Forum Help - Guidelines and AUP

The golfshake.com community forum is open to all, although only logged in members can actually post in the forum. golfshake.com cannot accept responsibility for the opinions of its members, their errors or any consequences arising from the use of information within the golfshake forums.

Before using the forums please read our Acceptable Use Policy which is a contractual requirement for admission to the golfshake.com forum.

The golfshake forum has been provided to allow members of golfshake.com the platform to discuss topics related to golfshake.com and their golfing lives. Posting and replying to a message is open to any golfshake.com member, however golfshake.com reserves the right to delete or edit forum posts without warning and without an explanation.

Acceptable Use Policy

Your Responsibility

Responsibility for the material posted in the forums is the responsibility of each user.

By using golfshake.com forums you agree not to post or transmit any defamatory, abusive, threatening or illegal material, or any other material with the intent to purposely mislead, harm or infringe on the ability of others.

You are able to challenge and criticise posts but personal attacks on other members are not permitted.

You may not:

• Use this forum to promote hatred of any ethnic group, gender or sexual orientation.
• Start threads about other members or share PMs (private messages) without the member’s permission.
• Troll i.e. make inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic posts with the intention of provoking other members into an emotional response or disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
• Make multiple copies of your posts in more than one thread, although you may post links to them or include quoted sections where relevant.
• Make personal attacks, incite or promote violence, or use harassing or hateful language.
• PM members with illegal propositions or questions. 
• Create a Sock Puppet account - sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception within an online community

Offensive Content

Offensive material is not acceptable in any form and will result in the post or reply being deleted and the poster having action taken against them (please see Violations).

Material that engages in personal attacks, incites or promotes violence, or contains harassing or hateful language will all be construed as offensive content. Any material that promotes illegal activity exposes confidential information or creates a risk to a person’s safety or well being will also be removed and seen as offensive.

No Commercial Use

The golfshake.com forums are there for topic discussion by it’s members only. Commercial posting, including press releases, adverts, or any other solicited or unsolicited commercial communication is strictly forbidden and will be deleted immediately. If you’re interested in advertising on golfshake, please contact marketing@golfshake.com

Stay on topic

As much as possible; please stay on topic within a forum post. If you feel that a particular topic is not being covered then start a new thread rather than replying to an old one.

Registration

You may only comment and post in the forum as yourself, and may not register yourself under different names.

Violations

If you see any offensive material, or anything that goes against the terms and conditions listed in the above document, please report them immediately to a member of the golfshake staff or forum moderators. Please do not reply to the post in the forum, simply email help@golfshake.com or send a private message to a golfshake.com staff of forum moderator.

Minor violations will result in the post or reply being deleted from the forum. More serious violations will result in the post being deleted and depending upon the severity of the case could lead to a temporary or permanent expulsion from the website (please see moderation).

Personal Information

Do not post the private or personal information of another member of golfshake.com without their express permission, this includes names, addresses, phone numbers and any other personal information.

Moderation

The golfshake.com forum is moderated by staff and member moderators who monitor posts to ensure reasonable compliance with the AUP. We are grateful that members often assist us by reporting posts which don't comply, which can be done via email to golfshake.com staff or forum moderator or via email to help@golfshake.com.

Should members not comply to the AUP, depending on the situation, the golfshake.com staff and forum moderators will offer advice; suggestions; requests; informal warnings and formal warnings.  Warnings are always recorded and the member is informed of a formal warning via Personal Message (PM) and usually within the forum thread. Formal warnings are active for one year from the date of issue but accrued active, formal warnings result in suspensions.

In most circumstances the following policy is applied:

• The 2nd active, formal warning = 1 week suspension
• The 3rd active, formal warning = 1 month suspension
• The 4th active, formal warning = Permanent ban

A member will be removed from the site if they accrue 4 formal warnings within one year, as warnings older than one year would have expired.

Golfshake.com staff will issue immediate, permanent bans for spammers and anyone who opens a psedonym account while suspended / banned.

Golfshake.com staff will also, when appropriate, apply the above sanctions flexibly eg suspend / ban a member for a serious offence before the 2nd warning. Examples would be extreme racist rants, serial flaming, persistently abusive PMs to other members etc.

If a member wishes to appeal against a sanction, s/he should send a PM to the moderator who issued it and discuss the matter. If the member still isn't happy with the outcome of the PM discussion, the member may contact golfshake.com staff via help@golfshake.com