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AR15.COM Code of Conduct

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Here at AR15.COM, we constantly strive to make our discussion forums as fun and lively as possible while keeping an environment that is also professional and respectful of the fact that firearms enthusiasts are made up of all ages, religions, and ethnicities.

The following are an evolving series of rules for conduct in the forums. Those who choose to break these rules may be warned, have their account temporarily suspended, or be removed from this Website at the discretion of the Staff. Serious violations such as threats of violence or advocating illegal or criminal acts may result in legal action.

Situations which have are not covered in this Code of Conduct may arise and will be handled by Moderators and Staff who have been carefully chosen to treat such issues with fairness. The frequency of such situations will guide the Staff to make changes to this code of conduct as necessary.

Respect your fellow gun owners by not violating the following rules:

General Guidelines

1Posting derogatory comments of a racial, religious, or sexual nature.

This includes your username, signature line, title and subject lines of threads.

  • Profanity is not allowed in the subject line of threads.
  • Site Staff and Moderators reserve the right to edit these items and to remove your ability to modify them in the future.

2Posting pictures* or links to images which contain pornography, nudity+, animal cruelty, racism, or sexism.

Any images of violence which are extreme will be removed and may result in a warning or worse.

  • *Posts with images of violence or graphic gory items should contain a warning in the title. These types of images will not be tolerated if inserted at random in other discussions.
  • +Nudity includes any photo which contains genitalia, female nipples, sexual acts, or depictions thereof.
  • Detailed pornographic stories are also not allowed.

3Posting or linking to information on how to make illegal modifications to firearms or purchase illegal items.

4Posting comments or links in support of illegal activities including, but not limited to, threats against the life of any person, doing harm to a state or federal official, or advocating the overthrow of the government.

5Posting of someone else's personal contact information (home phone numbers, home addresses, unpublished e-mail addresses, and the like).

This includes information obtained through WHOIS searches,etc. Also sharing any image of another member or their family, that the member did not share on this site first is forbidden. The last section is meant to protect a member's photo hosting accounts.

6Attacking or insulting a member in an effort to elicit a negative response.

You have the right to disagree, but please do so in a respectful manner. This rule also includes posting disparaging remarks about a member's family.

7Posting topics or discussions that do the site or community harm.

More specifically creating topics and or replies meant to disrupt the Site's day to day management, disrupt member's resources, or the ability of the Site to function normally. This can include but is not limited to posting overly large photos or .gif files, excessive emoticons, or the use of repetitive or overly long text strings. It can also be the posting of threads or replies, in which it appears that the sole purpose is to provoke other members, or to damage the image and/or reputation of the site.

8 Posting repeat topics with similar or slightly varying titles.

While it may seem to be funny, the "spamming" of the community in this manner results in problems for users and management. (Multiple topics on important issues or discussions are acceptable, this only applies to topics which waste resources for no other reason except personal enjoyment or humor.)

9 BOTD (Babe of the Day) specific.

  • Due to the ongoing problems with pics of scantily-clad women being posted on the site we have decided to make a change. They will still be allowed, however, effective immediately they will be limited to the BOTD forum only (this forum is available to Team members only).
  • Our mods and staff have simply had to spend too much time dealing with this issue, so this is necessary. We may review this and make further changes, but your cooperation is appreciated.
  • Any pics which are posted in GD are expected to be "G-rated" and NOT show such things as cleavage or excessively short skirts/shorts; this includes photos of scantily clad men or women . Bikini pics may ONLY be posted in the BOTD forum, and under the rules posted in that forum.

10 Copyrighted Material must be respected.

If you wish to share an article from another site, it's important that you attribute a link to the original site. We will initially issue warnings, but repeat violations will result in your removal from the site. While not a requirement, it is considered a courtesy that you only post a small excerpt of the original article here.

Specific Prohibitions for Team Members

  1. Using improper pictures as an avatar. Improper would be described as anything violating the rules set forth in this Code Of Conduct.
  2. Using of the Photo Hosting service or E-Mail service to store or distribute pornography, nude images, or illegal materials.
  3. Attempting to abuse or cause damage to the site or services by exploiting them. This includes the theft of bandwidth by using the photo server to link images for personal websites or high traffic websites.

Specific to Sales

  1. Companies or individuals may not advertise or sell products and/or services in the forums without permission from an admin. (This includes siglines and titles.) Industry Partners are allowed to post sales or specials on a limited basis and also require admin permission.
  2. Companies or individuals interested in selling or trading equipment should resort to the Equipment Exchange. At no time should an item be listed in any discussion forum. This includes links to auctions.
  3. Fraudulent practices or attempts to defraud another person or group will be dealt with very seriously.
  4. NO GROUP BUYS OR FUNDRAISERS WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION. Please message Striker for more information.

