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How to get a Forum account
**************************You will need a Forum account to posts messages here. Please read "InsectNet.com Forum Rules" below before applying. (Those who already have a Forum account do not need to re-apply. All we ask of you existing members is that you keep up with the latest Forum Rules.)
Forum self-registration is no longer available. Membership in the Forum is by request only. To request a forum account, send an e-mail to webmaster@insectnet.com
Please put 'Forum account request' in the Subject line of your e-mail, otherwise it may get lost. In your message designate the Forum username you want (handle, nickname, etc.), the e-mail you want to use for the forum (your e-mail is not viewable by the public. It is for internal use only), your real first name, real last name, your valid address, and your valid phone number. Also, include a short paragraph explaining your area of interest in entomology.
Chose your Forum username carefully! It cannot be changed once entered into the system. Only one Forum account allowed per person.
Requests with missing or fraudulent information will not be processed.
Note: Your address/phone information is for verification and security purposes ONLY. It is considered your private information, that is, it will NOT appear in your Forum profile (unless you add it yourself) and will NOT be given out to anyone else.
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InsectNet.com Forum Rules
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Disclaimer:
By participating the InsectNet.com Forum you understand and agree that the forum is a free service to members of the entomological community and that the primary focus of this forum is discussion of insect & invertebrate collecting and study. Members are responsible for the content of their posts and understand that InsectNet.com retains the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time. Members who ignore warnings about violations of the rules will be suspended or banned from the forum.
The members of the forum create the content and the opinions and views expressed by the members are not necessarily those of InsectNet.com.
Participants can be held legally liable for the contents of their speech, and may be held legally accountable if their speech includes anything that may cause legal action to be taken against InsectNet.com, its sponsors or access providers.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless InsectNet.com, its sponsors, and its access provider for any loss, liability, claim, damage, and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from, or in connection with the contents of your speech and your use of the InsectNet.com Forum.
We reserve the right to suspend posting privileges to any person who violates the rules without notice.
General:
The Administrator and moderators may delete, hide, or move posts and threads that do not follow the rules, or for any reason deemed in the best interests of the Forum.
Moderators will, if deemed necessary, issue a warning to members who do not follow the rules.
The Administrator or moderators may suspend or ban any member immediately and without notice who:
(1) Commits the same rule infraction after having previously been warned about the same rule.
(2) Commits more than four infractions of any rule.
(3) ‘Pirates’ other contributors’ handles.
(4) Has multiple ‘handles’.
(5) Advocates wars, death, or destruction, or who threatens political, business or community leaders.
(6) States they wish to close down the InsectNet.com forum, makes a personal attack, uses ‘name calling’, or posts threats to other members, the Administrator or the moderators.
Membership of the forum is open to people from all walks of life in all countries, including all religions and backgrounds. Members should therefore exercise tact when discussing sensitive subjects like military occupation, international ethnic and political subjects, and religious beliefs.
If another member breaks the rules, absolutely ignore the remarks - no response is the best response. Report the post through the "Alert" link in the lower left of the post. This will open a "Send bad posting alert" form. Fill out the field named "Please describe the nature of this message and why you feel it should be removed from this forum:" and submit the message so that an administrator or moderator can handle it.
When quoting another member, edit out anything that isn't directly relevant in the quotation, down to the minimum necessary to provide context for your reply. Nobody likes reading a long message in quotes for the Nth time, only to be followed by a one-liner.
Vulgar/Inappropriate/Offensive material:
Members must not post information, vocabulary, jokes, images, or links to external material that includes anything vulgar, inappropriate, or offensive. This includes avatars and signatures. Material should be safe for a work or family environment. If a post contains anything that most people would not want seen by their bosses, parents, children or teachers, or would be "bleeped" for public radio or TV broadcasting, then it is inappropriate. Posts must not include profanity, sexually-oriented material, nude and semi-nude images, or slurs based on racial, ethnic, religious, sex, sexual orientation etc. If you post a "bad word" with letters replaced by stars etc., it must be sufficiently opaque not to be readable by children/minors, but only by adults e.g. "F***". Attempts to avoid obscenity filters by replacing 'i' with '1', or by changing the spelling or something similar are not allowed.
Personal Attack:
Members must not post any messages that personally attack, harass, insult, belittle, threaten or flame another member. Members may post alternative opinions, but this must be based on a reasonable debate on the subject matter. The Golden Rule -- Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You -- is a good general basis for forum decorum.
