Cruisers Forum
 


Community Rules
Cruisers Forum Community Rules

Registering and participating at CruisersForum.com constitutes agreement to abide by the Social Knowledge Network Terms of Service (Social Knowledge is the company that owns this forum). ​By posting content on th​is Website you warrant that you are the creator and owner of the posted content.​

There is no charge for joining this Forum! This is a community of individuals who share a common interest in boating and cruising. Please think before you post and keep your comments limited to the topic at hand and above all be nice. If you come across any violations to these guidelines or have any problems navigating the site, do not hesitate to let us know through the Report Post function or the Contact Us link (bottom of the page). We'll be happy to address your concerns.

Be Courteous!
We aim to ensure that the forum is an enjoyable place that you want to visit time and time again. Our philosophy is that we want Cruisers Forum to be an online reflection of the boating community. Treat each other with respect just as you would on the water.
  • Our rules extend to all sections of the website including private messaging.
  • Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. Challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully. Excessive sarcasm, belligerence, insults, profanity, anger, offensive comments about race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and national origin, are not acceptable.
  • Do not post libelous remarks or directly misleading information.
  • Stay on topic by keeping discussions relevant and on track.
  • Participants may not post to bump threads. Bumping is posting useless information, posting one-liners or any other action to deliberately keep a thread hot.
  • Do not post the same discussion more than once or in more than one forum.
  • Posts containing rude, explicit, obscene or vulgar language or abbreviations, images or links to websites with adult content/images or punctuation marks designed to "trick" our obscenity filter may be removed.
  • Be mindful of yourself and others. This forum is not a democracy; it is privately owned and we make the rules. If rules are violated we retain the right at our discretion to remove, edit or delete posts and if necessary ban or remove members. Any abuse toward our staff may/will result in immediate suspension of your account.
  • Public discussion about moderation or moderator decisions is not allowed. If a moderator deletes or edits one of your posts and you disagree with the action, contact the moderator concerned. Do not repost deleted material.
  • NO SPAM! Our user base is not a resource to be "mined" by individuals, groups, or businesses, for profit or not for profit. Participants may not post affiliate links or links to direct others to any pages at their own commercial website or website in which they have a commercial interest. Exception to this may be found in Signature Standards, Marine-Related Commercial Posting, Sponsoring Vendors and Marine Service Provider Sections (see below).
  • Do not use posts to promote your blog, videos, surveys or contests. You may place a single link in your signature to a noncommercial blog
  • Trolling and cyberstalking are NOT allowed and are grounds for account restriction or banishment. Trolling on this board includes posting controversial and often irrelevant or off-topic messages with the intention of (or anticipated result of) baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal, harmonious on-topic discussion, especially when a pattern of such posting is apparent.
  • Discussions about politics, weaponry and religion are permitted only in association with the topic of this forum and will be closed or removed if they become disruptive.
  • We take the "be nice" rule VERY seriously! We do not tolerate ANY rudeness.

Posting Standards
Forum members should use the standard fonts available on the forum. The standard font size is 2. The use of bold, large or colored fonts should be used sparingly. Posts containing inappropriate formatting will be removed or modified at our discretion; e.g. all caps or excessive color.

Posts should be well formatted. Use paragraphs, punctuation, and capital letters appropriately. Excessive use of Netspeak/LOLspeak (internet slang) and texting shortcuts (b4, str8, etc) is not permitted. Posts with violations may be edited or deleted without notification.

The language of this forum is English. If you are not a native English speaker, do your best. We are glad to have you as a member and will be supportive and polite.

Do not post protected or copyrighted material. Information copyrighted or owned by any individual or entity other than the member should not be posted on the discussion forums without the consent of the owner. If such an event occurs, the individual posting the information shall be held solely responsible. You cannot legally post entire articles or news in the forum without permission from the copyright holder. Even if you attribute the article correctly it’s still copyright infringement. Under Fair Use provisions you can legally post a small abstract of an article - or perhaps the opening paragraph. In either case please post a link to source.The exception to this rule is press releases; they are meant for distribution and can be copied and posted in their entirety. If you are not sure if you can copy something then always err on the side of caution and simply post a link to the material.

Signature, Avatar, Profile and Account Standards
Community Standards apply to all sections and features of the website including avatar and profile images, signatures, usernames and other account features. Here are some specifics:
  • Signatures must be setup in your profile rather than manually added to your messages. They will appear at the bottom of every post you make.
  • Signatures must be kept to a maximum of three lines (including blank lines) and contain no more than one link (non-commercial).
  • Signature may not include email addresses, links to competing websites, prompts to contact or a sales pitch.
  • Signatures must follow our forums posting standards and only one line may be bold.
  • Supporting members may have 4 signature lines and include an additional (non-commercial) link.
  • Avatars (images beside each post) and profile pictures are set up in your profile and are intended as a visual link to your forum account. They may not be used for promotional purposes, insult or other editorial comment and may not contain logos, business names, promotional or copy protected content.
  • Usernames may not reflect a business entity, trademark or other "promotional" content and must conform to all other community rules. (Exceptions to this may be found in Sponsor information)
  • E-mail and web address are not appropriate forum user names.
  • Cruisers Forum reserves the right to delete or edit any account feature that we feel is inappropriate.

Classifieds Posting Rules
Our classifieds system is offered as a benefit of membership and is for the sale of personal items. If you are selling a boat, please ensure your ad is placed in the "Boats For Sale and Wanted" section and that it includes ALL of the following: price, location, exterior picture or pictures, interior picture or pictures, description and as much information as possible. Incomplete ads may be removed.
  • Only marine related ads are accepted. Vehicles and real estate are excluded.
  • Place only one ad per item. You may repost only when your ad has been archived.
  • Do not place ads directing others to eBay or any other commercial website. You may, however, post a link to your own non-commercial website or blog with details about the item.
  • Do not post an ad that is on behalf of someone else.
  • Do not hijack another member's thread with your own ad. Also please keep any comments relevant to the ad itself (such as asking for clarifications or additional information).
  • As a courtesy to fellow CF members, please post "Sold" in your ad if the item has been sold, or is otherwise no longer available.
  • Ads may be removed by our staff at any time for any reason.
  • For your own security we suggest you do not to post personal information such as your email address or phone number.

