Policies and Rules of Conduct

[GemGeek]

First, thank you to member Pattye for posting this:

The purpose of Pearl-Guide.com is to

• Promote cultured and natural pearls as the world's most popular and ecologically responsible gemstone
• Protect consumer confidence in the online pearl industry
• Protect consumers from unethical trading practices
• Educate consumers and members of the industry
• Promote honest and universal grading systems
• Promote honest and ethical pearl retailers and wholesalers
• Break the industry's shroud of secrecy through open discussion and debate
• Make breaking news of the industry available as it happens

We want everyone to feel welcome here, but we also expect people to abide by the rules of conduct. Use your signature if you have a business you would like to promote. If you are unsure about whether a post is appropriate, please ask an administrator or moderator.

Pearl-Guide.com Forum Policies and Rules of Conduct

Pearl-Guide.com, its owners, moderators and administrators reserve the right to:

• Remove or move any content for any reason at our sole discretion
• Modify, edit or delete any content for any reason at our sole discretion
• Suspend or ban any members for any reason at our sole discretion

Use of Pearl-Guide.com will constitute acceptance of the following policies and rules of conduct. These policies and rules of conduct may change periodically.

The forum on Pearl-Guide.com is presented "as is" with no warranty of any kind expressed or implied. Pearl-Guide.com, its owners, moderators and administrators disclaim any and all implied warranties regarding this Web site and any information obtained from it. Pearl-Guide.com, its owners, moderators and administrators will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages arising out of or relating to any use of Pearl-Guide.com.

By using this forum, you agree to not transmit, reproduce, distribute, publish, or commercially exploit any information, communication or content accessed or received via Pearl-Guide.com, and agree to indemnify Pearl-Guide.com, its owners, moderators and administrators against all claims, damages, liability, costs, and expenses, including but not limited to attorney fees relating to or arising from your use of Pearl-Guide.com.

Use of Pearl-Guide.com is limited to legal purposes. Pearl-Guide.com does not allow the publishing, posting, dissemination or distribution of any obscene, libelous, defamatory, or other unlawful information or material, including but not limited to copyrighted information and trademarks if express authorization is not granted by rights holder.

Honest Identification and Disclosure

Pearl-Guide.com will not tolerate shills, or vendors posing as consumers. Any non-vendor members with affiliation or association to a particular vendor must disclose this relationship prior to publishing about or on behalf of a vendor.

Multiple Accounts

Pearl-Guide.com does not allow the creation of multiple accounts with multiple usernames. We consider this dishonest and in bad taste. The creation of multiple accounts without permission from Pearl-Guide.com, its owners, moderators or administrators may lead to banishment and deletion of member accounts.

SPAM

Pearl-Guide.com has a strict policy regarding spam and will immediately terminate the account of any member believed to be posting or transmitting spam materials on the forum or directly to forum members.

Advertising

Advertising is regarded as a form of spam. Posting information about a product or service that does not directly apply to an ongoing discussion or thread will lead to suspension and banishment of the offending member. No link dropping!

Private Messaging

Soliciting a member or offering unsolicited recommendations via Pearl-Guide.com's private messaging service is considered a form of spam. Any member found using this system in such a manner is subject to immediate account termination.

Age Restrictions

Use of this forum is restricted to members age 13 and over, which complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 2000.

Sharing of Personal Experiences Both Good and Bad

All posts and threads on Pearl-Guide.com that are related to subjective experiences with other members, non-members, vendors, trade associations and individuals must be written in a factual manner stating first-hand experience. Pearl-Guide.com is not a platform for personal vendettas or revenge. If Pearl-Guide.com, its owners, moderators and administrators feel a shared experience is not the actual experience of the poster, they reserve the right to edit or delete the post and ban the member.

Legal Responsibilities

In the event that a court of law were to find a post or communication from a member to be libelous or defamatory, the posting member could be held responsible for damages. According to the Communications Decency Act of 1996, section 230, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider". Because Pearl-Guide.com does not actively censor member posts or investigate each post for accuracy, Pearl-Guide.com, its owners, moderators and administrators cannot be held legally responsible for any member posts whether libelous or defamatory. This act does not, however, protect the member responsible for the post.

