SatelliteGuys.US Forum Rules - Updated August 10th, 2010
I. Purpose or Mission Statement
SatelliteGuys.US is America's Premiere Satellite News, Talk and Information Site. SatelliteGuys is known for reporting rumors from within the industry. All such rumors are labeled as such.
SatelliteGuys.US is a place where everyone is a friend with people you have not met yet. We welcome everyone no matter their knowledge of the industry; we especially welcome "newbies" and work to treat them well as we were all "newbies" at one time or another. We want all SatelliteGuys Members to feel like they are part of the SatelliteGuys family.
SatelliteGuys.US is designed to be a family friendly site. This means that our material is safe to view at work, school etc.
SatelliteGuys is an ENGLISH Speaking Forum. All posts must be posted in the ENGLISH language, non ENGLISH posts will be removed by staff. For our friends who speak a different language we have installed a language converter at the bottom of every page which can convert SatelliteGuys to your spoken language.
If there are questions you have about the world of Satellite Television then SatelliteGuys is where you will find the answers you seek. We have many experts in the field here willing to help you out.
About the only thing we won't help you out with is Satellite Piracy. If you are here trying to figure out how to get Satellite Television without paying the bill then please do us all a favor and leave this site now. SatelliteGuys works closely with Dish Network and DirecTV to help fight piracy. You do not want us turning in your information to these guys because you are trying to steal satellite service.
SatelliteGuys.US Forums
The SatelliteGuys.US forums are for discussion of various topics related to the world of satellite and home theater technology.
TheList.SatelliteGuys.US
The List is SatelliteGuys very own Satellite List. With The List you can see what’s up there in the clear. This is perfect for folks with Free To Air systems as it tells them where to find in the clear programming.
II. Forum Rules
A. Forum Leadership
Their "Proud Staff Member" icon easily identifies the SatelliteGuys Staff. All of these folks are unpaid volunteers and are here to help out to make sure that every visit to SatelliteGuys is a fun informative one. If you ever have any issues feel free to contact any of our staff members for help.
You will notice that unlike other sites our staff is all labeled the same and are not labeled as Moderators, Super Moderators or Administrators. This is done because to you – our members -- none of this makes a difference to your experience. All our staff is here to help you out. While internally our staff may have different designations this is only done as all staff have different responsibilities of what they do to keep the site running. Again all staff members are labeled as "Proud Staff Member" is because they are here to help you out.
B. Unacceptable Forum Behavior
1. Flaming
Flaming is considered the angry or abusive behavior toward another forum member. This takes the form of calling another member insulting or offensive names, but can also take the form of other insults or derogatory statements, including derogatory statements about race, religion, gender, sexual identity or other characteristics.
If a Staff Members feels that a member’s behavior is a detriment to these forums, they reserve the right to act accordingly. These forums exist as a community of hobbyists helping hobbyists.
2. Spamming/Commercial sellers
As SatelliteGuys.US is a commercial enterprise, commercial advertisers are allowed only with the approval of the SatelliteGuys.US forum staff. If you would like to request permission to advertise on these forums, please contact one of our friendly staff members who would be happy to help you out! We have implemented Google Ads and Syndicated ads from a number of third party sponsors for unregistered members for this purpose. Acting as an agent for another website selling products and advertising their website or products on the forums is not permitted.
Spam is defined as unwanted, unsolicited commercial emails. While great lengths have been taken by the SatelliteGuys.US Staff to prevent spam from appearing on the forums, it still happens. Members can help deal with spam by reporting the spam post. This will alert our staff so that they can take action.
3. Harassment of other members
Acts committed on the SatelliteGuys.US forums that are found to be harassing other members or staff to invoke a reaction, achieve monetary gain or simply annoy members or staff will not be tolerated. This includes belittling, berating, or general harsh comments towards other members and staff.
4. Illegal activities
SatelliteGuys.US will not tolerate any use of the forums to facilitate any illegal activities. Links to websites that share illegal software, music, movies, sites that promote satellite piracy or other data are not permitted. Links to private FTP sites with illegal content are also not permitted. Discussions on how to circumvent smartcard security, how to modify equipment to intercept scrambled subscription programming, try to break the copy-protection of DVR recorded software and other discussions of obviously illegal activity will not be permitted.
A note on Smart Card Talk / Discussion
At SatelliteGuys we do not allow the discussion of Smart Card security technology. As we have grown we have learned that even the most honest discussions on Smart Cards eventually turn into questionable discussion bordering on hack talk... And that's not what SatelliteGuys is about.
