The old adage that “The only rule is that there are no rules” is nice in a perfect world, but this is not a perfect world. It is a world of competing interests where rules have there place. Without rules a community would disintegrate into chaos. Too many rules and the community becomes sterile, uninspiring and bureaucratic. In the spirit of achieving a balance between too many rules and not enough, we put forth the following rules of conduct and guidelines for participating in the InvestingMinds community.

These Community Rules apply to member contributions to and comments on the forums, articles, wikis and other documents published on the site, and are to be considered in conjunction with the InvestingMinds Copyright & Terms of Use. InvestingMinds reserves the right to remove any postings which do not adhere to these guidelines or take further action if required, including, but not limited to, banning the individual from the site.

One account is allowed per person. Do not falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity. Do not impersonate any person.  

Use discretion in sharing personal information with other members. Protect the privacy of other members as if it were your own.

You are responsible for any content you post. Where it relates to an existing discussion topic or article, ensure that it is relevant and will prove useful to other members taking part. Keep the content of discussions on a particular topic to that topic.

Separate facts from opinions. While we encourage both, please do not spin opinions into factual statements. Within the research area we provide separate areas for facts, opinion, and discussion. Please use these areas appropriately.

Please provide references for factual information you post whenever possible as this will increase the credibility of your statement and the value to the community.

Keep messages and posts brief and to the point. Don’t wander off-topic or ramble, and don’t post messages solely to point out other member’s errors in typing or spelling.

Read all of a discussion in progress before posting replies. Avoid posting “Me Too” messages where content is limited to agreement with previous posts.

Avoid using “net speak” and try to use proper spelling and grammar. Keep in mind English is not the first language of all members. Abbreviations, slang, and net speak may make your posts difficult to understand.

When you post on the forums or blogs, your comments and first name will be visible to the general public. Consider that a large audience will see your posts, so take care in what you write. Remember that discussion boards are archived and that what you write may be stored for a long time in a place to which many people have access.

You are also responsible for copyright infringement in your posts. Please do not post copyrighted material unless you hold the copyright or have received permission from the author.

Be polite and respectful towards other members and remember that others may not always share your point of view. Disagreements will naturally arise, but personal attacks are never acceptable.

Do not act in a disruptive, offensive or abusive manner. Do not behave in a manner that deters other members from engaging with the community. Allow other members to contribute and do not dominate any discussions.

Do not use the forums or blogs to send or post any message or material that is illegal, harassing, libelous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene, profane, pornographic, racially offensive, intentionally inaccurate or otherwise objectionable.

Do not use InvestingMinds to communicate information or material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation.

Except for the use of the Bulletin Board, do not use InvestingMinds for self-promotion, such as advertisements for your professional services, or for repeated promotion of other websites/blogs/networks etc.

Use HTML code within postings with caution, as this could alter or interfere with the way the site is designed to function.

Do not harvest emails for spam or spam-like purposes, or for any type of “mass-mailing” or “bulk email.” Do not post any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation.

Forums and blogs are not monitored on a 24-hour basis. When InvestingMinds becomes aware of a problem, it will be reviewed and action will be taken as soon as possible.

If you are the recipient of offensive or otherwise inappropriate comments through the forums or blogs, become aware of others being subjected to such comments or have other problems with InvestingMinds, please send an e-mail to Abuse@InvestingMinds.com identifying your username and the nature of the problem. InvestingMinds will follow up as appropriate in response to your e-mail.