Not so much a rule but often confused are the differences between support and discussion, so here's a quick definition of what they mean when used to describe a forum:-

A support forum is where you will find us helping out with questions.

A discussion forum is a place where you can discuss something and one that support staff rarely venture into.

Observing these two general rules will save time if you are looking for support or assistance from one of the team. If you think your thread is not being answered fast enough make sure you have stuck it in the right forum, and that will usually be one that includes the word "support" in it. HTH!



We have implemented the following guide for using our forums. This guide is designed to strike a balance between the main goal of our forums, providing free assistance, and keeping the relaxed and welcoming atmosphere of our community which has made our services so popular.

• All technical support questions are to be posted on the forum. Please do not send a private message or email to a staff member requesting technical help.
  
• We require all posts to be positive, constructive, and on topic. We may delete or move individual posts that could ruin a good topic thread, this is rare, we believe in the fundamental right for freedom of speech, but just like real life there are places where some conversations should not be held, for example talking about the footy or gagging on a joke at a funeral just ain't right.
  
• We reserve the right to remove any topics we deem inappropriate or disruptive to our community. Please note that, from time to time, topics may be removed for being inappropriate even though your individual post in that topic may have been perfectly fine. Please do not feel this reflects badly on you.
  
• Having fun is good, we like fun. There are several general forums for unrelated topics. Please keep it positive and polite. We do not censor opinions or ideas on our forums but we do take action against posts and/or topics that could cause unrest in the community beyond a civil and polite disagreement.
  
• You may not make personal attacks on other users or staff members either in public forums or private messages. If you think this infringes your rights based on one of the statements above, try us.
  
• You may not use profanity. It is unprofessional and offensive and will not be tolerated. We have word filters in place for the most vulgar terms. Circumventing those word filters will result in punitive action.
  
• You may not advertise or promote other companies or their programs which may compete with our products.
  
• We reserve the right to ban any member who violates our guidelines or disrupts our community. We will be fair and provide warning in most cases.

The Golden Rules

1. There will be no excessive use of profanity (the odd word used to enhance humour may be tolerated but use the same word in anger or for any negative reason will get you more than a finger wag).
   
2. There will be no racial, ethnic, gender based insults or any other personal discriminations. (One strike and you're out, I hope you feel the same way about this).
   
3. There will be no posts meant to offend or hurt any other member, in a manner which is offensive or inflammatory.
   
4. Spamming is not permitted; please keep all your posts as constructive as possible. (Spam does get removed, stuff freedom of speech).
   
5. Pornography, Warez, or any other illegal transactions may NOT be linked in any shape or form.
   
6. All posts are property of the poster. This forum and all web sites owned in conjunction with this forum have the right to request alteration or deletion of any offensive post. Posts may be deleted for any reasons the forum administrators deem reasonable.
   
7. Users may not argue a moderators decision.
   
8. Pictures may be posted as long as they are not explicit or offensive. If you plan to post more than one image, or the topic is based on graphics, please link the images rather than screening (imageshack.us makes this easy).
   
9. Signatures may contain images, but may not be any larger than 468x150. If your signature is larger than the allotted size given, you will be requested by a moderator to resize your image. Please also keep text signatures under 10 lines. At any time a moderator may delete a signature that does not observe the rules.
   
10. Advertising, commercial-related or competing products are all forbidden in any relation to your account. However please see Advertising Rules below.
    
11. Remember to post in the correct forum. Take your time to look at other topics and see where your topic should go. If your topic is placed in the wrong forum, it will be moved by a moderator.
    
12. If you recognize a topic as being posted in the wrong forum, or if the post is a violation of our guidelines then please contact a moderator with the 'report post to moderator' feature; please do not respond publicly to the member - a member of staff will do what is required upon contact. Any person/s who attempt to present themselves as a Moderator by posting negatively to a member's topic (which has been posted in error and requires locking or moving to another forum) will be sent a warning and placed into moderation queue upon further actions.
    
13. Any impersonation of a user from these forums, in any mode of communication, is strictly prohibited and will result in a banning.
14. Linked and locked topics are pruned regularly to reduce page clutter.

Advertising Rules

Some advertising will be permitted but the spirit of these rules must be obeyed.

The general idea is that you can advertise anything that is related to the traffic exchange community in the Third Party Products & Services forum (http://forum.ventrino.com/index.php?showforum=56) as long as it's not competing directly with our products.

For example if you offer any of the following these will be warmly welcomed:-

• Graphic Design
• Website Development
• Programming Assistance
• Installation Services
• Supporting Scripts
• Add-On scripts (note we do have our own add-ons being developed and some in secrecy. You may feel that your own IPR are better served by not advertising on our forum should it turn out that one of our own add-ons is a conflict with yours. Should yours be released before ours we will not stop you from marketing it before ours is released. The keywords here are "fair" and "in our interests" rather than yours!).
• Other supporting applications (could be a script you have written or found that performs backups on a daily basis, that kind of thing.
• Ebooks and self help material. Any material that will help other members with their promotion efforts.

Advertising Forum Signatures

We don't want to turn each post into a Las Vegas billboard look alike competition. Subtle advertising works better anyway. You are free to add a link to your traffic exchange(s) and supporting services and include an image (maybe more if not overwhelming the signature). Don't forget the proper place to post your website is in the Website Showcase forum, take advantage of this utility to get your website indexed fast.

Asking Questions and Demanding Service
This forum provides free support for Ventrino products. Staff frequent it when they have time during normal working hours and sometimes over the weekend. This service does not include any physical hands-on assistance with your website, for that you will need to select the appropriate service from here http://www.ventrino.com/?p=services and pay a fee. Please refer to the welcome email and/or the readme provided with the script for further assistance.


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Violation of any of these rules will result in consequences determined on a case-by-case basis.

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Support for Ventrino products is under constant evaluation. Support is a pendulum between profit and productivity and you and I sit at both ends but we both want the same thing. For a snapshot of changes made in 2008 check out Martyn's post, in particular check the section headed "Why we don’t give private support".