Seabreeze is open to people from any race, gender, physical or mental condition, sexual preference/orientation, IQ, age or religion,
and as such intolerance or vilification of other people's beliefs, culture, IQ, gender, physical or mental conditions, sexual preference/orientation
or age is unacceptable.
Seabreeze is a web site open to all ages, and we aim to have it stay that way. As such, the use of foul language is considered
to be unacceptable.
For the sake of the younger visitors to our site, please refrain from swearing.
In order to prevent casual swearing, Seabreeze filters the most inappropriate swear words.
Please also note that swearing which is contextually understandable, e.g. removing a letter, replacing letters with @,* or
other characters, or changing the spelling slightly, will also be moderated.
Moderation of Foul Language
The following points outline the basic moderation policy regarding foul language on Seabreeze, and applies to posts, usernames,
quips, and any other content on Seabreeze:
� Content containing "heavy weight" swear words, specifically the F & C words, are completely inappropriate on Seabreeze. All content
containing such words - hidden or not - will be removed.
� Content containing lesser swear words will not normally be moderated, provided the words are used sparingly (e.g. once
in a post), and the content is otherwise on topic and useful. Use of such words in reoccurring content (usernames etc)
is always inappropriate.
� Content with swear words that are used in the context of a personal attack/insult will be removed, not necessarily because of
the foul language, but for being a personal attack. This also goes for all those non-swear words insults like "fool", "idiot",
etc.
Inappropriate Content
Inappropriate Content is considered to be any topic that would be unacceptable in a talk to a Year 8 class. This includes (but
is not limited to) any of the following:
- Sex and sexual acts;
- Violence and acts of cruelty to other humans or animals;
- Pictures of gore, violence, pornography or innappropriate nudity;
- Illegal behaviour;
Offensive Websites
Seabreeze is open to people of all races, religion and ages, so links to websites containing offensive or unacceptable material,
such as foul language, inappropriate images (images of a violent or pornographic nature), racial vilification (hate sites), warez
links, etc., are completely unacceptable.
Complaints about a business
When this occurs, the poster is usually quite fired up and emotional. Often the customer is now out to cause as much damage as
possible to the business with the mission that they are �fully justified� (their words) and �simply stating facts� (their words)
about the business.
This may be the case .. or not. There are many sides to any story. The point is that the Seabreeze forums are not the appropriate
place to resolve the issue. Go to the appropriate legal/government authority and do it there.
Choose not to, and end up in hot water. As soon as you flame a business, you�ll usually get supporters of the business come out
in defence and question your behaviour and motives. People interested in the discussion will seek more information from you. It
soon descends into an argument containing many and varied versions of the truth and everybody goes home unhappy.
It has never ended well for anybody.
The business is damaged, the poster now has a stigma in the forum community (and now can�t deal with many shops because the shops
know what will happen if they cross this customer � there business will get dragged through the mud.)
And of course, there�s also the situation when the poster does not really have a complaint, but is simply a competitor or na�ve
associate of a business who thinks the way to get more business is to degrade the competition.
A special note: This applies (and has been applied) to any business, not just businesses that sponsor the site.
Complaints about an individual
Here's an idea - talk to them directly, or send them a PM. There is absolutely no need to post a message looking for
support of your dislike/disapproval of somebody. Please seek an alternate outlet, not the forums.
Why? All you need to do is imagine your response if you log-on one day and see your name as the topic of a post, followed
by 8 posts by strangers dissing your behaviour. Like 9 out of 10 people, you would write to us to have it removed.
Posts for Personal or Financial Gain
For Sale and Wanted to Buy
Please use the embedded buy & sell to list your gear, not the forums. This also means not posting links to sites that are selling
your equipment.
Commercial Advertising
Some forum members are site sponsors, you'll see a "Site Sponsor" link under their name. These members have purchased banner advertising
which they use to display their brand and make offers about products and services they have available.
These businesses are essential to keeping Seabreeze online. Our forums are the discussion zone of a highly competitive industry,
and we do our best to enable sponsors to have a say and discuss things of interest while maintaining a fair environment for all.
It can be hard for sponsors to have a say, as there are people waiting in the wings to provide commentary on their posts.
