When the MABRC Forums were officially made public on Sat May 05, 2007, we had made only a few simple rules to follow for users that we called the 7 Golden Rules. Over the course of the next year, those rules had to become more defined for the forum.

There are three main rules that stand above all the rest though.

1. Behave like an adult, do not attack other members of this forum, that is the number one rule here and will not be tolerated.
2. No wild imagination posts allowed. (i.e. no UFOs, or paranormal mumbo-jumbo, we believe Bigfoot are flesh and blood animals)
3. Share what you have, this whole forum is built to allow sharing of ideas, evidence and information. Don't just lurk, get in and join the discussions. (Not really a rule, just an appeal to those who take and don't give nothing in return to join in.)

Here is the rules regarding posting on the MABRC Forums.

• Don't call members names; we only ask that you be civil.
• Don’t make fun of members; everyone has their own writing style.
• Please respect the opinions of members and their right to have their own opinions.
• Don’t use foul language of any kind; we have smilies to help you express your point.
• Never post in anger. If you feel you need to respond, reread what the member said and make sure you really understand what they meant.
• If you are posting at other forums please leave any arguments or hard feelings over there,
• MABRC is dedicated to maintaining a forum where everyone is comfortable expressing opinions that others may not agree with and to allow discussion without heavy moderation.
• If a topic is locked or removed from view, MABRC Admin or MOD’s will send you a PM to explain why that decision has been taken.
• Do not type in all caps, follow Internet Etiquette as all caps is considered screaming on this forum.
• Before posting a link to another forum, please clear it with the Admins, as some sites may have destructive scripts that may damage users computers.
• If you have a complaint about something on the forum, do not post it in a thread, instead, PM an admin or moderator with the complaint.

Reporting Posts:

If you feel a MABRC member has crossed a line in their posting, please send a Moderator or Admin a PM or use the 'Report this Post' button found on every post. If a topic or post reported is contrary to the posting guidelines, it may be moved to a private area for further review or removal. (Abusive mis-use of this feature may lead to disciplinary actions against the abuser.) This is what the report button looks like, it's a small brown footprint in the lower right hand corner of a post with report wrote over it.

Please note the following when posting at MABRC:

1. Respect Others

MABRC members should respect the opinions and presence of other members of this Forum. We welcome challenging and spirited debate with other users, rudeness will not be tolerated.

2. Respect New Members

We ask that you help make new members feel welcome here, you are welcome to debate and question them, please refrain from attacking them for being new and unsure of our rules and how forums work on the net.

3. Respect Other People

Please respect our individual members and those involved in the larger Bigfoot community. MABRC members are welcome to discuss their work, constructively criticize their abilities as researchers or investigators as long as it falls within the guidelines posted above.

MABRC is family and culturally friendly. When posting, please respect this fact as people of all ages and cultures come here.

4. Respect Privacy

Please respect the privacy of our members. You can contact individual members for personal or contact information by PM.

5. Respect The Forum

THREADS THAT ARE STRICTLY POLITICAL OR RELIGIOUS WILL BE CLOSED AND MOVED FROM PUBLIC VIEW.

Trolling will not be tolerated.

Inappropriate signature lines or avatar’s are not allowed and will be removed.

Please try to refrain from Hijacking a topic, post appropriate comments to the topic it belongs in. If necessary, start a new topic.

Please remember, MABRC and Individual Researchers are posting their research here for all to view. Please try to refrain from unnecessary comments or hijacking a research thread to discuss issues not pertaining to the submitted posts by the researcher or members participating. We welcome questions and comments pertaining to the specific research and would prefer that visitors to our research threads do not have to wade through multiple comments that are not relevant to the actual research reports.

Multiple logins are expressly forbidden on this forum - anyone found to have more than one login will be banned with no further warning. If you have more than one login, please contact a moderator in order to correct the situation.

Chat, PM & Email:

All guidelines that apply to the MABRC as noted above also apply to the chat room, PMs and Email sent via this forum. The forum chat is not necessarily reserved for Bigfoot-related talk, it is here to help members bond with each other. PMs and Email should not be regarded as private correspondence on this forum, as copies are stored in the database and can be retrieved according to the provisions of Federal (U.S.) Law on the storage and handling of PMs and Emails under the Homeland Security Act should they be requested by subpoena.

