User Agreement - DFWMAS Forum Rules

Access to the DFWMAS website and use of the forums and other services offered through the site are subject to the terms and conditions of this user agreement and copyright notice and all applicable laws and regulations, including laws and regulations governing copyright and trademark. By accessing the site and services, you accept, without limitation or qualification, all of the terms and conditions in this user agreement. DFWMAS reserves the right to modify these terms and conditions at any time without notice. The changes will be reflected on this site within this post. By using the services of this website, you agree in advance to accept any future additions or modifications.

1. You agree not to post or transmit (publicly or privately), any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, violate the rights of others, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law. Actions against Users, Members, or Staff is a violation of forum rules and could result in the loss of your access and or membership.

2. It is requested that members focus their communication on topics related to the marine aquaria hobby. Discussion (or links, signatures etc….) pertaining to religion, politics or other emotionally charged subject matter will be reviewed and may be removed.

3. To keep the BB on topic and hobby related, you are asked to refrain from posting non-aquaria related images and/or links in your signature space. Images in signatures should not be wider than 650 pixels or taller than 120 pixels. An signature, avatar, or username may not contain commercial names, commercial graphics, commercial logos, political or religious symbols, any text containing political or religious content, inflammatory or inappropriate content or emails/URLs other than ones for personal non-commerce website containing information or pictures of your personal aquarium. One exception to the previous rule is for users of the forums who are also sponsors or supporters of DFWMAS, those users are allowed a URL in their signature line that links to their commercial site and a commercial username.

4. You are responsible for, and indemnify and hold harmless DFWMAS and representatives against, any claim arising from any material that you post or transmit. We reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

5. You acknowledge that DFWMAS does not control the information available on the message boards, chat rooms and other user and member-generated pages and that any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content presented or disseminated on any bulletin board, chat room or on any other user or member-generated pages are those of their respective authors who are solely liable for their content. Although DFWMAS may from time to time monitor or review discussions, chats, postings, transmissions, message boards and other user and member-generated pages on this website, neither DFWMAS nor any of its agents, representatives or licensors are under any obligation to do so. DFWMAS reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to refuse to post or remove any material submitted to or posted on the website.

6. The member-generated content of this website contains information, facts and opinions from various sources, including individuals and organizations. They are posted on an “as is” basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, other than those warranties which are imposed by and incapable of exclusion, restriction or modification under the laws applicable to this agreement. Neither DFWMAS nor its affiliates endorse or are responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement on the service or the sites.

7. Any communication or material you post or transmit is, and will be treated as, non-confidential and non-proprietary. You assume full responsibility for everything you post or transmit, and you grant DFWMAS the right to display this material on its websites. DFWMAS makes no ownership claims to any material you post or transmit and agrees that all submitted materials, text, graphics and files remain the sole property of their creator, with individual exceptions such as contest entries specifically labeled as such when solicited.

8. Your use of this website is at your own risk. Neither DFWMAS, nor any of its agents, representatives or licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any loss or injury or any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive or similar damages arising out of your access or use of, or your inability to access or use, the services of this website and the information available on this website or arising out of any action taken in response to or as a result of any information available on this website. You hereby waive any and all claims against DFWMAS arising out of your use of the services of this web site and the information available thereon. DFWMAS does not review or monitor any web sites linked to the member-generated content of this web site and are not responsible for the content of any such linked web sites. Your linking to such websites is at your own risk.

9. We will not offer any information about you to any company. However, you should be aware that if you voluntarily disclose personal information (e.g., name, email address) on a bulletin board, chat room or on any other user or member-generated pages, that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other parties.

10. DFWMAS exists for the non-commercial exchange of information. Partners of the club are given a forum to promote their business in accordance with the partnership agreement. All other posts or signatures that are deemed to be commercial in nature are a violation of this user agreement and will be removed. As it pertains to the User Agreement, DFWMAS defines ?commercial post? as knowing and willful posts made by private individuals or businesses, directly or indirectly seeking commerce. Additionally, posts made by individuals or businesses in regard to other commercial activities, in anticipation of direct or indirect economic benefit or relief from the subject activity, will generally be regarded as ?commercial?.

11. The commercial post policy is applicable to every method of transmission on this BB, including links, signatures and public/private messages. Recognizing that it is impossible to construct a definition which encompasses every situation or circumstance, DFWMAS reserves the right to determine whether or not a post violates the ?intent? of the ?commercial post? policy or definition. Violation of this policy is a violation of forum rules and could result in the loss of your access or membership.

12. This User Agreement and any disputes arising out of or related to the services of this web site shall be governed by, and construed and enforced in accordance with, the laws of the State of Texas. DFWMAS reserves the right to refuse service to anyone at any time at the DFWMAS Board discretion. An attempt to circumvent these rules or deceive DFWMAS through the creation of an additional user profile or screen name or any other way is not permissible and could result in the loss of your access or membership.