Therefore we ask that all businesses:
* Use the News system for product announcements
* Use the Events system for demo days
* Do not post links to their website,
* Do not post prices, price lists, sale brochures, bargains, "stock clearance" etc.
* Do not post competitions/links to competitions/promo days
* Do not post "favourable" comments about their brands, and invite mates and others to do so - this is a favourite pastime of individuals selling
gear from the boot of their car.
All of these things are can be performed through the banner, the News system or the Events system. If these don�t suit, please
contact us to discuss alternative solutions.
There will be times when a member is explicitly asking where to purchase an item, or for specific product information, and in
these situations its ok for sponsors to provide answers.
When sponsors do post, we ask that you give them some latitude. If you're concerned that a sponsor may be ruining your experience
of the forums, please contact us first, rather than flaming the poster.
If we find businesses, associates/team riders of businesses flaming, degrading other businesses/products, moderation and possibly
immediate banning will result.
Not a site sponsor, but want to promote your goodies?
You'll find your local council has laws saying that it's illegal for you to stick posters and advertising on council property -
"Bill posters will be prosecuted". Most businesses accept this and don't put their posters and stickers all over signs, traffic
lights, bridges, tunnels, etc.
Same here - please do not plaster your adverts/promos in/around the site - please contact us via the feedback page to find out
how we can work out together to find a solution for you.
If you see another business advertising, this is not a valid excuse for you to do so. Do you steal because someone does?
Using Seabreeze to advertise other sites (be it your own site, or that of a friend, etc), is not acceptable. Posting about such sites
or sending unsolicited PM�s about such sites is unacceptable.
Please note that Seabreeze members are a highly suspicious lot who can smell advertising a mile away, so if there is even a hint that
your post is just poorly disguised advertising, be prepared to have your post removed and/or for the linked site to be torn to
pieces from a review perspective.
Inappropriate posting of business advertising will be removed.
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is when people are employed (or given equipment �in kind�) to promote a company and its products and not revealing
their connection to the company and/or products. They also register multiple logins, or enlist associates to engage in a �Question
& Answer� session, where the associate asks questions about a brand to setup the other to provide knowledgeable advice (and
therefore marketing)
It's not illegal, is usually see-through, and can result in angry feelings by those who believed the mystery posters were "ordinary
customers". It is particularly dissappointing when these people take time out to degrade competitors and/or competing products
via single line posts such as �You wouldn�t catch me buying that.� type of comment.
These activites are directly against the forum rules and counts as spam.
The common name for such a member (who indirectly promotes their own product) is a Pimp.
If you suspect a member of being a pimp, please let the moderators know, as targeting them is against the rules and makes you subjec
to moderation (which was not your intent!)
Please refrain from making accusations against companies or individuals within the forums.
Note that occasional positive comments from known members have never been a problem.
Posting Errors
Crossposting
Posting the same Topic in more than one forum Category is not appropriate. If you can't decide which forum to post it a particular
Topic in, just choose the one that most closely matches and see how you go. If you don't think you are getting the right answers,
ask a moderator to move the Topic to a more appropriate location at some later point.
Please note that posting new Topics in multiple forums saying "Come look at Topic <insert link here>" is not permitted, and
is also considered crossposting.
Duplicates
Sometimes minor glitches can result in a member's post appearing more than once in a topic. Duplicate posts are sometimes
removed, but if a member notices that they have posted a duplicate, they should feel free to edit one of them to indicate that a
double post occurred.
Off-topic
Ideally, all posts in a given topic should have at least something to do with the topic. Having said that, some topics do have
a natural discussion flow to them, which may move the discussion in different directions - while still maintaining a relationship
to the topic.
Posting off topic may result in your post being removed, particularly if your post stands out as being off topic compared to the
other posts in the topic, or if your post stands to interfere with a line of otherwise on-topic conversation within the topic.
Off-topic Topics
It is also possible for a topic to be considered off-topic for the forum in which it has been posted.
In such cases the topic will normally be moved to a more appropriate forum, or if no appropriate alternative is available, the
topic may be deleted.
The Moderators
Moderators have task of monitoring the content of the forums. They read all topics and posts and make assessments on what is and isn�t
appropriate.
Moderators can delete posts, delete topics, move topics, modify topic titles, close topics to prevent further discussion and remove
offensive language from posts.
