POSTING RULES THAT ALL MUST FOLLOW. PLEASE READ!

[TDPRI]

Welcome to the TDPRI! PLEASE READ! First of all, glad to see you here, thanks for joining!

COMPLETE YOUR PROFILE:
When you register, please fill out your profile as completely as you can so we can get to know you. Put your hometown in your Profile. If you list your hometown you may find a new friend when someone else from your area sees where you live.

REGISTERED EMAIL ADDRESS:
It is especially important to keep your email address up to date in your Profile. The board software uses this address to send you notices that you request; such as when a Private Message has arrived, or someone has responded to one of your posts.

FORGOTTEN PASSWORD:
If you forget your password you'll click on the "Forgotten Password" link and a temporary password will be sent to your registered email address. (Another very good reason to keep your email up to date in your Profile.)

POST OPINIONS NOT FACTS:
Always respect other Forum members opinions even if they clash with your own. Try and win them over to your side if you wish, but in a friendly way! Give others room to have differing opinions. Don't state your opinion as FACT.

NO PERSONAL ATTACKS:
When someone says something you don't agree with don't turn on them and attack them personally. Don't call people names. Don't resort to school yard bullying tactics. If you find yourself posting about some other poster and what they've done to offend you... that's the first sign that you are going offbase and attacking people personally.

USE CORRECT FORUMS:
The TDPRI is the place to talk about guitars, amps, bands and music of any kind. Please try to post your message in the appropriate forum.

ALTERING QUOTED COMMENTS:
Editing someone's words to alter the content of their quote is not permitted. Editing a quote to single out one phrase or sentence or to shorten the quote is permitted. But when you quote another member's post leave the original post author's words INTACT for the part that you quote. This applies to "jokes" as well as for any other reason.

NO GIRLY OR CHEESECAKE PHOTOS:
The TDPRI is a "G" rated forum. And, because this is a largely male dominated forum, "guys being guys" leads to posts containing scantily-clad women from time to time. This has proven to lead to members pushing the acceptable limits of this with ever more risque photos in kind of a competition to see how far things can go. So, to prevent this we don't allow ANY such "Girly" or "Cheesecake" photos of scantily-clad women -- with guitars or not. HNGD or not.

FOR SALE POSTS:
Don't ever post anything for sale, for trade, or wanted to buy. Commercial posts of any kind are never allowed. Use the Classifieds for such posts (dealers in the commercial section only please). If you are a Vendor we do have a Vendor Program you can join that will allow you to make some commercial posts in our Vendor Forum.

Your Music Promo's ALLOWED:
The one exception to our commercial rules is the promotion of your music on CD or download for sale. You are permitted to make a post announcing your CD or download and include a link to purchase. You, personally, MUST be a performer in the music being sold. If not, then you may not take advantage of this exception to our commercial rules.

COMMERCIAL DEALERS:
You cannot post links to your commercial website in any of your posts or in your signature. You cannot use the TDPRI to discuss your products, your pricing, your delivery schedule or anything pertaining to your commercial operation in posts on the TDPRI. Others may talk about your products... but you are prohibited from doing so. You can join our Vendor Program and gain posting access to our Vendor Forum, plus other Vendor only perks. See the other Announcement on Commercial Posting for complete details.

AFFILIATE LINKS & COMPETING WEBSITES:
You may not post links containing any kind of Affiliate Program coding or links in any post. Nor may you promote your competing music/guitar website on our website. This includes using Posts, Signatures or Private Messages for this purpose.

EBAY NOTICES:
You are permitted to post ONE "tasteful" notice about an Ebay auction for something you are selling (no-dealers just personal items). By "tasteful" I mean just a simple link to your auction and a sentence or two about it will be fine. And don't try to "bump" your notice to the top of the page after it starts to move down the list of topics. (NOTE: Commercial Dealers are NOT permitted to list their Ebay Auctions at all.)

CLASSIFIED NOTICES:
Sorry, posting a notice about your classified listing is NOT permitted. It doesn't work the same as Ebay "tasteful" notices. This also means no posting your Ebay auction in the Classifieds either. You get the one "tasteful" notice on the main forum for those and that is all.

DECAL REQUESTS:
Don't post about buying or selling or finding trademarked items such as guitar decals. This is the one sure way to get lawyers to come after me and the TDPRI.

OFF LIMIT SUBJECTS:
Some subjects cause nothing but trouble, so no posting about:
1. Politics
2. Religion
3. Sex (including improper photos or videos)
4. Drugs - usage, laws, legality or paraphernalia
5. Current Wars or national disputes
6. Gun rights or politics
7. Pirated Music or downloads
8. See below for greater detail...

