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Posted August 5, 2003
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POVRAY.ORG News Server Acceptable Use Policy
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First we would like to remind all of our visitors that this news
server exists first and foremost to offer online support for the
users of POV-Ray. We do this by allowing peer support between users
of the program, sometimes through direct support from POV-Team
members themselves, or by way of the POV-Ray Technical Assistance
Group. Any other use of this news server is secondary to this goal.
An added benefit of this news server is that it promotes a sense
of community for our users and we encourage this. We want everyone
who visits here to enjoy themselves. Most of all we want you to be
able to visit the various news groups to learn how to get the most
from using POV-Ray. We enjoy seeing what you people are doing with
our program and it makes it worth our efforts to continue developing
it.
Below you will find some basic guidelines on how we expect visitors
to this news server to conduct themselves. We are not trying to place
ourselves in a position to tell you what to think, or what to do, but
we do expect you to maintain a reasonable level of acceptable social
conduct when posting messages on this news server.
1.) This has been mentioned before in other announcements on this
news server but we would appreciate it if you do not post your
messages in HTML format. Many of our visitors do not have HTML
compliant news readers. Also, HTML messages consume more server
resources than do plain text messages. We do not expire messages
in every group on this server and HTML posts are a luxury we
cannot support.
2.) We have a number of young people that visit this server. Because
of this we ask that you keep this in mind before posting messages
or images of an explicit sexual nature. While nudity is commonly
used as a form of artistic expression we ask that you present it
as tastefully as possible if you post images of this type. Use good
judgment where this is concerned and be aware that children may
be watching as their parents download images posted on this server.
You might consider uploading images of a controversial nature to
your personal web page and provide a link to it from a message
posted here. This gives people the opportunity to decide if they
wish to view material of this type at their own discretion.
3.) Please remember that POV-Ray appeals to a wide range of users
from a global community. These people come from many different
cultures, ethnic backgrounds, and religious beliefs that may
differ from your own. We ask that you try to keep this in mind
and not to post messages that may be considered inflammatory,
critical, or abusive where others beliefs are concerned.
Users of this news server may not post messages that could
reasonably be expected, by today's standards, to cause another
reasonable person to not want to use or visit this server due
to a feeling of harassment. Personal attacks, exhibiting
insulting or abusive behavior, are not an acceptable activity
on this news server. Likewise, the use of profanity is also
considered unacceptable.
Violation of these rules may result in corrective action by
the News Server Administration. Such action may be a written
warning, removal of offensive messages at our discretion, or
for repeat violations, the banishment of the person or persons
responsible for said violations.
For the purposes of this news server the News Server Admin.
is any current member of the POV-Team, and the members of
the POV-Ray Technical Assistance Group, who have full authority
to act on behalf of the owner of this news server.
4.) We do not allow SPAM on this news server. We will allow you to
post announcements of your POV-Ray related web page, utilities,
or programs that POV-Ray users may find useful. Advertising of
commercial products or services not related to POV-Ray or the
3D graphics industry is not allowed under any circumstances.
The articles on this server are intended to be local. No news
servers may take a feed from news.povray.org. The POV-Team
claims collection copyright on the contents of our news data-
base. This is not for any commercial purpose, but to protect
the quality of peer support offered here. If posts from this
server are fed to USENET, users on USENET will start attemp-
ting to join in discussions there. However, as news.povray.org
does not take a feed from USENET, such postings will never be
seen on this server. We will not take a feed from USENET since
doing so would cause us to have to take all of the accompanying
baggage - namely, spam, spam, and more spam. At no time has
this server ever accepted a feed for any of the povray groups
from anywhere else. They are purely local and will remain that
way.
5.) Do not attempt to intentionally distribute software containing
a virus or trojan on this news server. Visitors doing so will
be expelled. We do realize that some trojans attach themselves
undetected to a message. We have made every attempt to remove
them from this server as soon as they were discovered. However,
intentional distribution of malicious software will not be
tolerated under any circumstances.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK any software, program source code, or POV-Ray
file you find posted here by visitors to this server. The POV-Team
cannot assume liability in this regard but will take action to see
that harmful software is removed in a timely manner once made aware
of it's presence. We recommend that you run a virus checking utility
on every executable program you download from this server for your
own protection.
6.) The views and opinions expressed by visitors to this news server are
those of the person posting them and do not necessarily reflect the
views and opinions of the POV-Team or the News Server Administration.
Under no circumstances will the POV-Team or the News Server Adminis-
tration be held accountable for any harm, emotional or physical, to
anyone caused by the views or opinions expressed by it's visitors.
You may see individual members of the POV-Team and the POV-Ray TAG
participating in discussions on this news server. At these times
their views and opinions are their own unless they officially sign
their messages otherwise.
7.) Cross-Posting Guidelines
What is the difference between cross-posting and multi-posting ?
CROSS-POSTING is when you post a new message to several groups on this
server at one time by adding additional groups to the message header.
This method stores one copy of the message on the server and references
this message for each group it is posted to.
MULTI-POSTING is when you post a separate message to different groups
on the news server which have the same message content. This method
has the disadvantage that it consumes more server space and is not
considered acceptable by the News Server Administration.
For the purposes of this server we ask that if you must post the same
message to more than one group that you use cross-posting as opposed
to multi-posting. We also ask that if you do find that you must cross-
post to this server that you do so with moderation. Try to find the
groups that best fit the content of your message and restrict them to
just a couple of relevant groups. Additionally, if your news program
supports it, use the Followup-To: header of your program to restrict
any replies to your cross-posted message to a single group. This will
help reduce the clutter on the news server and keep any discussions
of your message localized to a single group.
An example would be if you are announcing a new Windows utility that
you think the POV-Ray community would be interested in. In this case
it would be acceptable for you to post a cross-posted message in the
povray.windows group because it is a Windows application and you might
also announce it in the povray.binaries.utilities group because you
are announcing a binary executable utility. Cross-posting additionally
to povray.text.scene-files would *NOT* be appropriate because your
announcement has no content related to that group.
The News Server Administration will delete any messages that they
feel are excessively cross-posted without warning to discourage this
type of activity. Excessive cross-posting may be considered messages
that are posted to more than 4 groups at one time and/or they are
cross-posted to groups that have no bearing on the content of the
message that is being cross-posted. Multi-posted messages that exceed
more than 2 groups will not be tolerated and may also be subject to
immediate deletion.
Except where otherwise noted these are general guidelines and we will
allow for a liberal interpretation of them. We also wish to remind you
that this is a privately owned news server and as such you are considered
an invited guest. By connecting to this news server you are bound to
accept the terms and conditions we set forth. Please act accordingly.
Have fun and thank you for your participation,
POVRAY.ORG News Server Administration.
Posted August 5, 2003
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