General Posting Rules

No Chat Room Style: Please do not write in CHAT ROOM style with all small letters and no punctuation. Please review the Posting Guidelines below for more information.

No Flaming: Please do not post any messages that harrass, insult, belittle, threaten or flame another member.

No Trolling: Please do not post any topic that disrupts the peace and harmony of this board. Don't create meaningless threads with the sole purpose of starting a dispute.

No Spamming: Please do not double post or cross-post the same message in multiple forums. Please do not mass-PM or mass-email multiple members of this site the same message. Please do not post for the sake of increasing your post count. Please review the Posting Guidelines below for more information.

No Offensive Posts, Links or Images: Please do not post any messages, images or links that are vulgar, hateful, threatening, racist, or discriminatory.

No Personal Contact Information: Please do not post any personal email address, personal telephone numbers or residential street addresses in the Forum. Please use the Forum's Private Messaging system to exchange this information. Please review the Posting Guidelines below for more information.

No Self-Promotion: Please do not post any messages anywhere on this site that are primarily for the promotion or advertising of any website, forums, email address, business, multi-level marketing activity, or other entities that you have an affiliation with EXCEPT in the classified advertising section.

No Competitor Links: Please do not post any links to competing forums, including competing Yahoo, MSN and Google groups, or to any website that has links to a competing forum.

No Prosthelytizing: Please do not use this Forum to espouse anti-prostitution, anti-commercial sex, or other similar sociological, political or religious beliefs.


Copyrighted Material (photos or text)

No Copyrighted Material: Please do not upload, attach or post anything that is copyright or licensed without prior consent of the owner.

No Photos with Embedded Text: Please do not upload any photos with embedded text of any sort.

No Professional Photos: Please do not upload any photos that were not taken by you personally.

No Hotlinked Photos: Please do not post links to photos on another website, including personal photo albums.


Posting Guidelines

WHAT's GOOD Letter Format 1. An optional greeting, followed by a blank line. 2. Paragraphs of reasonable length, each separated by a blank line. 3. A optional salutation at the bottom, separated from the body of the report by a blank line. Standard Punctuation We all learned this in elementary school, and in the Forum it generally amounts to putting commas between phrases and periods at the end of sentences. Standard Capitalization Again, we all went to elementary school, and we all know that you should capitalize the first letter of sentences, names of people, places, streets, cities, countries, names of races and religions, etc. General Politeness This reminds me of the old saying about pornography "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it".  The same holds true for recognizing uncivil behavior: "General Politeness" just means referring to other Members with a minimal level of civility.

WHAT'S NOT GOOD Chatroom Style Writing Please do not write in chatroom style with no capital letters or punctuation. The Forum is not a chat room, it's a permanent archive of travel reports. Chatroom Abbreviations Please refrain from using the following or similar chatroom abbreviations: The letter "i" instead of "I". The letter "u" instead of "you". The letter "r" instead of "are". The letters "cuz" instead of "because". The letters "ur" instead of "your". The letters "em" instead of "them". The letters "b4" instead of "before". Universally recognized abbreviations of multiple words such as "FYI", "LOL", etc., and abbreviations on the Forum's Terms and Abbreviations List are all acceptable for use in Forum reports. Weird Punctuation Please refrain from using any of the following writing abnormalities: No period or other punctuation mark at the end of sentences. Multiple periods or other punctuation marks at the ends of sentences or elsewhere in the report text. No space between sentences. Unwarranted dashes and dots throughout the text. Of course everyone makes occasional typos, what I'm referring to is the consistent use of these writing aberrations. Writing in all CAPS This is the internet equivalent of shouting, It's difficult to read, and it's simply not necessary unless you are either lazy or an egomaniac. Links to Competing Forums I think this may come as a surprise to some members, but you cannot use my forum to promote competing forums. This inlcudes Delphi, Google, or Yahoo groups. Telephone Numbers Telephone Numbers are not permitted in the Forum at any time or for any reason. Please use the Forum's Private Messaging system to provide telephone numbers to other Forum Members. FYI: This limitation is necessary due to a few persons who have in the past abused the Forum by posting bogus reports including telephone numbers of innocent third parties (typically ex-girlfriends, ex-wives, etc.) soley for the purpose of causing problems for these individuals. Email Addresses Email addresses are not permitted in the Forum at any time or for any reason. Please use the Forum's Private Messaging system if you wish to contact another Forum Member. Banned Words The words "Whore", "Bitch" and "Cunt" are not allowed because these words are commonly used to denigrate women, and that's not what this website is all about. SPAM Spam is defined as postings to the Forum that are contrary to the purpose of the site, including: Commercial Messages Links to Adult Websites Discussions of Sex with Minors (under 18) Homosexual Messages Transvestite Messages Advertising Yourself to meet Women TYPING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS Typing in Blue Font (Reserved for Editor) Repetitive Postings Threatening the Webmaster Personal Insults & Attacks Postings not in English Hate Messages Racist Messages Race Taunting Religious Messages Warnings from Law Enforcement Deliberate Disinformation General BS

WHAT'S NOT CONSIDERED Spelling This would be an impossible task. Grammer Another impossible task.

THE PURPOSE of POSTING GUIDELINES SPAM Control Uncontrolled SPAM will kill a Forum like a cancer. Better Readability Standard capitalization and punctuation rules have been utilized for centuries because it's simply faster and easier to read writing that follows these generally accepted conventions. Improved Reporting It's my theory that people tend to write better when they are asked to adhere to minimal punctuation and capitalization conventions.  Instead of just casually banging their thoughts out onto the keyboard, they tend focus a little more on what they're doing, which improves their ability to communicate with the rest of us, which is to everyone's benefit.