IMPORTANT: Ausphotography is an active member of a global anti-spamming network. By registering as a member on Ausphotography, you agree that if you place Spam on Ausphotography, any/all all information recorded about you and held on the site databases, can be provided to the anti-spamming network, by the Ausphotography administrators or moderators. You will also be banned immediately and permanently from Ausphotography. We reserve the right to refuse or remove any member from Ausphotography, with or without reason. Ausphotography is privately owned and membership of the site is not a Right.
CREATING AN ACCOUNT ON AUSPHOTOGRAPHY
[1] Members are required to provide a user name, password and valid email address, and are entitled to only one account. User names must not contain swearing, sexual, or sexually suggestive wording, offensive words or any wording that could be taken to represent another person, or identity, including but not limited to user names that could be construed as identity theft or misrepresentation. If the site Administrator or Moderators deem necessary, your user name may be changed, you will be advised if this is to be done.
If you have misplaced or forgotten your account details, do not create a new account. Contact site administrator via the contact us link at the bottom of the site pages and we will locate your account and provide you with relevant access information. Creating a new/second account could see your access to the site permanently removed.
Your username and password are your personal access to the site. Members must not provide their username and/or password to other persons for them to access the site. Providing your username/password to a third party may result in you being banned from Ausphotography.
[2] We require that members provide a valid and real location name, being your town/suburb/city name. This is a required anti-spammer measure. Your IP address will be matched to the location provided. If we cannot match your IP address to the location you provide, you risk being banned from the site.
NEW MEMBER LIMITATIONS
These rules have been put in place due to the increase in spammers pretending to be regular members, and posting promoting companies, products or services. As we have no way of knowing who is and who isn't a spammer these 30 days and 50 posts rules apply to all new members.
Members with Under 30 day’s membership and/or 50 posts:
[3] Are not allowed to promote or complain! Promotion or complaints about services/people/organisations/products/businesses by new members is not allowed anywhere on Ausphotography. New members are also not allowed to seek/advertise employment (either paid or unpaid) anywhere on the site.
[4] Can post a website link to their own personal photographic website to show us their photography. This can be a link to any photo hosting site (flickr, photobucket, etc) or a privately owned personal photographic website domain name. All other links may be removed. Links to and/or promotion, (even naming) of commercial sites, businesses, people or any form of commercial discussion will be deemed as promotion, and thus may be deemed spam and may result in the removal of your membership to Ausphotography.
[5] Cannot link to/post about, other photography forums at all (see rule 9 also).
[6] Cannot 'campaign' for votes, for events outside the Ausphotography website. Members who have been 'inactive' must also adhere to a 30 day restriction on campaigning from the day they return to active status on Ausphotography. Please refer to our competition rules for the regulations that apply to our competitions as they differ from what is stated in this site rule.
[7] Cannot use the Site Gallery, however you can view thumbnail images in the Gallery. All critiquing on Ausphotography is done in the forums, so Gallery access is not a prerequisite for posting photos for critique on the site.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
[8] Members should be treated with respect and courtesy. Members are requested not to insult or make personal attacks on other members. Members are requested not to make lewd comments on the content of photos posted for critique. Remarks deemed to be libellous, defamatory, slanderous or offensive will be deleted, "Flame bait" postings, identical or similar repeat postings will also be deleted.
[9] Threads are not permitted for promotion of sites similar to Ausphotography. Comment or reference to another site as part of an ongoing discussion in a thread is permitted, provided that the thread or post is not blatantly promoting the other site and is in context with the thread topic and discussion. This also includes using the personal messaging (PM) system to promote other sites.
[10] Strong profanity/swearing is not acceptable, neither is excessive swearing in posts. Use of abbreviations or symbols that can be inferred to and/or represent strong swearing is not permitted. We have a automatic censor in place to block many swear words.
[11] Posting any comment/post or answer that is: abusive, hateful, racist, bigoted, sexist, harassing, threatening, inflammatory, defamatory, knowingly false, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, promote/show illegal drug use or are overtly sexual are not allowed. Remember that children visit the Ausphotography website and some are members.
