the canned "meat" substitute. No advertising. DO NOT post spam in our forums or chat; or anywhere else that is considered spamming. It is enough that our members get it in their email and have to deal with pop up windows all over the internet. We repeat; we DO NOT want it here!

PLEASE, understand the difference between advertising and referencing. If a user is talking about a topic or subject and refers a link to another site for more information, that is not spamming. I'm sure we all know the difference.

As to refering we're talking about a website that helps with the your discussion. So it's simple, especially if you just got here as a new user, do not post a link to a website you are running or a part of. Do not recommend sites with a simple, "Hey, check out this other GOLF site". This will set off warnings to the staff that you are a spammer.
ABSOLUTELY NO PORN AND ADULT MATERIAL
No porn or adult material. Don't post nude pictures of Margaret Thatcher or anyone else for that matter. If our members want porn, they know where to get it. We all know that there is no shortage of porn on the internet.
NO ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
Nothing illegal. Anything that is against the law is not cool here. This includes, but not limited to, copyright infringement, illegal substance, etc. You can talk about it, but do not use our site(s) as an avenue for your Pimp Daddy activities. As per the Terms of Service we WILL work with the proper authorities to have you prosecuted.
NO HARASSMENT OR THREATS
Messaging others privately is a great way to get to know someone. But if a member or staff requests that you do not contact them then NO means NO.

If you keep following someone around bugging them because you are mentally unstable or if you keep bothering someone by messaging them, leaving personal dirty secrets in public arenas, that is HARASSMENT. It is undesirable crap we do not care to see on our site. Take your personal vendetta's elsewhere.

If you are being harassed, inform the person that you do not wish to be contacted by them. Then to be safe, file a FORMAL complaint with us by using the CONTACT US link. This allows us to have a record of the complaint and have leverage to handle any future complaints about said person.

This ONLY applies when you are using our community or any tools we provide. Anything outside of Greenskeeper.org is none of our business. We do not want to hear about who's fault it is or any personal problems you are having with the person. That is your business and none of ours.

We DO care if someone is harassing you on our web site(s) and we will investigate the problem which may lead us to just telling this person to lay off or banning/revoking the person's account.
FALSE REPRESENTATION
DO NOT POSE AS A STAFF MEMBER OR ANOTHER MEMBER. If you are not sure if someone is a staff member that contacts you about something, tell that person to hold off and use the "CONTACT US" and ask if this person really is a staff member and await for a reply before talking to that person again.

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO DO THIS. OUR STAFF IS TRAINED TO EXPECT THIS FROM YOU IF YOU ARE UNSURE.

NOTE: STAFF MEMBERS OF THE GREENSKEEPER.ORG WILL NEVER ASK YOU FOR YOUR PASSWORD OR YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER. UNLESS YOU ARE PURCHASING SOMETHING FROM OUR WEB SITE OR CALLING TO ORDER SOMETHING, WE DO NOT ASK YOU FOR THAT STUFF.

Forum Rules

BE CIVIL
We're not asking for you to respect each other if you don't. We are not asking you to play nice to everyone. We are, however, asking you to keep your posts and replies civil towards each other. Express your views logically, not as flames agains others. It is OK and encouraged to add humor, but do not disguise bullying with a smiley face. Flaming, name calling, trolling (comments intended only to provoke arguments), flooding/hijacking (excessive posting for the purpose of devaluing others opinions), spamming, etc. are all violations under the rules. If you can't keep it civil then we rather have you go somewhere else.

If you just can't stand the person just IGNORE them. Go on to the next thread or replies. If you can't ignore them then email or message them.

Staff members manage the forums and make sure the discussions are running smoothly. They are not BABY SITTERS. If you get into a "Flame War", they will tell you to "Take it Outside". This means take it off of our forums. Fight all you want but do it on your own time in email, private messages or whatever tools you use to communicate.

We will not waste our time here. We'll give you a few warning and then that's it. No if, and's or but's. We don't care who started it. If you are part of the "flaming" you are part of the problem.
STAY ON TOPIC
Please stay on topic. If the forum is for Great Golf Shots, please don't talk about your foot fungus. Staying on topic is important to keep the discussions going.

