WTF Rules of Conduct: ALL MEMBERS PLEASE READ!

[JBHII]

Greetings and welcome to WATCH TALK FORUMS, or WTF for short. :cool:

It is hoped that all discussions will be friendly, light, cheerful, helpful, and informative. All members are expected to conduct themselves accordingly.

Expressing your opinion openly in a discussion forum means that you are inviting people to both agree and disagree with you. Sometimes differences of opinion can cause tempers to flare in all of us. All members are required to discuss the points we both agree and disagree on respectfully, and with out undue anger and hostility. Name calling, profanity, antagonistic, insulting (veiled or overt) posts will be subject to moderator intervention which can include editing or deleting your posts and/or an infraction being issued to you. The same rules of conduct also applies to our Private Messaging system.

Registered members should maintain one, single account here on WATCH TALK FORUMS. Users found maintaining multiple accounts or "identities" here on WTF are subject to immediate loss of access to the site.

Sales posts will be considered "off topic" and inappropriate in all forums but the Sales Forum. Please do not post any messages containing references to items for sale, or messages with a commercial interest (this includes commercial links in your signature line). All sales related posts belong in the Sales Forum. Please view the Sales Forum Rules which are posted at the top of that forum.

The Sales Forum is for private individuals (non-dealers/vendors) as well as commercial entities who support WTF by becoming a WTF Forum Sponsor. Non-WTF Sponsors are prohibited from promoting their products or web site. If you are a dealer, manufacturer, vendor, or other commercial entity, you must become a WTF Forum Sponsor through banner advertising in order to post in the Sales Forum, or make mention of your products/services in your posts or signatures. Similarly, members should not post about, link to, or promote retail commercial entities (i.e. dealers) who are not a banner advertiser on WATCH TALK FORUMS (publicly or in PM). Our sponsors "keep the lights on" so we need to promote them whenever possible, and not their competition who do not support WTF.

Linking to other watch related sites or discussion forums: In general, there isn't a problem with linking to other watch related sites - WTF is very open. This assumes you're doing so as a normal part of a related discussion. If it is clear that your primary intent for posting a link to another site is purely for promotion purposes, the post is subject to deletion or modification. Linking to other sites by strong members of our community is fine, but if your only posts self-promote or promote other sites, those posts are likely to be deleted or modified. This includes embedding a link in a photo as a "watermark." This also includes using the WTF Private Messaging system to promote other websites or invite others WTF Members to visit or join other competing web sites.

It is important to understand that the Bill of Rights does not apply to a membership based Internet discussion forum. Freedom of Speech is not a right that will override all other considerations. Failure to comply with the rules and guidelines of this forum are grounds for revocation of access. Normally no one's access will be revoked unless there are gross or repeated (3) rule violations. Each rule violation will result in a formal "infraction" in which the member will be notified of their rule violation. Incurring three infractions can result in being banned from WTF.
EXCEPTION to the 3 INFRACTION RULE: If in the opinion of the WTF Admin team you've joined WTF solely for the purpose to troll, spam, insult or antagonize other members your access will be revoked immediately.

Two wrongs don't make a right - if you feel someone has posted a negative message aimed at you, DO NOT respond in kind. Notify an Admin Team member (each forum has 1-2 designated Administrators of that forum) or John Holbrook to review the matter.

We try to run a "family friendly" site - think PG-13. We have a filter in place to eliminate "swear words" and posts containing photos with nudity, or other inappropriate references will be removed. If you feel you must type *'s or other characters in your post to 'by-pass' the language-filters, then the word shouldn't be posted, with or without the *'s. Please don't, for example post words with *'s just to avoid filtering. The same goes for other such "creative" ways to suggest words that shouldn't appear without actually typing the words. Such posts will be modified or deleted.

WATCH TALK FORUMS does NOT support the counterfeit watch industry, and strongly believes that counterfeit or "fake" watches hurt the watch industry, and have been linked to supporting criminal and terrorist organizations. Except un certain confined situations (such as posting a question asking whether a watch is authentic or not, or an educational post regarding identifying a counterfeit watch) discussion of counterfeit watches is discouraged and discussions supporting counterfeit watches and/or the industry are not allowed. Do not post any photos of fake watches.

Posting of photos not of your own creation - In general, if you intend to post a photograph, it is best to post one of your own creation. If you post a photograph which you did not personally create, you should obtain the permission of the creator of the photo prior to posting, and credit the author or source of the photo in your posting. Remember, not knowing the author of the photo does not negate a copyright violation for unauthorized use of a photograph. WATCH TALK FORUMS is not responsible for possible copyright infringements committed by its registered members. NOTE: In general, "stock" photos released by manufacturers for promotional purposes can be considered "public domain" meaning as long as you don't represent the photos as your own, or use them for "for profit" purposes, you can post them on WTF.

