Forum Rules and Community Guidelines

Forum Rules

Registration to this forum is free! We do insist that you abide by the rules and policies detailed below. If you agree to the terms, please check the ‘I agree’ checkbox and press the ‘Complete Registration’ button below. If you would like to cancel the registration, click here to return to the forums index.

Preamble

This is a community of like minded people who love to cruise and can all benefit from the exchange of advice that takes place here, and we consider ourselves a wide spot on the Internet just for this purpose. Our forum boards are a cooperative effort and depend on all of you to make it work well. If you post questions, please try to take the time to answer questions as well, if you can be of help. Also, post on topic within a thread, it makes it easier for others to focus on the conversation, If you wish to wander off, feel free to start a new thread.

Cruise Addicts is an open forum, visited and contributed to by many different people not associated with Cruise Addicts in any way. Information within news and informational articles as well as topics posted on forums within Cruise Addicts is solely the ideas and impressions of the individual authors and posters and Cruise Addicts and its associates make no claims and are in no way responsible for the validity or accuracy of any content. Individuals should exercise due caution before taking action based on any information written or posted within Cruise Addicts and are solely responsible for their own actions.

This is a for profit website that will attempt to generate revenue through avenues that we deem appropriate. Any content that violates our User Guidelines will be removed. Interpretation of our guidelines is at the discretion of the staff.

The Basic Concept

Because of the live nature of the discussions on this community, it is not possible for us to review and/or confirm the accuracy or validity of a message before it is posted. If you believe that someone has violated our User Guidelines or you have spotted content that may otherwise require attention, please send a private message to me or a staff member with a link to the content and a brief description of what you believe is wrong or you may click on the Report Post triangle at the bottom of the post. Notification is voluntary and anonymous, but in no case should a user respond to a situation personally, thereby aggravating the situation further. Responding to a violation in an inflammatory manner is a violation in itself and will also result in appropriate action. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of Cruise Addicts Forums and its staff, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.

By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws. The owners of Cruise Addicts Forums reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

Please use common sense and good judgment in posting your message. As violations of the guidelines can be cause for removal of privileges at any time. Please review the posting guidelines for more specific information.

Forum Posting Guidelines

1. Cross-posting is not allowed and will result in the removal of one or more posts. Cross-posting is defined as posting the same information in two or more locations. When posting your topic, please try to post it in the most appropriate place within the organizational structure of our community.
2. While member post count has meaning, it should not be taken too seriously. Attempts to artificially increase your post count are prohibited. This includes the mass creation of short or meaningless posts. When participating in game threads such as “Word Association Game” or “What song are you listening to right now?” please do not post consecutive replies within a short period of time.
3. Advertisements are not allowed. Generally speaking, posts made specifically for the promotion of a website, product or service are considered advertising or, at least, posts made that unnecessarily send people to a website that you are in some way affiliated with. It does not matter if it is a commercial website, a personal website, a non profit website, etc. We do authorize and/or sell advertisements on a case-by-case basis. If you are interested in utilizing this option, please contact us.

Anyone found to be posting links to their commercial websites or suspected of using “sneaky” advertising methods is in violation of this guideline. You may only post a link to your site/a site that you are in some way affiliated with if the link specifically answers the question that is being asked and the answer cannot be simply posted without the link. Even then, links to sites that contain large amounts of advertising or are obviously promotional will still be subject to removal. General and unnecessary links will be tagged as advertising. If you are found to be excessively posting links to your site (or you appear to be seeking out threads where your link may be relevant, so that you can post it), you may lose the ability to post links to your site or completely loose your posting privileges. You are not allowed to post an affiliate URL that leads to you earning cash, banner impressions, credits, points, etc.

1. Do not post personal, real-life information such as home addresses and home phone numbers.
2. As this is an English-speaking community, we require that posted content be in the English language, so that it can be well received and properly monitored, non English posts are subject to removal.
3. Vulgar language and inappropriate material is not allowed and will be removed. Abbreviations, self censoring, and attempts to circumvent the word censoring feature of the community software also violate these guideline. We censor very few words but If your post contains a word that is censored by the software, you must remove that word or the post will be removed. If you feel that the censor is acting in error, please contact us.

We try to maintain a family friendly atmosphere whenever it is possible within the main subject matter of this community. Please keep this in mind when participating.

1. When linking to outside websites, you must ensure that the content of the link is appropriate for our community, in line with the guidelines laid out here. This includes mentioning or referencing a site, even if the mention is not hyperlinked. If you post a link and that link is automatically censored, it is considered to be an inappropriate link and you should remove it from your post immediately. If left, any further posts that feature inappropriate links will be removed.
2. Posts that discuss illegal activities, transactions, or websites such as warez, cracks, etc. will be removed. This includes the posting of information that you have obtained illegally.
3. Political and religious discussions are discouraged on this website. If it is believed that the end result of a discussion will be political or religious, the post may be removed. Likewise, strong political and religious sentiments should be kept out of profiles, signatures, and other content.
4. Do not post copyrighted materials (articles, videos, audio, etc.) that you do not have permission to reproduce or distribute. For text articles, most of the time you may quote a small portion of the article (usually no more than 1/5 or 1/6) and you must link to the source (if online) or provide the source (if offline). Posting the entire article, even with the source, constitutes copyright infringement. This is not the place to illegally trade or distribute copyrighted (or those with questionable copyright status) video or audio clips.
5. When posting and linking to images, videos, files, etc., please refrain from hotlinking. This is the direct linking to images (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, etc.), video (.avi, .mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv, etc.), audio (.mp3, .wav, etc.), archives (.zip, .rar, etc.) or otherwise downloadable or streamable files, on servers that you do not have permission to link to, instead of linking to the page where the item can be found. This includes providing a direct link to the file, even if that file is not embedded into your post. This practice costs the server owner money and resources.
6. Respect is the name of the game. You must respect your fellow members. Please refrain from inflammatory and defamatory comments as well as flaming, taunting, and general disrespect. Do not simply put down the opinion or advice given by others. If you don’t agree with it, say why – respectfully. Don’t just tell them they’re wrong. Do not make uninvited remarks about typos, duplicate posts, posting styles, etc.

