PGYA Terms and Conditions (RULES)

ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS

The PGYA Forums provides the services to you, the visitor, based on its Terms of Service (TOS) outlined here. The latest TOS can always be found here PGYA Rules. When using the services provided by The PGYA Forums, you are subject to these posted terms. Usage of the services on this site denotes acceptance of these terms. The TOS may be changed at any time and without direct notice to individual visitors, so it is recommended that you check back with this page at any time you have questions or concerns.


REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS

In order to view messages on the PGYA Forums, registration is required. If you have not done so, you will need to create a MyLeagueLineup Account. Signing up is free and easy. The e-mail address you provide will be kept private.

CONTENT NOTICE

By viewing the site content, you agree that all content on the PGYA Forums is the responsibility of the person from which the content originated. You agree that neither The PGYA Forums nor its sponsors or affiliates are responsible for all content that you personally post or upload. The PGYA Forums does not directly control any content posted on the boards, and does not guarantee the truthfulness or quality of any content. You agree that while using the PGYA Forums, you may be exposed to content that is offensive or objectionable, and that you will in no way hold The PGYA Forums nor its sponsors or affiliates liable in any way, shape, or form for any harm or loss that may come to you or others as a result of viewing this content. The PGYA Forums is not responsible for screening content before it is posted, although any offensive posting will be deleted.


ACCOUNT RESPONSIBILITY

Users are solely responsible for protecting their accounts from access by others. You are strongly encouraged to select a hard-to-guess password and not re-use that password on any other sites where it may be read by the owners or administrators of that site. Users are also solely responsible for logging off of public or shared computers to protect their accounts.

It is unacceptable for users to maintain multiple accounts on The PGYA Forums, one member having more than one account is a TOS violation! There is no excuse. If a member is caught with multiple accounts both accounts will be banned or deleted at an administrators discretion. This could include the deletion of all posts associated with both accounts.

PRIVACY AND RELEASE OF INFORMATION (Revised 070206)

Under normal circumstances, The PGYA Forums will never release your provided information to any third party without either a court order or police involvement requiring us to do so. However, in cases of certain severe and/or repeated TOS violations or illegal activities, we reserve the right to forward any and all known information about you and your accounts to your ISP (including libraries, schools, and places of employment), e-mail service provider, your ISP account owner (if someone else is actually paying for it), and any parties whose copyright has clearly been infringed by your actions on the boards.

In situations involving disputes, misinformation/rumor/gossip/identity exposure or similar situations between members of the PGYA Forum we encourage you to work it out between yourselves either through private messages (3rd party message systems such as AIM or YAHOO - NOT our u2u system) or arranged meetings set up between the parties involved. The above paragraph outlines the events that will warrant the release of information. Our actions will be limited to the removal of posts or members (at our final discretion) at the request of the "injured" party.

Special Notes:

The rules will change constantly and it is your responsibility to check back regularly for you may or may not be contacted when changes are made.

Ignorance is never bliss. Suspension (ban)/deletion of your account is a definite consequence of not adhering to these guidelines.

Public posts debating these rules and/or staff enforcement of such, will be removed without comment. We encourage feedback, however, and invite you to contact any one of the Moderators or Administrators privately if you have any questions or concerns. Your concerns are our concerns and we will work with you to resolve any questions or issues you may have.

Tip: Post deletions or removals are generally the result of breaking one or more of the rules listed below.

We DO expect you to report any violations of these rules. We consider this to be every members' obligation as a member of The PGYA Forums.

Members must have a valid e-mail account where any staff or administrator can reach them. If ANY e-mail account is tested and is proven bogus or has been removed from the member's profile, the member is immediately considered in default of the rules. We reserve the right to full deletion and removal all posting privileges - as well as temporary or permanent site bans. We are dead serious about this - you must have a valid e-mail address present in your member profile!!

NOTE on e-mail addresses: There may be some confusion about what we mean by the rule above. When you registered you entered an e-mail address that was used to deliver your forum password. That must remain a valid e-mail address - you must not change or remove that e-mail address except to update or correct it.

MEMBER CONDUCT

You agree that you will not use this service to perform the following actions:
1. Offensive Posting

Posts of a patently offensive nature are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:

* Using vulgar, profane, or sexually explicit language
* Using race, religion, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, handicap, nationality, or gender as a means of insult
* Using sexual preference terms as a term of insult in any way, shape, or form
* Using threatening, harassing, defamatory, hate-speech, or libelous language. Do not threaten another member! Not only will your account be deleted but we will turn over any/all of your forum information to the police if asked.
* Posting or requesting links to or material from pornographic, obscene, or hate-speech web sites
* Posting links to web sites with potentially offensive content without a clear warning
* Descriptions or details about any sexual act or sexual organs

2. Flaming (Insulting Other Users)

While debating and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness ... posts clearly insulting other board members, individually or as a group, directly or indirectly, are not allowed. Being baited into an argument will not be a valid excuse for rude behavior however - you are responsible for your own posts. It's up to you to be the bigger person and ignore any attempt to be prompted to break a rule. This includes, but is not limited to:

* Insulting posts (including the correcting of spelling or grammar)
* Name-calling ("You're an idiot", "You moron")
* Direct insults ("Screw you")
* Offensive orders ("Go kill yourself")
* Insinuations ("Are you stupid or something?") or insults towards family ("Your mom...")
* Quoting/insulting in a signature as a form of ridiculing or inciting.

