Hotlinking - Do not post material where you do not have permission to distribute it electronically or otherwise. This includes posting images directly from a website. Images are to be hosted personally or by a third party host.
Copyright Protected Material - Observe all copyright laws, EULA's, TOS's and NDA's when posting copyrighted material. If the material belongs to someone else, credit the original author and include a link to the original source, if possible. Do not post messages that violate Federal, State, or Local laws which include, but are not limited to, anything that violates a copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or is bound by NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement).
Spam - Spamming is the repeated posting of messages that are advertisements, abusive, or otherwise unwanted on internet forums. They can be in the form of links to external sites, with the dual goals of increasing search engine visibility in highly competitive areas such as weight loss, pharmaceuticals, gambling, porn, real estate, loans or computer software, and generating more traffic for these commercial websites. Members who "spam" in this manner will be permanently banned.
Self-Advertising - Self-advertising is defined as linking to an external website promoting either yourself, your family, a friend or recruiting or any other purpose where the poster stands to gain by posting such link. We may allow such links to be posted if the poster first asks the Moderators or an Administrator to review the content and express approval is given prior to posting. Otherwise, failure to first contact us may result in a thread/post being edited or deleted, and may be cause for a warning.
Buying/Selling/Trading - Buying, trading, or selling anywhere with the exception of the Marketplace is prohibited. We ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE for any loss due to any sale or exchange of any item in the Marketplace. You can find the Marketplace
here. If you cannot gain access to the Classifieds section please read
here. The Classified/Group Buy TOS, which is an additional TOS for buying/selling/trading, can also be found
here.
The definitions and examples above are not inclusive of the full meaning of those terms; the examples cited are merely to give a guideline to understand the rules. If there is any question about a decision by a moderator regarding your post, please email reaper@geekhack.org with all the details and it will get looked in to promptly.
On Images, Videos and LinksThere is some gray area for explicit or otherwise images and videos. Please use your best judgement; if you have any doubt that your picture may fall outside of the TOS, either do not post it or contact a Moderator for approval prior to posting. For all avatars, signatures, images or links to images, videos, etc. must not include any of the below descriptions:
This includes images of men/women in see-through or nearly see-through clothing
This includes images of men/women in any implied or expressed sexual or illicit act
Images/videos/etc. must not include any act of drug use, condone or celebrate drug use, or even imply drug use.
Images/videos/etc. must not include any act of violence, illegal activity or implied illegal activity or profanity.
Instant Email Accounts are NOT allowed Email addresses like @mailinator.com are not allowed due to abuse. Any site that allows instant non-secure "spam catching" email addresses are not allowed to post in the forums. If you become moderated due to this, you must change the email address on your main profile and contact a Moderator for help.
Forum Signatures and AvatarsSignature Size Limitations: - A signature is a limited-sized area for our members to display personal information about themselves and their keyboards. Your signature is viewable in your profile and on every post you make. To create or edit your signature, please login to your GeekHack forum account, go to Profile > Forum Profile > fill in your signature in the signature section, and please remember to save your signature. In order to provide a quality forum experience for all of our members, signatures are limited to 777 x 70 pixels (1,000 characters max). Within that space, you may use any text, link and/or content as long as it remains consistent with the GeekHack’s TOS and the Marketplace Rules.
Signature and Avatar Contents: - Your user avatars and signatures are subject to moderator evaluation and may be removed--with prior notification--if they are NSFW ("Not Safe For Work"), are against the ToS, have excessive animation, or are generally distracting from clear viewing of post contents.
"Report to Moderator" Button AbuseThis feature is only intended to help combat against SPAM as it is defined above in the terms of use. It is not what you think is an annoying post, or something you disagree with. Those that abuse this feature of the forums will be warned once, further infractions will result in a 7 day ban for the second offense.
Breaking any of the above listed forum rules may result in the loss of posting privileges and possible loss of your forum account.
GeekHack reserves the right to remove/ban any user, at any time, and for any reason.
A user who breaks the TOS will receive a warning PM and have a non-mute warning level be applied to their account. When receiving a third warning for a similar infraction within a 30-day period or a second warning within 24 hours, a mute will be applied to the account, rendering it unable to post for a period of time. The length of the mute may vary from 1 day to 8 days, depending on the severity of the incident.
If infractions continue after the mute has expired, a temporary or permanent ban will be applied to the account. A first ban will be for 1 week (7 days). A second ban will be for 1 month (30 days). A third ban will be for 3 months (90 days). The fourth ban applied to an account will be permanent. The moderation team reserves the right to skip steps in this process when necessary (eg. immediate permanent ban for spam accounts or stricter penalties for chronic rule-breakers).
GeekHack takes no responsibility for the content of any of the messages posted on our Forums or of the authenticity of its authors. We reserve the right to edit and/or delete any posting for any reason and without prior notification or explanation to the author. Moderators and Administrators frequently review forum messages for those that are in violation of the rules. Any messages found to be in violation may be deleted without warning or explanation. And also please refrain from starting a thread or posting about any banned member as it isn't allowed.
All opinions and views expressed on GeekHack Forums are solely those of their respective authors and are not necessarily those of GeekHack Moderators and Administration team.
GeekHack and its representatives will not be held liable for the result of the usage of any information provided on the forums, and disclaim all liability resulting in the use of the posted information.
GeekHack reserves the right to change the aforementioned rules at any time without warning or notice.
All messages posted on the GeekHack Forums become the copyrighted property of GeekHack.org.
By posting on the GeekHack.org Forums, you agree to abide by the above terms & conditions.