Community Rules that all members are expected to follow - MUST READ!

Welcome to Squier-Talk. First of all, glad to see you here, thanks for visiting!

We operate this forum on a few basic principles--
1. This website is "PG" rated and will contain materials consistent with that rating.
2. Everyone deserves respect -- treat others with respect regardless of how difficult that may be
3. As a community we all appreciate and deserve civil behavior. Fighting and disruption will not be permitted.
4. Posts about illegal activities, sex, drugs, politics, religion or hate are never permitted here.

Please never assume that if something "wrong" is on the forum that we have seen it and have approved it by leaving it in place. There are thousands of posts and we can't read them all. Every post has a red "report" button available. Please use this to notify Moderators of spammers, arguments, improper or illegal activity on Squier-Talk.com. REPORT ONLY RULE VIOLATIONS PLEASE - not things you don't like or threads in the wrong forum.

Now, here are the specifics of those principles spelled out in more detail:

PG - RATED COMMUNITY:
We operate Strat-Talk as a PG Rated community. We do this for several reasons: it satisfies the largest number of people, it makes the forum more professional overall, and it appeals to advertisers (without which the forum would cease to exist).

NO GIRLY OR CHEESECAKE PHOTOS:
Because this is a largely male dominated forum, "guys being guys" leads to posts containing scantily-clad women from time to time. This has proven to lead to members pushing the acceptable limits of this with ever more risque photos in kind of a competition to see how far things can go. So, to prevent this we don't allow ANY such "Girly" or "Cheesecake" photos of scantily-clad women -- with guitars or not. HNGD or not.

YOUR OPINIONS ARE NOT FACTS:
Always respect other Forum members opinions even if they clash with your own. Try and win them over to your side if you wish, but in a friendly way! Give others room to have differing opinions. Don't state your opinion as FACT.

NO PERSONAL ATTACKS:
When someone says something you don't agree with don't turn on them and attack them personally. Don't call people names. Don't resort to school yard bullying tactics. If you find yourself posting about some other poster and what they've done to offend you... that's the first sign that you are going offbase and attacking people personally.

USE CORRECT FORUMS:
Squier-Talk is the place to talk about guitars, amps, bands and music of any kind. Please try to post your message in the appropriate forum.

ALTERING QUOTED COMMENTS:
Editing someone's words to alter the content of their quote is not permitted. Editing a quote to single out one phrase or sentence or to shorten the quote is permitted. But when you quote another member's post leave the original post author's words INTACT for the part that you quote. This applies to "jokes" as well as for any other reason. No "Fixed It" posts.

FOR SALE POSTS:
Don't ever post anything for sale, for trade, or wanted to buy. Commercial posts of any kind are never allowed. Use the Classifieds for such posts (dealers in the commercial section only please).

ALL CROWDFUNDING IS PROHIBITED:
Links to Crowdfunding campaings (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, gofundme, etc) or Crowd Donor sites (YouCaring, Crowdrise, etc) are never permitted. Please do not post these or link to them in posts or Private Messages on our website. Also, do not attempt to use our website to raise funds from our members for ANY reason.

COMMERCIAL DEALERS:
You cannot post links to your commercial website in any of your posts or in your signature. You cannot use Squier-Talk to discuss your products, your pricing, your delivery schedule or anything pertaining to your commercial operation in posts on Squier-Talk. Others may talk about your products... but you are prohibited from doing so.

NO PROMOS FOR COMPETING WEBSITES:
You may not post links promoting competing music/guitar website on our website. This includes using Posts, Signatures or Private Messages for this purpose. These kinds of promotions will be removed regardless of them being commercial or not.

AFFILIATE LINKS:
No one may attempt to use this forum to generate Affiliate income through the posting of Affiliate links in posts or threads. Any member caught doing so will be banned for spamming.

CLASSIFIED ADs/NOTICES:
Be courteous to other members and refrain from making sideline comments in Classified Ads. Opinions of the item or the price are out of line there. If you are not buying you should not be posting. Also, posting a notice in the Forums about your classified listing is NOT permitted.

DECAL REQUESTS:
Don't post about buying or selling or finding trademarked items such as guitar decals. This is the one sure way to get lawyers to come after our website.

FRAUDULENT PRODUCTS:
Do not post about buying. selling or finding trademarked items such as counterfeit guitars, guitar products or decals. Nor may you post links to any such counterfeit goods. This creates legal issues for our website and we do not wish to promote these illegal items on our sites.

OFF LIMIT SUBJECTS:
Some subjects cause nothing but trouble, so no posting about:
1. Politics
2. Religion
3. Sex (including improper photos or videos)
4. Drugs - usage, laws, legality or paraphernalia
5. Current Wars or national disputes
6. Gun rights or politics
7. Pirated Music or downloads
8. See below for greater detail...

"POLITICAL" POSTS:
Our "off-topic" area is made for "non-guitar" discussion, but it's not for discussion of foreign policy, global warming, job outsourcing, domestic economic policy, global trade issues, labor politics, gun rights, criminal justice policy or issues, any specific branches of government or generally any government policy on the local, state, national or international level.

