GG&MG Member Rules and Guidelines

1. Each forum member may have only one account.

2. Post in the right forum. If it's an off topic subject, post it in “Community Lounge/Off Topic: Talk About Anything Here!”

3. Use a descriptive topic Subject. This will help others to help you with your issue. Something descriptive will generate more interest than "Please Help"

4. Forum Decorum:

· Be friendly and welcoming to newcomers - it can be very daunting when first joining a forum, especially if computer knowledge is limited.

· Be polite; forum members are real people - they have feelings. Do not post anything that could cause embarrassment, be offensive, or be taken as ridicule.

· Criticize ideas, not people. Flaming will not be tolerated. This includes any material which is vulgar, defamatory, inaccurate, harassing, hateful, threatening, invading of others privacy, sexually oriented, or violates any laws. If you disagree with a post or an opinion do not launch into condemnation - everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and others' views should be respected.

· Remember that text in capitals is considered shouting and is unnecessary

5. Do not post any pornographic, sexually offensive, sexually explicit text or material or any other text or material containing objectionable content of any kind. This includes suggestive images, graphics, links, and comments. This is a friendly help site that is family oriented and welcomes members of all ages. Posting anything along these lines will automatically get you and your IP range banned from the forum.

6. Report inappropriate posts at GG&MG. There is little need for intervention, but if you feel something needs to be addressed, do not hesitate to contact one of the administrators or moderators.

7. Uploading images: You may upload images into your post as long as it meets the guidelines set above. It is best - but not required - to use the “Add image to post” feature provided by the forum rather than posting a full-sized image in your post. “Add image to post” leaves a smaller, thumbnail link to your full size image, thus reducing the file size of the image seen in your post, but allowing users to view the larger file in another window. The forum is fast now, but if this is abused, the used-up bandwidth could slow the forum down considerably, and posting large images within your posts will immediately affect our dial-up users. If you do add full-sized images to your post, please observe the following:

· Images posted without the use of the “Add image to post” feature should have an image size no larger than 650x500 (width x height) pixels and a file size no larger than 50 – 60KB. The number of images is not restricted, but the total combined file size should be no more than 150KB in any one post. Violations may be removed at the discretion of the GG&MG staff. Actually, these image dimension and file size guidelines work well for posting most images, regardless of whether the “Add image to post” is used or not. If you don’t know how to properly size your images, ask in the Photography forum. There is also a tutorial in “Photography/Tutorials” to help you do this.

· Images uploaded using “Add image to post” may be considerably larger – up to 2MB in file size. Formats include .jpg, .gif, .bmp, and .png. But, when using very large file sizes and image dimensions, keep your viewer in mind and what you want to portray to the viewer with your image. Do you want your image dimensions to be such that the only way to view the entire image is to scroll horizontally and vertically? Do you want your file size to be so large that the download time for dial-up users is an impossible wait time? Most images will show quite well using the guidelines presented above.

8. No Blatant Advertising: This forum is not free advertising space.

9. No Spamming: No commercial posts or flooding the forum with useless content.

10. Feel free to make a post introducing yourself if you wish in “New Users - Please Read/Introduce yourself.“

11. Familiarize yourself with our FAQ. The link to FAQ can be found on the menu bar below the logo and welcome statement.

12. When replying to a post from further back in a thread, a quote from that post will help give clarification.

13. Try to return to your posts and let us know if the advice you received was helpful. We want to know if the advice given was the best advice and if it addressed your issue. In this way, you help us to improve our service to all our members. In fact, even if you solve the problem yourself, it would be helpful to others if you returned to the original post to explain exactly how you solved it.

14. Message content: Remember that once something is written and posted, it is there for the whole Internet to see. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages.

15. Please do not publicly reveal your personal information - email address, full name etc. Spammers do troll message boards for this type of information.

16. Adhere to the same standards of behaviour online that you do in everyday life.

17. Report inappropriate posts or PMs - there should be little need for intervention, but if you feel any abuse needs to be addressed, do not hesitate to contact an administrator via Private Message. Rike is in charge of handling complaints of this sort.

18. Last but not least, have fun and enjoy your time here with us.