GCCA.NET Forum User Conduct Rules

The Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum is intended with the sole goal to serve the cichlid and aquarium hobby and the hobby in the local area.  In order to achieve these goals, we have the following Forum User Agreement which describes the following user conduct rules. 

Overall Theme of our Rules

- Be a good citizen – please don’t swear, harass or “flame” other forum users
- Use the forum for only hobby-related content
- Do not use the forum to sell goods or services

If you have any questions about these Terms & Conditions, please contact the webmaster.

Rules of Conduct

You agree not to provide any Messages, Avatars, Titles, Signatures to the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association forums that:

(a) infringes any third-party intellectual property or publicity/privacy rights, (b)otherwise includes any copywritten material unless owned by you, (c) is knowingly false (e.g. hoaxes), and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, racist, sexist, inflammatory, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violation of any law or regulation (d) contains any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, “cancelbots” or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information, and (e) promotes piracy.

As the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association forum includes areas specifically tailored to address certain topics, you are responsible for initiating new threads in the correct sub-forum. You should stay on-topic at all times. The appropriate content for each sub-forum is self-evident; however, should you have any specific questions, please contact the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum Administrators (aka “Moderators”).

You agree not to post the same message in multiple sub-forums without permission from the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum Administrators. All such requests for permission should be directed by the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum Administrators.

"Impersonation," or assuming the character of another member by copying his username and manner of writing, is not allowed.

"Multiple User Names," or assuming the character of more than one member by using more than one username and manner of writing, is not allowed.

"Flaming," or lashing out at other participants or displaying repeated dissatisfaction of Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum Administration and corrective actions, is strictly forbidden. Proper etiquette is required for participation in Greater Chicago Cichlid Association.

"Spamming," or sending unsolicited electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings, in any form, is strictly forbidden.

"Trolling," or posting insulting or deliberately divisive threads/replies for the purpose of (1) harvesting retaliatory insults and flames, or (2) throwing off the balance of the forum, is also disallowed.

You agree not to disrupt the normal flow of dialogue or “flood,” cause a screen to "scroll" faster than other users of the Service are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in real time exchanges.

You agree not to use the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum to either advertise or promote commercial endeavors, which includes direct posts, as well as, active links to other sites on the Internet, without permission from the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum Administrators.  This includes selling fish or any other aquarium-related equipment which must be performed through the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Classifieds.  All such requests for permission should be directed through the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum Administrators. You may, however, include URLs or active links to commercial sites, reasonable in number, only for the sole purpose of expanding on comments or providing additional information as part of regular forum interactions.

You agree that you will not incorporate any word in your name, Message ID or custom user title or Avatar, that is defamatory, obscene or profane, or which violates any trademark, service mark, or other proprietary/intellectual property rights of any third party, including, without limitation, that of Greater Chicago Cichlid Association.

Any user who feels that a message is objectionable may request the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association to delete said Message by PM to a Moderator (through the “Report to Moderator” link) or email through webmaster@GCCA.net. Upon receipt of such a request, the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association will determine, in its sole opinion, if such deletion is necessary. If deemed necessary, The Greater Chicago Cichlid Association will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable period.

You agree not to post any information which incorporate politics or religion in the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum. This includes but is not limited to words and/or insinuations in avatars, posts, and/or signatures.

You agree not to post any nudity in any form in the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association Forum. This includes but is not limited to avatars, words and/or insinuations in avatars, posts, and/or signatures. Parental Supervision

You agree to monitor your children who are under 13 years of age. While content is moderated to filter objectionable posts, some topics may still not be suitable for children.