Bushwalk Australia

Information for bushwalkers from bushwalkers

Global Site Rules, Disclaimer and Moderation Guidelines

Rules

These rules apply to all parts of the Bushwalk Australia site where content can be submitted to the site, including, but not limited to, the Forum and the Wiki, unless otherwise specified for a specific rule.

It is important that this site provides a friendly environment for all participants, however we do require that users abide by the site rules. So please familiarise yourself with these rules. Report any offences to the administrators or moderators. Note that the rules may be modified without notice.

In these rules, 'content' refers to everything that users may contribute to the site, including, but not limited to: Text and links within forum posts, private messages and profiles.

NB: Anybody who's online behaviour on this site is regarded as being against the spirit of the rules, even if not actually against the letter of the rules, will be regarded as having broken the rules, and may be moderated, warned, banned, etc. The spirit of the rules, and the moderator response is entirely at the discretion of the moderator(s).

  1. Keep all content friendly, polite and clean. 'Flaming', hostility, insults, obscenity, abuse and personal attacks are not permitted. Offending content may result in official warnings or bannings (or other moderation - see moderation guidelines below). In particular:
    • Debate should be about the topic under discussion and not about any person(s) (involved in the discussion or otherwise).
    • Content should be suitable for a family audience.
    • Within reason, content should not be offensive to other members, guests or third parties (within reason - sometimes offence is a problem of the offendee rather than, or as well as, the offender).
    • Attempts to bypass the word censor are not permitted.
    NB: See important note regarding this rule in the moderation guidelines, below.
  2. Content must not include propaganda, advertising, marketing or promotion for, by, or on behalf of, any organisation or entity whether commercial, non-profit, voluntary, lobby-group, political group or otherwise. Exceptions are as follows:
    • Commercial/Advertising posts are permitted in the 'Specials, Deals, Adverts' forum, and in brand/organisation-specific forums (only by that brand or organisation). See those forums' own rules sections for details of limitations.
    • Notifications of walking club activities are acceptable provided that such posts remain non-political, non-competitive and non-profit.
    • Information regarding personal or bushwalking-related issues, products or services and where to find further information are acceptable provided that the intent is solely for the benefit of providing information for bushwalkers (eg, answering a specific question) and there is no promotional intent for the benefit of any organisation or commercial entity.
    • Other items relevant to bushwalkers may be explicitly granted permission by the site administrators at the request of users (so please ask first if unsure).
  3. Members who have an association with a commercial organisation related to a bushwalking products or services must make their association clear before making any posts that discuss their own or competing products or services. This must be done by either:
    • including the name of those organisations or products within their username. Existing members would need to contact a site administrator to have their username changed. Eg, if a user who works for "Walks R Us", but wants the username "Brass Monkey", they could have a username such as "Brass Monkey (Walks R Us)". This option is only for brand names well known to most Australian bushwalkers.
    • including the name of those organisations or products in the "Associated Organisations" profile field (see the "User Control Panel" - link near top-left of forums pages).
    This applies to employees of such organisations as well as to people who are not directly employed, but who have some other association with an organisation, product or service being discussed, including financial gain or other incentives.

    Compliance with this rule does not provide an exception to the advertising rules. Any content which appears to have been posted in order to promote the member's products or services will be considered advertising and subject to the advertising rules. If in doubt, please contact a moderator before posting.

