Terms and Conditions of Membership for the AboveTopSecret.com Message Board(s)
Your use of the message board(s) (and inclusive forums and video services) and any other public discussion medium hosted on this domain indicates your
acceptance of the following
Terms and Conditions of Use of the AboveTopSecret.com, ATSnews.com, media.AboveTopSecret.com, BelowTopSecret.com
website Message Board(s) and any other linked website owned and operated by The Above Network, LLC (from this point forward, referred to as "The
Owners"). These terms and conditions are subject to change without warning, so please review them regularly.
General Liability Notice: The open and real-time nature of the discussion forums makes it impossible for The Owners to vouch for the validity
or honesty of posts from individual members. We are not responsible for any messages posted, nor the consequences of reading them. The views expressed
in the messages within the forums are those of the authors, who accept total responsibility for the content of their posts. If you find any posts in
these forums to be offensive or objectionable, please contact administration or the moderators with the address of the post. If we determine that
removal of a post or posts is necessary, we will make reasonable efforts to do so in a timely manner.
General Warranty: The Owners will make every effort to ensure the proper operation of the website servers, website software, and the Internet
connection to these servers, but cannot guarantee availability. The Owners will make every effort to provide a free and open discussion environment
within the boundaries of the Terms and Conditions that does not contain disruptive, abusive, or threatening messages, but cannot guarantee that all
such messages will be found and removed within any specific timeframe.
Registration: When you register for our discussion boards, the only requirement is a functioning email address to confirm your registration.
Your board password will be sent to the address you specify. Your email address will also be subscribed to our email newsletter service for which you
can unsubscribe if you wish. The address you provide will never be shared with any other party as specified in our
Privacy Policy.
Terms & Conditions Summary: The below specific and itemized rules not withstanding, all members are expected to participate with the same
common every-day social graces used in civilized mixed company. Our desire is to foster an environment of civil decorum that enables our members to
discuss highly provocative and intensely speculative topics without concern over personal attacks or insults.
Forum posts, private messages, PODcasts, blog entries, videos, images, and other supported content that violate these terms and conditions are
subject to action that may include, but is not limited to, edits, removal, or account termination.
By becoming a member of these domains, you agree to the following:
1). Posting: You will not post any material that is knowingly false, misleading, or inaccurate. You will not solicit personal
information from any member. You will not use information gathered form this website to harass, abuse or harm other people.
1a) Offensive Content: You will not post links to images or use avatars and signatures that are offensive, abusive, distruptive and/or hateful.
You will not use images, avatars or link to images or domains that contain gore, mutilation, pornography or illegal
(2e) content.
Doing so will result in removal of your post(s) and immediate termination of your account.
1b.) Profanity: You will not use profanity in our forums, and will neither post with language or content that is obscene, sexually oriented,
or sexually suggestive nor link to sites that contain such content. You will also not use common alternative spellings or net-speak alternative for
profane words.
1c.) Intellectual Property: You will not post any copyrighted material, material belonging to another person, material previously posted by you
on another website nor link to any copyrighted material without providing proper attribution, as defined by The Owners, to its original source. You
will not use your postings on ATS to promote your own personal website or any other website with which you may be associated.
1d.) Cross-Posting: You will not cross-post content from other discussion boards (unless you receive advance permission from The Above Network,
LLC). You will not post-by-proxy the material of banned members or other individuals who are not members, but have written a response to content
within a thread on these forums.
1e.) Recruitment/Solicitation:
i) You will not use your membership at The Above Network, LLC site(s) for any type of recruitment to any causes whatsoever. You will not post, use the
chat feature, use videos, or use the private message system to disseminate advertisements, chain letters, petitions, pyramid schemes, or any kind of
solicitation for political action, social action, letter campaigns, or related online and/or offline coordinated actions of any kind.
ii) You will not use the discussion boards, the chat system or the private message system to collect or ask for the personal information (data mining)
about forum members, including email addresses and "real life" names, in any manner whatsoever, or for any reason whatsoever.
iii) You will not post, use the chat feature or use the private message system to solicit members of The Above Network, LLC on behalf of another
message board, online community or competitor. You will not attempt to use your membership to encourage or lure other members in any way to other
websites or discussion boards in competition with The Above Network, LLC.
Doing so will result in removal of your post(s) and immediate
termination of your account.
1f.) Relevant Content: You will not post messages that are clearly outside of the stated topic of any forums nor disrupt a forum by
deliberately posting repeated irrelevant messages or copies of identical messages (also known as "flooding").
1g.) Political Baiting: You will not engage in politically-charged rhetoric, politically-inspired name-calling, and related right-versus-left
political bickering while posting in any topical forum or discussion thread on AboveTopSecret.com. You will not alter political candidate names or
party affiliations in order to insult or deride the opposition.
