Windstone Forum Rules & Guidelines

The following rules have been adopted to promote a clean, healthy, respectful atmosphere and to ensure that people are not afraid to participate, ask questions, and generally have a good time on the Forum. By participating in this Forum, you are acknowledging that you have read and agree to abide by the rules of conduct listed below. Claiming ignorance of a rule will not be considered sufficient cause to excuse a violation of said rules.
Violation of these rules may result in the removal or modification of your thread or an official warning. Repeated violations may result in a temporary suspension or permanent ban from the Forum. In certain cases, if a moderator or administrator determines the action is severe enough, user rights will be terminated without warning. Appeals to disciplinary action may be sent to John Alberti.

If you feel that a message posted on this Forum (either publically or privately) is objectionable, you are encouraged to notify a moderator immediately. If you are not comfortable speaking with a moderator, please contact John. The Forum moderators and administrators reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is in the best interest of the Forum community. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not always be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately.

Additionally, please note that Windstone is not responsible for the personal actions of Forum members.

• Any and all transactions and communications with other Forum members are entered into “at your own risk” and are between you and that individual. If you believe a law has been broken or fraud has occurred, please contact the appropriate enforcement agency.
• You remain solely responsible for any content you post. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this Forum, any related websites to this Forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries for any and all consequences of your actions.
• The owners of this Forum reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this Forum.

