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Terms of Use

By using this forum, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owner(s) and moderator(s) of any claims resulting from your usage of this forum in the event of any damages to yourself or any party.

The owner(s) and moderator(s) takes no responsibility for accuracy, copyright compliance, legality or decency of any content or materials contained in these forums. Any messages posted by Authors of messages are not the opinion of the owner(s) and moderator(s) and they shall not be held liable for damages of any kind, to any party.

Please note that any information disclosed on these forums becomes public. For this reason we urge you to take caution when disclosing any personal information. No spam of any nature will be tollerated. Spam can be considered as, posting advertisements and generally promoting something off topic.

MIS BBS Rules - Sept 23, 2002



General rules which apply to any BBS



  • What you can post:

    You can post anything relevant to the community and the topic of the BBS.
    Highly contraversial subjects are best left to other areas created for
    that purpose. Remember that
    this area is for all and messages should be written with respect and
    courtesy for all. The idea is to encourage participation from as many
    people as possible.
  • 2. What you can't post:


    • A. No defamatory statements


      Defamatory statements are, for example, statements that contain certain
      kinds of untrue factual information about a person or a company that is
      derogatory. It's okay to say that the service at restaurant was
      "unsatisfacory." It's not okay to say that the restaurant doesn't meet the
      health code, unless you back the statement up with proof. Likewise, it's
      not okay to accuse a person or company of being dishonest, committing
      fraud, etc. As a general rule, avoid repeating vague and unsubstantiated
      rumors about someone or some company. Stick to your experiences and your
      opinions, based on what you know not what you have heard on the grapevine.

    • B. No flames, personal attacks or contentious off-topic
      comments


      The idea is to make this a pleasant environment to discuss things, not a
      schoolyard, or name-calling and rock-throwing festival.

    • C. No advertising, of either personal or business nature (If
      the BBS is not for that purpose)

      There are other BBS boards specifically for this purpose.

    • D. Watch your language.


      The BBSs hosted here are not a home for potty-mouths. Foul, offensive, or
      crude language is not welcome.

    • E. Don't advertise services which MIS is also in the business of.
      MIS provides these boards free of charge to the local community. We do ask
      out of respect of the sponsor and manager (MIS) that you do not use these
      boards to market in competition with the sponsor (MIS).





Debate is welcome. This is not about censorship. However, while we do not
and cannot police every post, we will delete posts coming to our attention
that we believe violate these rules. Occasionally, someone will complain
to us about a particular post, make various threats and so on because
he/she is offended. While we believe that the BBS has no legal
responsibility for the content of participants posts, for obvious reasons
we'd just as soon not get entangled in lawsuits.


You can do your part in helping us avoid those problems by following these
rules. Of course, whether the BBS is liable or not; if, in a post here,
you violate someone's copyright or trademark, defame or slander someone,
you can be liable to that person.


Posting the same message to multiple boards is not allowed. Please pick
the most appropiate forum for your message. Do not post the same message
on several boards. Duplicate posts may be deleted.


Use of Monikers/Posting Names:


You may call yourself anything you like. Monikers are allowed. You don't
have to use your real name. You must be consistent and use only one name.
You can not post under other's names. Generally speaking, people like to
know who is giving advice. Using the same name over time builds
credibility and allows people to better evaluate the relative merits of
each poster's contributions relative to system context, preferences,
biases, etc.


Rules for the Web BBS



The WebBBS is a general purpose community forum. All the rules addressed
here apply. We also wish that religous and political topics, not of a
local scale, not be discussed here. We don't have a problem with political
or religious discussion, but strong opinions can cause an overwhelming
amount of discussion that buries other discussions on the board. There are
other places more appropriate. Local issues are fine and serve the
community benefits of the board. Discussing the city council or selectmen
are a fine local political issue that would be permitted. Announcing there
is a special ocassion at a local church is a fine local issue that would
be permitted. Bashing our leaders in Washington DC or arguing over
religious differences are not local issues and would not be permitted.
There are other forums on the internet that are more appropriate.


Who we are and the fine print / clarifications




  • Midcoast Internet is an ISP offering a full line of services. We
    provide some semi-public forums, open to all, but subject to control of
    the moderators and administrators. Most of the BBS forums are a free
    courtesy and not a charged service of MIS. This is why they are open to
    all but those who would cause themselves get themselves banned.

  • MIS is not a publisher; we do not screen posts before they are
    available for general viewing. Nor do we scan every posted message to
    determine whether it should remain available for viewing. MIS does not
    endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any post made here and therefore
    assumes no legal responsibility for any such post.

  • MIS does not edit posts. If a post violates the content rules, it will
    be removed, not edited or otherwise "cleaned up."

  • The content of any post is solely the responsibility of the poster,
    even if that poster is a member of the MIS service, an employee of MIS or
    a moderator of a BBS forum.

  • MIS will cooperate with any valid subpoena or other legal process in
    supplying copies of posts and any information MIS has concerning the
    identity of a poster.

  • MIS makes no claim of authorship or copyright ownership with respect to
    any post. Similarly, by posting, any poster expressly licenses MIS
    or any person subsequently posting on the MIS BBSs, for the use of that
    post, or any part thereof, on MIS BBSs, regardless of any other claims
    of copyright ownership the author of the post may make. In other words, if
    you have written the Great American Novel (or the Great Australian Novel
    or some other Great and Valuable literary work) and decide to post it
    here, by doing so, you have agreed to let MIS have it be posted here and
    to let other BBS readers copy it, or parts of it, in their posts here as
    well.

  • The decision of MIS to delete any post reflects MIS's view that the
    deleted post is inconsistent with the overall goals and purposes of the
    BBS, and is not a determination that such post is obscene, libelous, or is
    otherwise in violation of law. Likewise, the decision of MIS to ban a
    poster reflects only the MIS's conclusion that such poster has
    demonstrated an inability to conduct him/herself in an overall manner
    consistent with the goals and purposes of the BBS and is not a
    determination that such poster has violated any law.

  • Persons or businesses are always free to post a response to any post
    with which they disagree or which they believe is factually incorrect.
    MIS will not entertain a deletion request by anyone claiming to be harmed
    by mis-statements of fact in a posting unless that person has first posted
    a response correcting the alleged mis-statement. Absent such a response
    being posted, we will assume the complaining party either has no
    contradictory information or is interested only in causing mischief. MIS
    will consider qualifying requests that a post be deleted upon presentation
    of credible information tending to show that the post is false in a
    material respect. MIS will not entertain a request that a post containing
    nothing more than expression of personal opinion be deleted, e.g. "John
    Doe is a jerk," even if that opinion is highly unfavorable.


    These rules were adapted from the very friendly administrators of
    Audio Asylum discussion forum. We thank them for sharing with us.