Terms and rules

Updated Feb 13th 2021

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You agree to not use the Service to submit or link to any Content which is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spam or spam-like, likely to offend, contains adult or objectionable content, contains personal information of others, risks copyright infringement, encourages unlawful activity, or otherwise violates any laws. You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content or your conduct.

We may remove or modify any Content submitted at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice. Requests for Content to be removed or modified will be undertaken only at our discretion. We may terminate your access to all or any part of the Service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice.

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You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content.

These terms may be changed at any time without notice.

The HomePokerForum.com forum rules set out below are considered part of these terms.

If you do not agree with these terms, please do not register or use the Service. Use of the Service constitutes acceptance of these terms. If you wish to close your account, please contact us.

HomePokerForum.com Rules

As with any community, rules and guidelines are important to keep the community running smoothly. Please keep our rules in mind whenever posting to keep our community pleasant for members and guests alike.

The HomePokerForum community is primarily a support community for those interested in playing poker at home. It is a community built around people getting and giving help and guidance. Your behavior should reflect that. The rules here are not exhaustive and will be modified over time as necessary. Use common sense.

Access to the community is a privilege, not a right, and members who continually breach these rules will find themselves limited or removed from the community, regardless of the other contributions they have made.

Please note that nothing on the site is intended to be legal or professional advice.

1. Please do not post anything which is inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to, sexual, sexualized or illicit content, hateful, threatening, provocative or vulgar content, religion, politics, links and websites and discussion encouraging the use of piracy or warez distributions, or any otherwise illegal content. Please do not attempt to circumvent the censoring options we have set up.
2. Be courteous and respect your fellow members. To be clear, personal attacks, aggressive messages, and passive-aggressive behavior is unacceptable. If you take particular issue with another user and are unable to reply in a civilised and constructive way to their posts, you should ignore the user.
3. Posts should always be constructive and on topic. For common issues, simply telling someone to search is not acceptable. If you disagree with a post and feel the need to reply as such, it’s important that you explain why. Off topic posts may be moved or deleted as required.
4. Similarly, messages involving other sites must be constructive. Posts regarding their business practices, staff, and site are generally unacceptable. However, constructive criticism towards HomePokerForum in relation to others’ features is acceptable (for example, saying that HomePokerForum should function like X at site Y).
5. If you feel another user is attacking or being aggressive towards you, report their message to staff. Do not respond publicly. This simply continues the back and forth that derails topics and makes them uncomfortable for other users. If someone attacks you and you respond with an attack, you will be warned regardless of who started it.
6. All content must be posted in English as it is not possible for us to moderate the forums otherwise. In very specific cases (such as providing a translation), foreign languages may be used provided an English translation is provided as well.
7. Do not bump threads unless you have something else to add to the discussion. Related to this, resources should not be bumped with updates unless the update is legitimate. Updates for the primary purpose of bumping the resource will be removed. Additionally, replying to discussions which have been inactive for several months or longer should be avoided unless you have something of value to add. Bumping a classified ad is allowed once every 24 hours until the listing expires or is no longer available.
8. Please do not attempt to sell or trade any products or services in our community, outside what is explicitly allowed in the classifieds or vendor section.
9. Service and resource providers may not solicit via conversations unless direct communication is explicitly invited.
10. If you recommend a product or service and link to it with an affiliate code, you must disclose the affiliate relationship.
11. Personal information and private discussions may not be posted unless it’s clear that all parties involved have consented.
12. If a moderator or staff member takes an action or posts a directive (for example, to stop with a particular topic), you must adhere to this. If you discover a directive only after you’ve posted a message that contravenes it, delete your post or it will be taken to be ignoring moderators.
13. If you have a problem with or question about a moderator’s decision, contact the moderator privately or submit a message through the contact system. Posts or topics discussing moderator actions will be removed or moved to a forum that discusses the topic of moderation.
14. Please respect resource/article authors and their contributions. Many resource/article authors create things for no charge and don’t owe you anything. Attacking them will simply lead to them not creating things in the future to the detriment of everyone.
15. Each user may only have one account. If duplicate accounts are discovered, the duplicates may be banned. Exceptions for staff and The Pickle apply.

The overall spirit of this forum should be helpful and friendly. Think of how you might treat your favorite aunt if she asked for help setting up a poker game. Treat each other with respect. I get that “breaking balls” can often be a fun part of poker but this isn’t a poker game. It’s a forum of people with the love of poker in common with each other.

I’m going to start with a three strikes rule* with the rules above. First offense will be a warning, second a time out and/or hobble, and the third is a ban. I have no idea if this will be too much or too little so I will adjust, in writing here, if these rules change.

*I may elect to jump right to banning someone if their offense is so egregious or obviously toxic and detrimental to a peaceful forum that they don’t even need a second chance. I consider this a nuclear option that I hope is never needed.