ETrainStation Guidelines and Rules

Thank you for visiting ETrainStation.com, the online forum for fans of Elliott Yamin. Please take a moment to review the rules before you get started.

ETrainStation.com was created in to provide a forum to discuss and promote Elliott Yamin, a contestant in American Idol's Season Five.

We have one simple guideline: to run a forum where members are respectful of each other. This guideline is backed by the forum rules listed below. As noted below, any discussion of these rules is handled using the grievance procedure. We appreciate your cooperation in observing these rules, and welcome your participation in a well-informed, dynamic community of individuals who are focused on supporting Elliott in his musical career.

FORUM RULES:

1. DISCLAIMER. Messages posted in ETrainStation.com are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of ETrainStation.com. We are not responsible for any messages posted by members, do not vouch for or warrant their accuracy, completeness or usefulness, and are not responsible for their contents.



2. WHO IS WELCOME. Broadly stated, the goals of this forum are to further civil discussion of Elliott Yamin. If your intention is to disrupt this discussion or to deride your fellow forum members you should not participate in this discussion site. You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not post any material that is in violation of the forum rules.



3. CONCERNING ISSUES OF FREE SPEECH AND CENSORSHIP. Your membership in this community is voluntary and the requirement of compliance with forum rules is in no way a restriction of anyone’s free speech.



4. NONPARTICIPATION OPTION As stated above, all members of the ETrainStation.com forum have joined voluntarily. The moderators try their best to be fair, and to make this forum a welcoming place for members who want to be here. If you don't like ETrainStation.com, the members of this forum, the moderators, the administrators or the forum rules, then you may choose to not participate. There is no deregistration process. A member who chooses to no longer participate should simply become inactive.



5. FORUM MODERATORS. All of the moderators on this discussion board are volunteers. They provide their time and their good judgment to this forum free of charge. They do not make the rules; they only enforce the rules. They do not deserve to be treated harshly either publicly or privately. The moderators have broad discretion to act in the interests of maintaining the civility and goals of this discussion.



6. FORUM ADMINISTRATION. ETrainStation.com administrators reserve the right to remove or edit any message for any reason and take any actions necessary to maintain the civility and goals of this forum. The administrators ultimately decide all issues related to this forum. Administrators reserve the right to change the forum rules without prior notice and for any reason.



7. CRITICISM OF MODERATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS. Our experience has taught us that the forum is an inappropriate venue for publicly discussing any problems you may have with the rules or the administration of the forum. Please contact the moderators or administrators privately by email if you have concerns about rules and administration. In order to respect the privacy of our members we do not discuss disciplinary actions with anyone but the member concerned.



8. HARASSMENT OF MODERATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS. If you have a problem with anything on this message board, it is very important that you follow the grievance procedure (see below). Once you have exhausted all 5 steps, you will have to live with the decision made by the administrators. Under no circumstances should you harass anyone on the moderating/administrative teams in any way. This includes, but is not limited to, sending numerous PMs or emails, using obscene or profane language directed at any member of the mod/admin teams, or making derisive statements about members of the mod/admin team on the public message board.



9. POSTING RESTRICTIONS. Repeated failure to follow forum rules will result in your membership privileges being limited or revoked. This may include requiring pre-approval of posts by a moderator, temporary suspension of topic start or posting permissions and/or denial of access to the e-mail system.



10. BANNING. Administrators have complete discretion to sanction any member, up to and including ending their membership. Depending on the nature of the problem, the member may not receive any notification prior to moderator action. Certain offenses or patterns of behavior are considered grounds for banning a member: repeated rules violations, obscenity, bigotry, threats, multiple accounts, deliberate disruptive behavior and abuse of e-mail system.



11. POST CONTENT. Choose appropriate language. "Flaming", insults, name-calling, and foul language are not acceptable. Any material (including topic titles, links, avatars, images and signatures) that, within our judgment, is hostile, harassing, defaming, derisive, offensive, abusive, or sexually oriented will not be allowed, and will result in the post being edited or removed from view. Abusive posts, name-calling and insults directed toward or about anyone based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or political party affiliation will not be tolerated. We do not allow personal attacks on other members either in public forums, or through our e-mail system.



12. CIVILITY. We promote a civil tone of discussion. Select language that is kind and respectful of others, even if you don't agree with their viewpoint or thoughts. Although our rules cannot specify every type of uncivil post, this does not imply that the administrators approve of disrespectful behavior. Please refrain from labeling members or deriding others for their views. Please contact a moderator if you feel that a member is being uncivil or breaking the forum rules, rather than responding in kind.



13. DIVISIVENESS. We do not suppress dissent among members, but we make a distinction between dissent and divisiveness. Our goal is to encourage dialogue among fans with diverse ideas and values, with an attempt to focus on the ideals we have in common. Topics and remarks that are, in our opinion, divisive will be edited or removed by a moderator.



14. STALKING. Harassment of fellow members in any way will not be tolerated, and may result in restrictions of posting privileges.



15. SIGNATURES AND AVATARS. . Signatures and avatars that contain offensive, abusive, threatening, sexually oriented, or pornographic material will not be allowed, and will result in the image or avatar being removed from view. Signatures & Avatars that are disrespectful to any member, moderator, Elliott or the Etrain will be removed without notification. "Inside joke" signatures and avatars will also be removed at the discretion of Etrain administrators and moderators. The Etrain is first and foremost a forum about Elliott Yamin, his music and his career. Signatures and avatars with religious or political overtones, positions or statements will not be approved. We appreciate that Elliott fans are passionate in their views, and encourage they be expressed in forums that are geared for those conversations and discussions. . In addition, we ask that members use sensitivity and not post images containing graphic violence. This board has many young people involved and we wish to promote their involvement in our democracy. Material that parents would not wish their children to see is a general guide for what we consider inappropriate and although it is impossible to specify every potential problem, the administrators reserve the right to remove any image we consider inappropriate . No referral URL shall appear in an avatar or signature without the permission of Etrain administrators. Etrain administrators are under no obligation to approve all requests to include URL referral sites in a members' signature. Hidden URL's, those linking to other than what is stated, will be removed without notice. Photobucket Signatures may be removed at the discretion of moderators and administrators if they feel it could affect computer performance. Member avatars that include a picture of the member is done so at their own risk. Please limit the text in your signature line to 500 characters. Signatures may contain images but the total combined square pixels should not exceed 30,000 pixels (e.g., 300x100 or 600x50).
    



