Global Site Rules and Disclaimer

Rules

It is important that this site provides a friendly environment for all particiapants, however we do require that users abide by the site rules. So please familiarise yourself with these rules. Report any offences to the administrators or moderators. Note that the rules may be modified without notice.

In these rules, 'content' refers to everything that users may contribute to the site, including, but not limited to: Text and links within forum posts, private messages and profiles.

1. Keep all content friendly, polite and clean. All content should be suitable for a family audience, and no content should be critical of other people. Abuse, obscenity and offensive content may be deleted without warning.
2. Content must not include propaganda, advertising or marketing for, by, or on behalf of, any organisation whether commercial, non-profit, voluntary, lobby-group, political group or otherwise. Exceptions are as follows:
   • Notifications of walking club activities are acceptable provided that such posts remain non-political, non-competitive and non-profit.
   • Information regarding products or services and where to find them are acceptable provided that the intent is solely for the benefit of providing information for bushwalkers (eg, answering a specific question) and there is no advertising intent for the benefit of the shop, manufacturer or other organsiation, and there is no personal connection with the product, shop or organsiation.
   • Other items relevant to bushwalkers may be explicitly granted permission by the site administrators at the request of users (so please ask first if unsure).
3. Political content unrelated to bushwalking is not permitted, either for or against any particular issue, party, person or organisation.
4. Political content related to bushwalking is restricted to the 'Controversy Corner' forum.
5. This website must not be used in any way which contravenes Australian law. Eg, using this website for the harvesting of email addresses for spam is forbidden.
6. New topics with large embedded images or multiple embedded images (ie, images embedded using the [img] [/img] tags) totalling more than 200 K (per person, per topic) must either:
   • be posted in the "Gallery" forum, or
   • include warning text such as, "(large images)", in the topic subject
   Replies to existing topics outside of the "Gallery" forum and without a "(large images)" warning in the subject, must not use large/mulitple images totalling more than 200 K (per person, per topic).
   
   This should make it easier for people on slower network connections to navigate the site.
7. No embedded images (ie, images embedded using [img] [/img] tags) should be more than 800 pixels wide to avoid unnecessary scrolling or images being clipped on common screen sizes. This applies to the Gallery forum as well as all other forums. (Even at 800 pixels, images will be clipped in some browser windows).
8. Attached image files can be any resolution but should be no larger than 1 MB. The forums will display these as 800 pixel (maximum) thumbnails linked to the full size image. The total size of the thumbnails should be no more than 200k per person per topic (except in the Gallery forums or if the topic has a large images warning in the topic title).
9. Signatures should not include graphics, links or URLs. Personal graphics belong in the 'Avatar', and personal links in the 'Website' field (both in your forum Profile).
10. Avatar images should be limited to 150 pixels wide by 100 pixels high and 20k maximum.
11. Make sure new topics are posted to the most relevant forum.
12. Use descriptive subject titles that give a fair indication of what the topic is about. Subject titles such as 'Help', 'I Need to Know...', 'Bushwalking' are not acceptable.
13. Keep replies relevant to the subject of the initial post. If you wish to change the subject, consider posting a new topic separately, and linking to it from the old topic.
14. When posting links to other web sites, comprehensive content should also be included directly within the Bushwalk Tasmania post where appropriate, such that the link is merely for additional information. If posting comprehensive content is not appropriate (eg, copyright or content not directly related to topic), posts should at least include enough information about the content of the linked-to page for other users to decide whether or not to follow the link. Do not post links to other sites merely to increase the visits to those sites, without adding substantial useful content to Bushwalk Tasmania. Other Bushwalk Tasmania users should be able to find at least some useful information in your posts without needing to follow links to other sites.
15. Please do not post anything to the site that would breach copyright (including photos taken by people who have not specifically given you permission to use them in this context). Please link to such items in their original locations instead. Anyone who posts items in breach of copyright must accept full responsibility for any legal action taken as a result. Bushwalk Tasmania will not be help liable for such copyright breaches.
16. Avoid posting detailed information on accessing sensitive areas without recognised tracks to public topics, but rather use private messages, email, or other non-public means to communicate such information instead. Feel free to ask questions about such areas publicly, so long as the post includes a reminder of this rule to get answers privately only.

Breaking the rules may result in one or more of the following, at the moderators' discretion:

• topic moved to another forum
• topic posts split to another forum
• an email or private message from a moderator
• post edited or deleted
• topic locked
• offenders deleted or banned
• offenders reported to police

But we will aim to keep it friendly!

Disclaimer

Bushwalk Tasmania is a public forum and therefore the information you read here must be regarded only as the opinions of the people who made those comments, not as reliable facts, nor as the opinions of Bushwalk Tasmania.

Nobody at Bushwalk Tasmania - not the people who post information, nor any of the site administrators or moderators - can be or will be held responsible for actions anyone may take as a result of reading this information.

Each person must accept full responsibility for their own actions when using information from these forums, and it is the responsibility of each person to do their own research to validate any information they may consider using from the Bushwalk Tasmania forums.

For example:

If you read some track notes on Bushwalk Tasmania then decide to use that information on a bushwalk, only to become lost because the the post included incorrect or insufficient details, do not blame anybody at Bushwalk Tasmania. You are the one that got lost. There are things you need to know before you go walking. One of them is how to navigate. Another is your own limits. There are many more things you need to know, not least of which is how to use your gear.

At the end of the day, we as a forum group are happy to make public the information provided here, but thats just what it is - 'information'. Whether it is accurate or whether it suits your needs or whether you decide to follow or accept that information is entirely up to you.

Contributed Copyright Material

Bushwalk Tasmania does not accecpt any responsibility for copyright items posted by users of the forums, and anyone who posts copyright items must take full responsibility for any legal action incurred as a result.