[12] [12] Your site 'signature' is for placing a link to your
personal website, providing information about your camera gear, or other general information. It is not to be used to place large text, photographs or images. We allow signature images to be up to 40 pixels high and 600 pixels long. You are allowed 7 lines for your signature and only font sizes 1 and 2 may be used in members’ signatures. Do not place your email address/messenger system email in your site signature.
You must not place links in your signature to sites that: (a) are not your own personal site (b) are other photography forums/websites
(c) offer photography services to other photographers as a major component. (for example, photography workshop/training courses, printing services, etc).
All decisions about what is deemed appropriate for members signatures is determined by site administrators and moderators.
[13] Commercial promotion/spam. Commercial promotion is not allowed on this site without an advertising contract in place. Any posts/threads/signatures will be deemed to be spam that directly promote commercial entities, products or services, where the poster does not have a paid advertising contract. Site administrators and moderators reserve the right to determine what we class as Spam or Commercial posts.
[14] Files uploaded to AusPhotography must not:
- violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including without limitation those governing pornography, false advertising, deceptive practices, or copyright)
- contain programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data, or personal information.
[15] All information that you disclose may become public information and caution should be exercised when deciding to share any personal information or discussing another person, website or organisation on the site. This includes providing your address, phone number or other personal information to another member. Please exercise caution. You are legally responsible for all content that you load to the site. The Administrator(s) reserve the right to access any or all content that you transmit using the site or that may be stored within the site and its databases.
[16] Posts/threads that could be deemed libellous or defamatory will be removed. Australia does not have 'Freedom of Speech' laws, so you do not have a 'right' to post whatever you want.
[17] Information regarding illegal activity may neither be requested nor discussed. Members are not to discuss/promote or otherwise disseminate information regarding any illegal activity. Discussion of any illegal activities – be they criminal or civil – is unacceptable. This includes requests for software copyright infringement, discussion or promotion of software copyright infringement, or requesting/providing access to serial number generation software, or download information regarding potential copyright infringement of software, but is not limited to these.
[18] Members must not behave in a way that could be construed as an attack on the site. This includes hacking the site via back-end or front-end, DOS (Denial of Service) attacks and similar criminal attacks.
PHOTOGRAPHY
[19] Ausphotography has limits on photograph sizes presented on the site. These limits are 1024 pixels on the longest side, and file size is set to a maximum 250KB. Linked photos are automatically resized by the site software to fit the 1024 pixel dimensions, however the KB size of linked photos is not limited.
[20] Any photograph a member presents on Ausphotography, whether by uploading to the site or displayed directly within the site using the IMG tags must be copyright owned by the member. Breaching copyright is a serious matter with legal implications and could result in an immediate and permanent ban from Ausphotography. Links directing members to other sites, where third-party owned item(s) are displayed, is allowed. If you are linking to a third party's Art (photo etc) for critique/review/opinion, under the Australian copyright act you must acknowledge the author and title of the work, in your post/thread.
Use of the Free Site Gallery is based on participation in other areas of the site. Using the Site Gallery as a free hosting service and not being a regular active contributor to the forums etc, could see your membership restricted or cancelled.
[21] Ausphotography allows Google Earth kml/kmz files to be uploaded (attached). For security/privacy reasons Members are not permitted to geo-locate personal locations (eg. homes, places of work or other geographic locations that could be considered personal).
[22] Because our members are of a wide age range we have to take this into consideration regarding this topic. We will allow tasteful, mature, artistic nude photography, as long as no genitalia is visible, and the poses are not sexually suggestive. No full frontal below the belt shots. All nude photos will be heavily moderated and will be removed by a staff member if we feel it is inappropriate. The moderator's decision is final and we will not enter into discussion on the matter. Most importantly, the model in the photo must be over the age of 18 and has given consent to both the photo being taken and the image posted on a public forum. Photographs that depict, or appear to depict illegal activity, are not allowed on the site
TRADING OF GEAR
[23] Ausphotography does not allow For Sale and Wanted notices, threads, posts – this includes trading / bartering. Members are not allowed to offer items for sale/buy/trade/give-away/borrow anywhere on the site, including via the Personal Message (PM) system. We recommend www.cameramarket.com.au for your gear trading. We have a specific forum for members to advise others of items they have available on www.cameramarket.com.au . Please refer to the specific rules that apply to using that forum. The www.cameramarket.com.au classifieds forum rules. Your first post to the site cannot be a classified advertisement.
