**UPDATED**Forum Rules and Regulations

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A5OG.net is run by a small team of dedicated volunteers with the aim of giving a haven for good natured discussion, debates and fun on the internet. It is the Individual Members responsibility to aware of all current forum Rules/Guidelines. Ignorance isn't a justifiable excuse, so if you aren't certain then ask first.

In the interest of creating a discussion forum environment that encourages active posting by both new and long-term members, we have created a "Code of Conduct" that all posters must adhere to. This Code of Conduct is broken down into three main Catagories: General Posting Guidelines, Avatar & Signature Guidelines, and Buy, Sell, Trade Guidelines. In addition to this, a Glossary of Terms has been created to better define to the membership as to how some terms apply to this site.

For your ease of navigating this thread, we have included a Linked Thread Index.

1. General Posting Guidelines
2. Avatar & Signature Guidelines
3. Buy, Sell, Trade Guidelines
4. Glossary of Terms
5. Terms of Service

Moderation

We moderate the forum on a common sense basis and would ask that each of our visitors obeys simple general good manners when posting on the forum. We have a very wide range of user groups represented on the forum so please don't post swearies, pornographic pictures or anything that you wouldn't want your own kids accessing !

This is a 'moderated' forum so moderators can and will move topics which are posted in the wrong area, and they will also edit / close/ delete topics at their discretion. Posts with poor grammar or L33t speak may also be edited / closed / deleted.


Warning System

The mods will issue warnings for wrongful behavior and their decision is not up for debate! Users may also be banned without notice or explanation from the team if we feel it is in the best interests of the community. This Site enforces both a "three strikes you're out" policy for repeated violation of TOS and an immediate banning policy for extreme infractions. When necessary, posters who have broken forum rules will receive an official warning from staff via the forums' "private message" feature. After two warnings, a third infraction will result in immediate termination of the account without further notice. (It is the responsibility of each forum member to check their PMs on a regular basis.)

The following infractions are grounds for immediate, no-questions-asked banning from the Forums:

• Drive-by Spamming. Users who register and post for the sole purpose of linking to their own sites will be immediately banned from the forums.
  
• Threatening Posters. Users who make threats of a physical and/or cyber (hacking, viruses, or other malicious internet based attacks.) nature against staff or members via forum posts, private messages or e-mail will be immediately banned from the forums. Posters who receive such threats should immediately contact a staff member and should save the original copy of the threat.
  
• Public Challenging of the Management Team. Users who purposely and publicly challenge the ruling, warning, and/or actions of the Management Team are subject to an immediate ban without further warning. Any and all issues concerning any member of the Management Team are to be ADDRESSED BY PM TO THE ADMINISTRATOR(S) OF THE SITE ONLY.

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General Posting Guidelines

• All Buy/Sell/Trade threads are restricted to the B/S/T section. If they are posted anywhere other than that section, it will be deleted.
• This forum makes use of a Language Filter. Any use of Symbols, Letters, or Numbers of any type to avoid the filter is prohibited.
• This forum is about Paintball, so please don't post topics of a political, religious, or racial nature without moderator approval.
• Do not spam.
• No warez, cracks, serials or illegally obtained copyrighted content! Links to content of a questionable nature, asking for, offering, or asking for help/helping to process such content in any way or form is not tolerated.
• No cross posting. Post your message once, to the appropriate forum and nowhere else or it will be locked or deleted without warning.
• Use a title that describes the content of your post. Don't use all caps or special characters to draw attention.
• All questions pertaining to sections or use of this forum should be posted in the appropriate areas, and not sent as PM's or Email's to the Admin or Mods.
• All posts are required to be in English unless prior approval is given
• Multiple registrations are prohibited and are grounds for immediate account deletion. One account per person.
• Creating a second account to attempt to circumvent an account ban is not allowed and will result in an immediate IP Ban.
• You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use the Forums to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, rude, disrespectful, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.
• You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or you post the url to the original source giving them credit.
• Advertisements of any type, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are not permitted
• Absolutely NO flaming or Flame baiting. Posts containing hostile language or rudeness directed at staff or other members will not be tolerated. Posts made with the intent to solicit a hostile response constitutes Flame Baiting and will not be Tolerated.
• Adult content is prohibited. Because the forums are family friendly, discussion or linking of adult sites is prohibited by the TOS. Links to adult content and/or posting of jokes or comments of an adult nature in either forum posts or user profile are prohibited. All links to adult content, within forum posts will be immediately deleted and the posters will be issued an official warning from staff. Adult links located within your user profile will be deleted by the administrator.
• The posting of EYE CANDY, and/or direct links to such content is not allowed.
• Self promotion is prohibited. The forums are designed to be an educational environment. Posters who solicit work within threads, or who make posts for the sole purpose of linking to their own content will be issued an official warning from staff.
• Thread hi-jacking will not be tolerated. All posters must respect the rights of other members to post questions, comments and ideas that do not agree with their own. Please keep your posts "on topic" i.e. relevant to the subject(s) of the thread.
• When you post asking for help, allow other members time to respond. Repeatedly "bumping" your post without allowing sufficient time for someone to respond constitutes spamming and will result in the post being locked.
  
• When repping, you are required to fill in the comment section as to why you gave the individual +/- rep. Any member found giving NEGATIVE REP without filling in the Comment section as to why said rep was given will receive Negative rep from the Management Team.
• Before creating new threads, please use the Search feature. You may find that your issue/topic has already been addressed.
• Look before posting to ensure you are posting in the correct section.

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Avatar & Signature Guidelines

Avatars and Signatures are provided to allow members to add a custom/personal touch to their Posts. There are a few guidelines which all members must follow, remember this is a privilege.