1. You must be age thirteen (13) or older before you create an account, or post any information to our site. This is a US federal law (the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). No exceptions.
2. You must have a valid email address to register. Provide a valid e-mail address in your profile and during Forum registration so you can be reached by a Forum moderator or administrator.
3. Only one account and username are permitted per individual. If you have more than one account, please contact a moderator to have your secondary accounts removed.
4. You may not post material that is false, hateful, discriminatory of protected groups, profane, of adult content, sexually oriented, or in violation of any International or United States Federal law. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this Forum.
5. Be nice to other people. You may not post material that is discriminatory, defamatory, degrading, abusive, belittling, hateful, harassing, or threatening, or that is deliberately hostile, insulting, or offensive (including “flaming”). Personal attacks on other Forum members, for any reason, will not be tolerated. If someone else posts an attack on you or another forum member, please resist the urge to reply, and instead contact a moderator or John. If you have a problem with another Forum member or the way something was handled, please contact a moderator or John John Alberti.
   • No “baiting”. Posts made to deliberately stir up negative drama will not be tolerated. Passive aggressive posts that are clear to decipher, even if they do not mention names, are not an agreeable forum behavior.
   • No “calling someone out”. Don’t post material with intent to “expose” other Forum members and the wrongs you feel they have committed. We know that not everyone can get along, but the whole Forum does not need to know about it. If a disagreement escalates to harassment, please contact a moderator or John. Additionally, you may not post the personal information (such as the names or contact information) of individuals with whom you are having a dispute (even if they are not a Forum member).
   • No posting negative feedback. This Forum is not the appropriate place for posting negative feedback or warnings about other Forum members or about off-site sellers or buyers (even if the feedback is true and warranted). A forum member maintains an off-site feedback list, so coordinate with the “Feedback list” if you have negative feedback or warnings to give (*). Note: It is ok to ask if other Forum members have had experience with a particular seller or buyer, but please keep the discussion polite. It is also ok to ask for more details in private (such as via private message). It is also ok to post pictures of a Windstone that was damaged by fault of the seller, but please do not post the seller’s name publicly.
   • No collusion (collaboration between individuals with intent to commit illegal, fraudulent, or deceitful acts, including attempts to circumvent the rules for this Forum).
   • No Harassment. In addition to other forms of harassment, it is also important not to harass, hound, bother, or “guilt” other forum members about their collections or specific pieces. If another member has Windstone(s) that you are interested in purchasing or trading for, and the item(s) in question are not listed in the Classifieds, it’s permissible to contact that individual once per calendar year to express your polite interest. Forum members must respect the decisions of others to ignore or decline such requests. Forum members must respect requests made by others not to contact them privately again about any given topic (including pieces for sale). Members found to be harassing others are subject to disciplinary action, up to / including banning.
     Exception: Due to the public nature of raffle winner announcements, members may not directly contact raffle winners within one calendar year of their win to inquire about availability. Requests to buy/trade must, in this situation, be made as comment replies to the “Raffle Winner Announcement” thread on the forum, and must be kept to a singular, polite request, e.g. “Congratulations on your win! I really love this piece. If you ever decide to sell or trade in the future, I welcome your contact as I would be interested in buying/trading.”
   • No using the forum for “Data Collection” to abuse or harass others. It is against our site rules for users to create accounts and/or use our site to contact others to gather information from them to be used in an abusive or harassing manner. What this means is that forum members may not use the forum as a gateway to obtain emails, phone numbers, physical addresses, or other non-public online presence information to then abuse, harass, threaten, degrade or belittle, be hateful toward, or unduly bother (etc) users off-site. While Windstone cannot police nor become involved in off-site activity between users, we strictly disallow members to use the Windstone site to gather information that will be used to harass one another off-site.
6. Respect the privacy of other members. Don’t post personal information about other Forum members (i.e. emails, addresses, phone numbers, passwords, other site accounts, eBay accounts, links to their online presence, etc.).
7. You may not post material with intent to discourage, intimidate, hinder, divert, or otherwise afflict any transactions (buying, selling, trading, etc) taking place on this Forum or elsewhere.
8. Don’t complain if someone else ends up with a Windstone piece that you wanted. Furthermore, you may not frequently contact fellow Forum members with unsolicited offers to buy or trade for their legally acquired Windstones, or to otherwise harass them about their legally acquired Windstones. See: “No Harassment”, above.
9. Don’t complain about the re-selling of store items. Re-selling is allowed. If you don’t want to purchase something at a higher price from a re-seller, just don’t buy it.
10. Concerns regarding off-site Windstone sellers, buyers, or transactions should not be addressed through the Windstone Forum. Instead, please contact the appropriate enforcement agency (i.e., if you have a problem with an eBay seller or an eBay listing, please contact eBay). An exception is if you find a Windstone knock-off or copyright infringement and would like to post it in the “Report Windstone Fakes/Knock offs/Infringement” thread.
11. Don’t use the Forum for inappropriate discussions, such as controversial topics, medical advice, legal advice, etc. (**)
12. Respect the copyrights and intellectual rights of others. You may not post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material and include a notice of copyright for the work in question.
    • Since this is a Windstone Forum, you are allowed to post pictures here of anything Windstone-related without seeking our permission. However, If you host or publish any pictures of Windstones off this site and in a public area, we require that you include the text “© Windstone Editions” on each picture, or include the sculpture name and the text “© Windstone Editions” in the picture’s description (i.e.,”Emperor Dragon © Windstone Editions”).
    • If you are a copyright owner and feel your work has been infringed upon on this Forum, click here
13. Don’t post pictures of repaints. Repainting a non-PYO Windstone is not illegal, but Windstone Editions strongly discourages it and does not support repaints as they create confusion about Windstone’s official products. We ask that you not post pictures of non-PYO (Paint Your Own) repaints on the Forum. Furthermore, you may not offer (for sale, trade, etc.) non-PYO repaints or offer to repaint a non-PYO Windstone using this Forum. Note: Repairing and restoring damaged Windstones to near factory condition and color is not considered “repainting”.
14. Keep your thread in the most appropriate subforum for the topic being discussed. (i.e., if you are posting a question for Melody, put your thread in the Ask Melody subforum. A moderator may move your thread it if is not located in the correct subforum.
15. Keep images in your signature at or below 400px on the longest side, and keep text within a reasonable length and at a reasonable font size.
16. Windstone dealers should not use the Windstone Forum or Classified Ads section to market or advertise their stock, or to post items that are “on sale”, “clearance”, or “reduced price”. An exception is if a dealer is offering an item that has been retired for more than 1 full year (these items should be listed in Classified Ads section).
17. We do not permit businesses to market their products or services here on the Forum. A business is described as an organization designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers. A single person can be a business. An exception is if you offer Windstone-related services, such as the services of an artist commissioned to paint a PYO (Windstone-related services should be posted in one of the Buy/Sell/Trade/Repair subforums or in the Paint-Your-Own subforum, whichever area is more appropriate for the service being offered). The occasional sale of individual, one-of-a-kind-items is also permitted (these items should be posted to the Non-Windstone Flea Market). If you are unclear on if you might be breaking Forum rules, please contact a moderator before posting.
18. Don’t spam links, especially to sales. Posting links intentionally without regard to what thread they are in, or repeatedly posting links, especially to those of items for sale, is considered spamming. New accounts posting only links or accounts created to clearly spam, sell a product, or promote personal sales (e.g. eBay sales) risk being deactivated for spammer activity.
19. Paid-entry style raffles are forbidden. Any raffles, lotteries or other similar activities that require the purchase of a ticket or paid entry in order to enter to win something are not allowed on the forum, even if fundraising for a charity or good cause. This activity is considered gambling in many US states and is illegal in many places. You may not offer paid ‘chances’ to win. However, free-to-enter giveaways are allowed within reason.