Deletion of Content:

It is the policy of the MABRC to not alter or delete any posts, except as defined in the above guidelines. We will, on occasion and at our discretion, modify posts based on the request of a member or if necessary to convey the message (ie, quote or code tags not used).

6. Respect Copyright

Copyright notices are in plain view. If you are submitting copyright or trademark holder material to this forum for educational purposes, please include pertinent information and a link to the original or please contact an Admin or MOD for help.

7. Respect The Staff (Administrators and Moderators)

MABRC Forums is privately owned and operated under the sole authority of Darkwing, and run with the aid of additional volunteer Administrators and Moderators who act on Darkwing's authority. If you have an issue with the way a MOD is behaving or disagree with their judgment, please contact "darkwing" via email or private message to express your concerns. We reserve the right to terminate any user's membership for any reason at any time. We will generally send you an email or PM discussing the reason for termination as a consideration.

Avatar Rules

1. Users are permitted to utilize a gallery avatar, link to one of their own, or upload a avatar.

2. User defined avatars may contain mild animation. i.e. Not flashy.

3. Avatars must NOT contain an image which attempts to portray the user as having an official status here (e.g. mimicking ranks or copying avatars of team members)

4. Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, and so forth. Avatars may NOT contain any of the following: Obscene, Racist, Sexually Explicit, Graven / Graphic, Offensive, or Illegal. i.e. Not family friendly.

5. Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges

Signature Specific Rules

1. Please keep signature images relatively small, so that forum pages may load quickly.

2. Signature images are limited to one or two max. Or one small animated image. (small meaning byte size)

3. Dimensions of signature images should be at most 468px width by 60px height and max 10kb in size.

4. Please keep text sizes between 75% and 100% (small and normal).

5. You are permitted 5 lines of text at 75% or 4 lines at 100% or 1 line of text with an image.

6. Text in signatures is subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, warez, emoticons, etc.

7. Links to outside sites are permitted ONLY after you have received permission from the Administrators, and so long as they adhere to the decency rule.
 

8. Approved Links in signatures are permitted to a maximum of five unique pages or sites. Linked sites may not be overly commercial in nature.

9. Subtle self-promotion is allowed in your signature.

10. Users abusing these rules will be warned and or have Signature Privileges removed at MABRC Staff discretion.
 

Policing / Warning / Ban Policy

For All Users

1. If a member breaches a Forum Rule, the member will be issued an Alert via an automatic PM by a Moderator or Senior Moderator. This is not counted towards the official warning total of a member.

2. If the member continues to breach the SAME Forum Rule, an official Warning will be issued by an Admin or Senior Moderator.

3. Arguing with team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place.

4. Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact the relevant staff member.

5. If warned by a moderator you should contact the Administrators. If they feel you were treated badly they will remove a warning. Their decision is final.

6. Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent.

Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account of evade an email ban. Circumvention also includes posting as an anonymous user.

7. If there is need to promote peace and enforce a short time-out period, a 24 hour suspension may be mandated at staff discretion. This is not counted towards the official warning total of a member.

8. If there is obvious trolling (posting of abuse or offensive images, offensive username/ avatar/ email address), an immediate emergency ban is mandated. This can be performed by any staff member.

9. Official warnings can be given out by any MABRC staff member. The staff member automatically sends a PM to the member to let the member know and a post is automatically made in the Staff Forums so that other staff can discuss the decision.

10. Forum-specific suspensions for short period may be issued against a member at staff discretion if there is a need to promote peace. This is not counted towards the official warning total of a member. Any breach of this may lead to unofficial or official warnings.

11. Appeals against warnings, suspensions or bannings, can be made by a member through the Staff Feedback Form.
Not setup yet -- contact the board admin to appeal a Ban or Warning

Warnings will expire after 90 days.

12. Permanently banned members may be unbanned after 6 months. (Admins only)

13. Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While MABRC may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurence.

Addendum to Links posting:

Any links posted in on this forum to other Bigfoot forums or websites must have a corresponding link back to the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center website or forums.

Any link found posted here that does not meet that criteria will be immediately deleted unless prior approval from the Admins is obtained.

Notice about Title 17-Fair Use Act

This forum will sometimes contain copyrighted information, however, it is placed here under Title 17

Not withstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.