TechSideline.com Forums Terms of Service (TOS)
One note before we get to the rules: this web site (TechSideline.com)
and its message boards are very well known in the Virginia Tech community and are very widely read.
These message boards is visited by players, coaches, VT athletic department officials, members of the media, and their
families. Remember this as you post. Also, be respectful of people's privacy. If a coach or an
athletic department official tells you something in confidence, think before you post it on this message board.
Now for the Rules...
(last updated 3/4/08)
TechSideline.com believes that a good message board is the heart of a good web site, and as such, the staff at
TechSideline.com is unwilling to tolerate garbage posts, trash-talking, solicitations, personal attacks, and profanity
on the TechSideline.com message boards. You may have been to other boards where the board was allowed to be cluttered up
with offensive garbage, but you'll find that at TechSideline.com, this is not allowed.
Visitors from and fans of non-Virginia Tech schools: your rules are a little stricter. These forums
are intended primarily for Virginia Tech fans, and unruly behavior from visitors will not be tolerated. Please note
Rule #6 at the bottom of this screen.
When using these message boards, the following behavior/posts are prohibited:
- Personal attacks or insults on ANYONE (including athletes, recruits, coaches or administrators, other users of the
boards, beat writers, the TechSideline.com staff, et al).
- Material which defames (slanders), abuses or threatens others.
- Statements that are bigoted, hateful or racially offensive.
- Posts containing negative comments about TechSideline.com site sponsors.
- Material that advocates illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them.
- Posts with the sole intent of eliciting negative responses (flaming).
- Rumors concerning the private lives of Virginia Tech athletes or athletes of other schools, when such knowledge is
not public record. This includes an athlete's academic standing and other private matters that should not be discussed
in a public forum.
- Baseless criticism of Virginia Tech athletes. Critiquing a player's performance is acceptable, but general criticism
of Tech athletes will not be tolerated, particularly individual athletes.
- Excessive numbers of posts. If you're "living" on the boards, posting every 2-3 minutes,
and getting in heated discussions with numerous other posters, this will be considered a violation of the board Terms of
Service.
- Repeated "pot-stirring," or always being the center of controversy on the boards. If you post in a fashion
that otherwise abides by the terms of service, but which continually raises the ire of the message board community, this may be considered a violation
of the board Terms of Service.
- Added 1/8/08, modified 3/4/08: Coming to the board during a game or after a loss and blasting away (posting dozens of times in rapid succession),
criticizing coaches, players and other posters will be considered a violation of the Terms of Service. New registrants who behave in this manner will especially
receive close scrutiny. This type of behavior is one of the biggest problem faced by the TSL boards and will lead to quick deactivations.
- Unauthorized copyrighted material, including such items as scans of copyrighted material or posts of
subscription-based web articles (ESPN Insider articles, for example).
- Material that contains vulgar, obscene or indecent language or images, including posting vulgar words with
characters such as $ or * substituted for strategic letters
(examples: a$$ or @ss, s**t, etc. are prohibited). Added 2/26/07: Also
prohibited are abbreviations of vulgar words or phrases, such as WTF.
- Posts containing embedded
pictures that are pornographic in nature, or links to pornographic web sites.
Other sexually suggestive pictures and links to inappropriate web sites may
also be deleted.
- Advertising or any form of commercial solicitation. This includes links to commercial web sites posted by
individuals who are affiliated with said web site and are seeking to direct traffic to their web site from this
message board (i.e., "spamming the message board"). If in doubt as to whether or not your post is a
solicitation or "spam," please email the TechSideline.com staff (will@techsideline.com) for clarification.
- Posts or posting habits which are otherwise deemed inappropriate by the staff at TechSideline.com.
Note that Hokie Club reps and members may use this forum to promote contests, raffles, etc., but please communicate
with will@techsideline.com the nature of your postings before doing so.
Statements or postings which violate the above terms will be deleted upon discovery. Users who violate these Terms of
Service may or may not receive a warning. Depending on the severity and frequent occurrences of violations, the user may
lose his account temporarily or permanently. Account suspensions are at the sole discretion of the TechSideline.com
staff.
Duplicate accounts are not allowed. Users who have their account deactivated and then re-register for a new account
will have the new account deactivated. Re-registrations must first be approved by our staff.
Any user posting on the TechSideline.com message boards is implicitly agreeing to these rules, regardless of whether
they have been read or not.
Lastly, what the TechSideline.com staff says is what goes. On the board, you can recognize TechSideline.com staff by
the (TSL Host) designation that appears after their post name. Our priority is running a message board system that Virginia
Tech fans can use and enjoy and that fans of opposing schools can use to respectfully communicate with Virginia Tech
fans.
"Rule No. 6 (for non-VT visitors):" visitors from other schools are welcome, but tread lightly
on this message board. If you have something constructive to add, or a question to ask about Virginia Tech sports, then
do so. If you're here to talk trash, insult Virginia Tech, or gloat after a (rare) victory over the Hokies, forget about
it. Your posts will be deleted, and your account will be deactivated. If you want to talk smack, go somewhere else.
We here at TechSideline.com feel that we have a responsibility to Virginia Tech fans and those who enjoy Virginia
Tech sports to provide an excellent forum for them to discuss Hokie sports. We don't feel that our board is an outlet
for trash-talkers from opposing schools, so if you're a non-Hokie visitor, conduct yourself with that in mind.
We are among the most strict web masters on the planet when it comes to our message board, and we make no apologies
for it. Our first priority is and always will be the Hokie fans who visit here. We're not looking to squash open
discussion any more than the next guy, but visitors from opposing schools have to toe a very thin line.
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