# Sticky  Tropical Fish Keeping Forum Rules



## wake49

The *Tropical Fish Keeping Forum* is dedicated to the open discussion and education about tropical fish care and aquaria for the maintainance of freshwater fish, aquatic plants, saltwater fish, the coral reef, and related aquatic herptiles and invertebrates.

The moderators of TFK, with the interest of maintaining the integrity and strength of the forum, and at their sole discretion, have the right to edit posts and signatures that do not promote the above purpose of this forum, or that contravene a rule of conduct. The reason for any such edit will be conveyed to the member whose post or signature is edited or removed.

The Tropical Fish Keeping Forum staff has worked hard to create a family friendly community appropriate for all ages. While we encourage a free and open environment, the staff members of Tropical Fish Keeping have determined that some restrictions must be required and enforced to preserve the integrity of our community.

This document is intended to outline the rules of conduct that every member is expected to adhere to. By participating in this community, you agree to abide by these rules.

Aside from the rules of conduct below, all posts are irrevocable after a short interval during which their editing and deletion by the author is permitted. After this interval, the forum administrators can use their discretion whether or not to permit the removal of contributed content, with primary consideration being the impact and potential disruption the removal of such content would have on the continuity of the site's other content.

*Tropical Fish Keeping Forum Rules of Conduct*​ 
Members are permitted one (1) account per person. Multiple user names are not permitted and may result in the banning of both the user names and/or IP address.

Creating new threads, or posts within existing threads with the intent to insult or publicly dispute the operation of these forums, the rules that govern its operation or the disciplinary measures taken with any member is prohibited.

Creating new threads, or posts within existing threads, with the intent to insult, inflame, or provoke another member(s) is prohibited.

Creating new threads, or posts within existing threads, with the intent to seek financial or political gain is prohibited.

Creating duplicate threads in multiple locations, or intentionally recreating existing topics or games without prior approval of the administrative staff is prohibited.

Creating new threads, or posts within existing threads, that are blatantly off-topic or serve no legitimate purpose ("spam") is prohibited. Spam Threads/Posts that can be removed without disrupting a thread discussion will be deleted.

Posting of intentionally erroneous advice, information or other content having potential to cause harm to another and/or their property is prohibited.

Yelling (use of all capital letters in a post) is prohibited. All capitals may be used, in moderation, on individual words when the intent is to place additional empasis on that word.

Posting content of a political nature, regardless of origin, is prohibited.

Posting of offensive, violent, sexually suggestive/explicit content/graphics is strictly prohibited.

*TropicalFishKeeping.com staff reserves the right to determine what constitutes violent, offensive or sexually suggestive/explicit. *

Use of profanities is not permitted.

Deception or misrepresentation of items listed in the Forum's Classifieds is prohibited.

Distribution of any software is not permitted without express written consent from the forum Administration.

Distribution of any pornographic material will not be tolerated and will result in immediate termination of your account. "Pornographic material" is defined as any material explicitly intended to encourage sexual arousal.

Use of the TroicalFishKeeping.com private messaging and email systems to threaten, harass, advertise, solicit or otherwise annoy another member is prohibited. Furthermore, members receiving such messages are encouraged not to respond to these messages, but rather to forward them to the forum administration.

Posting and claiming the work of another as your own work is strictly prohibited. A source must be provided for all copied or quoted material or, if the source is unknown, please indicate that the material is derived from an unknown source.

No unauthorized links, logos or graphics to any community or discussion forum without prior approval by site administration. While we respect other communities, we will not freely advertise for them. Links to informational, scientific and image hosting sites are permitted. We reserve the right to restrict, remove or prohibit links that we deem inappropriate on a case-by-case basis, at the discretion of our staff.

Any slander of a moderator, Administration or the Tropical Fish Keeping Forum is strictly prohibited and the TFK staff has the right to enforce infractions or banning as seen fit.

*Signature Policy: *

The staff is authorized to remove or edit all signatures that violate these rules with or without notice.


*o* Any signature content must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the forum rules.
*o* Eight ( 8 ) lines maximum, or four (4) lines and an image file.(includes blank lines).
*o* No external links (links outside of the Tropical Fish Keeping community) in signatures. Members are provided a WWW (homepage) button in their profile for external links.
*o* Pictures/image files are limited to one (1) image with a maximum width of 80 pixels and a maximum width of 468 pixels.

*We reserve the right to restrict, remove or prohibit any signature that we deem inappropriate on a case-by-case basis, at the discretion of our staff.*

*Avatar Policy: *

The staff is authorized to remove or edit any avatar that violates these rules with or without notice.

*o* Maximum dimensions of 130 pixels x 100 pixels.
*o* No political images.
*o* No pornographic images.
*o* No images depicting violence.
*o* No profane content.

*We reserve the right to restrict, remove or prohibit any avatar that we deem inappropriate on a case-by-case basis, at the discretion of our staff.*

*Offtopic Discussion Rules and Regulations:*
*Personal attacks are strictly prohibited. We do not need any sort of prejudice in this forum.

*Racial remarks will not be tolerated.

*Controversial topics such as politics and religion must not be discussed within the forum.

*The use of inappropriate language of any form, and any means of evading the censor system is strictly prohibited.

*Topics that are related to illegal activities, or in any other way deemed restricted in your localities are strictly prohibited.

*Spamming the forum or generating messages in the sense that they are rather meaningless or suspected of derailing threads and/or provoking reactions of other members is strictly prohibited.

*Soliciting links of profane, violent or pornographic nature is strictly prohibited. Offenders will be banned immediately without question.
If you spot anything suspicious or that does not abide by the above rules, please use the ALERT button to report such incidents. It was installed here for this purpose. We will deal with any complaints promptly.

Failure to abide by the above rules will result into the subjecting of an individual to penalties and/or disciplinary actions to be imposed by the Tropicalfishkeeping.com staff. The management reserves the right to close, remove or delete threads at its own discretion.

Read more: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...iscussion-rules-regulations-70/#ixzz2wiBZ96m5

*Enforcement Policy:*

First offense. The member will receive a written explanation of the violation. When appropriate, the member may be given opportunity to correct the violation.

Second offense. The member receives an infraction. He or she may be temporarily prohibited from accessing the forum.

Third offense or additional offenses. The member may:

*o* Receive an additional infraction.
*o* Have their membership temporarily suspended for a period of time deemed appropriate by the forum staff.
*o* Become permanently banned from taking part in the community.
*o* Other disciplinary measures determined arbitrarily by the forum staff.

*Our administrative team reserves the right to modify the above enforcement policy at its discretion.*

To dispute administrative action, members are encouraged to communicate with the administrative staff via private message or email. Our staff reserves the right to address disruptive behavior not encompassed by this document at its discretion. We reserve the right to modify this document without notice.

- Tropical Fish Keeping Administration

While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately temporarily or permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.


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## wake49

This document was originally posted by Administrator, August 2006. Updated and reposted by wake49, April 2013)


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