SatelliteGuys.US actively works with Dish Network, DirecTV and other agencies including law enforcement officials to help stamp out illegal satellite related activities.
5. Political Posts
SatelliteGuys is a place to discuss satellite and home theater technologies, it is not a place for political discussions. Any political posts in any forum besides our Pub Members only "Pit" forum will be removed by staff. Repeated posting of political posts by a member not made in our Political Pit Forum could earn a warning or possibly even a banning.
6. Reporting posts
Reporting a post through the use of the icon alerts the staff that there is a post that has a problem. It should be used to report spam, flaming, illegal activities, scammers using the Classified forum to find victims, and other violations of the SatelliteGuys.US forums Terms Of Service. However the Report a post function should not be abused,
7. Posting images/gallery
As a service to the members of this forum, user galleries have been implemented. Use of these galleries is only for you to show off your setups and equipment. These galleries are not meant for family photos or photos of a commercial nature. SatelliteGuys staff reserves the right to remove any photos or albums as they see fit and we are not responsible for any lost images. This is a place to share your images, not a place to store your images, so make sure you have a backup of all images you upload.
8. Adult material (language & pornography)
Pornography and other adult-oriented material (including hate speech, violent behavior and other questionable material) are not permitted in the general forum. Comments directed towards other members are also not tolerated. There is no warning for this offense. Please use your best judgment in this regard; remember we are a family friendly site. We here at SatelliteGuys do understand that sometimes there is a need for adult oriented talk and we have a special private forum called "The Back Room" which is only available to SatelliteGuys supporters and is also password protected. "The Back Room" is a place for those 21 years of age or older.
9. Group Buys
Group buys are not permitted on the SatelliteGuys.US forums. If there is a product that you feel other users would benefit from, please feel free to contact one of our staff. We are always looking for new and exciting products to bring to our community.
10. Links to Other Sites
Users are not permitted to use SatelliteGuys.US forums to direct community members to external sites or publications for the purposes of personal gain. Examples include, but are not limited to, sites which are commercial in nature, sites which compensate the user with free gifts such as ipods in exchange for bringing users to that site; sites that pay users for click-throughs, etc. These types of activities are considered spam and will be dealt with as such.
Links in signatures are no longer permitted by normal registered members, however Pub Members / Supporting Founders are allowed links in their signatures as long as they are not over the top commercials. We reserve right to remove links which we deem inapropriate. Current registered members with links in their signatures are grandfathered however SatelliteGuys staff can and will remove links if we find them in violation of our links rule above.
Because the forms that these schemes present themselves in are constantly changing, staff judgment will decide whether they qualify as a violation of the terms of service. When in doubt, PM a staff member before posting.
11. General Unruly Behavior
Any behavior that is deemed as disruptive to the forums will be dealt with at the staff’s discretion. We are here to provide you the best site for discussing Satellite / Home Theater Technologies, we are not here to babysit, this includes trolling.
Questioning staff decisions in any public forum is not allowed, if you have a problem with a decision made by a staff member take it up with them or any staff member in a private message. Posts questioning staff decisions will be removed and the user making such posts may receive infractions or banned accordingly.
In short, if you're about to post something just to get under the skin of a fellow forum member, staff or sponsors, don't. Your actions will be dealt with at the discretion of the staff. Other members of the forum may report such activity without fear of repercussion.
C. Special-Purpose Forums
1. Pub Members Bar & Grill
The SatelliteGuys Bar & Grill is a special private forum where SatelliteGuys Supporters can let their hair down and discuss a wide variety of topics, both satellite and non satellite related.
SatelliteGuys.US is an expensive site to operate; we run on our own dedicated servers and are hosted by a premium internet server co-location site. In addition SatelliteGuys.US does a number of special activities each year, which cost a great deal to pull off.
SatelliteGuys.US has sponsors and in addition uses advertising from Google Adsense plus other 3rd party ad agencies to help pay the bills, however these sponsorships do not pay for all our expenses to keep the lights on, so we take donations from our members to help keep the site online. For less then $20 a year our members can help support the site and become a "Pub Member" as a Pub Member you get access to the Pub Members Bar & Grill Forum, are granted permission to post non commercial for sale ads in our classified forum and also access our adults only "Back Room" forum. In addition Pub Members get access to expanded features such as much less advertising (only ads seen are from our SatelliteGuys Gold Sponsors), a larger Private Message (PM) box, the ability to have animated avatars plus other exclusive features!
