Via Chicago Rules and Regulations

[kidsmoke]

VIA CHICAGO FORUM POLICIES

Welcome to the Via Chicago forums! If you are new to these forums, please read through the following rules and policies before you begin posting here.
We hope you enjoy our community!

Regarding Your Online Identity

Your username should not be profane, be the name of a real living person other than yourself, contain foreign language characters, or be typed in all capitals.

Your avatar (uploaded image icon beside your posts) should be in good taste - no nudity, profanity, or crude images.

Your signature if you choose to have one in your posts, must not be offensive or excessively large. If it's the biggest part of your posts, it's too big.

Regarding Forum Etiquette

It is our intention at Via Chicago to foster an online community that is welcoming, all-ages friendly, and enjoyable for all our membership. Toward that end, we expect all posts, including signature lines, to be civil and respectful. The following will not be tolerated:
 

• Personal attacks on other members.
• Baiting. Do not try to get a rise out of another member with your comments.
• Racist, sexist, inappropriate or threatening comments or excessive profanity.
• Posting of images or links to images which are graphic in nature, nude or racist images or cartoons.
• Spam and personal advertisements, including "street-teaming". Via Chicago is not your free advertising space.
• Links to full albums or any other copyrighted material (software, serial numbers, etc.)
  
  Besides these rules, please also abide by the following common sense guidelines:
   
• Check that you are posting in the appropriate forum
• Check that you are not starting a new thread for a topic which already exists (the "Search" function will help here)
• Avoid starting threads on inflammatory topics (Abortion would be an example.)
• Avoid being dismissive of other peoples' opinions. Try "I don't see it that way." instead of "That's bullsh*t!" or "I don't care for that band" rather than "That band sucks!" It's called civility.
• And please, please,don't post in all capital letters!
• Threads and posts which request personal and private information about the band ("Does anyone know the address of Wilco's recording studio?") are in very poor taste and are tacky and stalker-ish. Don't.

Handling Problems

If you have a question, please contact a moderator at any time. We are happy to help. If you feel that a post needs to be brought to our attention, use the "report" button on the bottom left of every post.
If you feel you have been harassed, contact a moderator and let us help. Whatever you do, do not respond to the attack with a retaliatory post of your own.

Regarding Our Moderating Staff

Our moderators and administrators are unpaid volunteers. They work long hard hours to enforce our policies and make our forums as pleasant as possible. They deserve your respect and cooperation. If you are contacted about a problem, please work in good faith with the moderator to resolve the problem.
It is inappropriate to use these forums to criticize the decisions of our moderators, or to lash out at them. Disagreements should be addressed by direct PM's to the moderating staff.

If you have an issue with our policies or our moderation staff, please contact us directly. Threads regarding forum or member issues are not permitted, except for technical problems which may be addressed in the "Speakers Speaking in Code" forum.

The moderating staff reserves the right to close or remove any post or thread at any time for any reason, without notice. We generally will contact the relevant parties by PM to explain our actions. At times the moderators may be overloaded with work and will not have time to do this. You may always contact us with any questions.

Regarding Suspensions and Banishment

This is our least favorite part of moderating. Whenever possible, we will try to work with our members to avoid having to take these actions, usually by giving a warning. Ignored warnings and/or repeat offenses will result in a suspension. Multiple suspensions may ultimately cause the user to be banned.

The moderating staff reserves the right to determine the length of any suspension, based on the severity of the infraction. Generally, a first suspension will be of 24 hrs. duration, with any additional suspensions increasing in length. Suspensions are a private matter between a user and the moderators and are not made public in the forums.

Suspensions are temporary. If banishment becomes necessary, it is permanent and the user cannot be reinstated. Banished or suspended members found signing up under a new user ID will have their account immediately terminated.

Thank you for reading these policies!

We hope you will enjoy our community, and we look forward to getting to know you.

-The Via Chicago Moderating Staff

 

 

Contact Email: viachicago@rocketmail.com