Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society Forums

Read Them, Know Them & Abide By Them!
If you post on our forums, you have agreed to these!

Thank you for visiting The Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society! CMAS strives to promote the hobby of marine fish and miniature reef keeping in the Mid-Atlantic Region by gathering interested hobbyists and experts together at monthly meetings to discuss topics associated with maintaining a healthy captive marine environment.

The Moderating and Administrative Staff of CMAS are working together to run a forum where members can share ideas and experiences in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Please take a moment to review the rules and terms of use before getting started. We appreciate your cooperation in observing these rules, and welcome your participation in a productive community promoting the hobby.

It is simply impossible to write a comprehensive set of rules forbidding every type of antisocial behavior. The fact that the rules do no forbid a certain type of post does not automatically make an uncivil post appropriate, nor does it imply that the administrators approve of disrespectful behavior. Every member of this community has a responsibility to participate in a respectful manner, and to help foster an atmosphere of thoughtful discussion. In this regard, we strongly advise that our members exercise a little common decency, rater that trying to parse the forum rules to figure out what type of antisocial behavior is not forbidden. Our staff has the final authority on all matters relating to this website.

Forum Rules:

DISCLAIMER
Messages posted on CMAS-MD.org are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of CMAS-MD.org. We are not responsible for any messages posted by members, do not vouch or warrant their accuracy, completeness or usefulness, and are not responsible for their content.

WHO IS WELCOME
Broadly stated, the goals of this forum are to further knowledge and experiences pertaining to the marine reef-keeping hobby as a group. If your intention is to disrupt this discussion or to deride your fellow forum members, you should not participate in this discussion site. You agree, through your use of this site, that you will not post any material that is in violation of the forum rules. Further, if we decide that you do not share the same intentions of our club, we reserve the right to remove you from the club entirely.

CONCERNING ISSUES OF FREE SPEECH AND CENSORSHIP
Your membership in this community is voluntary and the requirement of compliance with forum rules is in no way a restriction of anyone’s free speech. Members should understand that paid subscriptions to CMAS do not grant exemption to the posted forum rules.

NON PARTICIPATION OPTION
As stated above, all members of CMAS have joined voluntarily. The staff tries their best to be fair, and to make this forum a welcoming place for members who want to be here. If you don’t like CMAS-MD.org, the members of this forum, the moderators, the administrators, the supporting staff or the forum rules, then you may choose not to participate. However, all paid subscriptions to Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society are non-refundable.

FORUM MODERATORS
All of the moderators on this discussion board are volunteers. They provide their time and their good judgment to this forum free of charge. They do not deserve to be treated harshly either publicly, or privately (private messages, etc). The moderators have broad discretion to act in the interest of maintaining the civility and goals of this club. The moderating teams, as a group, reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close and thread, at any time, for any reason, without prior notice.

FORUM ADMINISTRATION
CMAS-MD.org administrators reserve the right to remove any person or any message for any reason and take actions as necessary to maintain the civility and goals of this club. The administration ultimately decides all issues related to this forum. Administrators reserve the right to change the forum rules without prior notice and for any reason. If you think a moderator has acted inappropriately, please contact and administrator so we can address your concern.

CRITICISM / HARASSMENT OF MODERATORS, ADMINISTRATORS & SUPPORTING STAFF
Our experience has taught us that the forum is an inappropriate venue for publicly discussing any problems you may have with the rules or the administration of the forum. Please contact the moderators or administrators privately by email if you have concerns about the rules and administration. In order to respect the privacy of our members, we do not discuss disciplinary actions with anyone but the member concerned.

COMPLAINTS
If you have a problem with anything on this message board, it is very important that you follow the grievance procedure (see below). Once you have exhausted all five (5) steps, you will have to live with the decision made by the administrators. Under no circumstances should you harass anyone on the mod/admin teams in any way. This includes, but is not limited to, sending numerous PMs or emails, using obscene or profane language directed at any member of the mod/admin teams, or making derisive statements about members of the mod/admin teams on the message board. By publicly complaining about a staff member’s actions in any way, or criticize this forum and it’s membership on another board, you also forfeit your rights to the grievance procedure and will be banished without exception.

