MCEBuddy Forums - Code of Conduct

Your use of the MCEBuddy Forums constitutes acceptance and agreement to our Forum Code of Conduct, these rules set the posting standards applicable to all members. 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, flagrant and 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.

* Ensure a friendly atmosphere to forum members and our visitors.
* Ensure the privacy of our members and that of others
* Comply with existing laws
* 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 MCEBuddy Community and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of MCEBuddy Community are limited, and abuse of these resources by any user has a negative impact on the entire community.

As a member of our community, you must participate responsibly. If you have any questions regarding our code, please contact the administrator via email.

The following activities constitute violations of our Code of Conduct.

1. Forum Security

The following actions are strictly prohibited:

* Accessing, or attempting to access, the accounts of other users
* Exploiting, or attempting to exploit, bugs, vulnerabilities, or loopholes; whether they are disclosed or undisclosed
* Penetrating, or attempting to penetrate, security measures of MCEBuddy Community's software or hardware, or electronic communications system

Any intrusion will subject your forum account to immediate termination, regardless of whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption, loss, or theft of data

2. Spamming

There are specific areas of the forum designated as an advertising areas, as a result, you may not spam or engage in commercial advertising in any other area of the forums. Spam includes, but is not limited to the following:

* Excessive off-topic threads
* Posting nonsensical messages
* "Flooding" the forum with similar meaning messages
* Post-Count farming
* Unsolicited advertising via private message or email
* Messages without content
* Repeated posting with constant referrals to other website(s) with no purpose other than the promotion of that website.
* Fraudulent activity (Pyramid schemes, chain letters, etc.)

2.1 Advertising

a) Commercial entities who attempt to advertise their products, prices or services within post content will have their post edited, the commercial content removed and be asked to avoid the activity, a second breach will result in the poster's account being suspended for thirty (30) days and continued disregard of this rule will result in termination of the user's account.

b) 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).

c) 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 legitimate consumer of that product or are able to point to reference material in support of their assertions. Any member who tries to appear un-associated with a commercial product but who is found, through the use of duplicate IP referencing or other means as required, or who is deemed by management to be repeatedly referring to and/or promoting said product, service or website, will be considered as being involved in commercial advertising, as a result, post content and applicable disciplinary action will be subject to the conditions detailed in 2.1 (a)

3. Piracy, Copyright Material, Cracks and Product Keys

"Copyright Material" is any material protected by legally recognised copyright; "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 or product keys or the supply, exchange or distribution of any copyright material including TV recordings. 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:

* Seeking help to create cracks.
* Seeking missing files that are supplied with installation CD(s)
* Admitting to being in possession of pirated software.
* Admitting to being involved in the distribution of pirated software, cracks and product keys.
* Requesting or discussing the trade, sale, exchange or supply of any copyrighted material including (but not limited) to TV recordings, DVDs, movies, music, software etc.
* Promote the identification of torrents sources, torrent content or torrent exchange.
* Provide or request login details for restricted websites.

Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of our forum administration.

4. 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.

5. Profanities

You may not use profanity or bypass the software-based censor. In addition to words included in the censor list, sexual remarks may be considered profane when used in certain contexts.

Note: To clarify what is considered to be bypassing the software-based censor: Anything done to avoid the default *'s provided by the censor is considered to be a bypass of the censor. For example, if the word "angle" was in the censor (it isn't), then all of the following are considered a bypass of the censor and thus in violation of this code:

A****
ang1e, angl3
anglë, añgle
a n g l e
Angle
a<!-- a -->ngle

The list of words automatically censored by our filter is available upon request.

6. Harassment

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).

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.

7. Pornography/Sexually Offensive Materials

You may not post or link to pornography or what would normally be considered sexually offensive materials.

8. Illegal Use

You may not use our forums for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities, as determined by the laws of Australia in the Australian Capital Territory. Such activities will guarantee an immediate ban. We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.

9. 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.

10. Privacy

* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* You may not at any time post any form of real life information if you are 13 years old or under!
* 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!