We limit this because discussion of these important issues are going to lead to politically based partisan discussion. So, they are just not suited for Squier-Talk's off-topic discussion areas.

It's not about "censorship" it is about finding a more appropriate venue to discuss issues that will lead to heated debate and cause damaged relationships within this community.

ANY MENTION OF A POLITICIAN BY NAME OR BY IMAGE -- EVEN AS A JOKE -- WILL BE CONSIDERED A POLITICAL POST.

SWEARING:
Don't try to get by the word censor by using faux spellings (**** and etc) instead of swear words.

SENSITIVE SUBJECTS
On a public forum it is best not to discuss intimate and sensitive subjects. Please do not post on subjects such as Divorce, Spouse Abuse, Family Fighting, Addictions, Sexual Identity, Transgender, Psychological, Mental Heath, STDs, Sexual Dysfunction, Bankruptcy, Credit Worthiness, Eviction or other subjects of a sensitive and intimate nature.

Posts on Suicide will be removed. Threats of Suicide WILL BE REPORTED TO AUTHORITIES.

SIGNATURES & AVATARS:
All of the rules pertaining to posts on the website apply to the content of signatures, avatars, profile posts/photos and media gallery uploads and comments, as well. Any signature containing religious, political or other prohibited content will be deleted. So, please leave your political comments, Bible verses, drug references or sexual material out of your signature, avatar, profile info, etc on this website.

TROLLING:
As in trolling for a fight. This is easy to see, but harder to explain. Posting an opposite opinion, in a way simply to start a fight. Here's an example: "What Squier should I buy?" the troll would respond "Don't buy a Squier they are dumb, buy a real Fender instead."Opposite opinions are NOT against the rules and are encouraged, but trolling for disagreement and arguments is against the rules of the page.

CONTESTS/FUND RAISING/CHARITIES OR ANY OTHER PERSONAL USES:
You cannot use Squier-Talk to stage a contest or to request donations for any charity or for any "personal" use that you may think of. This includes posting links to sites requesting charitable donations. This includes asking people to donate money or purchase items you are selling here or elsewhere to fund needs of any kind for family, friends, neighbors, pets, other members or anyone. You cannot use Squier-Talk to stage a contest on your own for any purpose without first getting express approval from the Administrator/Owner. You cannot use Squier-Talk to have everyone vote for you in a contest in which if you win you would receive anything of value -- money, trips, equipment and any other consideration. In short, you may not use Squier-Talk for your own personal use of any kind without first asking for permission. Keep in mind that Squier-Talk is owned by the GearTalk Network, part of SumGroup, Inc, a Texas Corporation and no member may presume to use the website for their own private purpose.

MEDICAL/QUASI-MEDICAL OR HOMEOPATHIC DRUGS/SUPPLEMENTS:
You cannot use Squier-Talk to provide advice for others to use specific drugs or supplements. Offering specific medical advice and/or the recommendation of specific doctors, treatments, drugs or supplements exposes the website to legal liability and will be removed.

THREATS OF LEGAL ACTION:
Please be aware that any threatened legal action against the owners, administrators, moderators or members of this website will instantly result in your account here being permanently banned from future participation -- regardless of the issue. Legal demands via post, Private Message or Email will be ignored. Our attorneys will only respond to legal demands sent via certified mail to our corporate headquarters.

BANNING:
If you violate our guidelines here you can get banned from the page. Sometimes without warning. There is no discussion about this. It is entirely up to the moderators and staff. If you receive an email with a warning about something you've done wrong here, be careful how you respond. If you reply with name calling and swearing you will automatically be banned.

WHEN CONTACTED BY A MODERATOR:
Do not ever post for public discussion on our websites the statements or actions of moderators conveyed to you via Private Message or Email. These communications are between you and the moderator and are not open for public discussion. To try to do so may also result in your banning from the site.

The Moderators here are volunteers that serve to make the site better by keeping things under control. It's a lousy thankless job. Many times they take abuse from those that they contact. They are not perfect but they are acting in the best interest of the website 100% of the time and they do not need to be second guessed by armchair mods that think they could do a better job.

If you have a question about a Mod action or another member that was banned, please do not start a thread questioning Mod actions or bannings as this thread / post will be removed. Instead, PM or Email the Mod directly.


Enjoy your stay here, post long and come back often. Have fun.

Tell your friends about us!
Squier-Talk
PS. We try to make this list of rules as complete as possible to make it easy for folks to see what is and isn't permissible. However, this list can't cover everything that someone could possibly think to do with their posts on Squier-Talk -- when in doubt ALWAYS send an email to the webmaster first BEFORE posting something that seems like it could be a problem.

 

There are no new rules listed above. This is a copy+paste from the original rules post that has been in place here for years. I just wanted to make sure that it was posted as a sticky at the top of this off-topic forum, so that everyone could easily find it.