Introduction
Use of the South African Media Center Community constitutes acceptance and agreement to this Forum Code of Conduct. These rules set the posting standards applicable to all members including administrators and moderators. If you violate the Code of Conduct, we reserve the right to terminate your account without prior notice.
We prefer to advise users of inappropriate behaviour; however repeated violations will result in an immediate ban. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.
We created this Code of Conduct to provide a basic understanding of what's allowed and not allowed in our forums. The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of our code of conduct.
- Ensure a friendly atmosphere to forum members and our visitors.
- Ensure the privacy of our members and that of others.
- Encourage responsible use of our forums and discourage activities which disrupt our community and reduce the value of our services to our members and our visitors.
- Encourage freedom of expression and exchange of information in a mature and responsible manner.
- Avoid turning our forums into an advertising billboard whereby important and sought after content cannot be easily located due to members involved in commercial ventures seeking only to post in order to place advertisements and referrals without making any attempt to provide tangible support or to advance the needs of our community.
Whilst we are committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities may be damaging to the resources of the South African Media Center Community and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech.
The resources of the South African Media Center Community are limited, and abuse of these resources by any user has a negative impact on the entire community. As a member of the South African Media Center Community community, you must participate responsibly.
If you have any questions regarding our code, please contact us.
The following activities constitute violations of our Code of Conduct. The following actions are strictly prohibited:
1. Spamming
Spam includes, but is not limited to the following:
1.1. Excessive off-topic threads, other than in the designated General Discussions forum.
1.2. No advertising of any kind is allowed in any other forums except the MCE Marketplace.
1.3. Posting nonsensical messages.
1.4. "Flooding" the forum with similar meaning messages.
1.5. Post-Count farming.
1.6. Unsolicited advertising via private message or email.
1.7. Messages without content.
1.8. Repeat posting of referrals to other website(s) with no purpose other than self promotion.
1.9. Fraudulent activity, pyramid schemes, chain letters etc.
2. Piracy, Cracks and Product Keys
"Piracy" is the illegal copying of software or any material subject to copyright; "Cracks" are programs that disable copy-protection technology; a "Key" is a combination of numbers and letters that is required for software installation. You may not request, distribute, encourage, discuss, link to, or post in support of activities involving pirated software, cracks and product keys. Doing so may result in the termination of your account without notice.
In addition, the following are grounds for moderator action on your post and/or account:
2.1. Seeking help to create cracks.
2.2. Seeking missing files that are supplied with installation CD(s)
2.3. Admitting to being in possession of pirated software.
2.4. Admitting to being involved in the distribution of pirated software, cracks and product keys.
2.5. Requesting or engaging in the acquisition, trade, sale or exchange of any copyrighted material including but not limited to TV recordings, DVDs, movies, music etc.
Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of our forum administration.
3. Forgery or impersonation
Attempting to impersonate any person, including staff, using forged headers, instant messenger names, similar usernames in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited.
4. Harassment
4.1. We do not tolerate personal attacks whether public or private on anybody (the definition of a personal attack will be determined on a case by case basis by forum moderators in consultation with the administrator).
4.2. You may not use terms or audio/visual materials referring to ethnic/national origin, ideological/religious beliefs, gender, or sexual preference in a demeaning context.
5. Illegal Use
5.1. You may not use our forums for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities, as determined by the laws of South Africa. Such activities will guarantee an immediate ban.
5.2. We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.
6. Non-Disclosure Agreements
We will delete posts containing materials in breach of an active Non-Disclosure Agreement. We reserve the right to cooperate with any company who are conducting an investigation into a breach of a current and enforceable NDA.
7. Privacy
7.1. You may not post any form of real life information of any user (except yourself) unless the user has first given permission by express written consent to the forum administrator. Examples of real life information include name, address, and phone numbers.