13. Comments and suggestions are always welcome, but we require that posters keep their comments positive and constructive. Negative threads, post, or attacks will be removed from view and reviewed by the DFWMAS staff. If a member continues to be disruptive, argumentative, or repeatedly ignores the forum rules, they may receive a suspension of access based on recommendations from the Board. These rules apply to ALL DFWMAS Forums

14. Using the club forums, website, meetings, or pm system to promote other Hobby related clubs, events, or activities must be approved in advance by the BOD. Members and guest may not solicit fellow members or guest for anything outside of the DFWMAS club and forums without written permission from the BOD. Violation of this policy will be grounds for suspension of access based on recommendations from the Board

ALSO, please be aware of all Buy/Sell/Trade rules. If you are not familiar with them please take a moment to read them – viewtopic.php?f=8&t=65582
Members wanting to start a Group Buy also need to be aware of the specific rules for that process – viewtopic.php?f=13&t=65583

If you have any questions or concerns you may contact the Board of Directors via the forum messenging system by sending a PM to user ‘DFWMAS BOD’

Selling Forum Rule’s

1. Selling is a privilege, not a right. Your ability to sell or offer any item or service on the forum can be suspended or revoked at the Staff?s discretion.

2. A price must be in your post if selling the item(s). No auction or make an offer type posts are allowed. Additionally, you can ask for Best Offers provided the asking price is listed in conjunction with the lowest price you are willing to accept.

3. The location where the item is located must be posted or in the sellers profile. It can be as general as a city or as detailed as you feel comfortable with.

4. The item must belong to you. You may not post anything belonging to a friend, family member or business entity. Sponsors are allowed to post an item description for sale with a link back to their page for details.

5. All Items must be in your possession. You may not post anything that you currently do not have on hand or that you will be ?ordering? to sell or that you have to pick up in order to sell.

6. Misrepresentation of Items is not allowed. If you sell a LE coral and it?s not authentic for example. Selling something as NEW when it?s used, or selling something in working order and it?s not. Mistakes happen, but a user who displays a history of misrepresenting what they sell may lose forum access.

7. Posting your item with links to others sale threads, or any posts or PMs that drive users away from a given sale thread will not be allowed. PM sniping will not be tolerated. Any sellers or buyers receiving them are asked to report them.

8. Any and all posts NOT expressing interest in or requesting more info about the item(s) for sell/trade will be deleted as they are off- topic. Exceptions to this are bumping posts to the top and expressing thanks for a completed transaction.

9. Selling/reselling of corals or ?Chop Shop? corals is not allowed. The Sale forum is a place to sell ?excess or unwanted? corals from your system. It is not a place to make supplemental income by buying cheap retail or wholesale corals and reselling or cutting them up for profit. You are free to start a group buy to split a colony with other club members.

10. You are allowed to make a profit from any corals, fish that you purchase, grow and frag for resale. Selling or turning profits by using employee discounts to buy products from your employer to sell on the forum is prohibited. Purchasing items with the intent to resell for a profit on this site is not allowed. Anyone who has a history of selling an excessive volume of hobby related items for a profit could lose their privileges to sell on the site if deemed they are running a business.

11. The Sale/Trade forum is for aquarium hobby related items only. For anything else, please post in the Non-Hobby Related items Sale/Trade forum. Note, this is a member?s only benefit.

12. If you have multiple items to sell, you must post them all in one thread. The only exception is if you are parting out your whole system, then you are allowed to post all equipment together in a single post and all fish/coral’s together in another separate post. Spamming of our Sales forum is not allowed.

13. ABSOLUTELY no firearms, alcohol, or illegal items to be sold.

Group Buy Rules

1. Group Buy threads must be started by a club member, and or sponsor. Guests are allowed to participate, but not run a Group Buy.

2. All Items listed in the Group Buy must have either a selling price, or target discount amount for the GB sale as a whole.

3. All Group Buy?s must have a documented source, no phantom suppliers will be allowed.

4. All Group Buy?s must have a start and finish date. These dates can change during the GB process, but there will be no open-ended GB?s.

5. Vendors, even if they are sponsors, are not allowed to contribute to the Group Buy except to answer questions regarding the products. Photo?s and prices must be maintained by the thread starter. If a GB is being done with a Sponsor and the Sponsor wishes to contribute with Prices, Photos etc, then the thread starter can ask Mod Staff to move the thread to the Sponsors forum, with a redirect entry maintained in the GB Forum.

6. All Group Buy threads must have a running list of purchasers/purchases in the first post of the thread. If a purchaser wishes to maintain privacy on what is being purchased, substitute their username with an alias.

7. Payment method must be spelled out in the first post of the Group Buy thread.

8. Location of pickup and delivery options must be spelled out in the first post of the thread and all products must be delivered to the Group Buy thread starter, not a third party or location. If you the thread starter does not wish to post specific location, give the basic information such as city or zip code.

9. As with anything on these forums, you ARE NOT allowed, at any time, to solicit sales, members, or guest from the DFWMAS site for group buys on other sites, unless previously approved by the Board of Directors from DFWMAS.