To learn more about or to become a SatelliteGuys Pub Member please CLICK HERE and thanks in advance for helping us keep the lights on here at SatelliteGuys!
2. SatelliteGuys Classifieds
The Classified area allows supporting Pub Members to sell and trade goods. The classifieds section is mainly for selling of electronics type items such as satellite and home theater equipment. Commercial use by dealers to sell goods is not permitted. Due to some issues in the past we cannot permit members to sell computer software. Classifieds ads may only be posted by Supporting SatelliteGuys Pub Members as our thank you for helping us keep the lights on here at SatelliteGuys.US. For information about becoming a SatelliteGuys Pub Member please CLICK HERE.
Please use your best judgment when purchasing from a user of these forums. We cannot prevent scam artists from registering on these forums and cannot be held responsible for bad transactions.
If you have any issues, please report them to any staff member.
3. The Uplink Center
The Uplink Center is a special forum on SatelliteGuys.US where you can get some insight of what may be coming soon to Dish Network. SatelliteGuys staff that have special software and hardware, which can monitor the channel data tables from these satellite providers and report any changes made to these data-streams, run the Uplink Center.
It should be noted that any changes reported are just a look at what’s in the tables and do not necessarily mean that channels listed in these reports will ever be made available from any of the mentioned satellite companies. There have been cases in the past where channels have been added to the tables but have never been made available to customers. It should also be noted that just because a channel is added to the tables does not necessarily mean that the provider is actually transmitting the channel mention.
The Uplink Center is meant to be a fun crystal ball of what may be coming in the future. SatelliteGuys.US does not guarantee the accuracy of the data, which is posted in these uplink reports.
4. The Pit
This is a special private forum for our Supporting Pub Members to talk politics. This is the only area on SatelliteGuys where Political Discussion is allowed. The rules for this Political Forum is make the discussion about the topic at hand and not about the opinions of other members. Users flaming other members for their political opinions will be removed from The Pit without notice. This helps keep The Pit a place with active political discussion without the hard feelings as found on other forums.
5. The Back Room
This is a special private forum exclusively for Supporting Pub Members, where SatelliteGuys.US members can discuss adult topics with other adults. After a member becomes a Pub Member this forum is still disabled for them by default. A member must input the special access password to turn on this forum for viewing and posting.
This forum is not for posting copyrighted photos from other sites or for posting stuff that may be illegal or contain scenes, which may be gross such as dead or dismembered bodies. While The Back Room is for adults to play it is not a free for all. Staff may at anytime remove access to this special forum to any member at their discretion
D. Punishment for rules violations
1. Warnings
If you receive a warning, it is just that, a warning. The points system does not apply. If you are on the receiving end of a warning, perhaps you should take a step back and consider your actions.
2. Infractions
If you receive an infraction, it is most likely due to the fact that a moderator or an administrator views your actions as breaking the rules of this forum. Members may also report posts to administrators and moderators to help police the forums when they feel that another member is out of line. This is a community that thrives on being helpful and willing. If you receive an infraction, please take a moment to consider your actions and ask yourself if they are contributing to the overall purpose of these forums.
If you feel that you have received an infraction for no reason, or a reason that you feel is invalid. Please feel free to voice your concerns to any staff member. Please understand that your concerns will not be unheard. This forum exists because of the users, and we must all remember this.
3. Banishment from SatelliteGuys.US
Infractions are all assigned a point value, and will all last for 180 days. The infractions and their point values are as follows:
If you receive infractions worth 10 points, you are automatically banned for 3 days. If you receive infractions worth 25 points, you are automatically permanently banned from these forums.
This procedure is in place to help keep the forums a fair and just place.
E. General Forum Etiquette
1. Search tools
Forum search is used to locate information on the forums themselves. The Search function in the navigation bar across the top also gives you quick access to search the forums. There is an option to search thread titles or posts. Below those options, you can opt to use Google to search these forums.
This search service is provided as a means for another search method. Due to the nature of the built in vBulletin search, sometimes it can be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. Also, due to the sheer size of these forums, using multiple search engines can yield the results you are looking for. Feel free to use them all.
Google (and other WWW search engines) yield lots of information about topics that are not covered on the forums. Many times they can yield more information than is available on the forums alone.