7.2. You may not distribute any form of electronic information, email address, private/email Messages, IP addresses, and Instant Messenger messages ("Chatlogs") with intent to harass or be demeaning in any way as determined by a forum management, regardless of consent.
7.3. You may not disclose a user's unpublicised email address unless the user has first given permission by express written consent to the forum administrator or has previously releasing said information themselves.
7.4. You may not at any time post any form of real life information if you are 13 years old or under!
7.5. You may not at any time use private messaging or email for unsolicited contact with community members for the purpose of advertising or selling goods or services!
8. Signatures
Signatures, whether facilitated by the forum software or by the user, may not exceed the following restrictions:
8.1. The signature may not contain more than 6 lines including blank lines.
8.2. Signature images may not be larger than 300 pixels wide by 75 pixels high.
8.3. Signature images may not be larger than 7 kilobytes.
8.4. The signature must not violate any part of this code of conduct.
9. Official Languages
English is the official language of our forums because it is the common language between our moderators and most of our users. Because we cannot moderate conversations in a foreign language, you may not hold a conversation in the forums in language other than English.
Foreign languages are allowed in forum signatures as long as:
9.1. It is not in violation of this Code of Conduct.
9.2. Not in a different character set, i.e. áíúúíá éáéä.
9.3. A correct translation of the signature be provided upon request.
10. Email Addresses
10.1. You may not harvest email addresses from our forums for any purpose.
10.2. You are required to keep your forum account's email address up-to-date. If a warning sent to the email address on record bounces, your account will be suspended and you will have to contact forum administration to have your account restored.
11. Moderation & Bans
11.1. You may not publicly complain about or demand a reason for another user's ban, the deletion of a message, or the deletion/closure of a thread. Any discussion about warnings, bans, message deletion, thread deletion and thread closure should be done over private email/message between the person concerned and the moderators.
11.2. You may not re-edit a message that has been edited by a moderator.
12. Advertising
Advertising is defined as direct or indirect reference(s) to commercial products or services within the body of a post or by private message/email by the owner of, or any person associated with the product or service, and where such reference is in the form of unsolicited information or in response to a question about a product or service or by reference to a vendor's commercial website through the use of hyperlink(s). Note: Linking to a commercial website in a signature is permitted as long as it is not accompanied by a slogan or advertising banner.
Members not associated with a commercial product are free to point to, refer to, recommend or warn against a product's use on the basis that they are or have been a consumer of that product or are able to point to reference material in support of their assertions. Any member who attempts to appear un-associated with a commercial product but who is found (through the use of duplicate IP referencing or other means as required) to be repeatedly referring to or promoting said product, service or website will be considered as being involved in commercial advertising.
Do not use any other forums to advertise your products other than the MCE Marketplace forum and do not advertise anything in the MCE Marketplace forum that is no related to MCE.
13. Miscellaneous
The following fits in no particular category:
12.1. Do not post negative posts and discussions that are repeated over and over and over with no other purpose than to disrupt conversation. If you feel the need to say something, say it once and then move on. Do not disrupt multiple threads in order to get your view out.
12.2. You may not bait, insult, flame, or otherwise abuse a staff member or forum members. This is defined as posting with a clear intent to provoke anger, incendiary posts, and behaviour that results in other users violating this code.
12.3. You may not abuse your ability to post in HTML in HTML-enabled forums.
12.4. You may not post graphically-disturbing images as inline images (such that the images are displayed when users view your post). You may not link to images which are graphically disturbing.
12.5. You may not post in a manner that is harmful to the this community or any of it's members. If you do, the post will be deleted and you will be permanently banned.
12.6. You may not register multiple accounts for any reason and specifically with the intent to violate any part of this Code of conduct.
14. Other Questionable Actions and Content
This Code of Conduct cannot cover every circumstance. We reserve the right to act appropriately if a user's actions, including the content of a user's posts, are deemed counter productive to the peaceful enjoyment or security of our forum community.
We reserve the right to change this code of conduct at any time.