Forum Rules

Hello all,

I'm posting an excerpt of forum rules here as a reminder of what you'll have each accepted when joining this forum:

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions.

The moment an individual or an entity's name is mentioned, the member himself / herself accepts to be solely responsible for any serious consequences as a result of doing so.

Guys, please avoid mentioning individual's or company names altogether, for your own sake.


Thank you.

Guys, please avoid mentioning individual's or company names altogether, for your own sake.


I agree! Thanks Homeone.

Hi admin,

As I'm sure you're aware I've just found my way onto your forum here recently, and am finding my way around (perhaps a little noisily)!

I must admit that I didn't take much time to read every word of the forum rules when I registered, and assumed them to be fairly 'standard'. I'm trying to familiarise myself with the etiquette here. Can you PM me the rules to look over please?

I am the administrator of an independant industry based forum myself, and am active on another totally different forum as well. Each forum will have its own certain characteristics, personalities, (and sometimes politics)!

Excuse my ignorance, but I'm a bit confused by the statement that Michelle has repeated. 'Not mentioning names' seems a bit 'touchy'. I see many posts here where company's names are mentioned, and I have mentioned one or two. Can you clarify the practical boundaries of what your statement is alluding to? I'm happy to play by the rules, but I'm just discovering things here. If I have 'stepped out of line' then I'd be happy for you to let me know.

BTW, this an excellent resource here, and I'm sure it's of great benefit to those that want to research their important decisions before they make them.

Cheers!

Ash.

Why can't we mention company's names? its a free country isn't it? Whatever happened to freedom of speach, a forum is just the same thing as talking to somebody isn't it?
This is where we come to learn about builders, how is everybody meant to know who we are talking about?

Mention away, darlin'... I reckon folk are getting too coy around 'ere!

Aussiebell/Ash, what you both need to remember is that any comment YOU make is ultimately your responsibility. If legal action etc is threatened/taken it comes back to you.

I won't go into details, but let me say that there was a specific reason that one of my threads was recently removed and ultimately moderated.
The issue was resolved, but it was not nice when it happened.

Positive comments are great, slanderous comments can get you into trouble on this forum or indeed anywhere.

So be careful.

Phair enough Phoe!

Everyone taking personal responsibility for their comments is fine. I just think that as long as details are entirely factual, criticism of a biz or whatever is fair to post. It can be a different matter though, if someone lambasts a biz generally.

Ash.

You are correct Ash, i think that utilising a forum like this can be beneficial for all. It teaches us to learn from everyone elses experience - which means hopefully some of us don't have too many issues during the building process.

But some members have gone overboard in the past. Some builders/service providers are proactive and read this forum and act on comments that have been made. But in all fairness, i think issues should be raised directly with the companies/businesses concerned first. Good communication is the key !!!!

Geez I gotta stop agreeing with ya!

Quite right. Dealing in an assertive manner with any builders, tradies or services is always the proper way to go.

The inability to mention names is completely absurd. If that rule is enforced the admin & moderators can wave goodbye to this site quicksmart because it will be irrelevant, useless and a laughing stock.

There's no legal precedent for such a ludicrous decree anyway. Some might recall the attempted legal action against the operarors of the Whirlpool forum site (an Australian broadband forum). A software company took exception to a forum posts reviewing their product and commenced legal action against the site operator.

It generated a massive outcry and headlines in all the mainstream media both here and overseas. Whirlpool was inundated with offers of legal and financial support.

So let's not start trembling. The building industry is riddled with rorts and notorious for pathetic customer service. Bow to this sort of nonsense on a website too and things will only get worse.

I work for a major telco company doing IP Engineering, whats mentioned above will do absolutely nothing. Privacy laws in regards to customer accounts is paramount. Any telco releasing such information is/and will be in more trouble than it can poke a stick at. IP address tracking is a funny one for tracing people, apart from most users being in DHCP IP Pool, you can use anonymous SSL proxies, Mozilla TOR, etc etc.

What about a user on the forum at work, where as much a 1000 staff sit behind a firewall??

This not a crack at the homeone.com.au board, that I think is truly great . BUT, you must be careful in saying such information.

We're not in the business of tracking IP addresses. Furthermore, if in the case a court order is sent to an ISP for any reason stipulated in the above guidelines it is beyond our control.

Finally, all of this falls under the term MAY. Better to be safe than sorry.

Nevertheless, welcome to the forum, and glad you enjoy it.

Australia is neither a free country nor has any freedom of speech laws. We do not have the equivalent of the United States' Constitution or Bill of Rights. Just FYI.

See reasons why in regard to slander and your responsibilities that appear at the top of every page when you post. It is in red and explains why.