WARNINGS
Warnings will be given to those individuals whom have abused the forum rules when deemed necessary by a moderator or administrator. If you do not agree with the outcome, you may move on to the Grievance Procedure (see below).

1st offense – A polite private message from a Moderator pointing out the Forum Rules, in addition to the editing of deletion of the post.

2nd offense – Public Warning on the message board plus deletion of post(s).

3rd offense – Moderators will discuss and possibly delete the user from the CMAS Forums.

Grievance Procedure
Any objections to moderator or administrator actions taken on the CMAS-md.org forum must be dealt with using the following procedure:

1. If you disagree with a moderator’s action on another member, it is up to that member to take it up with us. We do not discuss disciplinary actions with anyone but the member concerned out of respect for their privacy.

2. If you believe another member’s post is uncivil or in violation of the forum rules, please do not respond to the member in kind. Contact a moderator or administrator with a link to the post in question. This will NOT guarantee that we will see things your way, however, because we can get complaints from members on both sides of heated debates. We let the rules guide us in these matters.

3. If you disagree with a moderator’s action concerning yourself, it is required that you contact the moderator in question for clarification. We do not permit public criticism of the mods or admins and doing so will be considered an additional infraction,

4. If after communicating with a moderator, you are still dissatisfied, you may contact any member of the administrating team.

5. Any decisions made by the administrative team are final. Attempts to circumvent this grievance procedure will be considered harassment and a banning offense.

Notice: Depending on the situation, Administrators may bypass any and all of these steps and take whatever action is deemed appropriate.

POSTING RESTRICTIONS
Repeated failure to comply with the forum rules will result in your membership privileges being limited or revoked. This may include requiring pre-approval of posts by a moderator, temporary suspension of topic start, or posting permissions and/or denial of access to the private messaging system. Under any of these circumstances, revocation of privileges will not result in a refund of any portion of the member’s paid dues to CMAS.

BANNING
Administrators have complete discretion to sanction any member, up to and including ending their membership. Depending on the nature of the problem, the member may not receive any notification prior to moderator action. Certain offenses or patterns of behavior are considered grounds for banning of a member: repeated rule violations, obscenity, bigotry, threats, multiple accounts, deliberate disruptive behavior, personal attack on any member, and abuse of private messaging system. Banning will not entitle a member to a refund of the CMAS dues.

POST CONTENT
Choose appropriate language as this site is intended for a family audience. "Flaming", insults, name-calling, and foul language are not acceptable. Any material (including, but not limited to, topic titles, links, avatars, images and signatures) that, within our judgment, are hostile, harassing, argumentative, defaming, derisive, offensive, abusive, sexually oriented, or derogatory will not be allowed, and will result in the post being edited, or removed from view, possibly without prior notice. Abusive posts, name calling, and insults directed toward or about anyone based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender will not be tolerated. We do not allow personal attacks on other members or staff either in public forums, at meetings, or through our private messaging system.

CMAS believes in integrity and respects what other forums have to offer. Because we realize members of
CMAS may also be part of other forums, do not degrade or discredit other forums, their administrators and
moderators, or their members. This includes slander and other offensive posts.

CIVILITY
We promote a civil tone of discussion. Select language that is kind and respectful of others, even if you don’t agree with their viewpoint or thoughts. Although our rules cannot specify every type of uncivil post, this does not imply that the administrators approve of disrespectful behavior. Please refrain from labeling members or deriding others for their opinions and experiences. Please contact a moderator if you feel that a member is being uncivil or breaking the forum rules, rather than responding in kind.

STALKING
Harassment of fellow members in any way will not be tolerated, and may result in restrictions of posting privileges.

OUR SPAM POLICY
Please make sure that you are posting for the good of the community, not just for the sake of self-promotion. Do not use the CMAS community for the purpose of excessive advertisements! Do not use CMAS as a basis for spamming or scamming our members. We take pm/email abuse very seriously, and it will result in the immediate removal of your membership and ban of your IP address, without warning. Our moderators reserve the right to edit or delete any posts they consider to be ‘Spam’.

IDENTITY THEFT
DO NOT impersonate anyone whom you are not, regardless of who the other individual may be, identity theft is illegal and will not be tolerated.