"POLITICAL" POSTS:
The term "political" has raised a lot of questions, with many seeing political posts as those that discuss partisan politics, i.e. democrats vs. republicans in the US. However, at the TDPRI a political post is any post that directly or indirectly encourages discussion of larger public policy - an example: Global Climate Change.

Our "off-topic" area is made for "non-telecaster" discussion, but it's not for discussion of foreign policy, global warming, job outsourcing, domestic economic policy, global trade issues, labor politics, gun rights, criminal justice policy or issues, any specific branches of government or generally any government policy on the local, state, national or international level.

As an example, discussion of the Iraq War, the War on Terror or even the troops may not immediately seem "political" but, of course, all discussion of these important issues are going to lead to politically based partisan discussion. So, they are just not suited for the TDPRI's off-topic discussion areas.

It's not about "censorship" it is about finding a more appropriate venue to discuss issues that will lead to heated debate and cause damaged relationships within this community.

ANY MENTION OF A POLITICIAN BY NAME -- EVEN AS A JOKE -- WILL BE CONSIDERED A POLITICAL POST.

Remember that men and women of all races, ages and religions from all over the world read these pages (85,000+ a day). So, don't assume you are always 'talking" to a young white male from the US.

SWEARING:
Don't try to get by the word censor by using #@%$!^ instead of swear words. That's stupid and rude. If you must swear then go post somewhere else where that kind of thing is considered cool.

TROLLING:
As in trolling for a fight. This is easy to see, but harder to explain. Posting an opposite opinion, in a determined stubborn way simply to start a fight. Here's an example: "What Telecaster should I buy?" the troll would respond "Don't buy a Telecaster they are dumb, buy a Gibson Les Paul instead." Opposite opinions are NOT against the rules and are encouraged, but trolling for disagreement and arguments is against the rules of the page.

GIVEAWAYS/CONTESTS/FUND RAISING/CHARITIES OR OTHER PERSONAL USES:
You cannot use the TDPRI to stage or promote a giveaway, contest or fundraising event. The site may never be used to request donations for any charity or for any "personal" use that you may think of. This includes posting links to sites requesting charitable donations. This includes asking people to donate money or purchase items you are selling here or elsewhere to fund needs of any kind for family, friends, neighbors, pets, other TDPRI members or anyone. You cannot use the TDPRI to stage a contest or giveaway on your own for any purpose without first getting express approval from the TDPRI Administrator/Owner. You cannot use the TDPRI to have everyone vote for you in a contest in which if you win you would receive anything of value -- money, trips, equipment and any other consideration. In short, you may not use the TDPRI for your own personal use of any kind without first asking for permission. Keep in mind that the TDPRI is owned by the GearTalk Network, part of SumGroup, Inc, a Texas Corporation and no member may presume to use the website for their own private purpose.

MEDICAL/QUASI-MEDICAL OR HOMEOPATHIC DRUGS/SUPPLEMENTS:
You cannot use the TDPRI to provide advice for others to use specific drugs or supplements. Offering specific medical advice and/or the recommendation of specific doctors, treatments, drugs or supplements exposes the TDPRI to legal liability and will be removed.

THREATS OF LEGAL ACTION:
Please be aware that any threatened legal action against the owners, administrators, moderators or members of this website will instantly result in your account here being permanently banned from future participation -- regardless of the issue. Legal demands via post, Private Message or Email will be ignored. Our attorneys will only respond to legal demands sent via certified mail to our corporate headquarters.

MOD ACTIONS
The Moderators here are volunteers that serve to make the site better by keeping things under control. It's a lousy thankless job. Many times they take abuse from those that they contact. They are not perfect but they are acting in the best interest of the website 100% of the time and they do not need to be second guessed by armchair mods that think they could do a better job.

If you have a question about a Mod action or another member that was banned, please do not start a thread questioning Mod actions or bannings as this thread / post will be removed. Instead, PM or Email the Mod directly.

BANNING:
If you violate our guidelines here you can get banned from the page. Sometimes without warning. There is no discussion about this. It is entirely up to the moderators and staff. If you receive an email with a warning about something you've done wrong here, be careful how you respond. If you reply with name calling and swearing you will automatically be banned. Do not ever post for public discussion on our websites the statements or actions of moderators conveyed to you via Private Message or Email. These communications are between you and the moderator and are not open for public discussion. To try to do so may also result in your banning from the site.

Enjoy your stay here, post long and come back often. Have fun.

Tell your friends about us!
Paul Green
Webmaster
PS. We try to make this list of rules as complete as possible to make it easy for folks to see what is and isn't permissible. However, this list can't cover everything that someone could possibly think to do with their posts on the TDPRI -- when in doubt ALWAYS send an email to the webmaster first BEFORE posting something that seems like it could be a problem.