1h.) Spamming: You will not post identical content, or snippets of identical content, to multiple threads in the discussion forums. You will
also not create more than one thread for your topic, or create multiple "slightly different" threads for a single topic.
1i.) Language: The dominant language of our users and moderation staff is English. In order to promote a smooth-running environment and fair
enforcement of these Terms & Conditions, you agree not to post or chat in any language other than English.
1j.) Video links/embeds: You will not embed or post a link to a video without a reasonable description of its content and why it interests you,
is germane to the topics discussed on ATS or the topic of an existing thread should you post it in a reply to an existing thread.
1k.) [HOAX]: In the event you post more than three items that are later determined to be of an obviously hoax, fraudulent, or faked nature,
your account may be terminated without warning.
1j.) Termination: In the event your account or access privileges are terminated for any reason, your information and posts will not be removed
unless there is a violation of these Terms & Conditions. Requests for voluntary "account deletion" and removal of your content will not be honored
without a reasonable reason, provided in writing, to the Owners.
2) Behavior: You will not behave in an abusive, hateful and/or racist manner, and will not harass, threaten, nor attack
anyone.
2a.) Identity Spoofing: You will not impersonate any person or entity, forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise
the origin of any posting.
Doing so will result in removal of your post(s) and immediate termination of your account.
2b.) HaXor: You will not use these Forums for the purposes of sharing or distributing viruses, licenses, registration information, software
keys, "cracks," or other information designed to do harm to or allow unlawful access to any computer hardware, software, networks, or any other
systems. You will also not link to sites that contains discussion of such material.
Doing so will result in removal of your post(s) and
immediate termination of your account.
2c.) Multiple Accounts: You will not create multiple user accounts and "talk to yourself".
2d.) Forum Gangs: You will not engaged in an organized collaboration with other members to disrupt thread topics or interrupt the flow of
normal collaborative discussion.
Doing so will result in removal of your post(s) and immediate termination of your
account.
2e.) Illicit Activity: Discussion of illicit activities; specifically the use of mind-altering drugs & substances, engaging in computer
hacking, promoting criminal hate, dicussing sexual relations with minors, and furtherance of financial schemes and scams are strictly forbidden. You
will also not link to sites or online content that contains discussion or advocacy of such material.
Any post mentioning or advocating
personal use of illicit mind-altering drugs will result in immediate account termination.
2e.i) Narcotics and illicit mind-altering substances: Due to abuse of the subject matter by some (promoting various aspects of personal use,
and discussing actual personal use), no new topics on this subject are allowed in any form.
2f.) Private Messages: You will not use the private messaging system (U2U) to send mass messages to multiple member accounts. All private
messages are subject to these terms and conditions, violations will result in immediate account termination. You also agree that "U2Us" (Private
Messages) are confidential. You will not post or publically display U2Us received from ATS staff or any other members, in any way, without the written
permission of the author. The Owners, at their discretion, may review the content of your private (U2U) messages when, and only when, complaints are
received from the recipient(s) of your messages.
2g.) Board Wars: You will not use these boards to organize "attacks" on other boards, blogs, or discussion groups, and similarly, you will
not organize such attacks against this board.
Doing so will result in removal of your post(s) and immediate termination of your
account.
2h.) Public Affection: Explicit or overt displays of affection towards other members seen by staff as being disruptive to the board are
strictly forbidden.
3) Content Copyright: By posting on this message board, you relinquish all
exclusive copyright privileges to the
material you post and you grant The Owners
non-exclusive, non-revocable rights to publish your posts in perpetuity in all forms. The
Above Network, LLC has the authority to decide to display your postings or not, and modify your posts to remove offensive material, modify your post
title to accurately reflect content, remove vulgar comments, remove insults or delete any other content deemed inappropriate, at our discretion.
Photos and graphic images posted to your media portal "My Pictures" and "My Photo Gallery" sections do not fall under this non-exlusive license
agreement.
3a) Content Distribution: You will not copy material from these discussion forums to post on other websites or quote in offline research in a
manner that does not comply with the
ATS Creative Commons Licences that specifies the
author's member name as a member of AboveTopSecret.com, includes The Above Network, LLC and the member as owners of the content, provides the title
of the thread, and a full URL to the board thread.
3b) DMCA Enforcement: By posting on these domains, you grant the agents and officers of AboveTopSecret.com and its parent organization(s) the
right to seek enforcement and legal remedy for any and all discovered usage violations falling under the DMCA and the Creative Commons content
deed.
4) Advertising: You will not advertise or promote other discussion boards, chat systems, online communities or other websites on
ATS within posts, private messages, avatars or signatures without prior written permission from The Above Network, LLC. You will not choose a username
that is the same as website domain, subdomain, or URL for which you are associated.
Doing so will result in removal of your post(s) and
immediate termination of your account.
