This is a work in progress and will be subject to change.  You should continue to check this page while we work on this.

The rules of the site are listed below.  We're pretty human and know that the world is not black & white so rules will be open to some interpretation.  Common sense will apply.

Disciplinary Process

We have a disciplinary process for those people who continue to break the rules.  We DON'T want to use this but we have to have it there.  Administrators/Moderators reserve the right to bypass this process and take alternative immediate actions when the situation requires it.

The owner/administrators/moderators reserve the right to terminate any account without any notification.

The escalating disciplinary actions are as follows:

• A written warning will be sent to the offender.
• The offender's account will be suspended for a period to be decided by the administrators/moderators.
• The offender's account will be permanently deleted.

In the situation of good behaviour, previous written warnings may be overlooked.

The Rules

• You should be civil to other members.  Personal attacks, racism, sexism or any other "isms" will not be tolerated.
• Plagiarism is not allowed.
• You should only have one member account.  Pretending to be someone else is not allowed.  Note, we can track your activity and location, as can any forum if the administrators/moderators wish to do so.
• No pornography.  Certainly no content that is illegal.
• No libel or slander is allowed.  We'll do our best to clean that sort of thing up but in the end, the original poster/author is responsible for their comments, not the owner, administrators or moderators of this site.
• Share your real name in your profile when you register.  This has been proven to not only cut down on childish behaviour but also creates a more friendly environment.
• There will be more

The long and the short of it is ... be mature and use common sense.

The reason we are here is to learn from each other.  This mean that we have to receive and give constructive criticism.

Giving critique is important.  It's great to hear "fantastic shot" from people if you've actually taken something special (admittedly a rare enough moment for me).  But what we're really after is someone teaching us something new so we can learn from our mistakes.  If there is something you like about a photo then say what it is.  If there is something you don't like then constructively say what it is.

This is a two way street.  Not only must people comment on the photo but the poster must be mature enough to accept that maybe someone else can teach them something new or have a different or fresh perspective.

We're trying to create a community here.  It's natural that certain people will gravitate to each other.  But lets not allow that to prevent us from commenting on other peoples photos.  You shouldn't feel like you cannot comment on a post because you're new or because you don't know the poster.  Feel free to say your piece if you have something constructive to say.

And let's help out the newbies, not only to photography but to different types of photography.  We all realise that time is finite, but if you see a photo with zero comments, it might be a nice sentiment to go in and say something.  We're not saying you have to spend your day doing this but if we all make an effort then the sense of community will reinforced.

Finally, be mature folks!  Be constructive.  Do not critique other people's criticisms.  Don't launch personal attacks.  If you have a problem with someone then we suggest you act like a civilised adult and take it up with them personally or keep it to yourself. 

Please only post your own work.  Do not post the work that is someone else's.  It's OK to link to someone else's work that you find interesting.  Just make sure you give them credit for their work.

Photo Posting Guidelines

• Hosting: You should host your photos either on your website or on a sharing site such as Photobucket or Flickr.  This is a necessary step in normal photo sharing.  Make sure that you can directly link to your photos.  I've listed Photobucket and Flickr because they provide that service.
• How To Share: You should embed a photo into your post.  Don't just link to it.  And don't use a thumbnail that opens another window.  You'll get much more feedback from people if you embed your photo directly into your post.  Isn't that why we're all here?
• Size: Your photos should be no more than 800 pixels long on the longest side and no more than 200KB in size.  Please don't post more than 2 photos in a thread.  This is recommended because there are still some who are stuck on dialup Internet access   If you are posting lots of photos (and still complying with size regulations) then please place a warning in the post title to warn people with slow Internet access.

How to post an embedded photo?

• Upload your photo onto your personal website or onto your sharing site.
• Get the URL to your photo.  Sharing sites such as Flickr or Photobucket will provide this to you.  You can test this URL by pasting it into your browser to open the picture.  Only the picture should load in your browser.
• Create a new post in the relevant section on the forum.  Title it appropriately.  If you have any associated text then a good tip is to place the text first and the photos last.  More people will read the text if you do this.
• Place the cursor where you want to embed the photo.  Click on the "Insert Image" button.  This will create two tags: [img ]http://and[/img ].
• Paste the photo URL inbetween the [img ]http://and[/img ] tags.  It should look something like [img ]www.mygreatsite.eu/mygallery/myphoto.jpg[/img ]