Marine-Related Commercial Posting
Cruisers Forum was founded for the exchange of thoughts, ideas, experience and knowledge related to sailing and power vessels, and sharing that information in a friendly, non-commercial atmosphere. We recognize, however, that many of the most experienced, informed members have a marine-related commercial interest and that their years of experience as a marine industry professional are the very foundation of their enhanced knowledge.

Because that wealth of experience and information is a treasured resource at Cruisers Forum, we allow and encourage those members to share their insight with all who visit Cruisers Forum. No member is exempt from any portion of our Community Rules while participating at Cruisers Forum, however we have some restrictions on posting that may be related to a commercial activity or business enterprise. Members may not solicit our membership or advertise except as specifically allowed in these policies or by prior arrangement with Social Knowledge, LLC.

Sponsoring Vendors
To support our commitment to provide a member based marine resource community, Cruisers Forum accepts sponsorship and advertising from companies providing quality products and services. We value our site sponsors and the expertise and experience they bring to the sailing community. Any member with a marine-related product, service or business may apply to become a Sponsoring Vendor. You can find out more by filling out our Vendor Registration Form.
Official Sponsors may not solicit our membership or advertise in any other section of the forum except as specifically allowed in these policies or by prior arrangements with SK networks.
  • Official Sponsors will be designated as Sponsors enabling them to post in the Vendor Spotlight. The Vendor Spotlight is the only forum area where Sponsors may post announcements about products and services unless the Sponsor has also opened a branded sponsor forum/section. Sponsors are encouraged to answer member questions in regard to their products and may quote product prices and promote sales specials in this forum. For detailed guidelines about Sponsor posts please read the faqs posted in the Spotlight Forum.
  • Sponsors are encouraged to post and join in general forum conversations. Sponsors may provide information including a link to external content about their products or a price only when answering direct questions about their own product or services in all sections of the forum.
  • Sponsoring Vendors are prohibited from making direct, emotionally-charged posts to, or about, competitors or their products but may offer information that points out the differences between their product and a competing product only if it serves to clarify an issue.
  • Usernames and avatars may reflect or promote a product, business or service but upon termination of sponsorship these will be edited or removed.
  • Sponsors signatures may include an image (300 x 100 pixels) with an embedded link that clicks through to their website, a business name with a (1) link to their website and business telephone number (forums standard size 2 font). No other advertising is allowed in signatures. Sponsors also have the benefit of a Sponsor badge, larger avatar and a business listing in the vendor directory.
  • Sponsor profile page information may include: A link to their business, an address and phone number.

Marine Service Providers (non-sponsoring, no fee)
Any member with a marine-related product, service or company, whether for profit or not for profit, may make a request to become a Marine Service Provider Member. This status may also be designated at our discretion.
  • Avatars may not reflect or promote a product, business or service.
  • Marine Service Providers may have their business name incorporated into their signature in standard forum font (size 2). Signatures may not contain any other commercial information.
  • A single link to their business may be included in their profile as their “Home Page URL”, but nowhere else.
  • Marine Service Providers may not use any section of the forum to discuss their products or services unless answering a direct question and even in this case may not quote prices or post links, images, videos or contact details in support of that response.
  • Marine Service Providers are not permitted to discuss competitors or their products.


Dealer/Vendor and Customer Disputes
This forum is not intended to be a mechanism for people to solely vent frustrations about vendors or sales from private parties. Please settle your differences with the seller, manufacturer and dealer through other means but not through our community.

About the First Amendment and Your "right to free speech"

We believe in public freedom of speech but that right does not infer that others have to publish your speech. Cruisers Forum is not a public resource; it is privately owned and we require members to abide by our rules and by the decisions of our staff. If you post outside these guidelines your post may be edited or deleted - this does not violate your right to Free Speech.

Site Management, Member Concerns & Account Closure

If we feel site rules are violated we may remove, edit or delete posts and if necessary ban or restrict account access. If a moderator deletes or edits one of your posts and you disagree with the action, contact the moderator concerned or any other member of our site team. Do not repost deleted material. This forum is largely self-policing, which means that moderators will respond and react to problems reported through the REPORT POST option, via the CONTACT FORM at the bottom of each page, or via PM. Do not hesitate to use these tools to report any problems regarding the forum.

Requests for changes to your account should be made by using the Contact Us link at the bottom of every forum page.

Participants may only have one account. Moderators may consolidate or delete multiple accounts.

We may remove accounts that have no posts. If the account has many posts, completely deleting the account can significantly disrupt thread continuity. In that event, we may (at our discretion) disable your account in some or all of the following ways: change the user name, remove signature content, subscriptions, avatar and identifying information or replace it with fictitious info. We may change account options to refuse contact and/or ban the account. Where communication features were used to share information with other individuals (e.g., sending a personal message to another Forum user) we generally cannot remove content. If someone quoted your post, the original user name will be shown as having been quoted (which we cannot purge).

Someone has to interpret the above guidelines and how they apply to this forum. Ultimately it's up to our site staff to make this decision. If you have any questions about these guidelines, please feel free to contact us.

Registering and participating at this site constitutes agreement to abide by these rules and to abide by the Social Knowledge Network Terms of Service (Social Knowledge is the company that owns this forum) We reserve the right to modify these rules at any time without giving prior notice to you.


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