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admin · 04-23-2008, 05:59 PM

I_luv_addie was suspended for breaking YorkieTalk rules. We have emailed her the reason why she was suspended.

When you sign up for a YorkieTalk account, you agree to our Terms of Use (YorkieTalk.com Forums - Yorkshire Terrier Community - FAQ: vBulletin FAQ) and the YorkieTalk Rules & Guidelines (http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...uidelines.html).

Private messages are not monitored, but as we have had problems in the past with spam, personal threats, personal attacks, and other abuses of the system, we have had to look into a member's private messages before because of potential liability to YorkieTalk and because situations have gotten out of hand before. There are just some things we can not have on the YorkieTalk server that we pay for and are responsible for. Private Messages are not for spamming members, solicitations, attacks, or threats.

For your privacy, we do not share your personal email address or any other pertinent information to anyone unless we notify you in advance or required by law. As our Rules & Regulations state, we do not allow personal attacks or spam, and the only way we can determine if that rule has been broken in Private Messages is by looking into the messages themselves (which usually only happens when a member complains about a PM they have received).

You are no in way required to use the Private Message feature of YorkieTalk. You can always email or instant message your YT friends if you do not agree with our written policies regarding PMs. But, just like YorkieTalk, any email or instant message you ever send (through Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, or instant messaging) is stored somewhere and someone will be able to retrieve that message or email if need be. Just like any email provider, such as Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail, your Private Messages here can be retrieved if need be. No one is required to use YorkieTalk's Private Message system. This is the same for virtually all forums, communities, and social networks, such as Facebook or MySpace. If you store any information on someone else's servers, it can be retrieved if need be.

Among the YorkieTalk rules are: Promotion of other Yorkie forums is not allowed here. We have had problems with this in the past and we have had reports recently of members being solicited. Some spam words and Web sites may be blocked out due to abuse.

Donations are completely voluntary. In fact, donations are accepted because YorkieTalk members requested it themselves (http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sit...donations.html). For quite some time after YorkieTalk was founded, we didn't even accept any donations at all. Donations are not required in any way. It is clearly written in our Donations page (http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...alk-today.html) that:

Please note that donations are non-refundable and they are not tax-deductible.

In our Terms of Use, it states:

You agree that donating to YorkieTalk does not mean you have any ownership or rights to YorkieTalk and that you are still subject to all terms of use. You agree that even if you donate to YorkieTalk.com, your account and membership is subject to removal, deletion, or banning for any purpose whatsoever.

Members can access YorkieTalk, search YorkieTalk, or ask questions on YorkieTalk for free. Donating Members have special perks as a way to thank a member for donating. Members, Donating or not, that break YorkieTalk rules can be suspended or banned for breaking YorkieTalk rules.

Members can join any forums or communities they want. No one is forcing anyone to only stay on YorkieTalk. But we simply will not allow promotion of another Yorkie forum or solicitation of our members here. Any member that no longer wishes to be a member of YorkieTalk can PM or email us and we can disable their YorkieTalk account.

It is simply not true that we would delete anyone's email address in a PM. We do not delete any private messages by any member, even if it is spam or a solicitation. We do not have access to your email account, parker, thus it would be impossible for us to delete any of your emails.

Only the government is prohibited from restricting speech. Because YT is privately owned, speech can be restricted in any way that YT sees fit. If someone posts something inflammatory or negative towards YT or any member, we can delete it as we own YT, the server it resides on, and the database. We try not to restrict speech, but there are times that it is unavoidable. If all speech was allowed, there would be personal attacks and spam. Threads may be closed or deleted by moderators or admins for any reason. Usually they are closed or deleted because it goes against YT rules or some other kind of problem. Threads are never closed or deleted for no reason. If there is a thread that is beneficial to Yorkie owners and is crucial that all Yorkie owners read it, we would not delete that thread, just as we haven't in the past. The threads that are deleted are usually ones that end up with many personal attacks.

YT tries to be as neutral as possible and we do not close threads because we have a particular opinion on a subject. If we see 5 new (or active) threads on the same subject, we may close 4 of the threads as we try to avoid redundancy and so all discussion will be focused on the one remaining thread.

Yes, there are other Yorkie sites and forums. No one is forcing anyone to stay at YorkieTalk or only be on YorkieTalk. If you are here, you are here on your own free will. There are at least a few YorkieTalk members who own or run their own Yorkie forum. We have no problem with them at all and they are still members here as they have followed YorkieTalk's rules and are civil and respectful of our community here at YorkieTalk. None of the YorkieTalk admins belong to any other Yorkie forums nor do they participate in any other Yorkie forums or communities.

We will not allow any Yorkie forum free publicity or discussion here at YorkieTalk. There have been serious issues and problems with other Yorkie forums in the past, which is why we do not allow any links or discussions about other Yorkie forums here on YT. Other Yorkie forums are free to do whatever they want to. YorkieTalk will not talk badly about them nor criticize them. Our focus here is to make YorkieTalk the best Yorkie community we can.

As this is a community site, we want to keep the atmosphere friendly, and often times, heated threads turn into huge arguments and name-calling, which leads to suspensions and or banned users, which we try to avoid. We have tried in the past to keep hotly-debated threads open, but it never works. It always turns out ugly. So threads may be closed before that happens.

We appreciate each of our members and we hope each member has a pleasant and fun time while on YorkieTalk. We're here for you and your Yorkie and have been for many years, and will be for many years to come!

