Terms and rules

TUGBBS Terms and Conditions all users who register must abide by!

Although the administrators and moderators of the TUG BBS will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of the TUG BBS, nor Xenforo 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-orientated, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws. You further warrant that you will not post messages which are not in compliance with forum rules listed below.

The owners of the TUG BBS reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

Advertising is prohibited

The Bulletin Board is for DISCUSSION. It is not for sales or solicitations. If you have something to sell, trade or rent, TUG Members (i.e. those who have paid to actually join TUG, not just register as free bulletin board users) may post up to 25 ads at a time in our Timeshare Marketplace at no charge. If you cannot adhere to the BBS posting rules, your posts will be deleted. This is a lot of extra work for the volunteers and offenders are not viewed well by them.

If you are a broker or salesperson, or work in an allied field, we welcome your participation on the board. We value your industry perspective and valuable insights. We do not appreciate, however, attempts to use our bbs for direct commercial purposes. We do not, for instance, welcome your adding tag lines promoting your business, such as "Call me for more information." Use the board as a way to be helpful and build your reputation, not as a direct sales tool, please. Due to flagrant commercial violations by some abusers in the past, we have found it necessary to be very strict about this.

Chosen usernames which promote you or your business are not permitted. When discovered, your account access may be banned until the name has been changed.

Individual users please note that messages promoting anything for which you may receive some personal gain are considered to be advertising, and are thus prohibited. Promotion of any service where you would get referral compensation is considered to be advertising. Directing somebody to your classified ad on TUG or elsewhere is considered to be advertising. Promotion of a website where you have anything for sale or rent is considered to be advertising.

The advertising ban includes information in your "Resorts Owned" profile field and bbs signature. You may link to a commercial website in your signature, but the link itself may not indicate the nature of the site. If your URL or domain name indicates the nature of the site, it should not be visually displayed. A visual link saying only "My website" or other similar innocuous wording is acceptable.

Replying to somebody's question on the bbs with an ad is not an acceptable defense - if replying to an inquiry, click on the poster's name at the left of their post and click on the "Start a converstaion" link in their pop-up member card to send your offer as a bbs private conversation instead of posting publicly to the bbs. If the person has disabled receipt of private conversations, the best you can do is post a response merely saying "Since you have disabled receiving private conversations, please contact me via private converstion" -- and be sure you have private conversations enabled in your account

The Only Exceptions to the advertising ban on the bulletin board are:

• Last Minute Rentals forums
• Bargain Deals sub-forum of the Buying, Selling, Renting forum
• Sightings / Distress Exchange forum (restricted to TUG Members), where timeshare owners may post messages offering timeshare weeks that are about to expire

Note the restrictions to these forums as posted in the respective forum rules. These restrictions are strictly enforced.

Avoid posting duplicate messages

Choose the most appropriate forum for your message and place it there and only there. Posting the same message in multiple forums spreads the replies around to different parts of the board and makes them much harder to locate later. If your message does not fit with the stated theme of any of the other forums, please place it in the TUG Lounge forum. This is a special place for "Idle Chit Chat", notices of member meetings, etc. Duplicate posts will be removed when found.

Avoid posting copyrighted material

Under modern copyright laws, anything you find on the internet is copyrighted, even when there is no posted copyright notice. Do not post copyrighted material without the express consent of the copyright owner. Short excerpts are permissible under the Fair Use provisions of copyright law. Rather than post an entire article, just post a short statement of what the article is about and give a link to the address where the complete article may be found.

Avoid posting about politics, religion, or contentious social issues

Unless directly related to timesharing, such discussions are prohibited in these forums, including TUG Lounge. We've been down that road before, it was ugly, and we are not going there again.

Be Courteous

As we read and respond to others, disagreements are inevitable. Differing points of view are welcomed, and indeed the bbs would be a dull place without them. All users are expected and required to express their disagreements civilly. Refrain from name calling and behavior lectures. Personal attacks will not be tolerated and repeated offenses could get you banned from the bbs. Lively discussion is what the board is all about, but that is no excuse for boorish behavior or bad manners. We are assumed to all be adults. If you don't like a particular thread, stop reading it!

Honor changes entered by moderators

You may not alter, edit, or delete any edits introduced into your message by a Moderator or Administrator. This is considered a serious offense and may result in loss of posting privileges.

In addition, do not enter complaints about moderation into BBS messages. Such posts will be considered off-topic and will be removed. Any such complaints or discussion should be communicated to the bbs staff directly via email or personal message.

Avoid replying to messages to point out bbs rule infractions

Leave this to BBS Administrators and Moderators. When you jump in, it makes for even more work on the part of the administrators to clean up the mess. If you feel a message is improper, you may report it to the BBS Staff by clicking on the "report" link at the bottom of the message.