The rules below cover all activity on the site particularily in forum posts, blog entries / comments and Conversations. They are in place to ensure that all members have a very enjoyable and informative experience on GardenStew. The rules marked in RED are more important to follow. Members who consistently break rules will receive two official warnings followed by a banning. Official warnings may be revoked for good behaviour. Please respect our rules. Thanks!
1. Promotion
1.1 No promotion of a website / product /service you own or are commercially linked with. This includes linking to the website or mentioning the website / product. You may use your forum signature (signature rules are here) or the 'recommended links' in your blog to link to your website.
2. Etiquette / Behaviour
2.1 Absolutely no bad language, personal attacks on another member, trolling, flaming or other behaviour designed to upset the community.
2.2 In the interest of all members do not discuss politics or religion.
2.3 Please stay on-topic in discussions. Start new topics when you need a new question answered.
2.4 Ever asked a question on a forum, get no answer and then wonder why? Politeness pays. Our members take their time to answer questions so please make the effort to say 'please' and 'thank you'.
2.5 Please don't share sensitive information like addresses and phone numbers in publicly viewable areas like forum posts and blog entries / comments.
2.6 Please try not to post just for the sake of posting e.g. no "Sorry I don't know anything about this subject"-type posts. Try always to help or add something constructive even if it is something small.
3. Posting
3.1 All material posted must be in English (with rare exceptions).
3.2 Members should write in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, no punctuation etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?). Finally chatspeak is NOT allowed (e.g. i wan dat, plz fone me).
3.3 Use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic or blog entry. If a moderator changes your forum topic/blog entry title to make it more descriptive they are helping so please don't change it back.
3.4 Do not copy content from other websites for redisplay here. A very small snippet of an article followed by a link to the original article may be acceptable. The reasons to link to an article should be informative only and not for self-promotion or commercial purposes.
3.5 One word forum posts, low-content forum posts and forum posts containing only smilies are to be kept to an absolute minimum.
3.6 Avoid posting twice or more in a row. This is referred to as double posting.
3.7 Avoid answering topics with a post containing only links to other sites. GardenStew is an informative community thanks to unique content contributed by our members.
3.8 Do not flood the board with posts just to build up post count. Give others a chance to get a word in. Don't make other new members feel left out.
4. Multiple Accounts
4.1 You are not permitted to have multiple accounts.
4.2 If you are a banned member you are not permitted to re-register under a new account.
5. Images / Photos
5.1 Please resize photos to 500 pixels wide or less before posting.
5.2 Posting images that are not appropriate to the nature of the forum topic or blog entry that you are posting in should be kept to a minumum e.g. funny or cute images in a topic about pruning roses. Funny and cute images are more suited to the Jokes and Games and Village Square forums.
5.3 Add captions to your images whenever possible.
5.4 When adding a caption to an image please put it directly above or below the image, not to the left or right of the image.
5.5 Please don't directly link to images located on another websites that are not image hosting websites.
5.6 Do not upload any images / photos that are illegal, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, harassing, threatening, invasive of another person's privacy, or a violation of copyright.
6. Inbox / Conversations
6.1 Never reveal the contents of any Conversation to anyone without the explicit permission of the original sender. This is particularly true of Conversations with moderators. Doing so is a violation of trust and will most likely lead to an official warnng and the disabling of your ability to use the Inbox / Conversation system.
6.2 The Inbox / Conversation system is secure however never share very sensitive information such as credit card numbers. Sharing of less sensitive information should be done at your own risk also.
7. Copyright
7.1 You may not post any content (graphics, text, photos) that are not owned in copyright by you.
8. Signatures
8.1 Many forums don't allow signatures. We do, but in good faith. Don't abuse this privilege. If we think you are abusing your signature privilege it will be revoked. Our signature rules are here.
9. Plant Database
9.1 You must only supply plant data if you are reasonably confident that it is correct. A member found to be entering incorrect data just to increase their statistic count within GardenStew PLANTS will have their account disabled.
9.2 A member found deleting/adding plant data for malicious or selfish reasons will have their account disabled.
9.3 When you upload a plant image for inclusion on a plant page avoid the following (to prevent having the image rejected):
* Wrong plant in image
* Big borders around images
* Big or flashy watermarks/copyright notices on images
* Images that are too tall
* Images that are too wide
* Black and white images
* Blurry images
10. Final Points
10.1 The GardenStew.com administrators and moderators reserve the right to remove, not remove, edit, move or close any user account, forum post, blog entry or other user-generated content at any time should they see fit. Questioning an administrator's or moderator's decision in public is not permitted. If you would like to dispute a decision then do it in a private Conversation only.
10.2 By visiting GardenStew you agree that all information posted is to be acted upon at your own risk and the administrators, moderators or webmaster will not be held liable for damage, injury or losses consequent or in relation with the use of this information.
10.3 While these rules cover a lot it is impossible to imagine every possible issue that may arise. Accordingly we reserve the right to act upon unforseen issues in a manner that is best for the community. The GardenStew rules will be periodically updated to cover these unforseen issues.
10.4 These rules are subject to change without prior warning. If you miss a new rule you will be informed via an Inbox Conversation should you break it. Be sure to bookmark this page and check back periodically in case there are changes.
Thanks for reading and following our Community Rules!