Moderation is a very �grey� area. For example, a group of 16 year olds who have started their own topic may be having
a friendly banter amongst each other, whereas to others to reads like a full on argument.
Alerting the Moderators of inappropriate content
Above each post is a voting system of thumbs up and thumbs down. Simply place your vote to indicate if the post should be pulled.
You�ll often see voted posts remaining, competitors often vote other businesses/products down. It may have a large number of thumbs
up and thumbs down.
The important thing is that all posts that have a thumbs down indicator are investigated by the moderators. With buckets of new
posts entering the system every day, it makes it easy for the moderators to zoom in on inappropriate posts as voted by the forum
users.
Moderation Explanations
Please do not start a new topic asking why a topic was moved, deleted or closed, or why a post was hidden. If
you want to know why, PM a moderator, but please do not ask the community.
Post Deletion Policy
Posts can and will be deleted if they breach any of the forum rules.
If you believe there was an error, please contact the moderators. The moderators are only human, and are open to suggestion.
Topic Deletion Policy
Typically, topics are deleted when they breach the forum rules, by falling into one of the following categories:
- Pointless - the topic contributes no value to the forum;
- Crosspost - the topic was posted to more than one forum;
- Flame baiting - the goal of the topic is to flame or start a fight;
- Duplicate - there is already a topic on the same or very similar topic;
- Off topic - not just for the forum it was posted in, but off topic for Seabreeze;
- Spam - the topic was advertising for a business or was thinly disguised market research;
- For Sale or Wanted to Buy - the topic was posted to ask for offers for buying or selling something (please use eBay or some other
auction site);
Topics which do not fall exactly into one of the above categories, but are deemed inappropriate due to their content or nature,
will also be deleted.
Topic Closure Policy
Topics will be closed under any of the following circumstances:
- Off topic - the topic is going off topic, but mostly contains useful information;
- Flame war - the topic is turning into a flame war;
- Purpose fulfilled - the purpose of the topic has been fulfilled - the author's question was answered, the topic has become irrelevant,
or is descending into an argument/bickering about the meaning of the words people have written (i.e. topic has been lost).
Topics which do not fall exactly into one of the above categories, but are deemed to have reached the end of their useful life,
may also be closed. In cases where the reason for closure is not immediately obvious, a moderator will normally post a final message
explaining the closure.
Duplicate Logins Policy
We strongly discourage users from creating additional logins for any reason - with the exception of personal accounts used
by recognised Site Sponsors.
We use the term "Duplicate Logins " to refer to additional logins created or operated by an existing Seabreeze member. Seabreeze
Moderators have the ability to find these logins, through the use of various tools. In general we will ban any additional accounts
we find.
Attempts to circumvent this will not looked upon favourably. For each duplicate login we find, all posts from that login may
be removed.
If a member chooses to continue to create duplicate logins, and abuse our hospitality, be warned that we will not hesitate to report
your breaches to your ISP's abuse department. As almost all ISP �Acceptable Usage Policies� include clauses regarding member behaviour
on websites, such a report can result in a warning from your ISP and potentially the termination of your ISP account.
Zero Tolerance Policy
Seabreeze has a policy of Zero Tolerance for certain member behaviour.
Repeated breaches of any rule by an individual can also attract a Zero Tolerance response.
In cases where such breaches occur, the following actions will be taken (at the moderators discretion):
- The post or topic will be deleted, regardless of whether or not the rest of the post or topic is "valid"; and
- The member's login may be banned for a period of time, ranging from 1 week to a permanent ban.
Problems with Moderation?
Q. I've had a post or thread removed, should I post about it?
A. Do not create a thread or post complaining about the moderation action. Complaint Topics or posts will be deleted.
Creating multiple Topics or posts complaining about moderation, or creating Topics or posts to abuse or insult moderators, will
result in immediate penalties being applied.
Q. If I shouldn't post about the moderation problem, what should I do?
A. The correct first step if you wish to discuss a moderation action, is to politely contact us with your viewpoint.
Moderators are human and are eager to develop good relationships with all forum members.
Moderators understand firstly that they can make mistakes, and secondly that members make mistakes.
They also understand that their can be miscommunication. Approached politely, and with a constructive attitude
most issues have been quickly resolved.
The Final Word
It's only a forum. Seriously - don't take it too seriously! :-)
