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Home > Forums > Forum Policies
Welcome to the Cards Clubhouse Forums! Thanks for joining our ever-growing community of Cardinals Fans! Before you get started
participating in discussions, take a few moments to review some ground rules (below). Our policies may seem lengthy at times, but
they exist to ensure everyone's experience at Cards Clubhouse is the best possible! We begin by stating those
policies which are most important to us:
Our Policies in a Nutshell:
- CCH forums exist for thoughtful, respectful discussion. Check the bad attitude at the door. More...
- CCH is a family-oriented community. No profanity, pornography, or other inappropriate language/imagery. More...
- CCH is not a free marketing tool. No personal or business advertisements. More...
- CCH has polcies regarding image sizes, post chatter, and other topics related to post etiquette to promote discussion and ensure
the forums are as easy to navigate and read as possible. More...
- CCH has Moderators that monitor the forums throughout the day. Failing to observe forum policies will have consequences. More...
We have a variety of other policies listed below, however you'll find that if those above are observed, your stay at CardsClubhouse should be long and enjoyable.
Our Policies in Excruciating Detail:
- Respect & Attitude
Put in its simplest terms, CCH members are to act and post respectfully. Flaming, degrading, personal attacks, and other abusive behavior
will not be tolerated. This applies to public posts and Private Messages (PM's), as well as the chat room.
There may be situations in which you feel a member is being abusive or hostile to you or addresses a particular topic of discussion
inappropriately. This does not give you permission to respond in a similarly inappropriate way. If you stand up for yourself and your
opinions in a calm, respectful manner, you'll find yourself quickly earning kudos and respect from the membership and management.
However, if another member is threatening or hostile toward you, contact a Forum Moderator for assistance.
We recognize sports fans are often very passionate and can get frustrated by player and team performance. However, you'll find at CCH we
like to maintain to a more positive atmosphere for our community.
Though some degree of negativity is understandable and expected, we ask those fans who experience the daily emotional rollercoaster
ride of sports to honor our desire to keep things positive and make use of the occasional "Rant/Rave" threads we use as a depository
for frustrated fans.
Users that frequently cause trouble, disrupt the community, or post with a bad attitude should consider moving to a more loosely-moderated
forum, such as MLB.com or STLtoday.com. Those users who choose not to clean up their act can expect to see their threads
increasingly locked and their account eventually suspended.
Misc. Forum Faux Pas
- Baiting: Baiting is attempting to elicit an inappropriate or heated response from another member. This is done by posting something
that is specifically intended to irritate or humiliate someone else. Baiting leads to arguments, arguments lead to community disruptions,
disruptions lead to unhappy members, and unhappy members mean unhappy Administrators. Warnings are issued regularly for baiting and Moderators are
given discretion in determining whether or not a comment is bait.
- Loyalty: Statements like "You are not a true fan!", "What kind of fan are you?" are not allowed. Some fans are very passionate, some fans
are optimists, and some fans are pessimists. Don't question another fan's loyalty because they do not share your views or enthusiasm.
- Inappropriate Material
CCH targets fans of all ages. Posting any text or images generally considered inappropriate or offensive, especially for younger fans,
will not be tolerated. The determination of what is and is not inappropriate is up to management, not users.
Our forums system uses a profanity filter. Attempting to circumvent the filter by using cleverly placed letters/symbols or
misspelling/abbreviating the word will have consequences. In short, if we can figure out the word, even if the profanity
filter catches it, it's a violation.
Imagery is fairly straight forward. Street and beach wear are fine. Nudity, lingerie, suggestive poses, violence, blood and guts, and many other things
are not permitted.
Some leeway is given to posted links to other sites that contain inappropriate content, provided (1) the site uses such content in moderation, (2) the
site does not promote pornography (this includes advertisements), and (3) the link is immediately followed by a bold/red warning such as "Note, this
site contains some profanity". If these conditions are not met, the link will be removed.
- Links, Spam, & Advertisements
CCH is not a free marketing tool. The forums, including the PM system, may not be used to distribute unsolicited advertisements via Post, PM,
signature, or avatar. In short, promoting your own interests for personal gain is not permitted without administrative approval.
Some examples of what is not allowed:
- Promoting or linking to your commercial products/services or personal internet auction pages.
- Posting links that include personal or affiliate referral codes.
- Directing readers to your own website or other unofficial community websites.