3. Trolling (Inciting Flames)

Posts intended solely to annoy and/or offend other posters are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:

* You must respect the privacy of other members and individuals ("individuals" not limited to members or visitors to this forum or site). Do not use personal names of members without the permission of the person to be named. Do not post questions concerning other members identities in the forums or in their private lifes. This is OFF TOPIC and/or FLAMING!. Failure to comply with this rule will lead to a ban/account deletion and possible a lawsuit by the named individual in some extreme cases.
* Posts containing "Who cares?" or similar derogatory phrases.
* Posting topics designed to create heating discussions with the intent of "watching" the results.
* Provoking other users to respond with flames.
* Provoking fans of a particular team or town.
* Making misleading topic titles
* Asking obviously useless questions
* Posting false information as fact

4. Illegal Activities

Posts that violate or incite others to violate the law are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, asking for or providing, in any way, shape, or form:

* Illegal copies of copyrighted software (ROMs, Warez)
* Methods of circumventing copyright protection (Cracks, No-CD Patches, CD Keys, mod chips)
* Illegal copies of copyrighted music (MP3s), movies, videos, or any other type of media
* Reprints of material from other web sites (pay or free) that clearly violate the expressed copyright of that material or site.

5. Rumors and Bashing

We will NOT tolerate the posting of:

* You must respect the privacy of other members and individuals
("individuals" not limited to members or visitors to this forum or site).
Do not use personal names of members without the permission of the person to be named. Do not post questions concerning other members identities in the forums or in their private lifes. This is OFF TOPIC and/or FLAMING!. Failure to comply with this rule will lead to a ban/account deletion and possible a lawsuit by the named individual in some extreme cases.

* The intentional bashing or personal and vindictive criticism of any
particular school, sports program, coach, player, referee, school board (as
a whole or per member), private individual, etc..., whether it be involving
personal lives, coaching/playing style or performance, past experiences,
etc....You have the right an opinion or the ability to comment, but do not
try and personally ridicule any of the above. Put yourself in the position of the person you're about to criticize. Please think about that before posting your opinion.

* The spreading of unfounded, unpublished rumors concerning any school,
coach, student or any board member. You are, however, welcome to post
facts for the purpose of discussion, if you think there's some validity to a possible story


6. Spamming

Posts that clearly advertise a service or product are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:

* Unsolicited commercial or personal web site advertisements
* For-Sale/For-Trade/For-Auction/Wanted notices, except for sports related items posted in the "Show me the Money" forum. This includes using our forums to sell your house, car, boat, etc.... Don't do it! We are not affiliated with the Thrifty Nickel or Homes and Land magazine!
* "Make Money Fast" scams, chain letters, and pyramid schemes
* Advertising for another message board - where this is the only content in the post.

* Advertising arrangements can be made, if you contact the web administrator. We do not tolerate the spamming of our members using the u2u system, for any reason. This will result in an instant ban or account deletion!

Users are allowed to include a web site address in a signature, there by promoting their site, products with the posting of messages. Message quality rules very much apply here. Nonsense posts, solely for the purpose of getting the signature seen will be removed - as will your account.

7. Off-Topic Posting

The main purpose of the PGYA Forums is to provide discussion forums for subjects defined by the individual forum titles. Topicality is expected and will be enforced within these individual forums, topics designed to get hundreds of posts with little or no content, topics that have nothing to do with the board's category, and other "off" topics replies are not allowed.

Chit-Chat, in any form. Examples would be: "Where's so-n-so?", "Check your u2u!". Don't use our forums as an Instant Messenger program - download and install AIM, Yahoo! or whatever and chit-chat on your own bandwidth.

Especially annoying and off topic is the act of posting nonsense in a new forum for the purpose of claiming "first post" - these will be removed ASAP!

