In addition to the Ball-Pythons.net Terms of Use which apply to this site as a whole, the staff here has worked up a list of rules over the last few months that apply specifically to the forum and its features. The purpose of this list is to preserve the site's usefulness and community, as well as to make it clear what behavior is prohibited and what the consequences are for that behavior. Most of you will never run into a problem with the rules, and we'd like to keep it that way.

Rules:
1. Family-friendly forum content. No cursing, name-calling (or other attacks against members or staff), threats, hate speech, or speech intended to cause or further a "flame war." Legitimate disputes conducted in a civil manner are fine. Any links or images posted publicly should be family-friendly as well.

First violation: warning via PM and message edited/moved/deleted by moderator or Admin Council as appropriate. Second or subsequent violations: public warning, post(s) edited/moved and account suspension. Further or extreme violations WILL cause you to lose your site priveleges.

2. No advertising on the site without prior arrangement with the Admin Council. This includes, but may not be limited to, starting threads with the specific purpose of attracting visitors to any commercial or competing site or forum or sending PMs to more than one member in a week for the same purpose.

If you have a forum or commercial site, you are welcome to link to it in your profile or signature, as long as the language used to link to the site is not insulting to or derogatory toward Ball-Pythons.net. Reviews of breeders or other relevant businesses should include a web link when possible and are welcome in the site's Reviews section and in the forum's Inquiry section. Any posts of a commercial nature other than product or service reviews MUST be posted in the forum's For Sale section or they will be deleted.

First violation: warning via PM and deletion of material in violation. Second or subsequent violations: deletion of material in violation, public statement by staff regarding violation, account suspension. Further or extreme violations WILL cause you to lose site priveleges.

3. In order to provide the most benefits to the most active members of the community, we are instituting a policy that members must remain active in order to keep gallery priveleges. Any member not posting in a 4-month period will lose his/her photo gallery. Once a gallery is deleted, it WILL NOT be restored by the staff, though a member is welcome to begin participating again and create a new gallery.

4. You may not reproduce the posts, photos, caresheets, or other intellectual property of other members, contributors, or staff for use outside the site without express, documented permission of said person. Quoting or linking to material posted in a reply within Ball-Pythons.Net is, of course, wholly acceptable. Public posting of permission by other member under her/his own user name is considered documented permission, as is non-anonymous email or a stored Private Message on this site.

First violation: warning via PM and request for editing/deletion of material in violation or securing of permission for its use. Second or subsequent violations: warning via PM and request for editing/deletion of material in violation or securing of permission for its use, public statement by staff regarding violation, account suspension. Further or extreme violations WILL cause you to lose site priveleges.

5. In order to avoid unreasonable scrolling and problems with formatting, we request that avatars be limited to no more than 120 pixels by 150 pixels and 117 kilobytes, signature banners be limited to no more than 450 pixels by 100 pixels and 150 kilobytes, and signatures also be limited to 6 lines of text without a banner graphic on a 1024x768 resolution screen or 2 lines with a banner on the same resolution. If you do not know how to resize images, please do not post or use any as avatars or signature banners until you have worked it out. You may find this post useful.

First violation: warning via PM and request for editing/deletion of material in violation. Second violation: warning via PM and removal of avatar or signature by staff. Further or extreme violations WILL cause you to lose your avatar or signature privileges.

6. The site administrators and staff reserve the right to determine what consitutes "acceptable use" of Ball-Pythons.net, and what rules and consequences apply to members and visitors specifically in relation to use of this site. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason and to add or modify rules without prior notification of members and visitors. This list is not to be construed as complete, but staff will try to keep it up to date in order to keep members informed.