Searching for information is helpful because much of the information that members (particularly new members) seek is already present on the forums, either in the FAQ sections, the Wiki, or in forum posts. It is recommended that members seeking specific information search the forums before posting a question. Most of the time, the answers can be found without having to create a new thread or post. This helps future new members by not creating lots of threads about the same topic, making information easier for members to locate.
2. Private messages
Private messages, or PMs, are, as the name implies, private communications between two forum members, similar to email. PMs are excellent for negotiating classified transactions or asking questions that, for whatever reason, you don't want visible to all forum members. Do not use PMs to SPAM or bug other members. It should be noted that certain members of the SatelliteGuys staff have the ability to read PMs when there is an issue.
3. Personal information
Personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and such should be kept off the forums. This is for members' protection and privacy. While the general forum membership would likely not use any such information maliciously, anyone with Internet access could easily read the content of these forums, take the information and do who-knows-what with it.
The SatelliteGuys.US staff is not responsible for anything resulting from the information you post on the forums and will remove information upon request.
4. Assisting other forum members
This hobby grows because members help other members. Please respect the new members, even when questions are obvious. Not everyone knows the things you do. REMEMBER WE WERE ALL NEWBIES ONCE!
Also, remember that not everyone that offers assistance knows what he or she is doing, so it is possible to receive incorrect information. Again, the SatelliteGuys staff is not responsible for anything that happens as a result of acting on information you receive on these forums.
Please use your better judgment when following information on these forums. If in doubt, please do not hesitate to ask for confirmation. Chances are, other members will be happy to provide it or to question the advice offered. After all, two heads are usually better than one.
5. Avatars
SatelliteGuys.US forum members are allowed to express themselves by using graphics known as Avatars. These Avatars can be most any graphic in any size of up to 100 x 100 pixels in size. If you are a supporting Pub Member your Avatar can even be animated! (CLICK HERE for details of becoming a Pub Member)
While we give you a lot of freedom of what you can have for an Avatar there are some that you can't have, and those are (but not limited to) Any type of political avatar, any type of avatar which could be considered a commercial advertisement, any avatar that contains a URL to any other website, an avatar which people may consider rude or offensive, any avatar which would be considered inappropriate for the work, school or church environment, this includes sexually suggestive avatars.
6. Signatures.
SatelliteGuys.US forum members are allowed to express themselves by using a signature. Signatures must not include links to political, religious, or commercial sites. The ban on political avatars includes ideologically loaded statements as well as endorsements or attacks on political officials or issues. All signatures must be in the English language. Signatures must not use any HTML code nor contain any images.
This is primarily a satellite TV and home theater technology site, so your signature, while reflecting your personality, should be kept somewhat relevant.
Signatures may be no longer then five lines long, and they should be formatted in a small font; so as not to make posts excessively long. The staff may remove or edit a signature at their discretion if it violates the site policy. Failure to comply with the staff will result in infractions and or banning of your account.
7. Referral Programs
All satellite companies offer their customers a referral program which allows them to earn money for referring their friends to sign up for their services. Because everyone here basically has these referrals available to them a number of folks have posted their referral information which in turn had many members doing the same thing. This then cluttered up the site as it turned into spam and because of this we do not permit the posting of referral information to the forums, nor do we allow posts from members seeking referral information from members. Sending referals via our private message system is also not allowed. if you receive one of these referrals via a PM and did not request to please contact a SatelliteGuys staff member for help. If you are a member looking for a referral please private message any SatelliteGuys staff member who will be happy to give you a money saving referral. The SatelliteGuys staff is a group of volunteers who work hard and they appreciate it when they can earn money from giving referrals to our members. (Please note from Octber 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013 Pub Members, Supprting Founders and Staff members are allowed to post Referrals in their signatures. For full rules on this special promotion please see the Pub Members Referral Program in our Pub Members forum.)
F. Other forum features
· Fun Arcade
Take a break from the Satellite World and play in our Fun Arcade, where we have thousands of games to waste away the day. The best part of our arcade is no quarters are required!
SatelliteGuys.US reserves the rights to interpret and modify these rules as necessary.
BY CONTINUING TO USE SATELLITEGUYS.US YOU INDICATE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND AGREE TO ABIDE BY THE RULES SPECIFIED ABOVE.
If you break the above rules you may be warned/banned appropriately!
(Note from Scott - In our 4+ years we have always had rules, however this is the first time that our rules have been found all in one place. Thank you for your support of SatelliteGuys!)
