Discussion Board Rules

Expanded Explanation of enforcement

Who is Welcome on WVFARM2U.ORG
WVFARM2U.ORG is an online community for growers, farmers, chefs and other members of the community. Members are expected to be supportive of progressive farming techniques including, organic production and to support sustainable, earth friendly agriculture The moderators and administrators will ban disruptors who are opposed to the broad goals of this website.

People who repeatedly and willfully break the rules, or who generally engage in rude, anti-social behavior, will be banned. It doesn't matter if you are a fellow farmer, grower, chef, a long-term member of this community, or a donor.

If you have been banned from WVFARM2U.ORG, you are not permitted to log on again using a different username. Previously banned members will be immediately banned, regardless of behavior.  If you would like to appeal your ban, please contact the site administrator via email.

Courtesy, Personal Attacks and Respect
The administrators of WVFARM2U.ORG are working to provide a place where growers, farmers, chefs and other members can share ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Members who stray from this ideal and cheapen the quality of discourse for everyone else will not be tolerated. Every member of this community has a responsibility to participate in a respectful manner, and to help cultivate an atmosphere of thoughtful discussion and insights.

Do not post personal attacks, hurl insults or engage in name-calling against other individual members of this discussion board. Even very mild personal attacks are forbidden.

Do not call another member of this message board a liar, you are, however, permitted to respectfully point out when a post is untrue or factually incorrect.

Do not publicly accuse another member of this message board of being a disruptor, or do not otherwise imply they are not welcome on WVFARM2U.ORG. If you think someone is a disruptor, send a private message to either AdminJ or AdminAnnie .

Do not draw negative attention or arouse suspicion against to the fact that someone is new, has a low post count, or recently became a member of WVFARM2U.ORG.

Do not say that you reporting another member. You are permitted to tell someone that you are adding them to your foe list, provided that you actually do so.

Do not "stalk" another member from one discussion thread to another. Do not follow someone into another thread to try to continue a disagreement you had elsewhere. Do not talk negatively about an individual in a thread where they are not participating. Do not post messages with the purpose of  picking a fight with another member. Do not use your signature line to draw negative attention to another member of the board. 

If you do not like someone, please be aware that you have the option of putting that person on your “foe”  list. Just go to your control panel and click on “Manage Foes”.  Just add their user name into either friend or foe list.  The Foe list will block that user from you.
There are no exceptions to these rules.

You cannot attack someone because they attacked you first, or because that person "deserved it," or because you think someone is a disruptor. WVFARM2U.ORG considers it a personal attack to call someone an idiot, moron, liar etc…

Inappropriate postings

Do not post messages that advocate harm or death to anyone, threaten the livelihood of anyone, or otherwise harass anyone. Do not send email, snail mail, phone, fax, or other messages to anyone if your intent is to threaten or harass, and do not encourage others to do the same. Do not take your disagreements offline, and do not do anything to try to harm or harass any member of this message board offline.

Do not post personal information about any other person, even if that information is publicly available. Do not "dig up" information about any other visitor to this website. You may post the public contact information for public figures, but you may not post anyone's private information without their consent.

Do not use our message board for personal fundraising, for-profit advertising, or selling products or services (see Barter and Trade). We will occasionally make an exception in cases where the product or service contributes to WVFARM2U.ORG, provided that you ask an administrator for permission before you post.

Do not post messages that are entirely in capital letters, unless you are trying to indicate yelling or intense emotion.

Do not post messages with profanity, or messages about bodily functions.

Do not post graphic images of pornography, violence, gore, pain, or human suffering.

Do not post messages asking for medical advice or solicit donations for medical problems.

Stay on topic.

Do not post messages that are bigoted against (or grossly insensitive toward) any person or group of people based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, lack of religion, disability, physical characteristics, or region of residence.

Duplicated Topics and Spamming

Do not post duplicate topics that have already been posted.

Do not spam the message board by posting the same message repeatedly, or by posting a flood of different messages.

Inflammatory or Flame-Bait Discussion Topics

Do not post "flame bait" discussion topics these are topics that may be, too divisive, too extreme, or too inflammatory  or start a new topic to continue a flame war The moderators will delete those topics.

Restrictions: Linking to Other Websites

Do not post messages that give publicity to websites that have little purpose in regards to WVFARM2U.ORG. For example:  Do not link to political partisan websites, religious websites, pro-war or anti-war websites.  Linking to violent, bigoted or pornographic websites are strictly forbidden.

Posting to  various discussion topics.

Questions about WVFARM2U.ORG policies should be emailed to the administrators. Discussion topics pertaining to specific enforcement actions by the moderators are categorically forbidden. We reserve the right to lock or delete any such topics for any reason.

Copyright issues

Do not post entire copyrighted articles. If you wish to reference an article, provide a brief excerpt and include a link to the original source. Generally, excerpts should not exceed 2 paragraphs.

Do not plagiarize.