When an opinion-based discussion is being had, do not state things like “there is no argument” as if your opinion is the only one or the only one that matters. When someone has clearly stated their opinion, do not say things like “Are you serious?” and “Are you kidding me?” Remember, this is not a debate club. This is a friendly discussion community. Allow people to have their opinion. No one is to act as some sort of opinion judge, responding to each one to say whether they agree with it or not or whether or not it is a valid, well thought out opinion.

1. Signatures The text in the signature may be customized by the BBCode in use on the forums. It is recommended that you stick with readable fonts and colors and that the size is not too large. You may mention websites and ventures that you are in some way related to, as long as they are otherwise appropriate for this community, are personal in nature and do not contain any advertising or promotional material that violates our advertising guidelines. Focus on things that you like, not things that you don’t, inappropriate signatures are subject to being removed.
2. Each user is allowed to create one account. If you would like to change your username, please contact us and, most likely, we can do it for you while you can keep all of your profile data, posts, and other content, multiple accounts are subject to removal.
3. Automated account creation, participation, and content scraping is not permitted.
4. Cruise professionals, travel agents and tour operators (including their associates, employees or designated representative) are encouraged to participate in the discussions on the forum boards and establish themselves by responding to members’ inquiries with useful answers. In doing so, you are welcome to sign your name and note that you are a travel professional. You may not list your phone number, business location, web site address, contact info or e-mail address. Responding to members’ inquiries on the boards with an ad for your services is not allowed and will be subject to removal of the entire response.

You may offer your services via private E-mail to members who have specifically requested such information or services. However, you should understand that unsolicited marketing mailings, emails and private messages are considered a breach of Internet etiquette and against Cruise Addicts policy and are usually not looked upon favorably by its recipient, and if reported may be cause for restricting privledges. Also Cruise Addicts considers requests to be e-mailed for additional information as soliciting and those postings are subject to removal.

Cruise professionals, travel agents and tour operators (including their associates, employees or designated representative) may not list or refer members to their Web sites.

1. We know that people will have to leave our community (of their own free will or otherwise) from time to time and to that end, we do not delete accounts, posts, or other content posted on our community. All content is granted to us with perpetual electronic publishing rights because any content posted on this community becomes a part of the community, even if you no longer are. You may request an item to be removed at any time, but we will decide when and if to remove content from our community. If you wish to no longer be identified with our community, we will be glad to close your account and alter your profile information to remove all identifying characteristics. After account closure, you will no longer be able to participate in this community and this action is not reversible.
2. Postings that have been placed on the boards to disrupt the flow of conversation will be removed, this includes but is not limited to, direct personal attacks on an individual or towards a Cruise Addicts forum. Postings within a thread that may not be related in any way to the thread. Postings from a known troll or constantly disruptive poster. Postings that are intended to instill or generate disruptive non constructive conversation or fuel argumentative posting without adding any valuable content. Postings that are obvious spam or posted by known spammers and wannabe spammers.
   Multiple occurances of harassment, flaming or troll like activity may result in your loss of posting privileges on our message boards, spammers lose their privileges immediately.
3. Whenever you are participating in this community, please keep in mind that we strive to create a fun, friendly and inviting atmosphere. So, please have fun and enjoy the forums!
4. Moderators and myself have the final say on anything. If you have a problem, you may make a complaint to them directly but not publicly on the website. Creating threads or posts that question or reference administrative decisions or potential administrative decisions, such as post removals and thread closures, is not permitted and will be removed. We are not perfect and if you feel that we have made a mistake, please privately contact a staff member and we will review the situation. If you would like a copy of your removed post so that you can adjust it and repost, please contact us. As long as we wouldn’t prefer you to simply start over, we’ll be glad to send you a copy.

Freedom of speech rights do not extend to privately owned websites, such as this one. These guidelines detail the types of behavior and activities that are allowed here, if your post has been censored or removed please do not bother to quote your right to free speech, you have most likely violated the guidelines.

If a user violates our guidelines and shows a disregard for them, our staff and our community, they run the risk of losing their account. We reserve the right to deactivate any account and to edit or remove any content without warning.

These guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice.

Do you have a question about our User Guidelines or anything else? Do you have a suggestion? Do you want to offer some feedback? Or are you experiencing some trouble with the site? Well, no matter what it is, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be glad to help in any way that we can.