Before you start, however, you must read these rules and guidelines:
Shaolin.cn.com forums user agreement
Shaolin.cn.com welcomes your participation in our Discussion Forums. These forums offer you the chance to interact with top Masters, Venerable monks, Scholars and experts in our community.
We ask that you Post with respect for all fellow forum participants, etc. This is a community. So, when you post, we encourage you to tell your fellow community members a little about who you are - not just an e-mail address, but a bit of a bio. It enriches the discussion to know who’s “behind the post.”
In order to keep these forums enjoyable and interesting for all of our users, we ask simply that you follow these minimal rules. By participating in the Shaolin Discussion Forums, you are consenting to these rules. Violators may be warned, suspended from posting, or barred from the forums, at the sole discretion of the Shaolin.cn.com staff.
1. Exercise common sense and be considerate toward your fellow users. Diversity of opinion and intelligent civil discourse is encouraged; by the same token, insults and ??flaming?? are not tolerated. Disagreeing with an idea of another community member is different from attacking that individual.
2. Do not post off-topic. Please keep your comments consistent with the subject and purpose of the conversation thread. Deliberate disruption—such as consistent off-topic commentary—will not be tolerated.
Shaolin.cn.com and its moderators reserve the right to delete posts and/or whole conversations we determine are of an irrelevant, abusive or disruptive nature. This is your Shaolin community - let us or your fellow posters know if you feel things are getting off-topic or inappropriate.
3. No all-caps (FOR EXAMPLE, LIKE THIS) please. It is extremely hard to read. Posts submitted in all-caps will be deleted automatically.
4. Although we love the extra information and sources you bring to this “Shaolin Temple Portal”, due to copyright issues, please do not quote entire news articles from other sources; small excerpts and/or a link keeps things legal. Please provide a link.
5. You must use a valid e-mail address where we may contact you, if necessary, during the registration process. Your e-mail address will not be published on the site, except by you actively choosing to do so. You are limited to one user account on the system. Under no circumstances may you create alternate names, assume secondary identities or use someone else’s name for your name.
6. You alone are responsible for the material you post. You will not knowingly post content or links to content that violates the copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of any third party and that you will remove the same should you discover that you have violated this provision. Likewise, you may not post content or links to content that is libellous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, that violates a third party’s right to privacy, that otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, or that is otherwise inappropriate. You will indemnify Shaolin.cn.com and affiliates from any and all claims and/or damages (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys’ fees) resulting from any claim brought by any third party relating to content you have posted.
We shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor the content of the forums to determine compliance with all sections of this Agreement and any other operating rules established by us. We shall have the right in our sole discretion to edit, refuse to post, remove, or otherwise alter any material submitted to or posted on the forums. Without limiting the foregoing, we shall have the right to remove any material that we, in our sole discretion, find to be in violation of this agreement or inappropriate for any reason whatever without consent.
Notwithstanding all of the foregoing, users remain solely responsible for the content of their messages.
We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user’s privilege to post content in our discussion forums.
Suspended members who re-register with new accounts will have those accounts deactivated without notice. Repeated attempts will result in our contacting your ISP with a complaint.
Members who re-register with new accounts will have those accounts deactivated without notice. Repeated attempts will result in our contacting your ISP with a complaint.
7. You understand and agree that Shaolin.cn.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties. We are a distributor of content supplied by third parties and users of the forums. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, or any other user of the forums, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of us.
8. You acknowledge and agree that you use and/or rely on any information obtained through the discussion forums at your own risk. Shaolin.cn.com is not in any manner endorsing the content of the discussion groups and cannot and will not vouch for its reliability. The disclaimer of liability contained in this section applies to any damages or injury caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of record, whether for breach of contract, tortuous behaviour, negligence, or under any other cause of action.
Each user specifically acknowledges that we are not liable for the defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of third parties, subscribers, members or other users of the forums and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with each user.
9. You understand and agree that these discussion forums are to be used only for non-commercial purposes. You may not solicit funds, promote commercial entities or otherwise engage in non-commercial activity in the forums. You may not contact other participants privately by any means without their express prior permission.
10. The discussion forums are for text only. Use of graphics and audio in the forums is not appropriate.
11. For any content that you post, you hereby grant to Shaolin.cn.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, exclusive and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part, world-wide and to incorporate it in other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.
12. No Flaming. Respect other members of the community and don’t belittle, make fun off, or insult another member or any one else. Postings are highly personal, individual choices. “Flaming” and insults, however, will not be tolerated. Agree to disagree.
13. Do not disrespect moderators. Be respectful in both the forums and any private communications with moderators. Moderators are volunteers that donate many, many hours of their own time to help in the forums and chat rooms. Violations of this rule will not be tolerated.
14. No SHOUTING. Remember, using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in posts is considered yelling and rude, plus it is difficult to read.
15. NO OBSCENE LANGUAGE. This board is intended for family use. Please refrain from using any vulgar language that would offend someone else. Accounts may be deleted.
16. NO PERSONAL INSULTS or ATTACKS. We provide this site for our users to gather and discuss about Shaolin and Buddhism in general. You are free to disagree with others, but if you stoop to personal abuse or attacks, your post(s) will be deleted. If you ARE insulted please report the post, but DO NOT retaliate.
Please Remember:
Users that do not abide by the rules may be subject to having their posts edited or deleted, their member account permanently banned from further access and/or deleted without notice.
Rules and guidelines may change at any time, please re-read them regularly.