04-23-2008, 05:59 PM	#11
admin *Administrator* Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: USA Posts: 3,246 Blog Entries: 3	I_luv_addie was suspended for breaking YorkieTalk rules. We have emailed her the reason why she was suspended. When you sign up for a YorkieTalk account, you agree to our Terms of Use (YorkieTalk.com Forums - Yorkshire Terrier Community - FAQ: vBulletin FAQ) and the YorkieTalk Rules & Guidelines (http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...uidelines.html). Private messages are not monitored, but as we have had problems in the past with spam, personal threats, personal attacks, and other abuses of the system, we have had to look into a member's private messages before because of potential liability to YorkieTalk and because situations have gotten out of hand before. There are just some things we can not have on the YorkieTalk server that we pay for and are responsible for. Private Messages are not for spamming members, solicitations, attacks, or threats. For your privacy, we do not share your personal email address or any other pertinent information to anyone unless we notify you in advance or required by law. As our Rules & Regulations state, we do not allow personal attacks or spam, and the only way we can determine if that rule has been broken in Private Messages is by looking into the messages themselves (which usually only happens when a member complains about a PM they have received). You are no in way required to use the Private Message feature of YorkieTalk. You can always email or instant message your YT friends if you do not agree with our written policies regarding PMs. But, just like YorkieTalk, any email or instant message you ever send (through Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, or instant messaging) is stored somewhere and someone will be able to retrieve that message or email if need be. Just like any email provider, such as Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail, your Private Messages here can be retrieved if need be. No one is required to use YorkieTalk's Private Message system. This is the same for virtually all forums, communities, and social networks, such as Facebook or MySpace. If you store any information on someone else's servers, it can be retrieved if need be. Among the YorkieTalk rules are: Promotion of other Yorkie forums is not allowed here. We have had problems with this in the past and we have had reports recently of members being solicited. Some spam words and Web sites may be blocked out due to abuse. Donations are completely voluntary. In fact, donations are accepted because YorkieTalk members requested it themselves (http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sit...donations.html). For quite some time after YorkieTalk was founded, we didn't even accept any donations at all. Donations are not required in any way. It is clearly written in our Donations page (http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...alk-today.html) that: Please note that donations are non-refundable and they are not tax-deductible. In our Terms of Use, it states: You agree that donating to YorkieTalk does not mean you have any ownership or rights to YorkieTalk and that you are still subject to all terms of use. You agree that even if you donate to YorkieTalk.com, your account and membership is subject to removal, deletion, or banning for any purpose whatsoever. Members can access YorkieTalk, search YorkieTalk, or ask questions on YorkieTalk for free. Donating Members have special perks as a way to thank a member for donating. Members, Donating or not, that break YorkieTalk rules can be suspended or banned for breaking YorkieTalk rules. Members can join any forums or communities they want. No one is forcing anyone to only stay on YorkieTalk. But we simply will not allow promotion of another Yorkie forum or solicitation of our members here. Any member that no longer wishes to be a member of YorkieTalk can PM or email us and we can disable their YorkieTalk account. It is simply not true that we would delete anyone's email address in a PM. We do not delete any private messages by any member, even if it is spam or a solicitation. We do not have access to your email account, parker, thus it would be impossible for us to delete any of your emails. Only the government is prohibited from restricting speech. Because YT is privately owned, speech can be restricted in any way that YT sees fit. If someone posts something inflammatory or negative towards YT or any member, we can delete it as we own YT, the server it resides on, and the database. We try not to restrict speech, but there are times that it is unavoidable. If all speech was allowed, there would be personal attacks and spam. Threads may be closed or deleted by moderators or admins for any reason. Usually they are closed or deleted because it goes against YT rules or some other kind of problem. Threads are never closed or deleted for no reason. If there is a thread that is beneficial to Yorkie owners and is crucial that all Yorkie owners read it, we would not delete that thread, just as we haven't in the past. The threads that are deleted are usually ones that end up with many personal attacks. YT tries to be as neutral as possible and we do not close threads because we have a particular opinion on a subject. If we see 5 new (or active) threads on the same subject, we may close 4 of the threads as we try to avoid redundancy and so all discussion will be focused on the one remaining thread. Yes, there are other Yorkie sites and forums. No one is forcing anyone to stay at YorkieTalk or only be on YorkieTalk. If you are here, you are here on your own free will. There are at least a few YorkieTalk members who own or run their own Yorkie forum. We have no problem with them at all and they are still members here as they have followed YorkieTalk's rules and are civil and respectful of our community here at YorkieTalk. None of the YorkieTalk admins belong to any other Yorkie forums nor do they participate in any other Yorkie forums or communities. We will not allow any Yorkie forum free publicity or discussion here at YorkieTalk. There have been serious issues and problems with other Yorkie forums in the past, which is why we do not allow any links or discussions about other Yorkie forums here on YT. Other Yorkie forums are free to do whatever they want to. YorkieTalk will not talk badly about them nor criticize them. Our focus here is to make YorkieTalk the best Yorkie community we can. As this is a community site, we want to keep the atmosphere friendly, and often times, heated threads turn into huge arguments and name-calling, which leads to suspensions and or banned users, which we try to avoid. We have tried in the past to keep hotly-debated threads open, but it never works. It always turns out ugly. So threads may be closed before that happens. We appreciate each of our members and we hope each member has a pleasant and fun time while on YorkieTalk. We're here for you and your Yorkie and have been for many years, and will be for many years to come! Last edited by admin; 04-23-2008 at 06:06 PM.