Forum Guidelines and House Rules

 

  • PLEASE DO NOT SEND REQUESTS FOR STAFF SUPPORT VIA EMAIL OR PRIVATE TOPIC MESSAGING (PTM), unless expressly invited to do so by a staff member.  Please post them in the Help Forum in accordance with these Rules, or, if it would be more appropriate, open a Support Ticket. Emailing or using PTM to actively solicit work is not allowed. Uninvited use of either form of messaging can lead to your membership being removed.

  • Do not astroturf or pretend to be/represent somebody else. Your account will be deleted if found to be in breach of this rule.

  • All posts should be in English, unless posted in a specific international forum. If posting in a forum set up for another language, please use the language of that forum, and not English.

  • Before starting a topic, check that its subject has not been addressed anywhere else on the site. (Using the dedicated Forum Search feature and the general Site Search feature can greatly assist you in this.). If you unearth a no-longer-active forum topic that exactly matches your subject, do not be deterred from posting in that topic on the grounds of its age. Unlike many forums UPT.com - reflecting its role as a knowledgebase - strongly encourages reviving old topics in such cases, since all user's postings on a given  subject can be viewed together rather than dispersed across any number of identical topics.

  • When starting a new topic (aka thread), choose a title for it that briefly indicates the general subject of the topic - optionally you can enter a few words in the "Description" field to indicate your topic's more particular point of concern - and elaborate in your opening post. Avoid providing topic titles or descriptions designed as spoilers to the subject-matter to be posted therein.  Do not "shout" by using all-caps in topic-titles or by adding fake attention-seeking words (e.g., "read this or you will be arrested"). An example of a bad topic-title would be "Help needed" (though that would be fine to add in the Description field). A good example might be, "How to practise skips in "La Campanella?". Do not use a URL as a topic title - instead, include it within your opening post.

  • When starting a topic seeking help, provide in your opening post as much information as you can. This could include, for example, relevant images, video/audio files, weblinks, logs and error-message details. Nobody will be able to help you if you don't give sufficient detail.  - Read this guide "Ask Questions The Smart Way", by Eric Raymond.

  • Post your comment/question to the most appropriate forum. Any topics deemed to be in the wrong forum will be relocated. Do not post the same topic to multiple forums.

  • Make sure you have read the original post of a topic completely before posting a reply. Keep all posts on-topic. If you wish for discussion of an off-topic point, please open a new topic in a suitable forum, and after doing so, point readers of the original post towards it. 
    Do not complain in-topic about the subject being too far off-topic or otherwise breaking rules. Instead use the 'report post' feature to alert a member of staff, and leave it to them to decide what is and is not acceptable posting.

  • Use your own words. If you wish to use the words of somebody else, quote them, citing the source. Plagiarism is unethical and is illegal in many countries.

  • Do not double post (post consecutively in a topic) on the forum unless…

    • you have information to add to your initial post that you recognize to be necessary for clarifying or correcting its  substance,  after the period during which it remains editable has expired;
    • your post would be quoting a variety of preceding posts, the diversity of which warrants your commenting on each by means of a post specific to it;
    • you are bumping (i.e. attempting to prompt contributions to) a topic after several days of no replies.

  • No unhelpful posts, please. This includes: vacuous one-liners, pointless topic bumping, flamewar posts, trolling and spamming. Posting"I concur" would not be classifiable as unelpful provided that you include quotation(s) from the post(s) you are commenting upon; whereas posting "I disagree" would class as unhelpful without such quoting and without, in addition, explaining your reason(s) for disagreeing.

  • Keep all commentary civil and courteous. Constructive criticism is welcome, but denigrating remarks and insults directed towards other users or the site admins will not be tolerated, nor will coarse/offensive language in general. Posts that are in breach of this Rule will be deleted by the Forum moderators. Should you encounter any such post, please report it by clicking the "Report this" button.
    In short, treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself; respect them and their views, even if you disagree with them. If an interpersonal issue arises, please be open-minded to the possibility that your behaviour may have contributed to it. Acknowledging responsibility for our actions is often a good first step toward a peaceful reconciliation.

  • Thank those who help you. Acknowledging a helpful suggestion not only placates those who helped you, but may also help others with a similar problem. All those who have been helped on this forum are invited to help other users by responding to their questions when they know the answer. Consider awarding gift-points to someone who has especially helped you - they will appreciate your gesture greatly.

  • If you opened a topic seeking help on some matter and subsequently found or received a satisfactory fix for it, please inform other users by prefixing your topic's title (in the initial post) with [SOLVED] (You can do this by editing your initial post.)

  • These forums are not a place to promote ideological, religious, or political matters. All such discussions will be deleted.

  • Nor are the forums the place to settle a commercial disagreement for custom development or to be a 'wall of shame'. Any posts deemed to be of this nature will be removed. Settle your disputes in private please.

  • Do not link to any site that contains adult content, sexually oriented material or might otherwise be considered offensive. Any post containing an inappropriate link will be deleted and the poster will receive a warning as minimum, and on repeated violations, penalties restricting use of the website.

  • Do not propose/link to any site that intentionally makes available pirated material or the means of acquiring material improperly.

  • No affiliate links are to be posted, anywhere on our forums.

  • No commercial advertising is permitted.

  • When recommending a product to help a user solve their issue, you must disclose any affiliations you may have with the company or group that authors that particular product. This includes, but is not limited to: any paid or non-paid relationships past or present, receiving any promotional products or services, or any other similar information.

  • Any posts deemed to be self promotion, advertising, or spam can and will be removed.  Posting and making excessive, inappropriate and unnecessary references to your products and websites is self promotion.

Signatures:

  • must be set-up in your Profile, and not manually added to your messages.

  • may not contain advertisements regarding products or pruduct-suppliers.

  • may contain a maximum of two smilies. Or one animated smiley.

  • may include two clickable links. URLs or mailto:s, but no duplicates thereof

  • may include only exact, literal URLs - tinyurls, bit.ly, affiliate links etc., are not permitted.

  • may present signature text in two colours  (black is counted as a colour). Hyperlink color is preset by the forum software and is not counted as a colour.

  • maximum font size cannot be larger than normal.

  • must be kept to a maximum of four lines (at 1024 resolution).

  • may not contain links to other threads or posts for the purpose of self-promotion.

  • Your signature is exclusively yours. It is not for sale, rent or loan.

  • Any signature or avatar that is offensive or insulting to either our members or staff shalll be removed without prior notice.

  • We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature or avatar at any time, for any reason

If you feel a post violates any of these rules, or you need to bring it to the attention of a moderator (move threads/close/split), please use the ‘report this post’ link to notify the moderators.

Failure to abide by these rules may result in an editing or deletion of your post by a Forum moderator, and, at the moderator's discretion, the issuing of a warning notification. We reserve the right to ban abusers from the Forum. We reserve the right to change these rules at any time.