The WATCH TALK FORUMS private messaging system is in place to allow members to communicate with each other outside of the public discussion forums. Improper use of the PM system is grounds for the loss of access to the PM system. This would include any PM activity which would be illegal, immoral, or otherwise not in the best interests of WATCH TALK FORUMS.

Signatures - While we don't have any specific rules regarding the content of signatures (beyond the applicability of the above Rules and Guidelines which do apply to signatures) WTF reserves the right to ask members to modify their signatures if we feel they are, for example, too long, contain controversial messages, or otherwise do not enhance the WTF Forum community.

GUIDELINES FOR CONTENT SUBMITTED TO THE WTF CMS HOME PAGE

• Any community member may request that an article be "promoted" to one of the various sections of the Home Page Content Management System (CMS) by submitting a request to JBHII via Private Message. To be considered, the article or content you are requesting for inclusion in the CMS Home Page MUST meet the following criteria:
  
• Submitted content must Be the original work (text and photography) of the individual who is submitting the content for consideration, and you must legally own the copyrights for the content which you grant WTF permission to use.
  
• The content must natively hosted on WTF and not hosted on a third party website. Links to content hosted elsewhere will not be included in the CMS Home Page.
  
• The content will be judged by qualitative standards to determine it's long term value to the community. Only content of the highest caliber will be included in the Home Page CMS section.

The Discussion of Politics: The discussion of political issues is allowed and encouraged on WATCH TALK FORUMS, but is ONLY allowed within the Community Forum. Further, any topic which is started which is of a political nature should have (in all capital letters) POLITICAL in the subject heading. While many enjoy reading and participating in a political thread (myself included), many do not. So providing the POLITICAL label will ensure that those who are offended by such discussions do not accidentally click on and read threads they deem offensive within the Community Forum. While it goes without saying, all the customary rules of conduct apply within a POLITICAL thread. The key here is to disagree agreeable and respectfully.

Fakes vs. Re-Issues vs. Homages
Watch enthusiasts tend to have different opinions on what these terms mean and which watch brands and/or models fall into each of the categories. To help provide a consistent & people-friendly format and reduce confusion when we discuss or talk about homages, re-issues & fakes, we've come up with a "Watch Talk Forum Definition" for these 3 terms. They are:

Replica, fake or counterfeit:
An exact copy of a watch, including the name of the copied brand. It's made by another company and meant to deceive people (but not always the buyer) into believing it is the copied brand's watch or falsely presents itself as the copied brand, usually a much higher priced watch. These are illegal products, with many of them being made & distributed by criminal organizations. These are not condoned by Watch Talk Forums and should not be posted or positively discussed on Watch Talk Forums.

Re-Issue:
A re-make or re-release of another earlier version or model by the same brand. Possibly a new release celebrating an older vintage model by that brand. A re-issue is made by the company who released the original version, and has the legal right to the brand and model name. Examples of re-issued models are Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox, Longines Flagship, Longines Lindberg, and Hamilton Ventura, just to name a few examples.

Homage:
A watch made by a brand to look very similar, sometimes exactly like, another brand's model, but without using the original brand's name. The homage is not intended to be actually sold as the copied brand (as a fake is). A homage will bear the brand name making it, NOT the brand it's made to look like. Examples of homage brands are Alpha, Parnis and Marina Militare.

Please keep in mind, we are not telling or trying to convince anyone to change their personal opinion on what you believe these words mean or describe. We're only asking everyone, regardless of what you personally believe, to please use the terms and definitions as defined above when discussing these topics on Watch Talk Forums. Again, this is just to help create consistency in the discussions & reduce confusion, debates and tempers based on definition alone.

All content on WATCH TALK FORUMS is, unless otherwise stated, copyright protected by WATCH TALK FORUMS INC. - no content (text or photos) may be copied from this site without prior permission from WATCH TALK FORUM INC. AND the author of the content. Any legal and legitimate website may link to content on WATCH TALK FORUMS at any time, and without prior permission. To obtain permission to use content found on WATCH TALK FORUMS, please contact john@watchtalkforums.info

If you have any questions about the rules and guidelines for this forum, or how they are applied, feel free to contact John Holbrook at john@watchtalkforums.info or anyone on the WTF Admin Team. DO NOT post message arguing with an Admin about the rules or how they are applied. If you have a concern, either E-mail myself or another Admin Team member. If you see a rule violation in the forum, ALERT AN ADMIN TEAM MEMBER. Do NOT attempt to post publically regarding the perceived rules violation of another member - simply bring it to the attention of an Admin Team member. That's what we're here for.