Etiquette Policy

Introduction

AbleNET is an expansive, worldwide community of members of every age, and every nationality who come to discuss and share ideas spanning every medium, every subject and every level of talent, skill and involvement.

As the guiding force of this vibrant community, our primary goal in the service we provide for you, the members of AbleNET, is to ensure that members are free to express themselves within reason with as few restrictions as possible while nurturing an environment of creativity, learning, sharing, expression and talent.

All members of the AbleNET community are expected to be familiar with these rules of etiquette and they will be enforced evenly and without bias in every situation which is brought to the attention of the administration regardless of the membership status of the user in question.

This is the overarching policy of AbleNET at large. Communities within AbleNET may have their own policy of behavior and etiquette. These policy supersede the AbleNET Etiquette Policy with exception to items that affect individuals outside of their respective communities or AbleNET at large.

Guidelines for Members;

Prohibited Commentary

Prohibited commentary is typically considered to be inherently disrespectful, aggressive, or otherwise abusive.

We must insist that you refrain from comments, in public arenas, which are racist, bigoted, or which otherwise offensively target a philosophy or religion. In addition we ask that our members avoid making offensive remarks based on gender or sexual preference and that you do not make any remark, comment or critique which is intended to be a direct insult to an individual, group, or practice of faith. Hate propaganda is met with zero tolerance. Comments which are overly aggressive, personally insulting or needlessly abusive are also prohibited.

If you feel that you have been the target of harassment, personal insults or other severe behavior please notify the staff by using the official AbleNET helpdesk. Please be aware that the staff will only directly intervene in cases which are considered severe; minor situations may be dealt with using tools made available to all registered members.

Discouraged Commentary

Discouraged commentary is typically considered to have the potential to escalate into an aggressive or abusive situation.

While not strictly prohibited we must insist that all personal arguments, disagreements, and other volatile "personal" issues within be confined to private communications such as AbleMail, emails, or Instant Messaging programs. Likewise we discourage public accusations and other similar situations; please bring all issues of this nature to the attention of the staff by notifying the official AbleNET helpdesk.

Exploitive Commentary

Exploitive commentary is typically considered to be disruptive due to unusual or unique factors.

Do not 'spam' (send large numbers of identical notes or comments). Spamming is obnoxious and is typically used for self-promotion, or other unwanted advertising.

Do not 'flood' (place large numbers of comments rapidly on a single page or craft a single comment which consumes a large amount of page space) the forums, AbleMail system, user pages, chat rooms, or other areas of the site. Flooding usually disrupts page loading times and serves no useful purpose.

Respect Your Fellow Members

As a vibrant and growing community AbleNET welcomes all kinds of original contributions; but we ASK that you credit any submissions to the website that are not your own back to their original authors..

If you have reason to believe that an AbleNET submission violates this policy you should notify the official AbleNET helpdesk.

Mature Content

When we discuss mature content we are specifically referring to contributions which contain images, subject matter, or other themes which some viewers may find offensive, distasteful, or otherwise undesirable to view or to read. The most common 'undesired' viewing material may include, but is not limited to, images containing artistic nudity (see details below), large amounts of simulated blood and gore, or generally violent themes.

AbleNET strictly prohibits the submission of materials to the website that classify as pornographic or obscene. There is no exception to this prohibition.

Certain content may be deemed obscene by the administration and as such the staff reserves the right to remove such content immediately upon discovery. The administration reserves the sole right to review and classify questionable material as obscene or not obscene.

Forum Posting

In addition to the outlines in the above section entitled Prohibited Commentary and Exploitive Commentary we have a few additional policies regarding comments and posts within the Forum areas of AbleNET;

• All threads started within a specific forum and all comments within those threads should be relevant to the forums Title. This means that, for example, all threads within the Movies forum must relate to a motion picture and the comments within those threads should also remain on the appropriate topic.

• We encourage interactivity and we allow comments to be either positive or negative in nature providing that they remain constructive and promote a worthwhile dialogue.

• We insist that forum threads adhere to the same standard set forth for all submissions in terms of what is considered acceptable subject matter (i.e. no racist threads, no flame wars, no spam)

It is important to remember to be as clear in your intent as possible while communicating on the internet. Text communications do not afford a clear representation of sarcasm. Please use common sense when posting to avoid confusion. Threads which are misplaced, which contain inappropriate subject matter (such as sexual discussions), or which contain an undesirable number of insults or other violations of this etiquette policy will be locked and closed to further commentary.

Avatars

This section applies only to avatars which you personally use for your account; avatars submitted into a AbleNET Gallery must still conform to all official policies without exception but are not subjected to the restrictions below.

Avatars used to represent your account on site are granted more leniency than standard site submissions. You may freely use material and resources with only the restrictions outlined as follows;

• You may not use avatars specifically created by other users without their explicit permission.

• If your avatar contains a portion of a work made by another member it will be removed by staff at the request of the original member.

• In all other respects your avatar must conform to the guidelines set above in regards to hate propaganda.

Exploits, Vulnerabilities, and Site Abuse

The AbleNET staff will not tolerate attempts to exploit or disrupt the layout, navigability, or general use of the site. Such actions disrupt the ability of the community to access and review the website and chat and are considered Site Abuse.

Warez trading, botnets and chat exploits fall under this policy and will be treated severely.

We will issue no warnings for violations of this nature. Violators will be banned immediately upon the discovery of the disruption or abuse.

Changes in Etiquette Policy

As new situations come to our attention we may find it necessary to alter or expand upon the policies stated here with little or no notification and any such changes may be enforced in full against previously existing submissions or behavior.

Alterations of policy may be announced through either the AbleNET Forums or through other Announcements and News Topics.

Appeals and Inquiries

Appeals, inquiries, or questions should be addressed to the official AbleNET Helpdesk where they will be forwarded to the appropriate individuals for review.

Please refrain from using the AbleNET Forums, the AbleMail system or personal email to staff members for these concerns. You are unlikely to receive a proper response and will be redirected to use the official Helpdesk.

Petitions and other forms of public outcry are discouraged and will have no affect on Managerial Reviews of staff actions and may in fact be detrimental to the case in question.