Site Guidelines Update

[Sharky]

Following various discussion on the subject of advertising in the forum here: http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=19706 we have decided to update the Site Guidelines to deal more robustly with the question of commercial interest in the forums.

The following section of the Site Guidelines found here: http://www.trade2win.com/boards/faq.php?faq=faq_site_guidelines#faq_item_site_guidelines has now been updated with:

4. Advertising

4.1 T2W does not allow members to post advertisments of any kind either in the forums, in journals, in the Traderpedia or anywhere else where members can publish content on the website or the chatrooms. The only exception to this rule is posts within the dedicated “T2W Sponsors Announcements” Forum, which is for our paid sponsors to promote their products.

4.2 If you have a commercial product or service to sell, and would like to bring it to the attention of the T2W membership, please contact [email protected]

4.3 Advertising includes, but is not limited to: posting the URL of your commercial web site; offering for sale (or a free trial of) your product and/or service; posting references to, excerpts from, or details of your product and/or service; submitting a post with minimal content that, even in the absence of explicit references towards your product and/or service, is clearly designed to act as a lure towards it; posting your Email address or asking members to contact you for details of your product and/or service.
("Your" in the instances above includes any commercial connection between the vendor ("you") and the product and/or service in question).

4.4 Exceptions:
a. Substantial content that derives from or is connected to a commercial product (e.g extracts from a subscription-only newsletter) may be permitted provided that the content is deemed useful to the community by the moderators and provided that there is absolutely no direct reference to its commercial nature.
b. Members with no connection to commercial products and/or services may of course mention them where relevant.
c. Vendors may answer specific questions that relate to an aspect of their product and/or service, provided that they do not use their response as a means of promoting it.

4.5 Members who feel that a vendor is acting inappropriately or in an underhand manner with respect to these guidelines should alert a moderator and state their reasons. Members who feel that a post is not useful to the community and merely a lure to attract customers should report it for moderators' consideration and action.

4.6 The Private Mail system must not be used to advertise products or solicit trade.

4.7 Members found infringing these guidelines will receive a warning and a subsequent ban if they continue to do so.

5. Vendors

5.1 Vendors - anyone who has a commercial interest in selling/marketing their product or service to T2W members must declare this interest in their personal user profile. If a member found to have an undeclared commercial interest has also clearly been deceiving the community in this respect for the purpose of, or with a view to, his/her commercial gain, he/she may receive an immediate ban at the discretion of the moderators.

The user profile page here: http://www.trade2win.com/boards/profile.php now has a new vendor drop-down select box. Anyone who has a commercial interest in selling/marketing their product or service to T2W members MUST declare this interest here. Subsequently a vendor icon will then appear beneath the members username in their posts. This looks like:

By mousing over the icon you will be able to see what type of vendor they are.

Please be aware changes to the site guidelines are now in effect and must be adhered to. If you have a commercial interest then you must declare it in your user profile.