COMPETITIONS: (see separate rules)
[24] Competitions run on the site are voted on by members in a Poll to determine the winner. The results of the Poll are final and no dispute over the results will be entered into. Our Competitions each have their own set of rules that must be abided by. Competition Rules are located in the relevant competition forum. In the event a prize competition results in a draw, a snap 30 minute poll will be conducted to determine the winner. If at the end of the 30 minutes, a winner is still not decided, the poll will continue in 15 minute segments until one entry is determined the winner.
LICENCE OF YOUR PROVIDED CONTENT TO AUSPHOTOGRAPHY
[25] You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services provided by Ausphotography. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Ausphotography a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Ausphotography to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in site rules.
[26] You agree that this license includes a right for Ausphotography to make such Content available to other companies, organisations or individuals with whom Ausphotography has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services. Eg. Ausphotography makes content available via tapatalk (mobile device interface) and other such applications.
[27] You understand that Ausphotography, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Ausphotography to take these actions. Eg. Content maybe re-factored for various browsers or mobile devices.
[28] You confirm and warrant to Ausphotography that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.
LEGALITIES
[29] Links or pointers to other websites and references to products and services offered by third parties are provided to you for convenience only and do not constitute an endorsement or approval by us of (a) the organisations that operate such websites; (b) the content, privacy policies or other terms of use on such websites; or (c) such third party products and services.
We have no control or responsibility over websites or content maintained by other organisations, or for products and services offered by third parties, we do not assume any liability for your use of any of the foregoing, which use you acknowledge and agree shall be at your own risk.
To protect Ausphotography from legal action, any data transmitted using the site software may be scanned for content, captured and viewed by a site administrator; this includes the personal messaging system. Any member using the site for illegal purposes will/may be banned. The Personal Message (PM) system is called Personal only in that messages are not posted to the public forums.
[30] Requesting/Providing Financial, Medical or Legal Advice on Ausphotography:
Australian Photography is a website with broad topic coverage. However, when it comes to medical, financial and legal advice, it's always recommended to seek advice from a qualified professional, rather than asking about it on Australian Photography. As such, Australian Photography takes no legal responsibility for posts seeking or providing Medical, Financial or Legal advice. Members use any advice provided via Ausphotography at their own risk. The site owner, moderators or members cannot be held liable for any Medical, Financial or Legal advice posted on the site.
ADMINISTRATION AND MODERATION ON AUSPHOTOGRAPHY
[31] Ausphotography Administrators and moderators cannot and do not review every single post, nor are we responsible for the content of any posted message. However, we reserve the right to edit, move, or delete any message whatsoever, which may be done with or without explanation.
If an administrator or moderator edits any post/thread, users are not to re-edit that post/thread and reverse, remove or change any edits done by the administrator or moderator.
Should you disagree with an Administrator or Moderator's decision regarding one of your posts, please contact that person or one of Admin/mod team privately. Publicly challenging a staff member may result in banning, regardless of who is deemed right. For example: a moderator closes or removes your thread. Opening a new thread on the same topic or to insult or challenge the moderator may lead to your being banned.
Should an Administrator or Moderator contact you requesting changes in your posts, your signature, your posting style, or any other comments, you are expected to cooperate completely.
[32] Under no circumstances will the owner of the Ausphotography site, Administrators or Moderators be liable in any way for any content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any content posted, emailed, transmitted or made available in any other way via the website, by a member of AP.
[33] If you disagree with these terms and conditions, you are able to have your account closed from the Ausphotography site, by contacting the Administrator.
[34] As these Site Terms and Conditions may change periodically, members should ensure they familiarise themselves with them from time to time.
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If you have any concerns regarding these rules, please feel free to
contact the site administrator for clarification.