Copyright Materials

Text and images that are not the property of the poster should not be posted on the forum without the consent of the owner. If a complaint regarding copyright is received by Pearl-Guide.com, its owners, moderators or administrators, the poster will be held solely responsible for the infringing materials and the posts will be removed.

Signatures

Member signatures are located at the bottom of all posts and are allowed as well as encouraged. A link within a signature is not considered link dropping, however all vendors with links within their signatures are required to post a reciprocal link from their Web site.

Keep Posts Clean

Foul, vulgar and otherwise obscene language will not be tolerated on Pearl-Guide.com, nor will links to like objectionable materials.

Copyright Pearl-Guide.com

The articles and information on this Web site are copyrighted materials of Pearl-Guide.com and its members. Any and all use including reproduction of the materials from this Web site is subject to the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, Title 17 U.S.C

 

[pearlescence]

Legally full of holes.
For eg who owns copyeight? Website or posters ? Both cannot. Does c in a photo transfer to owners of website on posting.
What about if someone posts a pic which is c a third party? Who then pays?

 

[Purranha]

Thank you GemGeek & Pattye for a refresher on the Policies and Rules of Conduct of Pearl-Guide!
Even if the letter of the policies may need some clarification a la the good questions pearlescence brought up, we can certainly appreciate the spirit of the policies and good conduct overall!
Much appreciated!

 

[JerseyPearl]

I absolutely concur with Purranha, and add my voice to say thank you!!!

 

[Katbran]

I too agree with Purranha and understand Wendy's points. Thanks for posting this Blaire always good to know the rules..few people ever search for them on a forum. Perhaps it would be good to sticky this somewhere... maybe it already is?

 

[Pearl Dreams]

It's good for forum rules to be easy to find. Thanks for posting this!

I agree that it ought to be stickied -- and maybe not just on Pearling Industry News?

 

[GemGeek]

I appreciate your receptiveness to the message. It's going to be in the footer on the main page, but with the problems we are experiencing, it may take a few days to get it in there.

 

[kelluvpearls]

I think some parts need more clarifications eg Advertising. Other areas may be hard to enforce eg Honest Identification and Disclosure.

Thanks GemGeek for reminding everyone of the forum rules.

 

[jshepherd]

Authors own their own copyright. Pearl-Guide owns all the articles, posters own their posts. The rules are our terms of service and enforced under the discretion of current admins or moderators. Perfect legal prose isn't needed in order to enforce easily understandable rules.

Advertising is something that most members rarely see because it almost always comes from new sign ups and they are deleted by Blaire before 5 am seven days a week, and the first two posts are always moderated so only she sees them.

Enforcing honest id and disclosure isn't as difficult as you might think. If there is any reason to suspect (and this has only happened a couple of times that I know of), matching up IP addresses usually works very well.

 

[Bailey1856]

I'm glad to be able to read the PG's Policies and Rules of conduct now. I don't recall reading it or seeing it when i first joined and may have unintentionally broken a rule (oops!) hahaha.

 

[lisa c]

Ok, good to know.

BTW, on my phone the posts show up, but when I access the site, it appears that virtually all of today's posts have disappeared. Same for my computer.
Anybody else seeing this happen?

Good luck with this, Admins, I think you're wonderful to take it on.

 

[ckrickett]

Thank you this reminder!

 

[kelluvpearls]

Lisa yes I think a couple of days worth of posts are gone.
Thank you GemGeek, Caitlin and the mods for your hard work!

 

[Happy Huku]

Hmm, yes I think they have, I'm sure I posted on this thread a day or so ago - just wanted to say thank you for the fantastic work.

 

[judimcc6]

Thank you to both Jeremy and Blaire and many others who work so hard to keep this site an educational, informative and inspirational place. I don't think I have ever been on a forum or even a live discussion group that is so supportive of each other and encouraging. Every time I link into Pearl-Guide, I find something new. You are so gracious and generous with your information and time. I truly look forward to seeing you all in person in Tucson every year and delight in your friendship.