11. Signatures

Signatures, whether facilitated by the forum software or by the user, may not exceed the following restrictions:

* The maximum font size allowed in signature lines is 2.
* The maximum number of lines in a signature is 2 - (unless used to display MCE hardware specs).
* No images allowed in signatures (* see hyperlinks below).
* Signature text should comply with our regular posting rules. No all-caps, no alternating caps, etc.
* Signature text or content that is too long, obtrusive or serves no purpose will be removed. This includes overly creative use of punctuation, color, font size etc.
* Signatures with just your username will be removed since usernames are on the top of every post.
* Signatures must also follow the same content rules that we have for posting. This means they must not contain include: profanity, pornography, racism, baiting and/or flaming.

Hyperlinks in signatures are allowed but must comply with the following:

* Links (and associated images) are permitted to Xbox Live profiles, server uptime & project stats (e.g. SETI)
* Links to external commercial sites are not permitted for any reason.
* Linked sites may only be personal pages or blogs.
* Links to other forums or sites considered to be in competition with this website (thereby reducing our ability to attract advertising revenue) are not permitted.
* No affiliate links are permitted.

If your signature contravenes any of these rules, it will be removed without notice. For any questions or feedback about specific signature content not covered here, please PM a Staff Member.

12. Official Language

English is the official language of our forums because it is the common language between our moderators and 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:

a.) it is not in violation of this Code of Conduct,
b.) not in a different character set, i.e. áíúúíá éáéä, and
c.) a correct translation of the signature be provided upon request.

13. Email Addresses

* You may not harvest email addresses from our forums for any purpose.
* 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

14. Moderation & Bans

* You may not evade a ban. Doing so will drastically lengthen your ban. If you have a problem with a ban or feel it was inappropriate, please contact an administrator and wait for a response.
* 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.
* You may not re-edit a message that has been edited by a moderator

15. Miscellaneous

* 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.
* You may not bait or harass other users. Baiting & harassment is defined as posting with a clear intent to belittle, provoke anger or cause irritation resulting in another user violating this code. Within the same context, you may not bait, insult, flame, harass, provoke or otherwise abuse a staff member.
* You may not abuse your ability to post in HTML in HTML-enabled forums.
* 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.
* You may not post in a manner that is harmful to the MCEBuddy Community or any of its members. If you do, the post will be deleted and you will be permanently banned.
* You may not register multiple accounts for any reason and specifically with the intent to violate any part of this Code of conduct.

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 counterproductive to the peaceful enjoyment or security of our forum community.

A Note About Your Privacy

We respect your privacy and we undertake to safeguard the privacy of your personal data. We realise that the growth of the Internet and online services raises questions concerning the nature, use and confidentiality of information collected about consumers.  MCEBuddy assures you of our commitment to safeguarding your privacy during your Internet activities on this site.

TERMS OF SERVICE - WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM (the "Site") was created for your personal entertainment, information, education and communication. Please feel free to browse the Site; however, your access and use of the Site is subject to the following terms of service ("Terms of Service") and all applicable laws. By accessing and browsing the Site, you accept, without limitation or qualification, the Terms of Service. If you do not agree with all of the following Terms of Service, please do not use this Site. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change, modify or otherwise alter these terms and conditions at any time. Changes and/or modifications shall become effective immediately upon the posting. Please review these Terms of Service periodically. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes and/or modifications will constitute your acceptance of these Terms of Service.

USE OF MATERIALS CONTAINED ON THIS SITE

The Site contains material that is derived in whole or in part from material supplied by WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM and other sources, and may be protected by Australian and international copyright and trademark laws. No material (including but not limited to the text, images, audio and/or video) and no software (including but not limited to any images or files incorporated in or generated by the software or data accompanying such software) (individually and collectively the "Materials") may be decompiled, reverse engineered or disassembled, except that you may download one copy of the Materials on any single computer for your personal, non-commercial home use only, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. Modification of the Materials or use of the Materials for any other purpose is a violation of WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM's or such other sources' copyright, trademark and other proprietary rights.

