This forum was developed due to popular demand by our blog readers and affiliates from other forums we mod. They all want a positive and productive place to learn, grow, discuss the issues and support each other. That's what this forum is all about! Positive solutions and respect for other members is the key to getting along in the 5 Star Forums. Hope you all contribute and enjoy the ambiance!
Overall Community Attitude
The 5 Star Affiliate Forum is a professional affiliate community
Our purpose is to share, help and support each other
Please display a positive, friendly attitude and be respectful of other's opinions
Always try to "give" back to our community. For each time you find help or answers, try to help someone else out in return. You may find that what goes around comes around...
Give people a little time to respond to your requests. There's a lot going on in these forums and it may take a little time for people to notice and respond to your request. Please be patient.
Members are responsible for what they post and the 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forums cannot be held liable for the content of posted messages.
Signature Restrictions
Signatures are restricted for new members. After you become a member in good standing you will be able to have a sig. NOTE: If you just make a bunch of low quality one-liner posts you will not be promoted to full member.
The restriction on signatures for new members has been lifted as a trial. If this is abused, we will revert to the previous restrictions.
Limits for Signatures
Maximum length: 5 lines (breaks between lines count as lines)
Maximum font size permitted is size 2
No images or image files allowed
No cookie dropping allowed
No more than 3 links per signature
No re-directs in signatures. Only direct links. Just like the search engines we want our users to only end up at sites they intend to go to with no tricks.
No shortened URLs in signatures. Include the full and real URL. Again, we want our users to only end up at sites they intend to go to with no tricks. Additionally, shortened URLs don't give you SEO benefits.
CERTAIN TYPES OF SITES ARE PROHIBITED IN SIGNATURES or ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE FORUM: NO GAMBLING, ONLINE PHARMACIES OR ANYTHING THAT DEALS WITH MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS, ADULT, ACTIVE X, ADWARE, DISHONEST LINKS, ANYTHING ILLEGAL or ANYTHING ELSE WE DEEM UNETHICAL or INAPPROPRIATE.
NOTE: Administrators, moderators, 5 Star clients, and paid forum sponsors may have longer signatures.
Inappropriate Content and Behavior
DO NOT Make Inappropriate or Offensive Posts - including threats, harassment, swearing, prejudice, slander or deliberate insults/name-calling, or other negative remarks about another person, business, site, member, moderator or administrator. Even if this is just your own personal opinion.
Slander and libel will not be tolerated and posts of this nature will be removed for legal reasons.
Flaming, trolling and baiting for the purpose of creating arguments will not be tolerated. If you want to fight or belittle others there are plenty of forums that tolerate that behavior. One inflammatory post and we reserve the right to ban without notice.
DO NOT deliberately start arguments. Debates are great, as long as they remain respectful!
DO NOT just make a negative statement and leave the person hanging out to dry. Although you may consider yourself to be an "expert" now, try to remember that we were all new and learning once upon a time. Take it easy on your fellow members!
Do NOT make threats or implied threats towards other members -- even if you think it's fun.
Do NOT post another member's real name, personal info, URL or Whois. Period.
5 Star believes in integrity and respects what other forums have to offer. Because we realize members of the 5 Star forum may also be members of other forums, do not try to degrade or discredit other forums, their administrators and moderators, or their members. This includes slander and other offensive comments.
DO NOT POST download applications, free screensavers or anything else that could spread adware and/or spyware, or link to any of these in your signature.
NO COOKIE STUFFING ALLOWED - Any type of cookie stuffing, cookie dropping (setting a cookie without a user generated click) will result in an immediate ban - no warning, no questions asked. COOKIE STUFFING IS STEALING!
DO NOT POST PORN or adult content. This also includes sites promoting activities such as drug abuse, gambling and links to sites containing such content.
No online pharmacies or anything that deals with medical prescriptions.
Even though this is an international forum, please make sure that your posts and signature are written in English and make sense. Machine generated translations and posts that do not make sense may be deleted.
We want the 5 Star forum to be open to people of all ages, genders, races, religions and sexualities, so any inappropriate or offensive posts will be deleted.
Forum Abuse Policy
1st Offense - A polite Private Message from a Moderator pointing out the Forum Rules, in addition to the editing or deletion of the post
2nd Offense - Ban warning plus editing or deletion of the post
3rd Offense - Moderators will discuss and possibly delete the user from the 5 Star forum
NOTE: Blatant disregard for others, flaming or threats can result in banning on the 1st offense.
Private Message and Email Abuse Policy
DO NOT use the 5 Star forum as a basis for spamming or cheating our members.
We take PM/email abuse very seriously, and it will result in the immediate removal of your membership and ban of your IP address, without warning
If you believe a member has sent you private message spam, please forward it to an administrator
SPAM and Linking Policy
LINKS are restricted for new members. After you become a member in good standing you will be able to add links. NOTE: Even after links are allowed you can never link to or mention your own site or post affiliate links.
