GeocacheAlaska! Social Media Use GuidelinesIntroduction to our Discussion Forums and Social Media The goal of the GeocacheAlaska! ProBoards Discussion Forum is to promote the activity of geocaching and related outdoor activities. This is an open forum administered by GeocacheAlaska! Inc. for discussing all aspects of geocaching and related outdoor activities with a focus on Alaska, but all relevant discussion is acceptable. It is a friendly social network for geocaching enthusiasts around the world. GeocacheAlaska! also conducts Business on a number of password-protected areas of our Forums. The Use Guidelines apply to both the public and private areas of our Forums and all areas of our Social Media outlets.
We encourage anyone with an interest in geocaching or related outdoor activities to post freely in our forums and social media outlets. All on-topic discussion is allowed, as long as it fits within the contents of these posting guidelines. Members of GeocacheAlaska! as well as members of the public may post original threads, replies, or comments. We encourage you to ask questions, post answers to other’s questions, post your stories, photos, and videos to share with and participate in our geocaching community.
These guidelines for posting are important and should be read and accepted before you choose to participate. Anyone who posts to our forums or social media outlets has implied their acceptance of these guidelines. GeocacheAlaska! and the Alaskan geocaching community encourages contributors who are courteous, polite and respectful. We discourage those who choose to behave in a disrespectful and/or irresponsible manner. GeocacheAlaska! staff and volunteer moderators will take appropriate steps to ensure discussions adhere to these guidelines. This may include editing or deletion without notice of anything that is posted on our forums or social media.
If you have any questions regarding the appropriateness of a ProBoards Forum post or message that you have read, you can use the 'report' function for that post. The Report Post function is located in the upper right corner of each post under a geared wheel icon with a drop down list. Click the icon and select “Report Post” from the list. This alerts a GeocacheAlaska! Forum Administrator or Moderator to look into that topic. You may also contact the author of the post, citing the appropriate section of these guidelines. Be respectful, as all contact with other users through our forums is subject to the Social Media Use Guidelines.
Forum and Social Media administrators and moderators are generous volunteers that give up their time to help build a better community. Occasionally, our moderators will use their discretion to determine the best course of action. GeocacheAlaska! has entrusted these volunteers to do what is best for the global community. Volunteers assist with focusing topics of discussion and will gently enforce guidelines, as needed. They can edit/delete posts, move, close or delete topics, and temporarily moderate users' posts.
Discussion forums and social media are moderated to preserve the spirit of an open, interactive discussion without offending participants. Please understand that we are not attempting to censor any messages or opinions.
Social Media Use Guidelines:1. To post in the GeocacheAlaska! ProBoard Discussion Forums, Facebook Group, or any other GeocacheAlaska! owned or administered social media outlets, you must be 18 years or older, or under the supervision of your parent or legal guardian.
2. Courtesy: All participants shall treat GeocacheAlaska!, its members, volunteers, fellow community members, and guests in the forums and social media with courtesy and respect. Whether a community member has one post or 5,000 posts, everyone should be treated respectfully.
3. Foul language and obscene images will not be tolerated. This site is family-friendly. All forum posts must conform to a family-friendly standard and contributors must act accordingly. It is not appropriate to replace characters in a profane word to elude the built-in censoring filter, or forum moderation.
4. Personal attacks and inflammatory or antagonistic behavior will not be tolerated. If you want to post criticism, please do so constructively. Generalized, vicious or veiled attacks on or against a person will not be tolerated. Threats of violence will result in immediate expulsion (ban) from our forum and social media.
5. Sock puppet accounts are not permitted. A sock-puppet account is created and used by a person who already has a primary account, for the purpose of posting anonymously. Posts from known sock puppet accounts may be deleted, and both the sock-puppet and primary accounts may be suspended from the GeocacheAlaska! sites. Please use your real, primary account for posting in any GeocacheAlaska! social media sites.
6. Keep on topic: Responses to a particular thread should stay on-topic and pertain to the discussion. Users should use the Create Thread button to start a new discussion which would otherwise be off-topic in the current thread. Threads that veer off topic may be redirected, closed or moderated by a moderator. Deliberate disruption or derailing of topics is not appropriate. However, our moderators allow for natural progressions of topics.
7. Private discussions: Sometimes, a discussion thread strays off into a friendly dialogue or a heated debate among a very small number of users. For these exchanges, we ask that you please use the Private Message feature that is provided through the GeocacheAlaska! forums. Public forum posts should be reserved for matters of interest to the general geocaching community. All contact with other community members through GeocacheAlaska! Private Messages is subject to these Social Media Use Guidelines.
8. Spam: Posting the same message, or an unsolicited commercial message, to one or many topics or boards is considered spamming and may result in a restriction on future forum posting privileges. Duplicate messages may be deleted or consolidated by our moderators. Please do your best to post new threads to the appropriate forum board. Moderators can take action when a thread should be moved to a more appropriate section.
9. Commercialism and postings with a larger agenda: It is GeocacheAlaska!’s desire to maintain forums for the purpose of promoting geocaching and related outdoor activities. We intend to limit forum and social media discussions that promote commercial, social, political or charitable agendas as well as those which do not reasonably relate to the activity of geocaching and related outdoor activities.
Threads or posts perceived to have been made with the intent of promoting any of the above agendas will not be permitted. Please note that our Administrators and Moderators are authorized to exercise their discretion in providing some reasonable latitude for forum discussion postings relating to local events and issues. Notwithstanding the above, GeocacheAlaska! reserves the right to include or permit the inclusion of limited commercial content in this forum, at its sole discretion.
10. Violation of these Social Media Use Guidelines may be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the GeocacheAlaska! Bylaws with specific action ranging from editing a post to permanent termination of membership in GeocacheAlaska!
11. Personal classified advertising is permitted in the 'Swap & Sell' board only. GeocacheAlaska! is not involved in any related transactions and assumes no liability for any issues relating from such transactions or related discussions.
12. Any messages you post in these discussion forums will remain available to the public for as long as this discussion forum is online; please post carefully and with due consideration to the content of your post. An exception is if the post does not meet forum guidelines and is moderated. Moderated posts may be removed or edited by moderators or GeocacheAlaska! In the unlikely event that we do edit your post and you do not like the changes, we can delete the message at your request.
13. When posting images, videos, or any other original or artistic content, please comply with applicable copyright standards and give proper credit to authors and creators of such content. If someone has posted copyrighted material or otherwise illegal material, please notify GeocacheAlaska! so that we may take appropriate action. Owners of copyrighted materials will be required to submit a copyright claim to GeocacheAlaska! in writing.
14. Abuse of this forum or social media will not be tolerated.
Contact Us: Our main email address is:
contact@geocachealaska.org GCAK Social Media Use Guidelines - Version 1 - 6/12/14