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TackleTour Discussion Forum - Guidelines and Rules (updated 05.19.21)

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 6:50 am
by Cal
Thank you for joining and participating in our discussion forum. We provide this message board as a place for discussion surrounding all things fishing tackle related with a couple of areas for other interests as well. We ask that you keep things civil and use common sense when posting questions, replies, or other topics for discussion. Even so, we need to set forth some guidelines and rules as to what is and is not acceptable on this forum. These rules are not intended to be all inclusive but serve as a general overview. TackleTour and its agents reserves the right to edit posts for content and/or remove them entirely should any topic violate the following rules and guidelines. Flagrant or repeated abuse of the rules and guidelines may result in suspension or deactivation of your account without prior warning.

- No Personal Attacks : Name calling, racial slurs, or any other demeaning behavior will result in immediate suspension.

- User Post Counts : Users suspected of running up their post counts will suspended without warning... one way we determine this? If we click to "view new posts" and a single username pops up in the majority of new posts.

- No Trolling : And we don't mean for fish or tackle - users posting content that is interpreted for the sole purpose of inciting arguments, not discussions, will be suspended

- For Sale/Wanted Posts : All such posts belong in the For Sale/Wanted/Trade forum. If you do not have the requisite number of posts to participate in that forum and begin a topic of this type, your account is subject to immediate suspension/deactivation. Please reference the CLASSIFIEDS FORUM RULES AND GUIDELINES

Additionally, we do not allow posts asking the approximate value of a certain piece of tackle. It's far too easy for someone to begin a thread in this manner to solicit PMs to sell that piece before establishing themselves as a good standing member fo the forum. However, these inquiries are fine within the Classifieds Forum.

Further, if you don't have the requisite number of posts, and begin a thread asking where to find a specific piece of tackle, what the value of X tackle might be, etc., we may construe your intent as a "wanted to buy" or "wanted to sell"solicitation. Poses of this nature will be removed at our discretion. Do this a number of times and your account will be suspended.

- Questions to Advertisers : Unless an advertiser has their own support forum, if you have a specific question to ask of any of our advertisers, please call them, send them an email message, or if applicable, send them a PM through the forum, but do not begin a discussion topic in the forum addressed to them with your questions. If you do, your thread will be deleted and your account subject to suspension. The forum is not a place conduct business!

- Where can I find XXX piece of tackle threads : (added 04.07.2019) We appreciate and support everyone's passion towards the new and sometimes difficult to find tackle - obviously. However, there have been a couple threads recently, of members looking to acquire a certain piece of tackle that devolved into for sale threads or places for tackle shops not advertising with our site, to essentially advertise their site for free.

While that may seem innocent enough, because all of these individuals are simply responding to a question posted on the forum - and we've let this slide in the past - it is ultimately a dis-service to those entities that actually support the availability of our site. So as of this update to our rules, we are no longer allowing these inquiries in the general forum.

You can still make these inquiries in the Classifieds, and other members that have your piece of tackle may respond. If there are advertising retailers that have this piece of tackle, they may also respond, but please, no links to retailers that are not advertising with the site. Everyone knows they are out there and searching via the Internet is not that difficult, but please, respect and support those entities that make the availability of our site possible. If you enjoy and value this resource, buy from them and you can indirectly help us.

- One Account per Person : If we determine a single user has more than one account. Every account by said user will be deactivated.

- Content Aware : Please make sure you are posting topics in their appropriate forums. Repeated postings of "I'm not sure I'm putting this in the right place..." may result in suspension of your account.

- One Post per Topic : Do not post the same topic in multiple forums. Choose a forum and make the post. Making the same posts in multiple forums will result in a warning and/or suspension of your account.

- Politics & Religion : Everyone has a view - most everyone's views are different. We don't want to hear it here. Keep the discussions on topic and no politics please. Topics on this matter will be deleted and users will be sent a warning. Similarly, please no discussions on religion.

- Language : People of all ages participate in our forum. Please keep your language at an appropriate level. Crude, pornographic, offensive language will be deleted and users may be suspended without warning.

- Advertising : Unless you are a paid advertiser with TackleTour.com, we do not allow product announcements by manufacturers, tackle shops, pro-staff, or other employees of any such entities.

This includes individuals posting links to external websites in an effort to drive traffic to these sites at the expense of our advertisers. Topics and posts of this nature will be immediately removed. Repeated violations will result in account deactivation.

Additionally, if you're new to the forum and post a "check this out" type of topic with a link to a new tackle store, manufacturer, youTube videos, etc., our assumption is going to be you're affiliated with the linked entity and/or are on a mission of self promotion. In these cases, the post will likely be removed and the account will be subject to suspension or deactivation.

Lastly, any posts or behavior (including "contact me" signatures) that can be interpreted as a self promotion for product, services or otherwise is subject to removal and account deactivation. This includes links directing members to your social media accounts.

- Affiliations : We ask the common courtesy of declaring any affiliations with manufacturers, tackle shops, or other fishing industry related entities in your signature. If TackleTour.com is aware of your affiliation, and you do not state so in your signature, we reserve the right to insert this information into your signature.

Similarly, if the great majority of any user's posts surround the praise of one company or a small group of companies, we reserve the right to assume said user has an undeclared affiliation with the companies in question. Correct or not, we will treat these users as an extension of these companies and therefore will not allow them to begin topics announcing new product or product availability as these types of announcements in our forum are reserved for companies paying for advertising.

- TackleSwaps/Trade Threads : Unfortunately, due to the disingenuous behavior of a couple of members, we no longer allow threads that deal with tackle swaps and trades between a pool of members. It was a fun idea, but problems arise when not everyone is on the same page or someone uses it as a means to hoard tackle.

- General Conduct : Relating back to "No Personal Attacks" and "Trolling", please watch your tone. If you take it upon yourself to continually argue with other members of the forum or take offense to moderators' and admins' warnings, your account will be suspended without notice.

Likewise, if we catch wind you are berating other members via PM, your account will be suspended without notice.

- youTube Links (added 05.19.21): Established participants within our forum are welcome to share links to their youTube content on the following conditions:

- Said content helps educate or shares ideas on tackle and fishing
- There is mention of TackleTour in the content (in a manner that is not negative or derogatory)

We reserve the right to delete such links if any of the following are true:

- Posts made by individuals who are not regular participants in the forum
- Content promotes something totally unrelated to the fishing industry
- Repeated links to the same content
- Content or post can be perceived as soliciting/begging for subscribers
- Content with negative remarks or intent towards the TT Community or TackleTour

Individuals with questions regarding the appropriateness of their content for sharing in the TackleTour forum are welcome to PM a moderator for approval prior to sharing content.