RULES of our ScorpionForum - READ this before you make a Post!

Here's the basic rules, folks. Follow them, and everyone's happy. <-- a happy admin/mod

Instances of broken rules will be edited / deleted / reprimanded as the staff sees fit.

Admins, please update as necessary.

Play Nice
Let's try to keep this forum to a friendly atmosphere. If you have problems with someone, keep it to PMs -- that means no publicly attacking, sarcasm, insulting or generally being a jerk to other members.

Do NOT post graphic photos or inverts eating verts
If you have a predatory vertebrate where mammals are in their natural diet, feel free to post feeding photos, but if there's any gore, please link the photos instead of directly showing them, AND include a "graphic" warning in either the link or the thread title. A snake with a mouse sticking out its mouth is fine, a monitor lizard with rat guts hanging from its teeth is not. And if you like to feed your T. blondi mice, go ahead, but don't post about it here. Those threads always result in flame wars.

Don't talk about other forums
Some of our members frequent multiple forums dedicated to our hobbies, and we don't want anyone to start a contest of "my forum's better than your forum." Those things turn ugly fast. If you want to link to another forum in your signature, feel free.

No swearing or adult content
This kind of falls under the "play nice" rule. We'd like to keep this forum family-friendly.

No spamming
This should go without saying. Posting appropriately in the classifieds is OK, but don't flood the forums with ads. Same goes for promoting your forum (see above).

No thread-jacking
Stay on the original topic of threads. If you have something unrelated to say, start a new thread.

No grave-digging
If a thread is more than ONE month old (please refer to the last post being made in that thread), do not post on it and have it bumped up to the top. Please leave it be (unless you are the original poster with updated information). If you have some questions pertaining to that "old" thread, please pm/ email the Original Poster(OP) or you may start a new thread. Posts that are made against this rule will be removed and points may be issued to the member's account.

No netspeak/unreadable grammar, and keep the language used, in English
Not only is netspeak hard to read, it's almost indecipherable for some of our international members. As a basic courtesy to others and to ensure readability of the messages here, do not use netspeak/ SMS lingo or slang in your posts here. (No more "dis" for This, "da" for The, "w/e" for whatever, "w8" for wait etc

This is an international forum, please stick to english as the only language used here. If we find messages that are not in-line with this requirement we will delete them immediately. Let's try to keep the community open to everyone.

Please post in the appropriate forums
E.g. Caresheets, Guides and Tutorials are put up as references for hobbyists, not as points of discussion. If you have a question directly pertaining to them, go ahead and post, but commenting on a caresheet such as "Hey, I'm getting a _____ what _______ do you recommend?" or "nice writeup" will get your post deleted.

Posting in appropriate forums - addendum October 2009
Replying/ posting in multiple threads asking about buying/adopting someone's scorpions or asking every Tom, Dick, and Harry if they sell/trade/give ____ species is rude and doesn't contribute to the hobby. If you're looking to buy a species, please post a "WTB" ad in the classifieds. That's what they're there for. Posts that do not adhere to this will be deleted.

Discussing illegal behavior - addendum December 2010
Debate is a useful tool in discussing and learning about many things, and as such, we welcome open discussion on many topics, especially those that pertain to the hobby. However, we must impose some restrictions on discussions pertaining to activity that may be illegal. DISCUSSION is perfectly acceptable, but any posts that could be construed as suggesting, encouraging, or advocating of illegal behavior will NOT be permitted. Authoritative figures do browse a variety of forums, and many will take an implication of something illegal as reason enough to investigate.

Multiple-user accounts - addendum March 2011
Under no circumstances is an account to be used by more than one person. If your brother / sister / spouse / significant other / cousin / uncle / niece / Pandinus spp. wants to use the forum, then he / she / it can set up another account.

PMs - addendum March 2011
Abusive or spam-like PMs will not be tolerated. If you want to promote / sell something, use the appropriate forums. If someone doesn't reply back, your PM probably went through, but the recipient has chosen not to respond. Deal with it.

Adhering to the following section-specific rules

** Introduce Yourself

** Member Pictures

** Breeding Reports

** Envenomation Reports

** [HOW TO] Scorpion Guides / Tutorials

** [ASA] All-Scorpion-Archives

** Links

** Articles

** For Sale / Trade

** Buyer / Seller Review

** Buyer / Seller Review Sheet

** https://scorpionforum.darkbb.com/t230-suppliment-to-the-rules

Addendum to the no swearing rule:

If we can tell what you're trying to say, asterisks still count as swearing.

If you want to express your frustrations, saying [insert expletive here] is ok.

This subject has been popping out in other forums, so before they make their way here I'd like to make a rule against it.
NO POST ON ANIMAL CRULETY
If you find an article you want to share, thats fine but no posting videos or pictures of "Scorpion VS. Mouse", "Tarantula Vs. Bird", ect.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. Feeder bugs are okay. ABSOLUTLY NO GLADIOATOR BUGS OR JAPANESE BUG FIGHTS. If you find a video DOCUMENTARY style of an encounter between "scorpion vs. tarantula"or similar that is excepted. If you post any of these videos here you will be suspended or banned depending on the seriousness of the video.
-Eddy

A thing along the same lines as Eddy's post:

Do not post pictures of invertebrates being fed vertebrates! Some people object, some people don't care, but these pictures ALWAYS incite debate that quickly degrades into childish insults and name-calling. This result NEVER contributes to the nature of the forum or to the promotion of our hobby.

Thanks

No fake ages allowed
Under no circumstances is the usage of fake age allowed in your profile, no matter how funny you think it might be.
Members with suspicious/absurd age (eg. 102; 666 etc.) will be automatically banned/deleted. For accounts which wrong age (created on and before 4 Oct 12), the mods may contact him/her to update their account details and they will be given one week to act on it before further actions will be taken against his/her account. No excuse for accounts created from 5 Oct 12 onwards.

Do NOT type in capital letters
If it's for a word within the sentence to emphasize the importance, it is fine.
However, do not type your entire post in capital letters. E.g. CAPITAL LETTERS ARE REGARDED AS 'SHOUTING' AT OTHERS.

Making a post
If you have something to add within 30 minutes of your previous post, and there are no replies, use the Edit button.

The following are some rules that has been commonly overlooked. Please take note.

No grave-digging
If a thread is more than ONE month old (please refer to the last post being made in that thread), do not post on it and have it bumped up to the top. Please leave it be (unless you are the original poster with updated information). If you have some questions pertaining to that "old" thread, please pm/ email the Original Poster(OP) or you may start a new thread. Posts that are made against this rule will be removed and points may be issued to the member's account.

"For Sale / Trade" section
1. Use the correct title format for your sales thread
2. Do NOT post in the sales thread belonging to other forum members

Do refer to the following for the rules governing the "For sale/ trade" section:
https://scorpionforum.darkbb.com/t19-read-before-posting-rules-updated-on-jan-2012

Regards,
GS