Forum Rules

[DiscoverTuscany]

Discover Tuscany Forum Rules

Thank you for being part of the growing community of Discover Tuscany (DT) !
In order to keep this forum running well and prevent problems, please follow these simple rules. If you have questions or problems, please feel free to contact one of the DT team members.

Each member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts or sharing the same account between more persons is not allowed. The DT forum allows a maximum of one account per member and one member per account.

Every member taking part in the activities of the DT forum accepts these terms of use in every part.
Any posts not meeting these guidelines may be removed without notice.
We further reserve our right to disable any account at any time for any reason and without notice.
We reserve the right to modify and amend these terms at any time without notice. It is your responsibility to remain informed of current DT forum policies.
Also while these rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently, we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure this forum is not disrupted or abused in any way.

Forum Attitude

The goal of Discover Tuscany's Forum is to share useful information and experiences about Tuscany and tourism in Tuscany in particular.
The basic ground rules for discussions are simple: be polite and helpful, use common sense, don't break the law and don't post any message that even hints at advertising (aside from what is permitted in your signature, see below).
While debating and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be banned without warning.
We want the DT Forum to be open to people of all ages, genders, races, and sexualities, so any inappropriate or offensive posts will be deleted. Our decision is final in these matters.
Finally, it's always a good idea to follow the general Netiquette Rules.

Restrictions for new forum users

When you are first registered as a forum member you have a few restrictions to your account, for example, you cannot have a signature or edit your profile.
You must make 5 real, useful, non-advertising posts and be registered for 7 days to remove this limitation and be considered a fully trusted user. If you choose to make meaningless posts to circumvent this restriction, your account will be disabled.

Forum Content

All the posts of this forum express solely the opinions of the author of the post and not those of the forum administrators and moderators (except when posted directly by them), so administrators and moderators cannot be prosecuted for the content of these posts.
The official language of the forum is English: all posts, user signatures and profiles must be in English. Non-English posts will be deleted, only in exceptional cases translated, by the forum moderators.

• Do NOT use excessively large font sizes, as it is considered to be "shouting" and will be edited back down to the default size by the moderators.
• Unless otherwise stated, if you post an image in the forums, please keep the image size under 50K, and preferably under 300 x 300 pixels.
• Please post external links only when strictly necessary and when the content of the website linked truly enriches the conversation.
• Before opening a new thread, please make sure your question has not already been answered or that a similar thread does not exist, only then should you open a new thread.
• When posting, please try to do so in the most appropriate thread.
• Please avoid double or cross-posting.
• Forum moderators reserve the right to move, redirect or close any post/thread to keep the forum well-organized.
• Please refrain from posting meaningless threads, short non-sense posts, or the such.
• Any posts that encourage illegal intent will be removed and the account disabled.
• We do not allow posts, images, links containing pornography, sexually explicit, gross violence or violate our community standards. The DT team shall be the sole arbitrator of what does and what does not violate community standards.

Signature and Avatars

The signature is a space that, once created, appears attached at the bottom of each of your posts. In your signature you can write a short message about yourself and even about your website, service or product. It must be set up in your profile, and not manually added to your messages.
A signature is a benefit extended to DT Forum members who have made at least 5 helpful posts and completed 7 days of registration. If you post meaningless messages in order to reach the 5 post limit, your account will be banned.

• Signature can be up to 3 lines normal size, and up to 90 chars per line, blank lines count as lines.
• It may not include images or cookie requests.
• It may include 2 colors, plus black.
• It may include 1 clickable link, and no more than 1 link. No illegal, pornographic or otherwise objectionable links are allowed
• It may include a maximum of two smilies, or one animated smiley.
• Maximum font size cannot be larger than normal.
• You can upload an avatar using a picture of you or a graphic image of which you own the copyright.
• Animated avatars, or avatars that may be confused with forum staff avatars are not allowed.
• Any signature that is offensive or insulting to DT, its members, or its staff, is prohibited.

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

Self-Promotion and Advertising

First of all, please make sure that you are posting for the good of the community, not just for the sake of self-promotion
Promotion of your own website, or advertising a business, service or product is not allowed on this forum. Posts containing self-promotion or advertising, with or without links, will be removed by the moderators.
The only exceptions are your signature and your profile, which you can use to link to your website, together with a short description or slogan, AND replies to requests made in the dedicated sub forums "Accommodation" and "Services" for suggestions in these two categories. Read "Accommodation/Services" below for further details.
The best way to let yourself known in the spirit of this forum is to post and answer questions posed by other users and share your experiences about Tuscany, leaving to your signature and profile the task of promoting your website.

Accommodation and Services

You may review accommodations or services that you have tried firsthand in the appropriate forums and threads. In reviewing an accommodation or service, you must provide enough details and the date of when you used the accommodation/service to make the review useful to the rest of the community. If the owner of the accommodation/service wishes to reply through the forum, she/he may do so but if a reply is not possible with the information provided, we may ask you via Private Message to provide further details to allow for a full reply.

If you review an accommodation or service, or if you answer a request of another member looking for an accommodation/service, you can post only one (1) link to the official website of the accommodation /service in the appropriate forum/thread. You cannot post a link to portals/agencies/directories listing accommodations or services.

If you are the owner of an accommodation or service and you wish to reply to a request suggesting your own service or accommodation, you can answer on the appropriate thread or via private message. Please don't post a reply that is just self-promotion: try to provide useful, detailed information to users interested in your type of service or in the location of your accommodation.Messages focusing solely on self-promotion instead of providing useful information to the forum will be deleted. If you use a private message (PM), make sure to post a comment that says you've contacted the member by PM so that the rest of the community knows there have been replies to the original request.

SPAM

• Do NOT use the DT Forum as a basis for spamming, scamming our members or for excessive advertisements! This includes forum posts, private messages (PM), or emails to other forum members
• We take PM/email abuse very seriously and will result in the immediate removal of your membership and ban of your IP address, without warning.
• Do not contact anyone to promote your product or service unless a member explicitly requested such recommendations from a forum post.
• Signature Spam (a post that was made in hopes of showing a signature, as determined by moderators) is forbidden.
• You may not post commission, referral or affiliate links anywhere on the forum.
• Our moderators reserve the right to edit or delete any posts they consider to be SPAM.

FORUM ABUSE POLICY

• 1st Offense - A polite Private Message from a Moderator pointing out the Forum Rules, in addition to the editing or deletion of the post
• 2nd Offense - Public warning on the message board plus deletion of post
• 3rd Offense - Moderators will discuss and possibly delete the user from the DT forum

Depending on the situation, the DT Forum Administrator may bypass any and all of these steps and take whatever action is deemed appropriate.

Copyright

Do not post or use copyrighted material (such as images) on this forum, unless you have the right to do so.
If you think that copyrighted material that you own has been used on this forum without your permission, contact the Forum Staff and it will be removed.

Privacy

Your personal data is stored in an archive maintaned by WebPromoter Snc, owner of this forum. We will never share your personal profile data with anyone, unless under court order to do so. Personal data is stored and treated in full compliance of the Italian law (D.Lgs. 196/03) on the protection of personal information. You can ask at any time to cancel your registration and delete your personal data from our archives, contacting us through this form.