Bandwidth Theft

Do not steal someone else's bandwidth by posting images that are hosted on another website.  You must contact the owner of the other website to get their consent.

Do not link or share copyrighted digital media such as mp3s or DVDs.

General Rules
We reserve the right to ban anyone for any reason, to delete any post for any reason, to shut down any discussion for any reason, or to do whatever we feel is appropriate to run this forum.
The rules listed here cover the most common inappropriate postings, but this is not a complete list. We reserve the right to remove any post that we consider disruptive or inappropriate, even if that post is not specifically forbidden by our published rules.
All of the rules for posting on the discussion forum also apply to messages sent through our private messaging system, or by any other method of communication on this website.
If you think someone is breaking any of the rules listed here, or if you think someone might be a disruptor, please send the administrators a private message.  Your administrator user names are AdminAnnie and  AdminJ.  You will just need to go into your user control panel and select Private Message. 
The administrators have the final authority on all matters relating to this website.

Moderators and Administrators
Treat the moderators and administrators with respect.
Do not post messages that are rude, accusatory or publicly post correspondence from the moderators or administrators.
If you have any questions about the rules of this message board, please contact the website administrators by sending an email.

Use at your own risk:
Messages posted on our discussion board are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of WVFARM2U.ORG.
Any information disclosed on our discussion board becomes public information. Anyone who visits our website is able to read any of the messages posted here, with the exception of the private Farmer to Chef Farmer Forum.  If you would like to participate in that forum you must have been an approved  grower/farmer or a restaurant on WVFARM2U.COM. It is also possible that many of these messages posted here could be indexed by search engines, including Google.
By default, your profile is available to other registered users. You can hide your profile or online status at log in.  Simply click the box that says “Hide my online status in this session”

Any communication which you post to the Site or transmit to WVFARM2U.ORG or to the Site by e-mail, private message (PM), public post and/or other medium can be used by WVFARM2U.ORG on a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive license with the right to reproduce, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, perform, and display the communication alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed. WVFARM2U.ORG may use the information it obtains relating to you, including your IP address, name, mailing address, email address and use of the Site, for its internal business and security procedures.

WVFARM2U.ORG does not represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any communications posted by other users of the Discussion Forum or endorse any opinions expressed by users of the Site.

WVFARM2U.ORG, does not have a policy of checking the authenticity of messages posted by users of our discussion board. Use discretion when evaluating unsubstantiated claims. You acknowledge that any reliance on material posted by other users of the Site will be at your own risk.

Signature line
All registered members must select a forum username which will appear with all of their posts. Members are expected to take care when selecting their usernames, which cannot be changed once they have been selected. Do not select a username that could be considered inappropriate or disruptive to the community.

Members are not permitted to have more than one account on WVFARM2U.ORG.

Members have the option of including a short signature line at the end of each post, and donors have the option of uploading a small avatar image which appears in the margin next to each post.

Your signature line and your avatar image must adhere to the community standards for this message board. Do not use your signature line or avatar image as a means to disrupt the message board. If either your signature line or avatar image is judged to be disruptive, you will be asked to remove it or change it. The administrators have the final authority to decide what is considered disruptive.

Your signature line may not exceed 400 characters. This 400-character limit includes all characters, including spaces and URLs for links and images. You may have no more than one image (.jpg or .gif format) in your signature line at any time. This image may not exceed 500 pixels wide, 200 pixels tall, or a file size of 20 kilobytes. If you do not know if your image is in compliance, right click on it and select "Properties." You may not use any HTML code in your signature line except the special message board code for: bold, italics, links, center, and line breaks. You are limited to a maximum of two line break [br] tags.

Specific Forum Rules

Farmer to Chef

The Farmer to Chef forum is for approved members of the Farmer to Chef eMarket on WVFARM2U.ORG. Please show respect and civility to each other. If you are a chef that has had a specific issue with a farmer, or vis versa, this is NOT the place to air your issues. Everyone is entitled to their opinion when expressed civilly on this board. However, the moderator and/or administrators have the right to remove any posting that seems to be controversial.

Farmers Markets

The Farmers Market forum is for those who want to discuss items related to either setting up a Farmers Market, an experience at a Farmers Market, what type of product one would like to see available at a farmers market, how to make a Farmers Market more profitable. The West Virginia Farmers Market Asscociation Members (WVFMA) have a private area set up to discuss whichever issue they choose. This is a private forum that only those who are members may access. For more information please contact AdminAnnie through private message on this board for more details. Everyone is entitled to their opinion when expressed civilly on this board. However, the moderator and/or administrators have the right to remove any posting that seems to be controversial.

Livestock
Cattle, Poultry, Pork, Sheep & Goats, Rabbits

The Livestock forum with it's subforums are designed for livestock producers to discuss any issue pertaining to livestock. Some controversial topics, such as NAIS, should discussed on the Ag Policy forum. Certain areas of the livestock forum may offend vegetarians. If you are a vegetarian and are offended by the discussion of raising, breeding, processing, preparing livestock etc...please exercise your freedom to stay away from portions of this area. Everyone is entitled to their opinion when expressed civilly on this board. However, the moderator and/or administrators have the right to remove any posting that seems to be controversial.

