These are the general rules and Terms Of Services (T.O.S.) that apply everywhere on the High Desert Geocachers website, including the blog page, forum, and any sub domains. The Rules are meant for us all to enjoy our stay here and to make it as useful as possible. Please read the following and become familiar with them.
By becoming a member of the High Desert Geocachers (HDG) web site, you agree to the following rules.

Forum rules :

a. Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting.
b. Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated. Posts or comments about Religion, Race, Sexual Preference, or Political stance, are not permitted. Such post or comments will be deleted and a warning/ban could result.
c. Members are asked to not act as “back seat moderators”. If members note an issue which contravenes something in this policy document they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a member of the Moderator Team by sending a detailed report using the link in the topics. Please do not respond to such topics yourself.
d. Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning, or possible ban.
e. Members should remember they are responsible for what they write. Slandering is not acceptable. Anything close to defamatory content will not be tolerated.
f. Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc.
g. Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline () image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to, is not allowed.
h. Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstances. This includes offering hosting services, installation services, solicitation etc. Recruiting of any sort (moderators, designers, professional MOD work etc.), be it for paid or unpaid jobs, is not permitted either. Members though, are welcome to use the PM system to meet further. Users posting spam will be warned and their post removed
i. The Moderators reserve the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is considered as indecent, vulgar, spam, defamatory content etc. as noted in these rules is up to the Moderators.
j. The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revocation of private messaging.

Avatars :
a. Users are permitted to utilize a gallery avatar or to link to one of their own (subject to previous points on misuse of bandwidth).
b. Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, and so forth.
c. Users abusing these rules may lose their avatar privileges.

Linking offsite and Spam Policy :
a. Linking offsite is allowed. Linking to pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning, or possible ban.
b. Spam will not be tolerated. HDG will not tolerate any automated posting here; such messages will be considered as Spam and deleted, as well as the related Fake accounts if any.

Policing :
a. Warnings : members that do not follow these rules may be warned And / Or Banned.
b. HDG usually operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences in a three month period. If the need arises for a fourth warning a temporary ban will be put in place of between 1 to 7 days.
c. Arguing with Moderators after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place as above.
d. Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact Admin. Your case will be fairly looked at, If he feels you were treated badly he will remove the warning. Admins decision is final.
e. Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account of evade an email ban. Circumvention includes posting as an anonymous user.
f. An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact Moderators personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent, vulgar or illegal material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.
g. Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While HDG may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurrence.

Disclaimer :
a. By using this site you agree Admin, and Moderators do their best to make sure no illegal, racist, offending or defamatory content of any kind is posted here, but they cannot ensure no defamatory message will never be posted and cannot be responsible for that. Any suspicious post should be reported as stated in Forum rule c, using the report link in Topics. All reported post will be promptly evaluated by the HDG Moderators which will then decide what to properly do about it.
b. HighDesertGeocachers.com nor any related domains or related legal entity or related person can be responsible for (1) any content generated by HDG users/members or (2) content that exists through any links posted on the HDG website.