ABUSE OF EMAIL & PRIVATE MESSAGING (PM) SYSTEM
Posting the contents of an e-mail or private message without the sender’s permission is not permitted. Abuse of the e-mail or private message system is considered a banning offense and we encourage members to report this type of activity to the moderators.

COPYRIGHT POLICY
Do not post entire copyrighted articles or pictures. If you wish to reference an article, provide a brief excerpt and include a link to the original source. Generally, excerpts should not exceed three to four paragraphs. Plagiarism will also not be tolerated in our community.
USERNAME, SIGNATURE LINE, AND AVATAR IMAGE
All registered users must select a forum username that will appear with all of their posts. Members are expected to take care when selecting their usernames, which cannot be changed once they have been selected. Do not select a username that could be considered inappropriate or disruptive to the community.

Your signature line and avatar image must adhere to the forum rules for this message board. Images and avatars that contain offensive, abusive, threatening sexually oriented, pornographic, or advertisement material will not be allowed, and will result in the image or avatar being removed from view. In addition, we ask that members use sensitivity and not post images containing violence. This board has many young people involved and we wish to promote their involvement in our club. Material that parents would not wish their children to see is a general guide for what we consider inappropriate and although it is impossible to specify every potential problem, the administrators have the final authority to decide what is considered disruptive.

LINKS AND ADVERTISEMENTS
This forum does not permit the posting of any unauthorized advertisements or any links or material from commercial websites. Links are permitted if posted in the body of your message, but we reserve the right to remove any we consider inappropriate. Unauthorized Blatant promotion of products or websites is not permitted. Consistent inclusion of a link for the purpose of promotion of companies, or products is not allowed in either a post body or signature. Any exceptions are strictly at the discretion of the forum administrators. Contact the mod/admin teams with any discrepancies regarding this topic.

TOPIC RELEVANCE AND LOCATION
Select the most appropriate Category, Forum or Topic in which to post your message. Please take the time to look at all the forums and see where your topic should go. Proper topic placement is important because it keeps the CMAS forum better organized, therefore easier to read and navigate for everyone. Topics move further down the page faster in busier forums, thus causing the topic to become inactive and archived sooner than it might be if it were placed in its proper location. If your topic is placed in the wrong forum, a moderator may move it to the correct forum.

Members should make every effort to keep posts relevant to the topic. Hijacking threads with irrelevant information with intent to deviate the topic in a different direction is discouraged, and may result in the removal of posts.

Duplicate posts or topics are prohibited. Posting the same message across multiple topics and/or forums is not tolerated. A moderator will remove duplicate postings. Moderators posting new articles are exempt from this rule because some important articles are relevant to more than one forum or sub-forum.

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Remember that the general public can view all personal information in your user profile and posted messages. Before posting or editing your profile, make certain that you are posting information you want others to know. Anything you post will not be privileged or confidential nor will any replies to your postings. You may choose to deny other members the ability to send you email or PMs via the forum by changing your user settings. Also, when logging in, you may choose to not appear on the active users list. Personal information from users is only what the user freely provides. Access to any personal information in our forums database is granted only to authorized CMAS Administrators.

MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS
Multiple accounts are absolutely not allowed. Members are not permitted to create or use another screen name to avoid revocation of posting privileges. Previously banned members will be immediately banned, regardless of behavior. Don’t represent yourself as another person. If you are caught posting with multiple accounts, all will be suspended and/or banned.

Please report any member whom you feel to be in violation of these rules to a Moderator or Site Administrator immediately!

You agree, through your use of the website (www.cmas-md.org), to abide by the forum rules, and you understand that violations will not be tolerated.

The Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society Team (Updated 3/4/09)

Acting President -- Carl Huntley (Carlhuntley)

Vice President -- Carl Huntley (Carlhuntley)

Treasurer -- Tome DiNoto (TomD)

Secretary -- Dennis Kutlik (Patientman)

Public Relations -- Jessica Farace (90OcReef)

Webmaster/Membership -- Heather Ortega (Ortegah)

Librarian/Web Developer -- Mike Sturtevant (Kiknchikn)

Event Coordinator -- Open Postion