I. Purpose or Mission Statement
SatelliteGuys.US is America's Premiere Satellite News, Talk and Information Site. SatelliteGuys is known for reporting rumors from within the industry. All such rumors are labeled as such.
SatelliteGuys.US is a place where everyone is a friend with people you have not met yet. We welcome everyone no matter their knowledge of the industry; we especially welcome "newbies" and work to treat them well as we were all "newbies" at one time or another. We want all SatelliteGuys Members to feel like they are part of the SatelliteGuys family.
SatelliteGuys.US is designed to be a family friendly site. This means that our material is safe to view at work, school etc.
SatelliteGuys is an ENGLISH Speaking Forum. All posts must be posted in the ENGLISH language, non ENGLISH posts will be removed by staff. For our friends who speak a different language we have installed a language converter at the bottom of every page which can convert SatelliteGuys to your spoken language.
If there are questions you have about the world of Satellite Television then SatelliteGuys is where you will find the answers you seek. We have many experts in the field here willing to help you out.
About the only thing we won't help you out with is Satellite Piracy. If you are here trying to figure out how to get Satellite Television without paying the bill then please do us all a favor and leave this site now. SatelliteGuys works closely with Dish Network and DirecTV to help fight piracy. You do not want us turning in your information to these guys because you are trying to steal satellite service.
SatelliteGuys.US Forums
The SatelliteGuys.US forums are for discussion of various topics related to the world of satellite and home theater technology.
TheList.SatelliteGuys.US
The List is SatelliteGuys very own Satellite List. With The List you can see what’s up there in the clear. This is perfect for folks with Free To Air systems as it tells them where to find in the clear programming.
II. Forum Rules
A. Forum Leadership
Their "Proud Staff Member" icon easily identifies the SatelliteGuys Staff. All of these folks are unpaid volunteers and are here to help out to make sure that every visit to SatelliteGuys is a fun informative one. If you ever have any issues feel free to contact any of our staff members for help.
You will notice that unlike other sites our staff is all labeled the same and are not labeled as Moderators, Super Moderators or Administrators. This is done because to you – our members -- none of this makes a difference to your experience. All our staff is here to help you out. While internally our staff may have different designations this is only done as all staff have different responsibilities of what they do to keep the site running. Again all staff members are labeled as "Proud Staff Member" is because they are here to help you out.
B. Unacceptable Forum Behavior
1. Flaming
Flaming is considered the angry or abusive behavior toward another forum member. This takes the form of calling another member insulting or offensive names, but can also take the form of other insults or derogatory statements, including derogatory statements about race, religion, gender, sexual identity or other characteristics.
If a Staff Members feels that a member’s behavior is a detriment to these forums, they reserve the right to act accordingly. These forums exist as a community of hobbyists helping hobbyists.
2. Spamming/Commercial sellers
As SatelliteGuys.US is a commercial enterprise, commercial advertisers are allowed only with the approval of the SatelliteGuys.US forum staff. If you would like to request permission to advertise on these forums, please contact one of our friendly staff members who would be happy to help you out! We have implemented Google Ads and Syndicated ads from a number of third party sponsors for unregistered members for this purpose. Acting as an agent for another website selling products and advertising their website or products on the forums is not permitted.
Spam is defined as unwanted, unsolicited commercial emails. While great lengths have been taken by the SatelliteGuys.US Staff to prevent spam from appearing on the forums, it still happens. Members can help deal with spam by reporting the spam post. This will alert our staff so that they can take action.
3. Harassment of other members
Acts committed on the SatelliteGuys.US forums that are found to be harassing other members or staff to invoke a reaction, achieve monetary gain or simply annoy members or staff will not be tolerated. This includes belittling, berating, or general harsh comments towards other members and staff.
4. Illegal activities
SatelliteGuys.US will not tolerate any use of the forums to facilitate any illegal activities. Links to websites that share illegal software, music, movies, sites that promote satellite piracy or other data are not permitted. Links to private FTP sites with illegal content are also not permitted. Discussions on how to circumvent smartcard security, how to modify equipment to intercept scrambled subscription programming, try to break the copy-protection of DVR recorded software and other discussions of obviously illegal activity will not be permitted.
A note on Smart Card Talk / Discussion
At SatelliteGuys we do not allow the discussion of Smart Card security technology. As we have grown we have learned that even the most honest discussions on Smart Cards eventually turn into questionable discussion bordering on hack talk... And that's not what SatelliteGuys is about.