  4. Political content unrelated to bushwalking is not permitted, either for or against any particular issue, party, person or organisation.
  5. Spam or related activity is forbidden and spammer accounts will be banned and/or deleted immediately. An account which uses an IP address from a location different to what is specified in the account profile may be considered spam and deleted. NB: There is a wide variety of other activity that may be considered spam, apart from just what is in posts. See the 'Spam' section of the 'Moderation Guidelines' below for more information.
  6. New users' first posts must be related to bushwalking (at least remotely). This can include genuine replies to discussions in the Market Square, introductory posts in the Who Are You area, or newbie questions or statements of aspirations from new or inexperienced bushwalkers. First posts that contain no bushwalking-related content, or which appear to be pointless, may be considered spam and may not be approved (or may be subsequently removed) and could also result in membership being deleted without notice.
  7. Do not post email addresses to public forums without the consent of the email recipient. Even when consent has been granted, please consider obfuscating the address in such as way that spam bots are less likely to read it (eg, replace the '@' with '(at)').
  8. When posting links to other web sites, comprehensive content should also be included directly within the Bushwalk Australia post where appropriate, such that the link is merely for additional information. If posting comprehensive content is not appropriate (eg, copyright or content not directly related to topic), posts should at least include enough information about the content of the linked-to page for other users to decide whether or not to follow the link. Do not post links to other sites merely to increase the visits to those sites, without adding substantial useful content to Bushwalk Australia. Other Bushwalk Australia users should be able to find at least some useful information in your posts without needing to follow links to other sites.
  9. When posting images, consideration should be given to users with slow or expensive internet connections. In particular:
    • New topics with large embedded images or multiple embedded images (ie, images embedded using the [img] [/img] tags) totalling more than 3.5 MB must either:
      • be posted in the "Gallery" forum, or
      • include warning text such as, "(large images)", in the topic subject
      Replies to existing topics outside of the "Gallery" forum and without a "(large images)" warning in the subject, must not use large/multiple images.
    • No embedded images (ie, images embedded using [img] [/img] tags) should be more than 800 pixels wide to avoid unnecessary scrolling or images being clipped on common screen sizes. This applies to the Gallery forum as well as all other forums. (Even at 800 pixels, images will be clipped in some browser windows).
    • Attached image files can be any resolution but should be no larger than 3.5 MB. The forums will display these as 800 pixel (maximum) thumbnails linked to the full size image.
    • The total size of all images displayed in a topic should be no more than 3.5 MB per person per topic (except in the Gallery forums or if the topic has a large images warning in the topic title).
  10. Links and URLs in profiles and signatures should be for personal interest, not for for commercial purposes, and should not link to content that is not suitable for a family audience. The definitions of 'personal interest', 'commercial purposes' and 'suitable for a family audience' will be at the moderators' discretion, but will usually be obvious (if unsure, please check with an admin/moderator first).
  11. Signatures should include no more than one link or URL.
  12. Signatures should include nothing other than text, and no large text.
  13. Signatures that link to commercial sites (including external sites that contain advertising), may be removed or modified without notice at the discretion of the site admins.
  14. Inactive users (with no recent posts) should not have signatures that contain links, URLs or names of any organisation, and may be considered spammers if they do.
  15. Inactive users (with no recent posts) should not have anything in their "Website" (URL) profile field, and may be considered spammers if they do.
  16. Avatar images should be limited to 150 pixels wide by 100 pixels high and 50k maximum, and should be static images only (no animations).
  17. Multiple usernames should not be registered or used by any one person without the consent of a site administrator.
  18. Make sure new topics are posted to the most relevant forum.
  19. Do not post duplicate (or near duplicate) content in multiple posts.
  20. Use descriptive subject titles that give a fair indication of what the topic is about. Subject titles such as 'Help', 'I Need to Know...', 'Bushwalking' are not acceptable.
  21. Keep replies relevant to the subject of the initial post. If you wish to change the subject, consider posting a new topic separately, and linking to it from the old topic.
  22. Content of private messages should not be posted publicly without permission from the sender.
  23. Please do not post anything to the site that would breach copyright (including photos taken by people who have not specifically given you permission to use them in this context). Please link to such items in their original locations instead. Anyone who posts items in breach of copyright must accept full responsibility for any legal action taken as a result. Bushwalk Australia will not be help liable for such copyright breaches.
  24. Avoid posting detailed information on accessing sensitive areas without recognised tracks to public topics, but rather use private messages, email, or other non-public means to communicate such information instead. Feel free to ask questions about such areas publicly, so long as the post includes a reminder of this rule to get answers privately only.
  25. Specific moderation actions that have been taken should not be discussed in public forums, but should be taken up with moderators or administrators in private. Discussion of moderation in general is OK, but should be restricted to the "Forum and Site" forum.
  26. This website must not be used in any way which contravenes Australian law (including posting spam) or in any way which encourages others to break the law, or to breach the regulations of any land authority or management (eg, government, PWS, private land owner).

Breaking the rules may result in one or more of the following, at the moderators' discretion:

  • topic moved to another forum
  • topic posts split to another forum
  • post edited or deleted
  • topic locked
  • an email or private message from a moderator
  • offenders officially warned
  • offenders banned temporarily or permanently
  • offenders deleted
  • offenders reported to police

But we will aim to keep it friendly!

Disclaimer

Bushwalk Australia is a public forum and therefore the information you read here must be regarded only as the opinions of the people who made those comments, not as reliable facts, nor as the opinions of Bushwalk Australia.

Nobody at Bushwalk Australia - not the people who post information, nor any of the site administrators or moderators - can be or will be held responsible for actions anyone may take as a result of reading this information.

Each person must accept full responsibility for their own actions when using information from these forums, and it is the responsibility of each person to do their own research to validate any information they may consider using from the Bushwalk Australia forums.

For example:

If you read some track notes on Bushwalk Australia then decide to use that information on a bushwalk, and become lost because the post included incorrect or insufficient details, do not blame anybody at Bushwalk Australia. You must take responsibility for what happens during your bushwalk, including getting lost. Before you go walking you need to know how to navigate, what equipment to bring, how to use your equipment and to know your own limits.

