Pagatronix Forum - Terms of Service (ToS)

Use of our forums constitutes acceptance and agreement to our Forum Terms of Service (ToS). If you do not agree to these terms, please contact a member of the Administration Team to have your account disabled. If you violate the Terms of Service, we reserve the right to terminate all accounts belonging to you without prior notice.

We prefer to advise users of inappropriate behaviour; however, flagrant and repeated violations of our ToS will result in a ban.
Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be taken as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

The term "Pagatronix" covers the forum and its Administrators, and any communities or other hosted content related to Pagasus.org
The term "Administration Team" is applied to all of the Moderators, Global Moderators or Administrators for the purposes of these guidelines

Principle Guidelines

We created the Terms of Service to provide a basic understanding of what's allowed and not allowed in our forums. The following are the principle guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of our ToS:
• Ensure a friendly atmosphere to our visitors and forum members
• Ensure the privacy of our members and that of others
• Comply with existing laws
• Encourage responsible use of our forums and discourage activities which disrupt our community or hobby and reduce the value of our services to our visitors
• Encourage the freedom of expression and exchange of information in a mature and responsible manner

While we are committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities may be damaging to the resources or reputation of Pagasus.org and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of Pagasus.org are limited, and abuse of these resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community.

As a member of our forum, you must participate responsibly. If you have any questions regarding our ToS, please contact the Administration Team via email on pagatronix at pagasus dot org.

Violations of the Terms of Service
It is extremely important for you to understand that this section of our Terms of Service isn’t designed to cover every eventuality! We may take action — issue a warning, ban your account(s) and/or IP addresses, lower your post count, delete/edit your post(s)/thread(s), etc. — if your conduct at Pagatronix is counterproductive to the Terms of Service’s principle guidelines.

Unauthorised access / Forum Security
The following actions are strictly prohibited:
• Accessing, or attempting to access, the accounts of other users
• Exploiting, or attempting to exploit, bugs, vulnerabilities, or loopholes; whether they are disclosed or undisclosed
• Penetrating, or attempting to penetrate, security measures of Pagatronix's software or hardware, or electronic communications system
All intrusions will subject all your forum accounts to immediate termination, regardless of whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption, loss, or theft of data.
Users are responsible for the security of their Pagatronix accounts. Users may not share their passwords or transfer – via any means – their accounts to others without the express permission of the Pagatronix Forum Management Team. In addition, users are responsible for all activity made by him/her or anyone the user allows to use his/her account.

Usernames
Usernames must not be in violation of this Terms of Service. We reserve the right to terminate accounts whose associated usernames are in violation of this Terms of Service, or are otherwise deemed inappropriate and/or potentially offensive. Users may be invited to register under a new name at our discretion.

Personal Attacks, Harassment and other abuse
Comments or personal attacks towards anyone - staff, forum member, or a visitor who is likely to view it on the forums - is subject to the message being deleted and action taken against the user, regardless of how pertinent or thoughtful the rest of the message might be. 
This also includes comments/links/materials that refer to ethnic/national origin, ideological/religious beliefs, gender,sexist, or sexual preference in a demeaning context.

We have no tolerance for discrimination. You are in violation of this rule if the nature of your post discriminates, promotes hate, promotes violence or advocates hatred or discrimination against individuals, groups, races, cultures or organisations because of their ethnic/national origin, skin colour, sexual orientation or culture.
Words that carry different meanings in different countries and cultures will be examined at the discretion of the Administration Team and the appropriate action taken.

This includes Libel against companies and other organisations.

Libel

Whilst we try to monitor and review all posts, discussions, chats, postings, transmissions, bulletin boards and other dialogue ("Dialogue") on its Sites, we are under no obligation to do so and assume no responsibility or liability arising from the Dialogue contained in its Sites, or for any error, defamation, libel, slander, omission, falsehood, obscenity, pornography, profanity, danger or inaccuracy contained in any information within its Sites. Pagatronix does not monitor or review the content of any off-Site pages or any other sites linked to its Sites and assumes no responsibility or liability arising from the contents of such off-Site pages or sites, or for any error, defamation, libel, slander, omission, falsehood, obscenity, pornography, profanity, danger or inaccuracy contained in any information contained therein.

Spamming
No spamming! Spam includes, but is not limited to, the following:
• Excessive off-topic threads
• Posting nonsensical messages
• “Flooding” the forum with similar meaning messages
• Post-Count farming
• Inciting a forum war or riot
• Blatant advertising
• Messages without content
• Fraudulent activity (Pyramid schemes, chain letters, etc.)
• Free-____ links (i.e. free iPods, Free PSP, etc. etc.)

Advertising
We want to avoid spam generated by promotion teams, public-relations campaigns or any other traffic-hungry webmasters. So please note that our forums aren’t the place to advertise your own site or forums or sites with similar content to ours. Pagatronix staff don’t visit your site and spam it with adverts, so we expect the same courtesy in return. You are welcome to link your personal (non-commercial) site in your signature.

