Liability

This site is create using an Content Management System (CMS) developed and distributed by OCPORTAL.  This program is available at no cost and uses open source architecture.  Tom McMasters manages the content of the website with help from other volunteers as a hobby. The desire is to provide useful and accurate information that can improve our local government.  The maintainers of the website have very limited ability to provide corrections to the program code.   The maintainers of the website rely heavily on the public to highlight needed corrections.

We will not guarantee the accuracy, validity, integrity or security status of any content on this website, and will accept no liability from any issues that may result from it. We do not scan all hosted files for viruses.

We expect users with posting permissions to act responsibly. User posted content is not always monitored and is out of our control until we know about it's presence.  We appreciate feedback pointing out suspect or inappropriate content. .

Accounts and your behaviour

Do not join this website more than once (hence creating multiple accounts). If you cannot remember your password, use the 'lost password' feature, which is available on the login page. If problems persist, contact the staff.

Do not pose as, or wilfully act as, a member of staff.

General posting/submission guidelines

To receive permission to post in the "News" section you must receive special permission from the administrator.  This is usually granted based on your committment to attend and write about either city council or school board meetings.  If you follow other local issues and desire to write news articles please contact the administrator to discuss if your interest would fit the purpose of this website.

By joining the sight you should automatically receive permission to add content to the "Forum" section.  The sight is still new so if this is not working properly please contact the administrator or staff.  

Do not post any copyrighted material for which you have no right to do so.

Do not repeatedly use strong/harsh swearing or sexual references.

Do not be sexually graphic. Do not link to or post pornography.  Mild and non-sexually motivated nudity is allowed only as it relates to city business.

Staff have the right to edit, censor, delete or otherwise modify any content message they feel is inapproriate, without any warning given to the poster.

Do not submit any content that you know to contain viruses or commonly exploited security holes.

Any content submitted to us, will not necessarily be removed by request. We are not bound to remove submitted content and anything submitted should be assumed to be staying on our servers, publicly accessible permanently. By submitting, you are aware of the consequences of this, and take responsibility of it, and may not at any time insist on content being withdrawn.  Submitters other than guests are given permission to delete their posts.  However, a record of that post may still be stored in the hosting companies servers or other places on the internet. 

Do not try to bypass the word filter: filtered words are placed in the filter in accordance with guidelines, and obvious misspellings or equally obnoxious alternatives, only serve to work against the wishes of the staff.

Do not post spoilers (material that reveals information relating to the subject matter of this website before the majority of members have learnt it through the channels they would wish to) in your topic titles. If you wish to post spoilers inside a topic give good warning about their presence, or use the Comcode 'hide' tag.

Do not post a link to a website that contains material that would be in violation of the rules if posted directly on this website. Special exceptions may be given by the staff when clear warnings are put in place.

Do not incite illegal activity, either directly, or by educating with the obvious purpose to make it more achievable.

Do not spam this website:
  • you must be moderately confident that anything posted will interest at least a minority of the members.
  • you must not post material more than once unless there is good reason, from the point of view of other members.

Do not intentionally disrupt the enjoyment of this website by other users. 'Enjoyment' has a general meaning for the purposes of this rule - for example, robust argument in a debate forum would be considered 'enjoyable', as debators would wish for it.

This website is private properly and hence any form of censorship is allowed at the discretion of the staff - you agree not to consider this website a forum for free speech if the staff consider it breaks the rules.

Forum and Chat

Be respectful of the opinions of other members, and do not discrimate it based on nationality, sexuality, gender, religion or race. Do not flame or degrade other members. If you have a problem with another members actions, contact a member of staff.

Forum

Do not double post (post consecutively in a topic) on the forum unless…
  • You have new information to add after several days since your previous post was made
  • You are bumping a topic after several days of no replies
  • You are quoting various posts, and feel the need to do so in separate posts

Do not complain in-topic about the subject being too far off-topic or otherwise breaking rules. Use the 'report post' feature to alert a member of staff instead. Leave it to staff to establish what is and is not acceptable posting.

Chat

In no circumstances may you use the chat rooms to start or continue sexually suggestive dialogue with any member under the age of consent (whichever age is highest between any geographic region where the hypothetical parties are located).

Feedback

The feedback forum and page were created so members may contact staff on matters that require attention. Please make an extra effort to not go off-topic in these areas, and use the most appropriate channels when communicating with staff. Our staff must read every last post of feedback, so off-topic messages will annoy them.

Signatures

Images in your signature should not exceed 50k in size, 468 pixels wide, or 110 pixels tall. For a guideline, this is about five lines of standard-sized text space. Text in your signature should also not exceed more than 5 lines of normal-sized text space.

Remember that a big signature is not always a good signature. Keep it nice and simple. Feel free to advertise your website if you wish, if the link to it does not itself break site rules.

Avatars

For your own sake, avoid trying to use .bmp files as avatars - the system will not let you, because you should compress them to a more appropriate format, such as the .png format.
Avatars size is restricted by the system according to your usergroup.

Points

The point system currently has no actual value.  It may provide some guidance to help you track the amount of your activity. Do not abuse the point system - every gift point transaction must be justifiable to the staff, in both quantity and purpose.

Hacking

You may not, unless explicitly given permission by a high-ranking member of staff, try to hack into this website. For the purpose of this rule, 'hacking' includes any technique designed to compromise the security or stability of the website.

Privacy

Acceptance of these rules implies acceptance of the privacy policy (which includes details of how this website uses cookies).


Violation

The staff reserve the right to ban any member who breaks any rule, whether the rule is agreed as broken by the alleged offender or not. No warning or explanations need be given.

The staff also reserve the right to change these rules at any time.