Political Agenda:
Members must not pursue any political agenda that is not related to understanding how politics affects the entomology field and insect specimen trading markets.
Pro/anti war advocacy:
Members must not make statements that are pro-war or anti-war, other than "what if?" discussions of how the pursuit of a particular course of action may affect the markets.
Baiting/Trolling:
Members may not post messages that are libelous, that are obvious lies, or that are meant to 'bait' or 'troll' other members.
Off-Topic:
Members' threads must stick to the subject matter of the forum section the are posting in. Members' posts should focus on the subject matter of the thread and avoid engaging in off-subject discussions, religious and politcal bickering. If these become disruptive to the flow of the thread then moderators, the administrator may delete, hide, or move such posts. If your post does not fit in any existing category then you must post it in "The Porch Light" section, which is specifically designated for off-topic discussion. All Rules of the Forum still apply to discussions in "The Porch Light" section.
Arguments:
Members must not start, or participate in, arguments, beyond a reasonable and relevant discussion of the subject matter.
Excessive Religious Elements:
Members must not bring in excessive religious elements, discussions, proselytisation or advocacy beyond what is acceptable in normal conversation.
Advertising/Selling:
Members may promote their insect business in the forum, including links to their web site, but should not post ads to sell specific items. Forum posts are archived for many years so those ads will eventually become invalid and become a nuisance. Such time-sensitive ads should be posted in The Insect Classifieds where they will naturally expire after a certain period.
"Bump" posts:
Members must not post "bump" posts, i.e. posts that are used to keep messages high on the forum or to push down other members posts.
"Shouting":
Members must not make posts in all-capitals or use excessive capitalization, as this is considered "shouting" and is widely considered bad "netiquette". The same applies to excessive use of large fonts, glaring colors, or fonts that are difficult to read.
"Flooding":
Members must not "flood" the forum by posting excessive numbers of posts in a short interval, or posts that are of excessive length.
Publicly questioning moderation actions:
Members must not post threads or posts to question or criticize moderator or administrator actions. This is not appropriate in a public forum. Please use the private message facility or email, if you wish to discuss such issues, and raise your concerns in a polite and mature manner to the moderator or administrator.
Clear English policy:
This is primarily an English language forum. Members must make posts and set up their signatures in English. Other languages may be used providing an equivalent translation in English is made available. Links to non-English web sites must include a summary of the subject matter in English.
Unsuitable avatars and/or signatures:
Members must ensure that avatars and signatures are not distracting, inappropriate, vulgar or offensive.
Spam:
Members must not make worthless, disrupting or nonsensical posts; any such posts will be considered spam and deleted at the discretion of the forum moderators or administration.
Cross-Posting:
Members must not post the same information in multiple threads or forums, or post links to information in other forums or threads unless it is relevant to the subject matter of the thread.
Image width and size limitations:
Users may attach images to their posts no wider than 800 pixels and with a maximum file size of 100kb. Attempting to attach images larger than 100kb will return an error and attached images wider than 800 pixels are subject to deletion by the administrator.
Bad Titles:
Thread titles should give sufficient information for busy readers to clearly identify the subject matter and decide whether it is worth their time clicking on the thread and then following any link you have posted. Threads that do not have a well chosen title may be edited or deleted. Likewise, when posting a description of a link, descriptions should concisely and accurately describe what the link leads to so that readers can quickly decide whether it is of interest to them.
Generally Inappropriate Posts and Threads:
A declarative set of rules can not anticipate every future situation that may arise in a discussion group. For that reason, InsectNet.com reserves the right to edit, move, or delete posts/threads and suspend any user at any time for any reason, should there be sufficient reason to believe that they are not in the best interest of the InsectNet.com Forum and/or its members.
Referencing existing or archived posts that violate the rules:
Existing current or archived posts that violate the rules of the Forum may not be used as an excuse to break the rules in a new post. A lot of our older posts do violate the current rules, but they may also contain valuable information that we want to keep for research purposes. Instead of deleting these old posts InsectNet.com is striving to improve future posts with your help and cooperation.
Posting in The Insect Trading Reports:
All of the above rules apply for posting in The Insect Trading Reports section of this forum, plus additional rules. Those additional rules are posted at the top of that section.
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