Epicski Posting Guidelines Locked wiki

EpicSki posting guidelines: Points to understand before participating.

EpicSki.com is a privately owned and operated forum.  Posters are allowed a great deal of flexibility in their posts. We reserve the right to moderate any member who violates our Terms and Conditions, these Posting Guidelines, or is a negative disruption to our community. Moderation may include editing or deleting posts, communications to correct inappropriate behavior, time-out, or banning.

Decision-making:  Issues are normally discussed among the moderator /administrative team, and may include input from the community members and member Advisory Planning Group.  Where there are gray areas in the guidelines outlined below, the moderators and administrators will work together to determine the best solution. Threads may be locked, or moved to a holding area not visible to members, pending a decision.  Don't assume a thread or post is deleted.  Send a private message to a moderator if you are concerned, rather than start a thread.  The moderators will reply to your question as soon as possible and will try to include your input to the discussion. 

Dispute Resolution: General policy questions and discussions are welcome, and frequently discussed in the Community forums.  However, do not start a thread or make public posts in any forum for the purpose of protesting or expressing displeasure with specific moderator decisions or actions.  Do not submit posts or  threads concerning banned individuals.  If you disagree with an action or decision, send a private message to any moderator or administrator. Treat the moderators and administrators with the same courtesy you would any other member.  Members concerns will be discussed among the moderator team.  We may allow your issue to be heard and discussed in a private forum by the member Advisory Planning Group, and admit you to that group to represent your viewpoint.  The goal of the moderator and administrative team is to serve the best interests of the EpicSki community; however we reserve the right to also consider the best interests of forum owners and management.

Personal attacks:  Personal and ad hominem attacks of forum members will not be tolerated. Argue all you want against any idea brought up in the forums but don't attack any person's character for voicing an arguable idea. Be open-minded and try to help foster meaningful discussion. Meaningful discussion is possible if everyone respects each other's right to have their own viewpoint.  Beware of arguing "beliefs". If you believe something is inarguable, it probably should not be the subject of a forum thread or post.  Do not request or use photos, video footage or movement analysis of any member's skiing in order to damage the credibility of that member.  A pattern of personal attacks can result in "time-out" or banning.

EpicSki is a work-friendly and family-friendly environment. EpicSki moderators and administration reserve the right to judge content to be inappropriate and to request members to self-moderate or to remove offensive material, and will deal with chronic violations as a disciplinary matter. If you feel a need to post a Not Safe for Work (NSFW) disclaimer with your content, don't post it here. The bad post button is available for members to alert moderators to a potential problem. Profanity in thread titles, usernames, and other profile fields is not allowed. Excessive and or unnecessary use of profanity in forum discussions (again, at the moderators' discretion) is not welcome.

Respect the privacy of fellow forum members. Do not post personal information, pictures or other identifying information of a member without that member's approval. Disputed information will be deleted.

Spamming will not be tolerated. Spamming can be defined as posting excessively with no content, posting with commercial intent, or posting solely to redirect traffic to another site. This also includes pyramid schemes or other opt-in advertising services. Do not use the forums for personal gain or to boost your post count. Spamming will result in an immediate ban from EpicSki without warning.

Be descriptive with the title of new threads. Do not start a thread with an ambiguous title like "Guess what..." or "Help!" and then use the text portion of the post to explain. Do not give threads misleading titles in an attempt to gain more views. Also, give your post a headline. This courtesy is especially appreciated in the more highly trafficked forums.

Threads and posts with no original content will not be allowed. Do not post a link or quote an article while contributing little to nothing of your own. Links are often lost over time. Try to post enough content, or a summary of any linked article, that your thought has some meaning on its own. One word replies are generally unhelpful and can make an otherwise useful thread hard to read. While posting a thumbs up or smiley emoticon can show agreement, it doesn't add much. Try to contribute more if you post.

Do not register multiple posting accounts for any purpose without the direct approval of an administrator. EpicSki will not tolerate "sock puppets".  This offense will result in a ban at the IP level. If you lose your password or have other issues, use the Contact Us form to request assistance.

Email Accounts: Members must maintain their registered e-mail account so that moderators and administrators can reach them.  Email accounts that are anonymously-accessible, unprotected, or disposable such as dodgeit.com, mailinator.com, tempinbox.com, etc. are not allowed, and are blocked.

Make it count: The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to achieve thoughtful, informative discussion is for our members to write thoughtful, informative posts. EpicSki is not a real-time chat forum. Each of us has time to compose, edit (before and after posting), find or research links, and count to a hundred if we're angry. Let's use that time wisely!

Changes to Guidelines: Please note that the EpicSki.com Posting Guidelines represent a living document that from time to time may be modified in order to best serve the needs of the community. Any modifications made to these guidelines will be at the discretion of the moderators and administrators.