The Mudflats Forum Guidelines

While most of the discussions in the Mudflats Forum are available for public viewing, this is not a public forum. Participation in this forum is restricted to members. By applying for membership, you agreed to accept the Forum's guidelines and rules.

People feel that in a democracy, everyone should have the right to be heard.

We agree. We believe that our democracy gives you the right to publish your own blog or create your own forum. However, if you wish to participate here on the Mudflats Forum, you need to follow the Forum's guidelines. And here they are.

Forum Guidelines -

• No abuse, insults or personal attacks.
• No offensive language.
• No trolling.
• No surveys.
• No advertising.
• No inappropriate or illegal material.
• No "For Sale" or "Wanted to Buy".
• No crossposting.
• No copy and paste*.
• No forum spamming.
• No defamatory comments.
• No Affiliate links.
• No animated graphics in posts, avatars or signatures.
• No inappropriate name calling of political candidates.

Forum members must treat fellow members, moderators and administrators with respect and politeness. We embrace the spirit of civil disagreement. We agree to agree and to disagree - as strongly as need be - without crossing the boundaries into personal attack, rudeness or disrespect for each other.

*We request that forum members do not copy and paste jokes, recipes, forwarded emails, stories, blog posts, or any other content from the web. Excerpts are allowed within a quote (guideline - perhaps less than 10% of the original) and a link to the original source - be it the poster's own blog or another. Posts that do not follow this rule will be deleted on sight.

About Moderation -

Please note that the administrators and moderators of these forums are all volunteers - nobody is paid to be here. If you do not like the rules here feel free to create your own set of forums.

In general our moderators operate on a "three strikes and you're out" basis.

If you break the rules once - your post will be moderated and/or deleted.

If you break the same rule twice - your post will be moderated and you will receive a warning via private message.

If you break the same rule three times - we may take further action which could include restricting your posting ability or banning you from the forums entirely. We would prefer not to do that, so please work with us to ensure the rules are adhered to.

Any moderation decisions are final. If you feel a mistake has been made DO NOT contact the moderators via private message for discussion of moderation issues and DO NOT post a message in the forums questioning the decision. Moderators are simply here to ensure the rules are followed. They are not here to enter into discussions about the rules with forum members.

You may contact an Administrator for further discussion, but be aware that any discussions you may have with a moderator or administrator via private message or email may be made available to the other moderators and administrators for discussion in the Moderation area which is available to both Moderators and Administrators only.

The administrators and moderators are all volunteers who have given up their spare time to provide a moderation service here on the forums. Any abusive messages towards the administrators or moderators may result in the immediate termination of your forum membership.

A special note for trolls -

If you troll the forums, you will be placed in our penalty box. This will mean you are not able to send private messages. You will only be able to view the penalty box forum, which cannot be seen by the forum members or search engines. If you feel you have been placed in the penalty box by accident, you will have to use the email address provided within the penalty box forum to contact the Administrators.