The members of this forum are happy to make public the information provided here, but all the information on this site is merely a collection of opinions and none of it is necessarily validated by Bushwalk Australia or anyone else. Whether it is accurate or whether it suits your needs or whether you decide to follow or accept that information is entirely up to you.

Contributed Copyright Material

Bushwalk Australia does not accept any responsibility for copyright items posted by users of the forums, and anyone who posts copyright items must take full responsibility for any legal action incurred as a result.

Moderation Guidelines

Here are some guidelines that moderators use when dealing with issues on the forums. They are open to further interpretation and flexibility by the moderator as they deem appropriate.

Interpretation of Rule 1 - Keep all content friendly, polite and clean (etc)

It is not possible to precisely define what this rule permits and excludes, therefore it is open to some interpretation. The moderators' interpretation will always override the interpretation of other members, therefore if you are unsure, please check with a moderator before posting, or otherwise expect the possibility of the post being moderated. Moderators will aim to be objective and consistent in how the rule is applied, but due to many variables (eg, not reading all posts, personality/style/sense-of-humour of the reader and poster), members should expect the rule to appear to be applied inconsistently.

If you think you've been unfairly dealt with by a moderator in this regard, please discuss it with a site administrator in private, and they will aim to be fair and objective in assessing the disagreement.

If you think a post is in breach of this or any rule, and you cannot sort out the problem amicably with the author, please report the post using the "!" button near the top right of that post. However, be prepared that the moderation team may not agree with your view of the issue and may not necessarily take any action.

Moderator Collaboration

Moderators may discuss and retain any information posted on the forums from or about other members, as well as private messages and emails from other members, where relevant or potentially useful for moderation purposes or for any course of action for the site, or if they think it may be useful or relevant to decisions about possible moderation issues in the future.

Mistakes

  • Correct the mistake (eg, fix the malformed quote block, move the topic to another forum).
  • Optional Private Message to the person.
(Note that we do not attempt to correct spelling mistakes and we do not go around looking for mistakes to fix, but if we happen to notice them, and have time, then we may fix them.)

Minor Offences

  • Private Message to the offender, OR, public post to the topic in which the offence occurred, OR, Both
  • Edit post, leaving a moderation note in the post to indicate that it has been edited by a moderator (and is therefore no longer the author's exact words), OR remove post, if appropriate.
  • Repeated Minor Offences may result in escalation to Moderate Offence or Major Offence, at the moderator's discretion.

Moderate Offences

  • Any of the above, PLUS any of...
  • Official warning to the offender using the forums' built in Warning feature (which will automatically send a Private Message including the text of the warning). The forums system keeps track of Warnings and all moderators can see a record of members' Warnings.
  • User account modified so that posts must be approved by a moderator before appearing on the forums.
  • If a member has received 3 Warnings within 6 months they will also receive a temporary Ban for 7 days (meaning no log in to the forums for that period).
  • Repeated Bans may result in escalation to Major Offence, at the moderator's discretion.
  • Three Warnings within a week may result in escalation to Major Offence, at the moderator's discretion.

Major Offences

  • Any of the above, PLUS any of...
  • Banning without warning, either temporarily or permanently, at the moderators discretion.
  • Delete account permanently without warning.

Spam

  • Accounts used for spam will be banned and/or deleted immediately and without warning.
  • Accounts used for spam may have their registration details and post(s) added to public spam registries.
  • Any post which includes unauthorised advertising unrelated to bushwalking or advertising in a forum other than the adverts forum may be considered spam.
  • Any account which has registration details that match those in an online spam registry may be considered spam and may be banned and/or deleted immediately (or may be blocked from registering at all).
  • Any account which registers with a location different to the IP address(es) used for that account may be considered spam, and may be banned and/or deleted immediately.
  • Any account which has a signature but no posts may be considered spam and may be banned an/or deleted immediately.

Please note that these are guidelines only, and the execution of them may be modified to suit each situation at the moderator's discretion. Additionally, the definition of "Mistake", "Minor", "Moderate" and "Major" offences are at the moderator's discretion.

In addition to the actions listed in these moderation guidelines, any of the other actions listed elsewhere on this rules page may also be taken, including deleting member accounts or reporting to police (for legal issues), at the moderator's discretion.

Please note that when a moderator adds a note to an edited message stating that something has been removed or changed, it is merely to inform subsequent readers that the post is not currently the author's exact words. The author is welcome to remove the moderation notes if they wish (and further edit their own post), if they are happy to have their name attributed to the new content of the post.