SatelliteGuys.US actively works with Dish Network, DirecTV and other agencies including law enforcement officials to help stamp out illegal satellite related activities.
5. Political Posts
SatelliteGuys is a place to discuss satellite and home theater technologies, it is not a place for political discussions. Any political posts in any forum besides our Pub Members only "Pit" forum will be removed by staff. Repeated posting of political posts by a member not made in our Political Pit Forum could earn a warning or possibly even a banning.
6. Reporting posts
Reporting a post through the use of the icon alerts the staff that there is a post that has a problem. It should be used to report spam, flaming, illegal activities, scammers using the Classified forum to find victims, and other violations of the SatelliteGuys.US forums Terms Of Service. However the Report a post function should not be abused,
7. Posting images/gallery
As a service to the members of this forum, user galleries have been implemented. Use of these galleries is only for you to show off your setups and equipment. These galleries are not meant for family photos or photos of a commercial nature. SatelliteGuys staff reserves the right to remove any photos or albums as they see fit and we are not responsible for any lost images. This is a place to share your images, not a place to store your images, so make sure you have a backup of all images you upload.
8. Adult material (language & pornography)
Pornography and other adult-oriented material (including hate speech, violent behavior and other questionable material) are not permitted in the general forum. Comments directed towards other members are also not tolerated. There is no warning for this offense. Please use your best judgment in this regard; remember we are a family friendly site. We here at SatelliteGuys do understand that sometimes there is a need for adult oriented talk and we have a special private forum called "The Back Room" which is only available to SatelliteGuys supporters and is also password protected. "The Back Room" is a place for those 21 years of age or older.
9. Group Buys
Group buys are not permitted on the SatelliteGuys.US forums. If there is a product that you feel other users would benefit from, please feel free to contact one of our staff. We are always looking for new and exciting products to bring to our community.
10. Links to Other Sites
Users are not permitted to use SatelliteGuys.US forums to direct community members to external sites or publications for the purposes of personal gain. Examples include, but are not limited to, sites which are commercial in nature, sites which compensate the user with free gifts such as ipods in exchange for bringing users to that site; sites that pay users for click-throughs, etc. These types of activities are considered spam and will be dealt with as such.
Links in signatures are no longer permitted by normal registered members, however Pub Members / Supporting Founders are allowed links in their signatures as long as they are not over the top commercials. We reserve right to remove links which we deem inapropriate. Current registered members with links in their signatures are grandfathered however SatelliteGuys staff can and will remove links if we find them in violation of our links rule above.
Because the forms that these schemes present themselves in are constantly changing, staff judgment will decide whether they qualify as a violation of the terms of service. When in doubt, PM a staff member before posting.
11. General Unruly Behavior
Any behavior that is deemed as disruptive to the forums will be dealt with at the staff’s discretion. We are here to provide you the best site for discussing Satellite / Home Theater Technologies, we are not here to babysit, this includes trolling.
Questioning staff decisions in any public forum is not allowed, if you have a problem with a decision made by a staff member take it up with them or any staff member in a private message. Posts questioning staff decisions will be removed and the user making such posts may receive infractions or banned accordingly.
In short, if you're about to post something just to get under the skin of a fellow forum member, staff or sponsors, don't. Your actions will be dealt with at the discretion of the staff. Other members of the forum may report such activity without fear of repercussion.
C. Special-Purpose Forums
1. Pub Members Bar & Grill
The SatelliteGuys Bar & Grill is a special private forum where SatelliteGuys Supporters can let their hair down and discuss a wide variety of topics, both satellite and non satellite related.
SatelliteGuys.US is an expensive site to operate; we run on our own dedicated servers and are hosted by a premium internet server co-location site. In addition SatelliteGuys.US does a number of special activities each year, which cost a great deal to pull off.
SatelliteGuys.US has sponsors and in addition uses advertising from Google Adsense plus other 3rd party ad agencies to help pay the bills, however these sponsorships do not pay for all our expenses to keep the lights on, so we take donations from our members to help keep the site online. For less then $20 a year our members can help support the site and become a "Pub Member" as a Pub Member you get access to the Pub Members Bar & Grill Forum, are granted permission to post non commercial for sale ads in our classified forum and also access our adults only "Back Room" forum. In addition Pub Members get access to expanded features such as much less advertising (only ads seen are from our SatelliteGuys Gold Sponsors), a larger Private Message (PM) box, the ability to have animated avatars plus other exclusive features!