* A forum member maintains an off-site feedback list for the purpose of collecting information, both positive and negative, on Forum members and eBay sellers. Windstone Editions was not involved in the creation of this list and is not involved in its maintenance. This feedback list is comprised solely of user-generated content and Windstone Editions does not represent any part of the list, nor does the list represent Windstone Editions. Any complaints, questions, and/or problems with this list need to be directed to the parties involved and not to Windstone Editions.

** Inappropriate discussions include:

• TMI (Too Much Information) or non PG-13 discussions.
• Topics which are highly controversial. The two big ones are religion and politics. Civil debate is okay, but these topics nearly always turn sour.
• Requests for legal counsel. If you are having a genuine legal problem, it is never recommended that you discuss it in public (and in some cases might be illegal to do so!). If you are having a problem, seek a lawyer, an investigator, or whoever the appropriate party is. Requests of this nature will be deleted.
• Medical or Veterinary questions. If you are having health or pet problems, you are welcome to discuss them, but the advice you might find here should never replace that of your doctor or vet! If something is “wrong” enough with your health or your pet’s health, please do yourself (or your pet) a favor and see an appropriate doctor that is licensed to help you. If you have to ask the question “My pet/son/grandmother is sick, help! What do I do?” please reconsider posting here. Look up the phone numbers to your local doctors, emergency rooms, veterinarians, emergency vets, and wildlife rehab centers ahead of time so you will have them if you need them.
• Advice in an emergency. If some time-sensitive emergency is occurring in your life, please contact the appropriate authority (emergency vet, your doctor, the emergency room, etc). Never use this Forum as a place to turn to in an emergency!

*** While Windstone will remove any content claimed to have been infringed, beyond this, copyright claims between individuals can’t involve Windstone Editions directly. Your best course of action is to try and resolve any problems in private between you and the offender. Only you (and/or your lawyer, if applicable) have authority to act upon your copyrights.

While Windstone does not control the actual content users post, we do have the power to moderate said content. If you believe your intellectual rights were infringed upon by a user of the Forum, please send a moderator the following:

1. A description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed; (this is as simple as sending a link or image of your work that you think someone has infringed upon).
2. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Forum, with enough detail that we may find it on the website (including a link to the post in question will suffice).
3. Your address, telephone number, and email address (we need this in case you are making a false claim. See below).
4. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law (we just need you to say that you have not given permission for your work to be used in that way).
5. A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner’s behalf.

Any copyright claim you make is between you and the individual you are making a claim against. We are only removing items at your request. In order to notify the Forum member who provided the allegedly infringing content to which a moderator has disabled access, we will forward a copy of a valid Notice including name and email address to the subscriber or account holder. This is required per law in case they want to dispute the removal or action taken against them.