Policies and Standards for the News-Register Forum

The Forum was created by NewsRegister.com to encourage a cooperative online community to discuss issues, exchange information, promote ideas and explore points of view. Our code of community standards for acceptable behavior is outlined below, and we thank participants for their cooperation in following these standards.

1) User Privileges: NewsRegister.com reserves the right to revoke users' privileges and take other necessary steps to ensure the guidelines are followed.

2) Registration Required: Participation on The Forum requires registration. Registered Users can create any "User Name," which appears with their posts. They are not required to list an e-mail address with their posts, although they can do so with a setting in their "My Stuff" profile. However, they must submit a working e-mail address to Forum administrators as part of the user registration process.

3) Anonymity: People who are not Registered Users can read the posts on all boards, but they cannot submit posts. It is a violation to identify other users who wish to remain anonymous. Administrators of The Forum can see the Internet IP addresses of all participating Registered Users and Anonymous Guests. Court rulings can require release of information about participants, and law enforcement can seek information deemed important to criminal investigations. The News-Register generally will seek to protect anonymity of participants, but we do not guarantee that protection. In participating on The Forum, users release the News-Register from any and all liability related to the accidental or purposeful release of any information submitted to The Forum.

4) Prohibited Language: The Forum was established to encourage an open exchange. Thus, viewpoints objectionable to some users may be encountered. However, NewsRegister.com does not permit abusive, disruptive, rude, inflammatory, racist, obscene or inappropriate messages or replies. Participants who engage in these behaviors may be removed from The Forum at the discretion of the News-Register. Users should keep it clean, simple, civil and legal, refraining from personal attacks, product bashing, defamatory or libelous statements and sexually explicit comments. Hate speech will not be tolerated in any form, including racial, ethnic or religious slurs, offensive epithets and exhortations to violence.

5) Ongoing Agendas: As a general rule, users should not use The Forum as an ongoing and continuous platform to espouse their personal political, religious, social or philosophical agenda, to continually disparage the ideas of others, or to continually engage other users in personal debates on such agendas. There is not an absolute standard for this provision. Any subjective judgment by Administrators of The Forum concerning necessary enforcement of this provision will first be communicated in a private message to the User. Participants who engage in these behaviors after receiving such private message may lose rights for posting comments.

6) Complaints: The Forum does not screen postings in advance. If you have a complaint about another member's conduct, please e-mail it to sbagwell@newsregister.com.

7) Copyright: Users should not post any copyrighted material without permission, or upload any information, images or trademarks that would violate property rights. All expressions and images should be original.

8) Advertising: The Forum should not be used for self-promotion of business or other financial interests. Users cannot use The Forum as an advertising platform for products and/or services in which they have a direct or indirect financial interest.

9) Personal Information: For the safety and security of our online community, The Forum recommends against the sharing of personal information such as telephone numbers and addresses.

10) Use of Postings: By participating in The Forum, Users agree that NewsRegister.com may modify, retransmit or delete any posting at its discretion, and further agree that postings or portions of postings can be republished in print or on the Internet by the News-Register Publishing Co. without additional permission or any compensation.

11) Liability: Users acknowledge that NewsRegister.com cannot accept liability for the actions of other participants. Under no circumstances will NewsRegister.com accept liability for lost profits, lost data or any type of damages, be they compensatory, special, incidental, indirect, consequential or punitive, claimed as a result of postings on The Forum by users. That applies to claims based on breach of contract, implied warranty, product liability, negligence or other legal theories, even if explicit warnings are provided in advance.

5/24/10