Some leeway is given to long-time members with a quality posting history. The idea is that veteran members who have a solid record of thoughtful,
non-disruptive participation in the forums have significantly improved the community and, therefore, have earned the right to some
self-promotion. Veteran members are defined as members who: (Joined 6+ months ago AND (average 1+ post per day OR have 400+ total posts))
While including any of the above types of links are not permitted by your average poster, members with such links
to offer may use the "Personal Website" field on their profile page. When this field is in use, a link labeled "WWW" appears next to every post made.
We do offer exclusive and non-exclusive paid advertisement options for those interested. Advertisers may advertise or sponsor specific
pages or features. For rates and more information, please contact us directly.
Spammers are IP-banned from CCH on a daily basis and without notice.
- General Policies
- Posts with a point: The forums are for discussion, not chat. Posting short, babble-filled or chatty messages frequently with
little or no point or added value to the topic is not appropriate for the forums -- use the chat room instead. Chatty posts bloat the board
and push members looking for intelligent discussion away. Everyone makes a pointless post occasionally, which is fine. Excessively making such posts or
adding to an existing chatty thread is not. Members looking for "chatty" threads should seek out the "Anything Goes" forum. Otherwise, keep chat in the
chat room.
- Descriptive subjects: Members should use an appropriate, descriptive subject when posting a new topic. Examples of bad topic subjects:
"Hey...", "Lame", and "Ugh!". Examples of good topic subjects: "Pujols' hitting streak", "Any photos from Winter Warmup?", and "Ticket prices
are going up". It's also helpful to identify whether or not the point of your thread is to state information or seek information. If the latter, please
be sure to add a question mark to your subject line. For the convenience of other members, CCH Moderators will routinely edit undescriptive or
uninformative subject lines.
- Write normally: Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small
or colored text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts.
- Posting images: Members may add remotely-hosted images to their post provided the file size of the image is no larger
than 30k. If the image is wider than 500 pixels, we ask that you use the html image tag to down size the image to 500 pixels so horizontal scrolling on
CCH is at a minimum ( example: <img src="myimage.jpg" width="400"> ). If the thread is specifically designated as one for images, then file sizes
can be as large as 100k, but should still be down sized for no horizontal scrollbars. For larger images, we suggest simply dropping a link to the image into your
post instead of the image itself.
- Posting articles: Articles from local or national news outlets (ie: Post-Dispatch, AP, CNN, etc.) may not be posted in their entirety.
The first paragraph, first few sentences, or your own brief summary of the article are fine, but not the full article. The article's original title (in
bold), author/source name, and a link to the original article are required. It's a copyright violation to redistribute complete articles without
the permission of the source. Full articles from non-professional sources (like blogs) may be posted if permission is given by the source.
- Member signatures: Signatures allow members to add a personal touch to their posts, provided they are not distracting to other members.
Signatures cannot add more than an inch or so to the length/height of your post, even if it's just text. Any text in a
signature cannot be physically larger than the default forum text. You may place text-links is your signature provided they fall within the links
restrictions noted in section 3. Signatures may contain one or more images, provided the images are collectively
(1) not wider than 500 pixels or taller than 60 pixels;
(2) Do not contain animation; and
(3) Do not exceed 15k in file size.
- Avatars: Custom avatars (those not part of the CCH Avatar Gallery) have the same restrictions as Signatures (see above), although
the image dimensions can be no larger than 75 x 75 pixels.
Forum Moderation & Consequences
CCH is reviewed and moderated throughout the day to ensure compliance with forum policies. CCH Moderators and Administrators have the right to
edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. is up to management, not users.
Those members choosing not to respect the policies
will be issued warnings by the Moderators. Not all infractions will earn a warning, however those that disrupt the community generally do. In other words,
if you add an image to your signature that's too large, you'll be asked to correct it -- though if that same image is inappropriate, a warning will be
issues.
Arguing with a Moderator regarding a Moderator action is not appropriate for the public forums. Doing so may result in a suspension. If you have
a grievance, keep it out of the public forum and take it up personally with the moderator. If that fails, contact one of the Administrators.
Based on the severity of the violation(s) and the posting history of the member, Administrators may also hand out suspensions. Suspensions last 2 or more days,
during which the member's account will be disabled but the forums may still be read. At the end of the suspension, the account is reactivated. Attempting
to circumvent a suspension (by re-registering, etc.) may result in a permanent ban or site lock.
A permanent ban means an account is permanently disabled and the user is asked to leave the community. A site lock means a user will no longer be able to
even load the CCH website in their web browser. We wish these extreme measures were not needed, but they remain an unfortunate last resort for troublemakers
that refuse to leave when asked.
Our Moderators:
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