If the topic is compromised, the messages in question will be deleted from the topic by the moderators judgement, not by the users. Plain and simple.
SUPPORT AND QUESTIONS FORUM
Do not plague other forums with questions about how to post or upload your avatar or any such questions. This will annoy other members. It's ok to ask questions. Just do it in the forum specified.

If you are not staff and don't plan to help out by answering questions in this forum then DO NOT REPLY. This is a safe zone. No matter how small the question is.
QUALITY OF POSTS
Though our forums are used by different people from different places in the world and from various age ranges, we do expect a basic requirement of how to post on our message boards.

Not only do we try and keep the forums civil but we also want to take into account of the quality of what's being posted on our boards. We do not look kindly on those who degrade the quality of the forum. Do not post in all caps. That is considered shouting and rude behavior. All lower case is not any better either. Skip the l33t talk. Consider checking your spelling and punctuation. Try to act and post intelligently.

No fluffing or whore posting. This means that we want well thought out topics. Any topics that are started with simple one liners will be locked and then deleted a couple of days later. To clarify, don't start posts that are just simply for the sake of starting one. If it continues, we prefer that you find some place else to frequent. Our members here prefer quality over quantity. If your topic you start only relies on a single line post, then try to back it up with your thoughts and facts and opinions. This includes replying as well. If you reply with a simple "Yeh, I agree." or "I like it too." it will be considered and frowned upon as post whoring and will be deleted. This just isn't about HOW you post rather WHAT you post AND HOW you do it.

Job of Staff in the Forums
The job of the staff in the forums is to manage and moderate the forum, not tell you how you should talk or post. You already know what the line is and they will remind you of that if you step over it.

A staff member should never have a need to edit your post. If they do it was probably because of something really bad yet does not warrant the whole message to be deleted. They may MOVE it to another forum if the topic is better suited for another forum.

They may delete it if it is simply inappropriate.

If a staff member is NOT sure about a topic or a message within a topic they may move it to the message holding area while they get another staff member to look at it to make a decision.

FORUMS
You can tell when someone is a staff member with power to moderate threads if they have a special badge at the left panel of the post, as below:

Team GK

Chat Server & Chatroom Guidelines

General Chat Server Rules
There are rules for anyone that uses our chat server:

By using this server, you are bound by the Terms of Service and Community Rules of the RPGC. To review these documents, please use the appropriate links:

Terms of Service
http://www.greenskeeper.org/siteinfo/termsofservice.cfm

Community Guideline and Rules
http://www.greenskeeper.org/siteinfo/community_rules.cfm
The following behavior will not be tolerated:

Spamming
Flooding
Unsolicited Advertisement
Nicknames: Nicknames are on a first come, first serve basis. If you find your chosen nickname is taken, please select another. To register your nickname, please consult the nickname s ervices bot?s help file by typing "/ns help register" in the text line, or see an Op/Mod in the #admin-help channel.
Harassment: Harassment is defined as repeated behavior despite requests to stop. Harassment is not allowed on this server, in any form. Joking is ok, but if a user or Op/Mod asks you to stop, do so immediately.
Each of the Individual rooms may or may not have additional rules to the above, please consult the room Operators/Moderators for details.
You can use bots to enhance your users experience. Please try to stick with one bot for each channel. Malicious bot and scripts are NOT allow on our server.

If there is a case of harrassment or any other trouble, be sure to try and log the event. In no way do we take the logs word for word since they can be modified before we can look at them but it will help us understand the problems.

WE CAN NOT AND DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY LOG YOUR CONVERSATIONS WHEN WE ARE NOT PRESENT.

Job of Staff in the Chat Rooms
The job of the staff in the chatrooms is to keep the chat session on topic and is the "host" of such event. They make sure that the session is running smoothly whether it's a topic chat session, an event or a game session. Depending on the staff that's running the event, they could be strict about staying on topic or maybe be more relaxed in letting off topic discussion go on. It depends on the judgement of the staff member.

If they find that the topic has been exhausted, the event or the game session is over they won't just shut down the channel just because the fun and chatting is still going on.

In general discussion chat rooms, the staff member is that to keep the "trolls" away. Basically, anyone who decided it's fun to disrupt the channel in whole. They also try and snuff out any flooders or spammers.

How do I know if I'm in Love?

Why the hell are you asking us? But if you must know...

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, thats amore!
When the world seems to shine like you had too much wine, thats amore!"