8. Disruptive Posting

Posts that disrupt the message boards for other users, intentional or not, are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited, to:

* Message posts or topic titles that force browsers to scroll horizontally. This includes too many quote boxes - trim your quote boxes! Only quote what you need to.
* Large blank or content-free posts
* "Bumping" in any form - this means "ttt", "bump", etc....
* Posting multiple identical or near-identical messages or topics, including "fad" topics
* Intentionally hard-to-read topic titles (AlTeRnAtE cApS, no spaces, no or excessive punctuation, 1337 speak, etcetera)
* Posting in ALL CAPS! This is especially irritating. Don't post in CAPS or your post will be deleted.
* Posting multiple hard-to-read or nonsensical messages in a single or multiple topics
* Post counting (i.e. "First", "100th Post")
* Unsupported smilies, multiple smilies with no text.

9. Unauthorized Access

Accessing or attempting to access any The PGYA Forums user account not belonging to the user in question without permission is prohibited. Accessing another user's account in this manner is grounds for immediate loss of all known accounts.

10. Bugs and Exploits

Using exploits or tricks in the The PGYA Forums code to gain privileges, access, or abilities not clearly intended by the board design is prohibited. While you are more than welcome to try and find any exploits away from the public eye, making them public or using them for personal benefit is grounds for immediate loss of all known accounts.

11. Usernames, Profiles, and Forms

Violating any of the above rules with a username, any part of the user profile (signature, quote, e-mail, u2u), is considered a severe violation.

You must respect the privacy of other members and individuals ("individuals" not limited to members or visitors to this forum or site). Do not use personal names of members without the permission of the person to be named. Do not post questions concerning other members identities in the forums or in their private lifes. This is OFF TOPIC and/or FLAMING!. Failure to comply with this rule will lead to a ban/account deletion and possible a lawsuit by the named individual in some extreme cases.

Do not make accusations, spread unfounded rumors or slander/libel any member or individual ("individuals" not limited to members or visitors to this forum or site) on our forums. These posts will be deleted immediately. The PGYA Forums are not responsible for any harm or foul resulted from the posting of false, or unsupported accusations. Again - you are responsible for your own posts.

12. Robots and Automated

Programs Board users are not allowed to run a robot or other any other automated browsing or posting programs on any message board server at any time. Most of these robots use huge amounts of server resources for the benefit of a single person. Users caught running robots may have all of their known accounts revoked, and the abuse of resources reported to their ISP.

13. Respect

You will show Administrators and Moderators respect, they have a tough job, don’t make it harder. Any show of disrespect toward one of our moderators will result in a ban or account deletion. This is not to say that they are always right in their decisions. If you feel you have a valid argument with one of the moderators please relate this situation, in as an adult a manner as possible, to another admin or moderator. Do not post your grievances in the forums - contact an administrator or moderator! Do not post asking about the banning or deletion of another member's account - this is none of your business! Do not contact any moderator with the sole intent of arguing, baiting or annoying them into changing their decision. Do not continue to contact any moderator if you are asked to stop. Failure to comply will result in a ban or account deletion.


Avatar and Signature Size Limits:


Avatars

Avatars are not to exceed 120px wide x 120px tall. This will be enforced automatically by the forum software. Avatars can not contain or represent lewd or pornographic material.

Signatures

No signature images should exceed the following size limits:

* 1 image up to 300px wide x 150px tall or any number of images with a combined width of 300px and height of 150px. So you can use multiple images but these images - when combined - still can not exceed the 300px wide/150px high rule.
* Signatures, like avatars, can not contain or represent lewd or pornographic material (images or text).

We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature and/or avatar at any time, for any reason. Signature messages, like the rest of the content on smoaky.com, are subject to the laws of common sense. Messages that promote hate, sex, drugs, racial discrimination, etc... are not allowed and will be removed. Signature text that exceeds [what we determine to be] a reasonable size will be removed - as will signatures that contain the "Censored" message as this also violates the "Veiled" rule stated above.

14. Other

Any other activity that is clearly detrimental to the flow of conversation and normal activities of the boards and its users may also be deleted.
TERMS VIOLATIONS

Topics and message posts that violate the TOS will be deleted from the boards, and additional penalties may be applied at the moderator's discretion. Re-posting deleted violations (yours or those of others) is also considered a violation.

Messages and topics may be removed at any time and for any reason at the sole discretion of The PGYA Forums and its designated moderators. User accounts may be warned, suspended, or revoked at any time and for any reason at the sole discretion of The PGYA Forums and its designated moderators.

All determinations of what is "acceptable" and "unacceptable" content will be determined solely by The PGYA Forums and whoever it designates as moderators.

You agree that the decision of the moderators and administrators is final, and you may not legally contest their rulings. You may, however, contact any or all privately and respectfully "plead your case". Intentional, repeated, or severe violations are cause for the banning of your account, all use of the boards from your IP address or your entire ISP, and The PGYA Forums contacting your ISP or other relevant parties concerning your activities.

Any administrator or moderator reserves the right to suspend any member(s) who they feel are baiting them.