Retailers and/or dealers are allowed to:
• Post product updates and notifications into the Retailer section ONLY
• Have a link in their signature
• Respond to posts and questions in all other areas, but may not link back to their site or products outside the Retailers section
• May have a second ID for personal use

Any forum member who seems to have created their account solely to promote another site will be permanently banned.


Pirated Materials, Cracks, Keys, and Key-Generators

For the purposes of Pagatronix, the following definitions apply:
• “Piracy” is the illegal copying and/or distribution of copyrighted content including, but not limited to, games, software, music, movies, pictures, ROMs, abandon-ware, and leaked software
• “Cracks” are programs that disable copy-protection technology
• A “Key” is a combination of numbers and letters that is required for software installation 
• “Key-Generators” are programs that generate valid Keys

You may not encourage, post in support of, link to, or discuss activities, methods, and/or techniques involving piracy, cracks, keys and key-generators. In addition, the following are grounds for moderator action on your post and/or account:
• Seeking help to create any of the above
• Admitting to possess pirated materials, cracks, keys and key-generators
• Admitting to distribute pirated materials, cracks, keys and key-generators
• Uploading any such files to Pagatronix sites
Generally breaking this rule will result in an instant permanent ban. However a “first-offence” warning may be issued at the discretion of the Administration Team.

Forgery or impersonation
Attempting to impersonate any person, including staff, using forged headers, instant messenger names, similar usernames in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited.

Sexually Offensive Materials/Other Offensive Materials
You may not post or link to pornography or sexually offensive materials. If you are unsure whether what you wish to post may be in violation of this rule, please consult a moderator first before posting.

Illegal Use
You may not use our forums for illegal purposes, in support of illegal activities, or encourage conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, as determined by the laws of the United Kingdom. Such activities will guarantee a ban. We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.

Non-Disclosure Agreements
We will delete posts containing materials in breach of active Non-Disclosure Agreements, if we are so notified that a breach has occurred.
We will also work with the relevant authorities if requested to do. This may mean disclosure of your account details.

Privacy / Copyright
You may not
• Post any form of personal information of a user unless the user has first permitted it by express consent. Examples of personal information include name, address, IP addresses, and phone numbers.
• Distribute any form of personal information, email address, private/email Messages with intent to harass or in any demeaning manner as determined by a moderator, regardless of consent.
• Disclose a user's unpublicised email address unless the user has first permitted it, either by actual consent or previously releasing said information.
• Post any form of personal information if you are 13 or under.
• Post copyrighted material unless consent from the originator has been approved (evidence of such approval must be presented when asked for)
SGL will not
• Disclose your personal information to anyone, member or otherwise, unless working in co-operation with authorities as detailed elsewhere in these guidelines

Official Language
English is the official language of our forums because it is the common language between our moderators and users. Because we can not moderate conversations in a foreign language, you may not hold a conversation in the forums in language other than English. 

Email Addresses
• You may not harvest email addresses from our forums for any purpose
• You are required to keep your forum account's email address up-to-date. If a message sent to the email address on record bounces, your account will be banned and you will have to contact a member of the Administration Team to have your account unbanned

Moderation & Bans
• You may not evade a ban. Doing so will drastically lengthen your ban. If you believe your actions were not in violation of this Terms of Service, you can appeal by contacting a member of the Management Team
• You may not publicly complain about or demand a reason for another user's ban, the deletion of a message, or the deletion/closure of a thread. Any discussion about warnings, bans, message deletion, thread deletion and thread closure should be done over private email between the person concerned and the moderators
• You may not re-edit a message that has been edited by a moderator
• You may not post a message on behalf of a banned forum member
• Do not include phrases such as “I will probably get banned for this...” as this will ensure your wish is granted!!

Miscellaneous
• Do not post negative posts and discussions that are repeated over and over and over with no other purpose than to disrupt conversation. If you feel the need to say something, say it once and then move on. Do not disrupt multiple threads in order to get your view out.
• You may not bait/troll users. Bait / Trolling are defined as posting with a clear intent to provoke anger, incendiary posts, and behaviour that results in other users violating the ToS.
• You may not bait, insult, flame, or otherwise abuse a staff member. Staff members have to follow the same rules, and should you have a problem with a certain staff member, please contact a moderator or the Administration Team.
• You may not post graphically-disturbing images as inline images (such that the images are displayed when users view your post). However, you can link to the images with a warning stating that the images are graphically disturbing 
• You may not post in a manner that is harmful to Pagatronix. If you do, the post may be deleted and you may be banned.
• You may not register multiple accounts with intent to violate any part of this ToS.
• You may not link to the forum logout page, disguised or not.
• In the event of a ban, your posts will not be deleted, even if you request them to be. Doing so would disrupt the flow of the threads in which you have posted and could therefore make them unintelligible. By signing up to Pagatronix, you agree that your posts are stored on our server and therefore become part of the forum