Specific to the Tech Forums

The Tech Forums (AR-15, AK-47, Handgun, Armory, Training, Outdoors) are more "formal" and actions permitted in the General Discussion forums aren not permitted there. These forums are to share information and as a result, trolling, heated arguments, insulting others, etc will not be ignored.

Code of Conduct Addendum

The following is meant to help highlight, or clarify some rules that are not specifically spelled out within the CoC. These are in no way meant to be a final list. The Site reserves the right to alter, or add to this list at any time. We may also address any issue that is considered to be disruptive to the site or the membership, even if not specifically spelled out in either the CoC or the Addendum Page.

Account Issues
Account issues should be directed to [email protected]

Advertising
All questions about Advertising should be directed to [email protected]

Attacking a Moderator for doing their job
We do not allow the membership to attack our Moderators for doing their job. If any member disagrees with any official action, then they should contact a Staff member to have the issue looked at. Moderators volunteer their time to help keep this site running, they're not here to put up with abuse.

Avatars/Siglines
Members may not use their sigline, avatar, or title to advertise any business, website, or sales ad. The use of profanity or obscene images is also prohibited.

Bashing Pro 2nd Amendment companies
The bashing of companies that have a track record of working to support the 2nd Amendment is not allowed. This does not prevent anyone from discussing any current issues that they may have with a person or product from a company. This rule is meant to cover those that continually attack or work to harm a business based solely on past bias. This rule may also apply to any person the site Staff feels is a strong proponent of the 2nd.

Business Name as a Username
Business names are verboten unless the member is a paying Dealer or Industry Partner.

Clear and Concise Thread Titles
The title of a discussion should be clear and concise. Extremely vague or deceptive titles may cause the thread to be locked.

Code words for racial slurs
Words deemed to be code words for a racial slur by the representatives of the site can result in sanctions. If you choose to play this game, no complaining if you lose.

Dupe Threads
Dupe threads aren't expressly forbidden in the CoC, so no formal warnings or locks will be issued for them. We reserve the right to lock duplicate threads if the original thread is still active in the same forum. We will normally do this to help keep discussions in one place, or keep the forum from being cluttered with the same topic. This rule does not cover people who intentionally spam the site with dupe threads in an attempt to be funny.

Fake Edits
Falsely attributing an edit to a Site Sponsor, Mod, or Staff is not allowed. Doing so may result in a warning or an account lock.

Feedback Threads
Feedback threads should be created only in the Feedback Forum of the Equipment Exchange.

Harassing another member over past threads or posts
Continually following another member around the site to attack another member over posts they have made is considered harassment and will result in sanctions. The only exception to this rule is when the original referenced posts are related to the current thread's topic.

Harassment Threads
Threads created for, or that have turned into, a means of organized harassment of any person (this includes celebrities, anti gunners, public figures, etc..) are forbidden.

Linking to, or promoting other firearms related websites
We do not allow links to sites that are new, unknown, or hostile to AR15.COM. This also includes the websites of companies or members that have been banned from this site.

Multiple Accounts
These are not allowed unless approved by Staff. If a member creates a second account to avoid a forum restriction or temporary lock, then any/all accounts will be locked.

Requesting a Thread Lock
The OP of a thread may request a lock of their own thread at any time with no reason needed. Moderators will lock these threads on request. Trashing the thread will be at the discretion of the Site.

Parody Threads
Threads created with the intention of being a parody of another thread will be locked.

Pet Threads
Intentionally disrupting threads discussing member's pets will result in an account lock. If you have difficulty figuring out what "disrupting" a pet thread means, then you should probably avoid posting in them.

Poop Threads
Poop threads are not allowed on this site. These are threads that are meant to discuss poop, puss, menstrual blood, semen.

Posting links to EE Threads
No links to any EE thread, or links to a member's own auctions on any other site. This rule is especially meant to cover posts to EE ads for the purpose of bashing the member selling an item. General Discussion threads bashing off-site auctions are OK.

Posting links to Facebook For Sale Pages
No links to such pages.

Price Check threads in the AK Forums
Currently, price check threads are not allowed in any AK Forum. There is one specific thread within the AK General Forum for price checks.

Referral Links
Referral links are considered advertising, and they are strictly forbidden.

Selling a Membership
Not allowed

Service ads in the HTFs
Not allowed

Team Membership Begging Threads
Blatant begging threads are not allowed.

YouTube/Blog Pimps
Members may link to videos (video hosting sites) that do not advertise items or services, even if they are getting paid for page visits. This only applies to active members of the site (this means a contributing member for at least a year). New members, or members who only use our site to direct traffic to theirs, will be asked to stop.
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