16. LINKS AND ADVERTISEMENTS. This forum does not normally permit the posting of any advertisements or any links to or material from commercial websites. Links are permitted if posted in the body of your message, but we reserve the right to remove any we consider inappropriate. Blatant promotion of products or web sites is not permitted. Consistent inclusion of a link for the purposes of promotion of companies, products, or personal websites is not allowed in either post body or signature. Any exceptions are strictly at the discretion of the forum administrators.



17. TOPIC RELEVANCE AND LOCATION. Select the most appropriate Category, Forum or Topic in which to post your message. Please take the time to look at all the forums and see where your topic should go. Proper topic placement is important because it keeps the ETrainStation.com forum better organized, therefore easier to read and navigate for everyone. Topics move further down the page faster in busier forums, thus causing the topic to become inactive and archived sooner than it might be if it were placed in its proper Action or Issues forum. If your topic is placed in the wrong forum, a moderator may move it to the correct forum.



18. HIJACKING TOPICS. Members should make every effort to keep posts relevant to the topic. Hijacking threads with irrelevant information with intent to deviate the topic in a different direction is discouraged, and may result in the removal of the posts.



19. DUPLICATE TOPICS OR POSTS. Posting the same message across multiple topics and/or forums is prohibited. A moderator will remove duplicate posts or topics. Moderators posting news articles are exempt from this rule because some important articles are relevant to more than one forum or subforum.



20. BUMPS OR KICKS. Posts should contain an actual message. "Bumps" or "kicks" to the top are not permitted and will be deleted. Posting an emoticon, or one word post can be considered a kick/bump and is discouraged. The "no bumping" rule applies to each and every forum.



21. SECURITY THREATS. You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not use this forum to engage in predatory behavior, stalking or to post any material which is threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law. You shall not upload, e-mail, post or transmit to, or distribute or otherwise publish through ETrainStation.com any material which: constitutes or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense (including threats of unauthorized access to a computer or network), potentially give rise to civil liability (including claims of defamation and/or libel), or otherwise violate the local, state, or national laws of any country.



22. PERSONAL INFORMATION. Remember that the general public can view all personal information in your user profile and posted messages. Before posting or editing your profile, make certain that you are posting information you want others to know. Anything you post will not be privileged or confidential nor will any replies to your postings. You may choose to deny other members the ability to send you e-mail via the forum by changing your e-mail settings in "My Controls". Also, when logging in you may choose to not appear on the active users list. Personal information from users is only what the user freely provides.



23. PRIVACY OF OTHERS. Please do not post personal information about any person, even if that information is publicly available. You may post the public contact information for public figures or officials, but you may not post anyone's (including your own) private information. If you wish to share any personal information with another member, please do it by e-mail and it is entirely at your own discretion and risk.



24. COPYRIGHTS & ILLEGALLY LEAKED MUSIC. Please do not post copyrighted material obtained from any source without giving citation or specific references. Plagiarism in any form is prohibited. No links, text from link sites that can be easily googled, or hints to where to find leaked songs will be permitted in posts, avitars or signatures. They will be edited or deleted by the moderators.



25. USERNAMES. Account names must adhere to the general rules of this forum. Hostile, obscene, offensive, harassing or defamatory usernames will not be permitted. The use of e-mail addresses as usernames is prohibited for the protection of members’ privacy.



26. MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS. Multiple accounts are absolutely not allowed. Members are not permitted to create or use another screen name to avoid a revocation of posting privileges. Previously banned members will be immediately banned, regardless of behavior. Don't represent yourself as another person. If you are caught posting with multiple accounts, all will be suspended and/or banned.



27. ABUSE OF E-MAIL AND PRIVATE MESSAGE SYSTEM. Members may not use their accounts here to spam other members, either via e-mail, private message, or any other messaging client. Posting the contents of an e-mail or private message without the sender's permission is not permitted. Abuse of the e-mail or private message system is considered a banning offense and we encourage members to report this type of activity to the moderating team or administrator.



28. GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE. Any objections to moderator or administrator actions taken on the ETrainStation.com Forum must be dealt with using the following grievance procedure:
    
    
    
    1. If you disagree with a moderator's action on another member, it is up to that member to take it up with us. We do not discuss disciplinary actions with anyone but the member concerned out of respect for their privacy.
    
    
    
    2. If you believe another member's post is uncivil or in violation of the meeting rules, please do not respond to the member in kind. Contact a moderator or administrator with a link to the post in question. This will NOT guarantee that we will see things your way however, because we can get complaints from members on both sides of heated debates. We let the rules guide us in these matters.
    
    
    
    3. If you disagree with a moderator's action concerning yourself, it is required that you contact the moderator in question for clarification. We do not permit public criticism of the mods or admins and doing so will be considered an additional infraction.
    
    
    
    4. If after communicating with a moderator, you are still dissatisfied you may contact any member of the administrating team.
    
    
    
    5. Any decisions made by the administrative team are final. Attempts to circumvent this grievance procedure will be considered harassment and a banning offense.