Please make sure that you are posting for the good of the community, not just for the sake of self-promotion
Link drops (links to your own site) or name drops (mysite.com without linking) are prohibited in ALL discussion forums as of 3/8/08. The only exceptions are in certain MarketPlace forums, as needed and as per the rules in that forum (i.e., merchant link in affiliate program announcements or site link in site review forum.) NOTE: See more info below under "Self-Promotion."
Posting affiliate links is not allowed. (Affiliate links in signatures are OK and in the Ads & Offers forum after you qualify to post there.)
Our moderators reserve the right to edit or delete any posts they consider to be 'spam'
If we find that you are spamming our community, you will be warned by a Moderator or Site Administrator, and it may lead to the deletion of your posts and/or the removal of your 5 Star forum account.
Self-Promotion Prohibited
Self-Promotion is Prohibited in ALL Discussion Forums.
We do not allow advertising or self promotion of any kind in any of the discussion forums. When people start self promoting, they aren't focused on helping others, only on trying benefit themselves (for traffic, backlinks or sales). That's not our goal.
The goal of 5 Star is to help people achieve their goals, solve problems, answer questions, share successes, encourage individual growth and promote industry best practices!
We regret that this may appear to "punish" GOOD 5 Star members who have helpful information to share on their forums or blogs. As always the BAD guys, spammers and self-promoters, ruined it for everyone. If we let our good members and even gurus link out, then everyone else thinks they can and the discussions start turning into a spam fest. Additionally, sometimes when members we don't know link out, it's to spyware/malware downloads, porn, or gambling - so we just need to enforce a strict no link out policy.
Link drops (links to your own site) or name drops (mysite.com without linking) are prohibited in ALL discussion forums as of 3/8/08. The only exceptions are in certain MarketPlace forums, as needed and as per the rules in that forum. (ie. merchant link in affiliate program announcements or site link in site review forum.)
You may not link to your own blog or a blog post you write on another blog, forum, hub or anything in any discussion forum as of 5/18/08.
You may not in any way say check out my site, pm me for more info or ask people to click on the links in your signature for more information.
Industry experts
If you have a resource on your own site that helps answer a question in a thread or provides important information members need to know, just send a Private Message to me (Linda). If I agree it helps our members, I will post the information on your behalf so I don't have to fight the battle of "you let him link to his blog, why can't I?"
Post Quality - Low Quality Posts May be Removed
We want the 5 Star Forum to be a low noise, high quality community where people can learn and grow. Your posts should add value to the forum, whether it is a new thread or a reply to an existing thread. very post you make could be read by hundreds of people, so please make sure your posts include quality content.
We reserve the right to remove posts that don't meet our quality standards.
Please don't take it personally, we have to maintain our commitment to quality for the good of the community.
Low Quality Posts that May be Removed Include:
Posts that lack content, are one liners or "I agree" posts
Posts that echo comments already made by others in the same thread
Posts with poor English, grammar and punctuation
Thank you posts which can be replaced by clicking the "Thanks" button
Posts which are off-topic or do not make sense in the scope of the thread
Again, this is not personal, it's just necessary housecleaning in order to serve every member who takes the time to read our forum. Thanks for helping to make this a better community for everyone.
Plagiarism and Copyright
5 Star Forums abides by international rules of copyright.
Anything which has been previously published on the internet or elsewhere must not be posted unless the following conditions are satsified:
Your post must abide by "Fair Use" conventions which permit only 2 or 3 short paragraphs to be excerpted.
The original title of the article or excerpt must be included at the top of the excerpt.
The name of the original author must be stated at the top of the excerpt.
A link back to the original source must be clearly posted at the top of the excerpt.
If your post does not conform to all of these requirements, your post will be edited or removed and you may receive an infraction for plagiarism or copyright violation.
Use the Quote BBCode to clearly identify the excerpt.
Multiple Posting or Cross-Posting
DO NOT post the same topic in multiple forums. If you are unsure of which forum a thread should go under, just state that in your post, and a moderator will move the thread to the correct forum. Multiple posts are unnecessary and will be deleted.
DO NOT post the same question multiple times in multiple threads in the same forum. If no one responds to your question or request, just post a reply to the same message thread again to bring the message to the top of the list so folks notice it.
Identity Theft
DO NOT impersonate anyone whom you are not, regardless of who the other individual may be. Identity theft is illegal and will not be tolerated.
Changes to Rules
We reserve the right to change or update these rules as necessary.
By joining the 5 Star forum, you agree to abide by the forum rules and you understand that violations will not be tolerated. Members that seem to be trying and just make mistakes get the 3 strikes you are out warnings. Blatant spammers get banned immediately.
Please report any member whom you feel to be in violation of these rules to a moderator or Site Administrator immediately, using the report post option.