Plants
Seed Exchange, Fruits and Vegetables, Herbs, Forest Crops

The Plants forum with it's subforums are designed for those who either grow commercially, in the backyard or novices. Please use respect and civility when discussing any facet of this forum. The moderators and administrators have the right to remove any posting the seems to be controversial, rude or out of line.

Ag Policy

The Ag Policy forum is designed for the CIVIL discussion of Ag Policies either on West Virginia state level or federal level. This is about policy NOT politics, you must discuss without a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian etc...agenda. Any reference to any political party, religious deity, name calling, etc...will result in deletion. Everyone is entitiled to their opinion and CIVIL debates are encouraged. Stay on topic, only cite reputable sources or more specifically the actual wording of the actual bill, rule, document. Citing opinions from other websites does not constitute citing FACTS. Please use proper etiquette and decorum when discussing policy. WVFARM2U will try to post the actual regulations, rules or bills on this website from the agency. If you have questions or would like to see a certain policy to reference please private message AdminAnnie.

Value Added

The Value Added forum was designed to help those who are currently in a Value Added enterprise or would like to be. There maybe discussions about commercial kitchens, how to get started, how to market products or anything directly related to Value Added. Please use respect and civility when discussing any facet of this forum. The moderators and administrators have the right to remove any posting the seems to be controversial, rude or out of line.

Barter and Trade

The Barter and Trade forum *****Please be very careful, this is the Internet after all. Only farm and farm related items will be permitted in this area. WVFARM2U is NOT responsible for any communication between parties. This is for TRADE OR BARTER ONLY. If you are an artisan or value added producer, and would like to sell your products online, then please register and create a free online shopping page (you should have a PayPal account to accept credit card payments) page at wvfarm2u.org. The ONLY items with which you can place a price on this forum is HAY or STRAW however those can be bartered or traded as well, WVFARM2U is not liable for any unfortunate bad sale. WVFARM2U can not help you collect money or product owed. If you have an issue with another registered user on this forum in regards to barter, trade or selling or buying please let us know by private messaging the administrators. DO NOT make a post regarding your bad experience.

Rules of this forum are subject to change at the discretion of the administrators or applicable laws.

Listing Restrictions: WVFARM2U prohibits the listing any Item that is illegal to, trade/barter under any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation including, but not limited to, the following:
• Alcoholic beverages
• Batteries
• Charity or Fundraising Listings
• Cigarettes
• Current Issues of Catalogs
• Contracts and Tickets
• Counterfeit Currency and Stamps
• Copyrights or Trademarks
• Counterfeit Items
• Credit Cards
• Drugs and Drug Paraphernalia
• Embargoed Goods and Goods from Prohibited Countries
• Firearms
• Fireworks
• Food (other than packaged food meeting all applicable federal, state, and local guidelines and standards)
• Government IDs and Licenses
• Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Materials
• Human Parts and Remains
• Links
• Lock-picking Devices
• Lottery Tickets
• Mailing Lists and Personal Information
• Multi-level Marketing, Pyramid and Matrix Programs
• Offensive Material
• Police-Related Items
• Postage Meters
• Recalled Items
• Satellite and Cable TV De-scramblers
• Stocks and Other Securities
• Stolen Property
• Surveillance Equipment
• Tobacco
• Used Medical Devices
• Weapons & Knives

Do It Yourself

The Do It Yourself discussion forum is an area where ideas, concepts and how-tos come together. WVFARM2U is not responsible for any misinformation or any project represented here. The moderators and administrators have the right to remove any posting the seems to be controversial, rude or out of line.

Sustainable Practices

The Sustainable Practices discussion forum is an area where users can discuss sustainable agriculture, building, "green" applications in household or anything sustainable related. The moderators and administrators have the right to remove any posting the seems to be controversial, rude or out of line.

Artisans Corner

The Artisans Corner discussion forum is an area where users can discuss anything related to artistic endeavors. The moderators and administrators have the right to remove any posting the seems to be controversial, rude or out of line.

The Moderators
The moderators of WVFARM2U.ORG enforce the rules based on the rules set forth on this page. Whenever a moderator takes action, they will alert the administrator that action has been taken. Should you feel as though your post was deleted in error or if you have been banned and you would like to appeal, please contact the administrator.

Your rights as a visitor
All visitors to the WVFARM2U.ORG website are here voluntarily. The administrators try their best to be fair, and to make WVFARM2U.ORG a welcoming place for growers, farmers, chefs and other members who like WVFARM2U.ORG and want to be here. If you do not like WVFARM2U.ORG, or the members of WVFARM2U.ORG, then we suggest that you exercise your right to leave.