• No nudity, violent, graphic, illegal or racist images/logos/words. Please keep it PG-13.
• No derrogatory, or offensive Avatars/Signatures are allowed.
• Avatars are limited to 125x125 pixels in size and up to 50 kb.
• Profile Pics are limited to 250x150 pixels in size and up to 75 kb.
• Signatures are limited to 500w x100h pixels in size and no larger than 50,000 total pixels in size.
• All forum Members are allowed up to 3 images not to exceed a combined total of 50,000 pixels, and up to five lines of text for signatures.
• Any coding (HTML, HTM, CSS, the Vbulletin BBcode...etc) which yields an image as it's final product when displayed constitutes an image, and falls under the 3 image limit and size guidelines.
• Signatures linking to a Business are allowed so long as they are within the signature and forum guidelines.
• You can link to your E-bay sales, and B/S/T section items on this forum but you CANNOT put "I got xyz for sale for $123" or "I got xyz to trade for xyz" in your signature. There is a B/S/T section for those types of postings.
• Offsite B/S/T threads are not allowed to be linked in your Signature.
• Avatars or Signatures containing references to drugs, and/or drug use is not allowed (unless for legitimate drug awareness purposes) and will be deleted without prior notice.
• Added 8/26/2008: While we recognize that many of our members are involved in specific historical military recreation, we cannot allow members to post Nazi-specific images. These images include, but are not limited to: the Nazi swastika, the SS lightning bolts or Death's Head, or any image which appears to glorify Nazi leadership, policies or any current iteration of Nazism or racial supremacy. This policy is not meant to discourage members from displaying period-authentic German Army/Wehrmacht uniforms, weapons or insignia. This policy is open to interpretation by A5OG staff and members are encouraged to contact a moderator with any questions.

Forum members found to be in violation of these requirements will be issued a warning and the offending Avatar/Signature removed.

Second offense will result in the member loosing the Avatar/Signature privilege for a period of time, and possible further punishment.

Management has final say in what is acceptable on all Avatars/Signatures. This issue is not up for debate, and all decisions are final. These rules are subject to change without notice.

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Buy, Sell, Trade Guidelines

This section of the forum has been created as a way for fellow members to get together and buy, sell, or trade their personal items. As such a few guidelines apply to this section in addition to general forum rules.

• No illegal, racist, or pornographic items may be listed. Keep all listings PG-13.
• Ripping off forum members will not be tolerated. Offending member(s) will be banned and reported to the proper authorites.
• Be as discriptive as possible, and include photo's if possible. If it has a scratch, then say.... It has a scratch.
• If you make a deal, then stick with it.
• No bulk, wholesale, or Business sales without prior approval from the management team.
• All posts containing an item for sale, must have an asking price listed with it.
• DO NOT HIJACK a person's thread with your items or anyone else's.
• Links to Ebay listings are allowed, and should be posted only in the B/S/T section.
• One "Bump" per day is allowed.
• You can link to your E-bay sales, and B/S/T section items on this forum but you CANNOT put "I got xyz for sale for $123", "I have xyz for trade", and/or "I want to buy/trade for xyz" in your signature. There is a B/S/T section for those types of postings.
• Links to offsite B/S/T threads are only allowed to be posted in the B/S/T section of this forum.
• Per the PayPal User Agreement, section 4.7: "You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as a payment method." This means that you, the payment receiver (Seller/Trader), cannot add any fee's to the payment sender (Buyer/Trader) for using PayPal as a payment method.
• No real firearms, body armor or other restricted items. Underage users post here, this is a paintball forum and no place to sell items like these.

The use of the B/S/T section is a privilege thats earned. As such, this forum makes use of set of requirements that must be met before individual members can post in this section. To gain access you must meet the following requirements:

50 Rep Points
50 Posts
30 Days on the Forum

Rep is gained by making good posts, or creating what other members may consider as good threads. Those caught abusing this system will be banned. As always, spamming to increase post count will not be tolerated. For more information on the Rep System: click here

30 days on the forum is defined as, 30 days from your initial sign up date on this forum.

Management team has final say on all listings, and as such is not up for debate. WE WILL DELETE any post found to be in violation of these rules. As always, these rules are subject to change without notice.

The Owners, Management Team, or anyone associated with this forum will not take responsibility for any transactions. It is the Individual users resposibility, so Buyer, Seller, Trader Beware.

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Glossary of Terms


Flaming: The act of posting deliberately hostile messages on the Internet. This includes but is not limited to the use of derogatory names, racial slurs, sexist remarks, and/or otherwise deliberately rude comments.

Flamebait: A message posted to a public Internet discussion group, such as a forum, newsgroup or mailing list, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a "flame") or argument over a topic.

Forum spam: Posts that have no relevance to the threads topic, or have no purpose in general (e.i, a user typing "CABBAGES!" or other such useless posts in an important news thread). This includes but is not limited to, making threads or posts with only smilies, "LOL", +1 and other one word/letter/number content.

Eye Candy: Images which depict a person and/or graphic design in a overtly sexual non-nude or non-pornographic manner.

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Terms of Service

Considering the real-time nature of these forums, it is impossible for us to review messages as they happen or confirm the validity of information posted. Please remember that while we do actively monitor the contents of the Forums, we are not responsible for any messages posted.

We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of the owners of these forums. Before taking action as a result of information posted in the forums, take the time to research and evaluate the accuracy of that information.

Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact a Staff member immediately by e-mail or private message. We have the ability and right to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages.

The owners of the Forums 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.

By registering and making posts in the Forums you agree to abide by the Forum rules, both stated and unstated. Further you agree that any messages and their complete contents, become the sole and exclusive property of the operators of the Forums. We have the sole and exclusive rights to modify, delete, or make any use whatsoever both in the Forums and in any other location and medium, of all content posted to these Forums.