CREATIVE SUBMISSIONS/COMMUNICATIONS

If you do send us any creative materials, including creative suggestions, ideas, notes, drawings, concepts, software or other information or if you transmit to the Site by electronic mail or otherwise, communications including any data, questions, comments, suggestions, or the like (collectively, the "Information"), the Information shall be deemed, and shall remain, the property of WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM. None of the Information shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM and WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM shall not be liable for any use or disclosure of any Information. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM shall exclusively own any now known or hereafter existing rights to the Information of every kind and nature throughout the universe and shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Information for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the provider of the Information.

BULLETIN BOARDS, CHAT ROOMS, POSTINGS

The Site may include forums, chat rooms and other areas where users can post and/or exchange information, ideas, opinions, photographs, images, videos, creative works or any other materials (collectively "Bulletin Boards"). WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM does not control the material delivered to Bulletin Boards, and WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM has no obligation to monitor such Bulletin Boards. The messages do not necessarily reflect the views of WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM. In no event shall WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM assume or have any responsibility or liability for any materials posted on Bulletin Boards or for any claims, damages or losses resulting from their use and/or appearance on this Site. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM reserves the right at all times to disclose any information (including the identity of the persons providing information or materials on its Bulletin Boards) as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or governmental request. In addition, WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM reserves the right to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM's sole discretion are objectionable or in violation of these Terms of Service.

FORUM CODE OF CONDUCT

It is a condition of your use of the Forums (Bulletin Boards) and this Site in general that you observe and respect at all times the Forum Code Of Conduct as published here.

HYPERLINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES

The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM, its subsidiaries and affiliates of the opinions or views expressed by these linked websites and WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM does not verify, endorse, or take responsibility for the accuracy, currency, completeness or quality of the content contained in these sites. Furthermore, WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM is not responsible for the quality or delivery of the products or services offered, accessed, obtained by or advertised by such sites. As such, neither WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM nor any of its subsidiaries and affiliates will be responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information contained in these sites.

To the extent that these sites collect personal information or postings from the end user, be advised that in no event shall WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM assume or have any responsibility or liability for the manner in which such information or postings are exploited or for any claims, damages, or losses resulting from their use and/or appearance on these sites. Finally, WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM will under no circumstances be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or special loss or other damage, whether arising from negligence, breach of contract, defamation, infringement of copyright or other intellectual property rights, caused by the exhibition, distribution or exploitation of any information or content contained within these sites.

TERMINATION OF THE SERVICES

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM may terminate the Site or any services included on or through the Site at any time with or without cause or notice. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM shall not be liable to any party for such termination. If you object to any of the Terms of Service contained herein, you may discontinue use of the Site or services. You may cancel any your subscriptions to WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM newsletters by following the directions provided in each newsletter to which you have subscribed.

INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless, WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, representatives, and third party providers to the Site from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from any violation of these Terms of Service by you. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM reserves the right to assume, at its sole expense, the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will fully cooperate with WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM in asserting any available defences.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER

Your use and browsing of the Site is at your risk. If you are dissatisfied with any of the Materials contained in the Site, or with any of these Terms of Service, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue accessing and using the Site.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW, NEITHER WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DELIVERING THE SITE IS LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR ACCESS TO, OR USE OF, THE SITE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, EVERYTHING ON THE SITE IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

You specifically acknowledge and agree that WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM is not liable for any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any user.

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM also assumes no responsibility, and shall not be liable for any damages to, or viruses that may infect, your computer equipment or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing in the Site (including any Bulletin Board) or your downloading of any Materials from the Site.

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM does not warrant or make any representations of any kind or nature with respect to the Materials. Therefore, you are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

MISCELLANEOUS

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM makes no representation that materials on this Site are appropriate or available for use in any particular location. Those who choose to access this Site do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.
These Terms of Service contain the entire understanding and supersede all prior understanding of the parties hereto relating to the subject matter hereof, and cannot be changed or terminated orally. If any provision of these Terms of Service are found to be illegal or unenforceable, these Terms of Service will be deemed curtailed to the extent necessary to make it legal and enforceable and will remain, as modified, in full force and effect.

Any comments or questions concerning the above Terms of Service should be directed to mcebuddy@tyrell.com.au