To learn more about or to become a SatelliteGuys Pub Member please CLICK HERE and thanks in advance for helping us keep the lights on here at SatelliteGuys!
2. SatelliteGuys Classifieds
The Classified area allows supporting Pub Members to sell and trade goods. The classifieds section is mainly for selling of electronics type items such as satellite and home theater equipment. Commercial use by dealers to sell goods is not permitted. Due to some issues in the past we cannot permit members to sell computer software. Classifieds ads may only be posted by Supporting SatelliteGuys Pub Members as our thank you for helping us keep the lights on here at SatelliteGuys.US. For information about becoming a SatelliteGuys Pub Member please CLICK HERE.
Please use your best judgment when purchasing from a user of these forums. We cannot prevent scam artists from registering on these forums and cannot be held responsible for bad transactions.
If you have any issues, please report them to any staff member.
3. The Uplink Center
The Uplink Center is a special forum on SatelliteGuys.US where you can get some insight of what may be coming soon to Dish Network. SatelliteGuys staff that have special software and hardware, which can monitor the channel data tables from these satellite providers and report any changes made to these data-streams, run the Uplink Center.
It should be noted that any changes reported are just a look at what’s in the tables and do not necessarily mean that channels listed in these reports will ever be made available from any of the mentioned satellite companies. There have been cases in the past where channels have been added to the tables but have never been made available to customers. It should also be noted that just because a channel is added to the tables does not necessarily mean that the provider is actually transmitting the channel mention.
The Uplink Center is meant to be a fun crystal ball of what may be coming in the future. SatelliteGuys.US does not guarantee the accuracy of the data, which is posted in these uplink reports.
4. The Pit
This is a special private forum for our Supporting Pub Members to talk politics. This is the only area on SatelliteGuys where Political Discussion is allowed. The rules for this Political Forum is make the discussion about the topic at hand and not about the opinions of other members. Users flaming other members for their political opinions will be removed from The Pit without notice. This helps keep The Pit a place with active political discussion without the hard feelings as found on other forums.
5. The Back Room
This is a special private forum exclusively for Supporting Pub Members, where SatelliteGuys.US members can discuss adult topics with other adults. After a member becomes a Pub Member this forum is still disabled for them by default. A member must input the special access password to turn on this forum for viewing and posting.
This forum is not for posting copyrighted photos from other sites or for posting stuff that may be illegal or contain scenes, which may be gross such as dead or dismembered bodies. While The Back Room is for adults to play it is not a free for all. Staff may at anytime remove access to this special forum to any member at their discretion
D. Punishment for rules violations
1. Warnings
If you receive a warning, it is just that, a warning. The points system does not apply. If you are on the receiving end of a warning, perhaps you should take a step back and consider your actions.
2. Infractions
If you receive an infraction, it is most likely due to the fact that a moderator or an administrator views your actions as breaking the rules of this forum. Members may also report posts to administrators and moderators to help police the forums when they feel that another member is out of line. This is a community that thrives on being helpful and willing. If you receive an infraction, please take a moment to consider your actions and ask yourself if they are contributing to the overall purpose of these forums.
If you feel that you have received an infraction for no reason, or a reason that you feel is invalid. Please feel free to voice your concerns to any staff member. Please understand that your concerns will not be unheard. This forum exists because of the users, and we must all remember this.
3. Banishment from SatelliteGuys.US
Infractions are all assigned a point value, and will all last for 180 days. The infractions and their point values are as follows:
If you receive infractions worth 10 points, you are automatically banned for 3 days. If you receive infractions worth 25 points, you are automatically permanently banned from these forums.
This procedure is in place to help keep the forums a fair and just place.
E. General Forum Etiquette
1. Search tools
Forum search is used to locate information on the forums themselves. The Search function in the navigation bar across the top also gives you quick access to search the forums. There is an option to search thread titles or posts. Below those options, you can opt to use Google to search these forums.
This search service is provided as a means for another search method. Due to the nature of the built in vBulletin search, sometimes it can be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. Also, due to the sheer size of these forums, using multiple search engines can yield the results you are looking for. Feel free to use them all.
Google (and other WWW search engines) yield lots of information about topics that are not covered on the forums. Many times they can yield more information than is available on the forums alone.
