The Serama Club of America (hereafter known as the "SCA") members represent a wide variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds - all are welcome to participate in conversations on our forum boards as long as you do not violate the Terms of Service (TOS) as outlined below. When you participate in SCA discussions, you may encounter persons whose opinions differ from your own. We know that you will approach these encounters in a spirit of tolerance and acceptance.
SCA is committed to protecting a high level of freedom of expression, and to maintaining a welcoming and safe community in which that expression can flourish.
We will not censor members for expressing an opinion, within the limits of these Rules of Conduct. We will take action against any behavior that disrupts conversations and community on the Site.
Any duplication of ANY portion of the Serama Club of America's message boards or website whether by a registered member or other individual, is expressly forbidden. All postings to this website, including but not limited to forum messages, text, graphics, pictures, are protected under copyright and intellectual property law. The BoD retains the right to remove any member from the forums, that violates these ToS
Anyone found to be in violation of these Terms of Service can be prosecuted,at the discretion of the SCA, to the fullest extent of the law.
Serama Club of America has the right, but not the obligation, to remove or move any member-generated content for any reason, without notice. These Rules of Conduct reflect the standards of behavior our members find acceptable. By viewing, posting text or pictures to any part or portion of the SCA's website, you agree to the following:
For all purposes in the following document "WE" will refer to the SCA and "You" refers to registered and/or dues paid members of the message board(s)
Rules of Conduct
1. Courtesy and Respect: You agree that you will be courteous to every SCA member, even those whose beliefs you think are false. When debating, express your opinion about a person's ideas, not about them personally. You agree not to make negative personal remarks about other SCA members, including negative remarks about their age, disability, gender, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, intelligence, character, appearance, health, mental health, education or any other personal characteristic. You agree not to create posts and discussions intended to criticize or ridicule other members personally. You agree not to engage in derogatory name-calling or other inflammatory comparisons.
2. Violence: You agree not to advocate illegal violence against or harassment of groups or individuals.
3. Disruptive behavior: You agree not to disrupt or interfere with discussions, forums, or other community functions. Disruptive behavior may include creating a disproportionate number of posts or discussions; creating off-topic posts; making statements that are deliberately inflammatory; manipulating topic lists to disrupt conversation; posting in a language other than English without providing an accurate English translation; expanding a disagreement from one discussion to another; or any behavior that interferes with conversations or inhibits the ability of others to use and enjoy this website for its intended purposes.
4. Local guidelines: You agree to observe the rules and guidelines posted for specific message boards. These guidelines appear at the top of each page in that board. For example: Controversial and provocative comments are sometimes invited in specific message boards; to express criticism of a proposed idea, please do so only in the message board that has been set aside for that purpose.
5. Solicitation: You agree not to use community functions to advertise or solicit on behalf of commercial, religious, charitable or other organizations or causes. Exceptions: (1) members may ask for contributions to the SCA General Fund; (2) if you are an author you may announce your own books in your profile and in no more than one post. (3) If you have a personal website that you have created you may post that website's URL within your signature in your profile as long as the content of the URL does not violate other portions of the TOS. (Expressly vulgarity, pornography etc.)
6. Spam: You agree not to repeat substantially the same text in more than one location on SCA.
7. URLS: You may share the URL of a web resource other members may find useful, but you agree not to post URL's repeatedly, specifically for the purpose of promoting a commercial website or service (see "Solicitation" above). You agree not to post a hyperlink to or URL of a site that violates these Rules of Conduct. You will not reproduce chain letters, pyramid schemes, mail fraud schemes, or any other unauthorized advertising.
Members may post the URL of their personal website within their signature in their profile.
8. Copying posts: You agree not to post or forward transcripts of e-mail or other personal communication without the author's express permission. You agree not to reproduce material from SCA (including member posts) without express written permission from SCA. You agree not to copy or link to SCA member posts with less than friendly intent. You agree not to expand disagreements from one board to another.
9. Privacy: You will not collect or use information about users of the Site without their express permission. You agree not to reveal personal information about someone else. SCA will remove any post containing a personal telephone number, real name, address, or any information that might reveal someone's geographical location without their permission. You will not send e-mail to SCA members that would violate these Rules of Conduct.
10. Vulgarity: You agree not to display words, information, or images that are vulgar, obscene, graphically violent, graphically sexual, harm minors in any way, exploit images of children, or are otherwise objectionable. You agree not to post URL's of sites where such words, images or information is displayed. Permission for exceptions to this rule must be obtained from SCA BoD.
11. Images, Text and HTML: You agree to refrain from using visually disruptive or excessively large font sizes and/or images. We suggest that images be no larger than 200 pixels in width or height, and that you not use font sizes larger than 16 points (size 4). You agree to use HTML and styles only for text effects (such as bold and italics), to post images, or to create normal hyperlinks. You agree not to upload to SCA or link to any other code, tags, scripts, audio, animations, file or program. You will not upload, post, link to, e-mail or otherwise transmit any harmful component to SCA, or deface any portion of the site.
12. Minors: You agree that you will not invite a minor on SCA to contact you for any reason.
13. Copyright: SCA discussions are primarily intended for interactive conversation. You agree not to create posts that consist substantially of material copied from another source. You agree to respect intellectual property rights when posting on SCA. You agree not to post copyrighted or trademarked images on SCA. You agree not to post articles or other text from another publication (copyright or not) except as follows: you may quote a small sample of it, credit the source, post a hyperlink to the author's original, and include your own comments in your own words. Permission for exceptions to this rule must be obtained from SCA staff. You agree that you will not modify, adapt, sublicense, translate, sell, lease, reverse engineer, decompile, frame, mirror or disassemble any portion of this Site, or offer to do so.
14. Illegal activities: You will not solicit or promote the use of an illegal substance, promote illegal activity, or discuss illegal activities with the intent to commit them.
15. Impersonation: You agree not to impersonate or spoof SCA members, hosts, or volunteers. You agree to create and use no more than one SCA username, without explicit approval from SCA staff. You agree to not create a username that is vulgar, violent or offensive as your SCA username. You agree not to express or imply that any content or materials you make, submit or post are endorsed by SCA or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
16. Contact information: You agree to provide a valid e-mail address in your SCA registration. You may choose to conceal your e-mail address from other members, and you may manage your mail preferences. However SCA staff must be able to contact you by e-mail if necessary to discuss your account. If the e-mail address in your profile is not valid, your posting privileges may be suspended; should this happen to you, please e-mail us for assistance. Community staff members will keep your e-mail address confidential.
17. Complaints: If there are problems on SCA, we want to know about them so that we can attempt to fix them. You agree to report community-related complaints and problems appropriately: to report a violation of these Rules of Conduct, or to complain about another member or the action moderator to e-mail your complaint to SCA staff, who will review your complaint and take appropriate action. You agree not to post problem reports and complaints publicly on the site, or to comment publicly on host or staff actions. You agree you will not harass volunteer Community Hosts and SCA staff. You will not engage in behavior that requires SCA staff and/or volunteer Moderators to expend excessive time and/or resources.