Welcome to Trouble Free Pool. This forum is closely moderated. We have earned a reputation as one of the friendliest forums on the net and we have designed our site rules to protect that reputation. Above all we ask all members to please treat others as you would like to be treated. Violation of the rules listed below may result in the termination of your account.
1. Offensive, adult oriented, or promotional links will not be allowed. However, A signature may contain a link to a member's business after 200 meaningful posts have been made.
2. No public disputes between/among members. If you have a problem with another member, PM them. Name calling and abusive PM's are not allowed.
3. No discussion of 'touchy' subjects. This includes political and religious discussion. Any such references in your posts or signature will be deleted without notice.
4. No strongly positive or negative posts about a product or company are permitted from members with little involvement on the forum. We simply cannot determine the accuracy of your post. Further, any post for the sole reason of defaming another party or presenting only your side of a disagreement will be deleted without notice.
5. More than one username is not allowed. If you can not remember your login or username, contact the administration. Do Not create another account.
6. If the intent of your post can be construed as advertising or promotion of a website or product, your post will be deleted or edited without warning.
The only exception to this rule is if your post is in DIRECT response to the original posters question and it helps answer the question. Any such response to OP's question must be determined to be timely and pertinent.......again, by the moderators
7. TFP is a family friendly website and utilizes an extensive word filter that detects and edits inappropriate language. Any attempts to circumvent the word filter will be subject to infraction and the post removed or edited without notice.
8. Do not create multiple threads on the same topic. Creating multiple threads may cause you to miss important information about your question and is confusing for those who are trying to help you.
9. Usernames or Avatars cannot be affiliated with any company without approval from Administration. If you wish to use your business name on the forum please contact staff for more details.
10. You may not have a link of any kind in your signature until you have posted 200 meaningful posts. After you have completed 200 posts, you may put a link to your business web site in your signature.
Guidelines for posts by people who are in the industry
No commercial selling is allowed. You many not promote your products or services or advocate for your company. Nothing that sounds like marketing speak is allowed. You can't say anything like "Use my product.", "My products are cheaper and easier to use.", "My Company has the best widgets on the market." or anything even remotely like that.
You may not put links to your web site or products into posts out of context. You may respond to direct questions with your business name and/or a link, when that is a specific answer to a question, or when your web site contains a specific answer to the question. For example, you can answer a question like: "Does anyone know of a company that sells blue widgets?" with a response like: "We carry blue widgets, see http://my.company.com/. Or "How do I turn red widgets blue?" with "There is a tutorial on changing widget colors at my web site: http://my.company.com/widget_colors.html". In either case it must be clear that you are affiliated with the company whose product is being mentioned.
You can answer technical questions about your products and talk about the technical details of how they work when that is on topic. For example, if asked "How do I reset the sensor reading on a MyCompany widget?" you can answer with something like "To reset the sensor reading you need to pull on the red wire three times and then cycle power."
You may not conduct business or provide non-technical customer service on the forum, even in response to a direct question. If this comes up, please use email or private messages and limit any posts to "I sent you a PM.", or something similar. To clarify, you may explain how to use your product in response to a direct question. You can also post to ask someone to contact you in response to their post trying to contact you or your company. But you may not resolve things like shipping or billing problems on the forum.
You can not promote or recommend specific brands or products from other vendors, except in response to a question specifically asking for a product/brand recommendation.
You are encouraged to put your company name in your signature. Like all forum members, you may not have a link of any kind in your signature until you have posted 200 meaningful posts. After you have completed 200 posts, you may put a link to your business web site in your signature. If you have your business name in your signature, you must not post simply to have your signature appear.
Usernames or Avatars cannot be affiliated with any company without approval from Administration. If you wish to use your business name on the forum please contact staff for more details.
Forum Etiquette
1. Please keep related topics in one post. That way, the entire storyline and related advice is located in one spot which makes it easy for other members to follow and offer further advice.
2. We'd also like to ask that you create a signature with details about your pool. Knowing the size of the pool, whether it is in-ground or above ground, what kind of construction and what kind of equipment you have is a big help to people trying to help you. Read a few posts to see examples of other members' signatures. To create your signature, click here.
3. Do not start a thread discussing why a previous thread has been locked or removed. A brief explanation will be posted at the end of locked threads and involved members may receive a pm on a "need to know basis". If you don't get a pm, you don't need to know.
4. This forum is intended for the AVERAGE pool owner and, as such, the majority of members are not particularly interested in deep, overly technical, or controversial discussions. They are interested in the day-to-day operation of a residential pool. If you have a need to discuss these topics, please do so only in the forum entitled "The Deep End".
5. Do not PM the Moderators with pool care questions. You will be helped more quickly by posting your question in the correct forum where our experts and experienced members can assist you with your problem.
6. Please do not answer posts that haven't had any activity in more than a year (unless you are updating your own topic). Usually the issue has been resolved even if that is not reflected in the thread. If you have a question for the originator of the thread send it by pm instead.
7. Do not hijack by attaching your question onto someone's thread. Start your own even if the topic is directly related. Then answers intended for you will not be confused with answers intended for someone else.
8. Please follow the conventions of writing when creating your posts by using punctuation as needed, breaking up long blocks of text into paragraphs, and using proper capitalization. Please proof read and spell check your message before posting it to the forum. Do not type in all caps or all lower case as this makes your post more difficult to read.
Disclaimer
Please remember that we are not responsible for any messages posted. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of the management. Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact any of the site moderators or admins immediately. We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary. You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this BB to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violate any law. You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this BB.