Searching for information is helpful because much of the information that members (particularly new members) seek is already present on the forums, either in the FAQ sections, the Wiki, or in forum posts. It is recommended that members seeking specific information search the forums before posting a question. Most of the time, the answers can be found without having to create a new thread or post. This helps future new members by not creating lots of threads about the same topic, making information easier for members to locate.
2. Private messages
Private messages, or PMs, are, as the name implies, private communications between two forum members, similar to email. PMs are excellent for negotiating classified transactions or asking questions that, for whatever reason, you don't want visible to all forum members. Do not use PMs to SPAM or bug other members. It should be noted that certain members of the SatelliteGuys staff have the ability to read PMs when there is an issue.
3. Personal information
Personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and such should be kept off the forums. This is for members' protection and privacy. While the general forum membership would likely not use any such information maliciously, anyone with Internet access could easily read the content of these forums, take the information and do who-knows-what with it.
The SatelliteGuys.US staff is not responsible for anything resulting from the information you post on the forums and will remove information upon request.
4. Assisting other forum members
This hobby grows because members help other members. Please respect the new members, even when questions are obvious. Not everyone knows the things you do. REMEMBER WE WERE ALL NEWBIES ONCE!
Also, remember that not everyone that offers assistance knows what he or she is doing, so it is possible to receive incorrect information. Again, the SatelliteGuys staff is not responsible for anything that happens as a result of acting on information you receive on these forums.
Please use your better judgment when following information on these forums. If in doubt, please do not hesitate to ask for confirmation. Chances are, other members will be happy to provide it or to question the advice offered. After all, two heads are usually better than one.
5. Avatars
SatelliteGuys.US forum members are allowed to express themselves by using graphics known as Avatars. These Avatars can be most any graphic in any size of up to 100 x 100 pixels in size. If you are a supporting Pub Member your Avatar can even be animated! (CLICK HERE for details of becoming a Pub Member)
While we give you a lot of freedom of what you can have for an Avatar there are some that you can't have, and those are (but not limited to) Any type of political avatar, any type of avatar which could be considered a commercial advertisement, any avatar that contains a URL to any other website, an avatar which people may consider rude or offensive, any avatar which would be considered inappropriate for the work, school or church environment, this includes sexually suggestive avatars.
6. Signatures.
SatelliteGuys.US forum members are allowed to express themselves by using a signature. Signatures must not include links to political, religious, or commercial sites. The ban on political avatars includes ideologically loaded statements as well as endorsements or attacks on political officials or issues. All signatures must be in the English language. Signatures must not use any HTML code nor contain any images.
This is primarily a satellite TV and home theater technology site, so your signature, while reflecting your personality, should be kept somewhat relevant.
Signatures may be no longer then five lines long, and they should be formatted in a small font; so as not to make posts excessively long. The staff may remove or edit a signature at their discretion if it violates the site policy. Failure to comply with the staff will result in infractions and or banning of your account.
7. Referral Programs
All satellite companies offer their customers a referral program which allows them to earn money for referring their friends to sign up for their services. Because everyone here basically has these referrals available to them a number of folks have posted their referral information which in turn had many members doing the same thing. This then cluttered up the site as it turned into spam and because of this we do not permit the posting of referral information to the forums, nor do we allow posts from members seeking referral information from members. Sending referals via our private message system is also not allowed. if you receive one of these referrals via a PM and did not request to please contact a SatelliteGuys staff member for help. If you are a member looking for a referral please private message any SatelliteGuys staff member who will be happy to give you a money saving referral. The SatelliteGuys staff is a group of volunteers who work hard and they appreciate it when they can earn money from giving referrals to our members. (Please note from Octber 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013 Pub Members, Supprting Founders and Staff members are allowed to post Referrals in their signatures. For full rules on this special promotion please see the Pub Members Referral Program in our Pub Members forum.)
F. Other forum features
· Fun Arcade
Take a break from the Satellite World and play in our Fun Arcade, where we have thousands of games to waste away the day. The best part of our arcade is no quarters are required!
SatelliteGuys.US reserves the rights to interpret and modify these rules as necessary.
BY CONTINUING TO USE SATELLITEGUYS.US YOU INDICATE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND AGREE TO ABIDE BY THE RULES SPECIFIED ABOVE.
If you break the above rules you may be warned/banned appropriately!
(Note from Scott - In our 4+ years we have always had rules, however this is the first time that our rules have been found all in one place. Thank you for your support of SatelliteGuys!)
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