Guidelines

1. Members make up the dance forums and members are the most important part of all. Participation is strongly encouraged. We want to make your experience here both enjoyable and informative.

2. The Dance Forums provide quality information about partner dancing of all kinds. We will strive to answer every question or try our best to find the answer.

3. All opinions are welcome and we encourage a dynamic environment with debates, news and personal stories. All dance related topics are welcome as long as the material is deemed appropriate for most readers including young dancers.

4. Please do not engage in name calling, attacks on a person's character, or profanity (no matter how subtle -- we take such activities seriously). Please report abusive behavior to a moderator. Please don't attempt to debate such posts. Penalties for abusive behavior may result in deletion of your username and posts, or banning your IP address.

5. There are several moderators in the dance forums. Posts that do not belong will be removed as quickly as possible. In some cases a member's post may be edited. Generally, moderators will discuss the matter and try to come up with a solution that is appropriate to the situation. Usually, the member will be notified when this occurs. The moderators will strive to be as thoughtful and courteous as possible.

Dance Forums reserves the right to remove text from posts, lock topics or delete messages without explanation. In some instances, the member may recieve a private message explaning the Moderator's position. Issues concerning moderation will NOT be discussed in the open forum. Please discuss such problems by sending a private message to a Moderator.

6. Posting links in messages that promote commercial websites is discouraged. In some cases, mentioning the name of the product or website (without the www, .com, .net, .etc) is tolerated. On the other hand, it is quite easy to promote a website by including a link as part of your signature which is at the end of every message you post at the dance forums. To add a signature, click on profile and look near the bottom of the page.

7. Please avoid posts that merely provide a link to another site. (ex. "Check this out: www. blah .com). At least give us a little information about the link and why you think we should click on it.

8. Rules governing use of signatures:
- Signature may not take more than 4 lines of text including breaks.
- Pictures are not allowed because they are distracting, and can slow people's page load times. We have people in less developed countries on dialup or paying based on bandwidth.
- No more than one link to a commecial site in the signature, and no more than 3 total links.

9. Your input contributes to making the forum a better place. If you see a way that we could improve the "forums," please send a private message (PM) to one of the moderators