4a) Unauthorized Marketing: ATTENTION MARKETERS: You will not engage in efforts of viral or "stealth marketing" on these discussion boards
without prior approval of The Above Network, LLC. If marketing activity for the promotion of any other commercial entity outside of these boards is
discovered you agree that you are responsible for paying The Above Network, LLC
$2.00 US for each "thread view" of the thread(s) in which your
marketing messages are contained. Your acceptance of these Terms & Conditions for joining these discussion boards signifies your approval of these
payment terms.
4b) Ad Blockers: As AboveTopSecret.com is provided as a free service, in part through the income of our advertising, you agree not to use
"ad-blocking" software or similar built-in web browser options designed to obfuscate or block online advertising while using the website(s).
5) Personal Responsibilities: At all times, you agree to remain solely responsible for anything found within your posts, images,
and videos and agree to indemnify and hold The Above Network, LLC, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by
any third party due to or arising out of any material you submit, post to or transmit through the message board, your use of the message board, your
connection to the message board, your violation of these terms and conditions, or your violation of the rights of another.
5a) Unauthorized Access: You will not attempt to access any protected sections of the message board, nor make use of any hacks, cracks, bug
exploits, etc. to bypass or modify the features of the forum software or to obtain information beyond the allowed features of your account status.
Doing so will result in immediate termination of your account.
5b) Cooperation: You will, if asked by myself or a moderator, cease posting any content, and/or links to content, deemed offensive,
objectionable, or in poor taste by the representatives of the message board.
6) Disclaimer: This website does not and cannot review all of the content of every message posted and does not accept
responsibility for the contents of any messages. We reserve the right to delete any message and/or restrict posting rights on the message board for
any reason whatsoever. Should you continue to post messages that violate the rules of the message board, your account may be terminated, your access
to the message board may be banned, and your service provider(s) may be contacted about your behavior. Furthermore, The Above Network, LLC expressly
reserves the rights under the law to take any other actions deemed necessary.
6a) Disclosure: The Above Network, LLC also reserves the right to disclose any known personal information when required by law or in the
good-faith belief that such action is necessary to conform to the law or comply with a legal process served on The Above Network, LLC, protect and
defend the rights or property of the The Above Network, LLC domains, or visitors to these domains, identify persons who may be violating the law, the
legal notice, or the rights of third parties, and cooperate with the investigations of purported unlawful activities.
6b) Neutrality: The Above Network, LLC provides a forum for discussing a wide variety of subjects, but does not endorse any particular theory,
opinion, viewpoint or position on any topic. Furthermore, though operating costs are supported by advertising and promotional revenue,
The Above
Network, LLC does not officially endorse or promote any commercial product or service.
6c) No Guarantee: The Above Network, LLC makes no claim or warranty, implied or otherwise, that guarantees the available of the free services
offered under it's domains; including, but not limited to, games, contests, special events/content, chat, and discussion threads.
7) Violation Violation of any aspect of the Terms and Conditions of use are subject to our
Actions for general abuse and violations. Or, in extreme cases, immediate
banning of your username/IP from the domains and/or the removal of your email/password from the database. You agree that, all disputes, of any type,
regarding any transgression or disagreement with the policies of The Above Network, LLC, the decisions of one of the Partners or administrative staff
are final.
8) Right of Community Management This is a privately owned discussion board community. The Owners and senior moderator staff
reserve the right to take action against any member who is deemed to be devoted purely to disruption, whose actions represent behavior contrary to
community building, or whose content is contrary to the core ideals of AboveTopSecret.com. This action may include complete banning of your username
and IP address. The owners of The Above Network, LLC reserve the right to eliminate or edit any content deemed inappropriate for the discussion
boards, news network or any affiliated sites. The owners of The Above Network, LLC reserve the right to establish limits on topics that may be
discussed if, in their opinion, the discussion of those topics attract an audience that is counterproductive to maintaining the ideals set forth in
these Terms & Conditions.
9)Term of These Agreed Upon Conditions By joining the website(s) governed under these Terms And Conditions, you agree to honor
these rules for so long as your account status remains active, and for 18 months after the termination of any account privileges due to violation of
these conditions or other guidelines.
Bill Irvine "SkepticOverlord" - Chief Executive Officer of The Above Network, LLC
Mark Allin "Springer" - Chief Operations Officer of The Above Network, LLC
Simon Gray - Chief Properties Officer of The Above Network, LLC
(These terms and conditions are subject to change without notice. Please refer to them often to stay up-to-date with our current board
policies.)
October 12, 2007 Update -- English-Only condition added.
December 9, 2007 Update -- Changes references to AboveTopSecret.com, LLP to new parent company The Above Network, LLC.
September 8, 2008 -- Update to political baiting section.
February 19, 2009 -- Update to exclusive license.
February 26, 2009 -- Update to section about drug-related discussions.
March 8, 2009 -- Several minor revisions and verbiage adjustments.
March 12, 2009 -- Addition of narcotics subjects restriction.
May 18, 2009 -- Several minor refinements added.
