Typical forum rules
* We take the “Be Polite” rule very seriously. We do not tolerate any rudeness. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be banned without warning.
* If you SPAM our members in any manner, your account will be disabled. Do not contact anyone to suggest your product or service who is not explicitly expecting you to contact them from an advertising forum post. If you glean information from anywhere other than the advertising forums and use that information to contact someone and present an offer, it’s SPAM and it will affect your WHT account standing.
* Your account is yours alone. You are responsible for any activity created with it. You may not share your account login with anyone. If you choose to ignore this important restriction your account, and any accounts associated with it, will be disabled.
* All publicly displayed messages are limited to the English language. This includes posts, titles, signatures, and any attachments or other forms of public display.
* Signature Spam (a post that was made in hopes of showing a signature, as determined by moderators) is forbidden in all forum categories.
* You may not post commission, referral or affiliate links anywhere on the forum.
* Cross-Posting is not allowed here. Cross-posting refers to posting new duplicate threads or posts, or the linking to threads or posts already started by the member with the intention of gaining exposure.
* You may not compensate anyone for any review or recommendation. Further, you may not suggest a tone (i.e. “Go talk good about us on WHT”).
* You may not post on behalf of any banned member in any public manner. This includes all forums, private messages, signatures, and e-mail features.
* You may not post words or URLs that are censored by adding spaces, dots, or substituting characters; or by any other means in an attempt to defeat any censors put in place by WebHostingTalk. Please contact us if you feel a word or URL is unjustly censored.
* You may not link, in any manner, to sites or images containing pornography, sexually explicit, gross violence, or are determined by moderators to be detrimental to the community.
* You must make five (5) posts before allowed by the system to include an active hyperlinked URL or other vB code features in your posts. If you choose to make meaningless posts to circumvent this restriction, your account will be disabled.
* You must make five (5) posts before utilizing the PM and system e-mail features or viewing member profile information. If you choose to make meaningless posts to circumvent this restriction, your account will be disabled.
* You may not bump threads. Bumping can refer to posting useless information, posting one-liners or any other action to deliberately keep a thread hot or to bring it to the top of its forum. Moderators will use their discretion, depending on the nature of the post, as to whether to take action or not.
* You may not use discussions to recommend, praise, or belittle other products or services, or any company; without first hand experience of those products or services. This includes companies recommending other companies. Any post not meeting a moderator’s criteria will be removed without notice.
* Any posts that encourage illegal intent will be removed and the account disabled.
* Public posts debating these rules and/or moderators’ enforcement of such, will be removed without comment. We encourage feedback however and invite you to use our help desk if you have any questions or concerns.
* Some forum categories have a “minimum (relevant, non-advertising, non-fluff) post count” and/or “minimum length of membership” restriction before a member is allowed to start a new thread. Please read the Forum Description and the Announcement within if you get a permissions error while trying to start a thread. If you choose to make meaningless posts to circumvent this restriction, your account will be disabled.
* All Promotions (Use of features and forum access) are automatically updated by a cron system that runs hourly. If you have completed a minimum restriction and have waited over an hour without being promoted, please open a help desk ticket.
* You may not publish or discuss any information regarding your product or services, or future (possible) products or services, or any product or services you are, or have been, associated with. This includes, but not limited to suggesting your own services, or services of partners, clients, employers or friends. The Advertising Forums are for advertising.
* You may not post any message that is commercial by nature.
* If your user name is the same as your URL or company name, you may not refer to it outside the advertising forums.
* You may not post any message that directs others to any pages at your own commercial domain, including informational pages. A commercial domain is defined as a site that receives any type of income or links to any income producing properties.
* You may not direct others to contact you.
* You may not solicit the membership for feedback or suggestions on your product or services.
* You may not solicit users for any project or purpose external to the forum; public, private, or commercial. Most importantly our member base is not a resource to be “mined” by individuals, groups, or businesses, for profit or not for profit.
* You may only discuss details about your company and/or product offerings when the thread starter or poster has made direct reference to your company and stated something untrue or misleading, or something which clearly needs clarifying. The response must be in direct reference to the point discussed only and contain no added promotional information and/or fluff. It is advisable when in the above scenario to contact us first.
* Advertising is limited to one ad per 7 days posted in the Advertising Forums regarding your companies, sub-companies or associated companies. It will remain any companies’ responsibility to schedule and maintain the offers your employees post in conforming with this important rule.
* You must be a member for, at least, seven (7) days before starting a thread.
* You are expected and required to read and follow the rules outlined within a category that are posted as Announcements.
* You may not intentionally “trash” or “troll” in another user’s advertisement thread.
* The ‘Advertising Forums’ are not a place for you to criticize or pass comment on another user’s advertisement. Comments such as “You could get a better deal at…..”, or “Your price is way too high for that…”, or “That design stinks….”, etc. will be removed and your account may be suspended.
* Keep your posts clean. A maximum of two colors and two font styles are allowed.
* Requests for loans or other banking transfers are not allowed in any Forum Category.
* Any attempts to defraud or deceive our members may result in your account being suspended.
* URLs or other forms of advertising (phone numbers, plans, contact details, etc.) are not allowed in custom user titles or names, which are limited to 25 characters. Also, you may not use custom titles to impersonate, or attempt to impersonate, WHT Staff, user groups, or any entity you are not associated with.
* Your location field cannot include URLs or other forms of advertising.
* Profile pictures cannot include sexually explicit or graphically intense images.
* Profile Summary (and all other modules) cannot include or link to illegal encouragement, harassment, sexually explicit, or other non-family-friendly content.
* Signatures:
Are a benefit extended to WHT members who have made 10 helpful posts and completed 7 days of registration.
Must be setup in your profile, and not manually added to your messages.
May not contain any pricing, plan, sales, etc. details. “Free” is considered a price in the context of this rule.
May not use the word “Free” to describe any cost.
May contain a maximum of two smilies. Or one animated smiley.
May include two clickable links.
May include two colors, plus black.
Maximum font size cannot be larger than normal.
Must be kept to a maximum of four lines when viewed at 1024×768 resolution using the horizontal postbit.
May not contain links to other threads or posts.
Please keep special characters to a minimum.
Your signature is your signature. It is not for sale or rent.
Any signature that is offensive or insulting to WHT, its members, or its staff, is prohibited.
We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature at any time, for any reason.