General guidelines

Latin Forums Guidelines

1. Latin Forums aims to provide quality information about Latin dancing of all styles in a friendly and supportive environment. We strive to answer every question or try our best to find the answer and, in order to ensure the quality of information provided on the Latin Forums, we prohibit speculation and gossip. In order to keep Latin Forums clear of any controversy we strive to avoid being party to any unsubstantiated claims.

2. Our Members make up Latin Forums and our members are the most important part of all, with friendly and active participation strongly encouraged. We, the Latin Forums staff, make it a priority to make your experience here enjoyable and informative.

3. All Latin related topics and perspective are welcome and we encourage a dynamic environment with debates, news and personal stories. At the same time, all materials need to be appropriate for most readers including young dancers. Members of Latin Forums may be young children and it is important that materials unsuited for children of this age not be posted on Latin Forums. When you are making reference from a published article or website, please be sure to include copyright information or credit the information indicating its source. If you are unsure of the proper information provided, please let us know so that we can contact them regarding their illegal copyright violation.

4. Please do not engage in name calling, attacks on a person's character, deliberately inflammatory remarks, group stereotypes, sexism or profanity (no matter how subtle - we take all such activities seriously). Please do not attempt to debate such posts and instead report abusive behaviour to a moderator. Penalties for abusive behaviour range from warnings up to the termination of your membership including deletion of your user-name and posts, and/or banning your IP address. As a general rule we follow a "3 strikes" policy of warning, suspension, and ultimately ban.

5. Any posts that are not in the appropriate area/section of Latin Forums or that are deemed inappropriate for Latin Forums in general will be edited, removed or placed in the appropriate section as quickly as possible. Generally, moderators will discuss the matter and try to come up with a solution that is appropriate to the situation. The moderators will strive to be as thoughtful and courteous as possible and usually the member will be notified when this occurs. Latin Forums is run by an entirely volunteer staff, however, meaning that we may not always be able to send a PM to explain why a certain action was taken. As such Latin Forums reserves the right to remove text from posts, lock topics or delete posts without explanation. In some instances, the member may receive a private message explaining the Moderator's position. Issues concerning moderation will NOT be discussed in the open forum. Please discuss such problems by sending a private message to a Moderator.

6. Please be courteous in your posting, by following the basics:

• Do not title threads or post using ALL CAPS.

• Place new threads in the most appropriate forum.

• New threads should have a title which reflects the overall subject of the post (i.e. should not be vague)

• Do not post duplicate threads in multiple sections. Our members will find your information if it is indeed pertinent to them and duplicate threads will be deleted at the very least.

1. Posting links, whether commercial or non-commercial, in the discussion forums is strongly discouraged. Because we strive to be a source of information, in most cases mentioning the name of the product or website (the URL without the www, .com, .net, etc.) is tolerated if it pertains to the discussion thread. While commercial or non-commercial links are allowed in the 'Event Announcements and Ads' and the 'Websites of Interest' sections, these sections are reserved for our active members and are governed by our advertising guidelines. In all cases please avoid posts that merely provide a link to another site. (ex. "Check this out: www. blah .com). At least give us a little information about the link and why it would be of interest and assistance to our members and readers. Similarly, commercial usernames (i.e. those ending in .com, .net, etc.) are strictly prohibited. In case that you want to promote your own (preferably Latin-related) website, you may include a link as part of your signature, which is shown at the end of every message you post. You may also include a link in your profile, which will allow other members to view your website by clicking the (WWW) button.

2. Posting 'live' or 'direct' commercial or non-commercial links in the sections 'Just Dance' and 'Latin Music' is not allowed for the purpose of overall site organization and structure. The usage of 'live' or 'direct' links to videos or for the purpose of identifying songs is allowed in the sections 'Name that tune' and 'Video Clips'. These sections are explicitly intended for such materials. 'Live' or 'direct' links can in general be avoided by deselecting the option 'Automatically parse links in your text' before submitting a posting, where it contains quoted text or not. Latin Forum staff retains the right to remove 'live' or 'direct' links from any posting where it's deemed to be in violation of the guidelines.

3. The focal point of Latin Forums is to share information and ideas about Latin dancing and its music. Latin Forums will not condone the use of its resources for music sharing among its members. Please support the artists and the music that passionately brings us here by finding alternative methods. You may provide links to 30-120 second music clips for the sole purpose of supporting your discussion, i.e. identifying songs or lyrics. Additionally the usage of file-sharing services may be permitted for the purpose of providing a clip for the 'Name that tune' section. But Latin Forums will not condone the use of its resources for illegal or questionable file sharing among its members.

4. Your input contributes to making Latin Forums a better place. If you see a way that we could improve Latin Forums, please send a private message (PM) to one of the moderators. While we are always open to input, feedback and suggestions, any and all questions about Latin Forums policies or procedures must be directed to the staff privately.

Latin Forums Advertising Guidelines

1. Our primary goal is to promote quality discussion about dance related topics. Additionally our regularly participating members have the following places where advertising of external sites, services, events and activities is permitted:

1. Event Announcements And Ads

2. Websites of Interest

1. Again, posting in these forums is exclusively reserved for our regular members, and all such posts are limited to one post per 30 days. Advertising in the other sections of the Latin Forums is strictly prohibited.

2. Sometimes it is easy to inadvertently break this rule (such as in discussions about videos, clothing or shoes), so instead of actually placing a link, just include keywords so that someone who is interested in locating the information could look it up on a search engine. If you see a post that is in violation, please notify a moderator.

3. Please realize that we want everyone to have a good time at the Latin Forums. If we remove a link, edit a post, or even delete a post, it is nothing personal! We have tried to write these rules as clearly as possible in order to provide appropriate community standards. Moreover, we truly believe that these rules help to make the Latin Forums a quality place that is free from superfluous banner ads, popups, lists of commercial websites, and other forms of self-promotional advertising. We hope you agree!

Best Regards,

Latin Forums Staff