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UKAPS Forum Rules and Guidelines

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UKAPS Committee

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UKAPS Team
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UKAPS Forum Rules and Guidelines

1. Treat others how you would like to be treated yourself. Remain polite at all times and avoid aggressive styles of communication. Criticisms are often welcome, but ensure they are constructive.

2. The written word can be easily misinterpreted, so carefully consider your post's content before submitting. Consider how the post may be interpreted by others, especially if the content is directed towards a member, personally.

3. Try to avoid ambiguity and make an effort to use correct spelling and grammar. You will likely receive more constructive replies if you put some effort into your posts.

4. Abusive language, swearing and being aggressive will not be tolerated. See Rule 5.

5. The safety, health, and well-being of livestock is always number one. Be careful when adding CO2, chemicals to your aquariums. Also, UKAPS does not promote any experimental practices, or any other practice, that might put livestock in danger. Practices that might encourage other members to risk their livestock will be removed from the forum.

6. A three strikes rule is in force. Any transgressors to these Rules and Guidelines will receive two warnings via PM. Further inappropriate behaviour will result in a ban. Obvious 'spammers' and troublemakers will be banned immediately without warning.

7. Any complaints towards our Sponsors should be dealt with privately with the sponsor via PM, email or telephone, in the first instance. However, in the interest of maintaining transparency, a degree of free speech and to educate other members, you should feel able to leave feedback on products and service. Remember to be constructive in any feedback, as per Rule 1.

8. Any complaints regarding other, non-sponsor suppliers, manufacturers etc. should also be dealt with privately with the relevant party in the first instance. UKAPS do not wish to deal with potential libel cases. As always, be constructive in your feedback about products/services, one bad experience doesn't mean it's all bad.

9. The Sponsors are responsible for moderating their own sub-forums, but the Moderating Team will take action if seen necessary.

10. The Sponsors are politely requested to post exclusively in their own sub-forums. We recognize that the Sponsors have a wealth of knowledge worth sharing with the UKAPS membership, so would encourage the Sponsor to post under a pseudonym username.

11. Employees of aquatic retailers are not to promote or advertise their products and/or services without prior permission granted from the Administrators. However, they are welcome to contribute to the forum as a regular member.

12. Any personal issues with any UKAPS Member, Moderator, Admin or Founder should be dealt with privately via PM. Public displays of aggression and inappropriate comments are not acceptable. Refer to Rule 1 and 5.

13. Please do not register duplicate accounts just to ask the same questions over and over again, in the event you have forgotten your credentials of your old account or you no longer have access to the email, just contact UKAPS, and we will resolve the issue for you. You can always use the Contact Us button on the footer of the forum.

14. UKAPS wish to operate under a positive environment for the benefit of its Members and the planted aquarium hobby. The Committee, Admin and Moderating Team reserve the right to edit/move etc. post/threads with this in mind. However, if the above rules and guidelines are followed, then this should not be necessary.

Rules for the Sales Forum can be found here: Trading rules for Sale/Swap/Wanted forum | UK Aquatic Plant Society

We thank you for your co-operation.

The UKAPS Committee, Admin and Moderating Team
 
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Hi everyone,

Just quick update on the rules mentioned above, they are here just to give a guidance to members so that everyone can have a nice and enjoyable experience and hopefully benefit from being on UKAPS and getting good results with their aquascapes/planted tanks.

We understand there are various levels of knowledge from members, but most are here just to get a quick fix on their issues and want nice and clear replies so that they can digest and try and apply to their aquascape.

No theory is set in stone and most are just starting points to get to an healthy stable aquarium, there are so many variables that would be difficult to say in any case 100% the problem is this and this will fix it.

It would be appreciate for those advanced users with more scientific knowledge to not to apply advanced theoretical ideas to a new member that just joined, this will just confuse the user, become frustrating for everyone involved including the moderating team. There are tried and tested methods that have worked for many for years that are usually recommended as a starting point and most of the time work but those always need slight adjustments to the user’s tanks and needs, not everyone needs EI, off the shelve products work just fine, not everyone needs 10X turnover, 1X is fine for the right scape and nothing is set in stone.

If you have advanced theories or different opinions that you would like to put forward we are not against it, if they contradict existing theories being promoted there are no issues with that, but unless there is concrete evidence that these work, do not start discussions on threads of members asking for basic advice on how to fix an issue as this can scare off new hobbyists who are learning.

Please discuss these theories on separate threads, if members want to join in these conversations then they can provide input and maybe some members can even put these theories to the test, so these can then become actual suggestions to members going forward when we know they work.

Many thanks and stay safe
 
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