Overview

In order to maintain Lurking Glass, protect our members, and legally insulate ourselves it is necessary to have these rules. Most of them are common sense, but we've learned from experience that not everyone is in possession of that. Thus you'll have to forgive the meticulous spelling out of law, as it is not here to oppress but instead to ensure your smooth and painless usage of Lurking Glass.

Flooding

Don't post random, meaningless content. Especially not multiple times, in quick succession. Some people call this spamming. But flooding is a more descriptive and applicable term as the result of flooding is to push valuable content out of the view of Lurking Glass members by filling the site with worthless crap.

There is never an excuse for flooding, and it will be dealt with harshly and with the utmost swiftness. The first offense will result in a week long ban, the next offense will be your last.

Harassment/Cyber-Bullying

Harassment is a difficult issue due to its subjective nature. In order to be as fair as possible to all parties, harassment accusations are handled as follows:

1. If you feel someone is bothering, harassing, or stalking you, please use Lurking Glass' ignore/block feature and do not reply or talk to the person.
2. If the issue continues, you may submit your complaint to the Lurking Glass Harassment Determination Committee. You must include links to examples of the behavior you are complaining about when making your complaint.
3. The HDC will review your submitted links and will watch the issue for 1-2 weeks. During those 1-2 weeks, you must continue to provide the HDC with links to all new instances of the behavior your are complaining about.
4. If, during the HDC investigation, you ever respond or speak to the person who is the subject of your complaint the HDC will immediately cancel their investigation and disregard all the evidence you have provided. They will assume you can handle things on your own.
5. If at the end of the 1-2 weeks the HDC determines that the subject of their investigation is in the wrong then they will choose the appropriate punishment. They will be able to choose between a warning, and a ban (one week for the first offense, permanent for the next).
6. If the HDC determines that your claim is baseless, it will be dismissed and nothing will be done to the person your complaint was regarding. All evidence gathered as a part of the investigation will be inadmissible in future investigations. A note will be made on your account about the baseless claim. If baseless claims are a frequent occurence from you, the HDC may recommend that you be warned or banned. The same goes for claims that are cancelled due to your taking things into your own hands.

SPAM/Advertise

You may not use Lurking Glass as a medium to seek commercial gain or promotion without cost. There will be no posting of advertisements, affiliate links, links promoting any website, unsolicited product recommendations, pyramid schemes, or any other such thing. Our collective dicks are plenty large (at least according to your mom), we have a great mortgage rate, our insurance covers prescriptions, and we already know where to find hot, busty college girls (in fact, some of us are). This is in effect for the entire site, including private messages.

There are some exceptions to this rule. There are a few, plainly labeled forums specifically meant for members to whore their stuff, sell their stuff, etc. These forums will have amended rules, which you should read before posting in them. Another exception is posting links to news articles, interesting sites, and other such things. These are allowed by members in good standing.

In general it is trivial to determine whether someone is a spammer or if they are posting something legitimate. Members in good standing will be warned on the first offense, and the post in question deleted. All others will be banned.

Harvest Members

You may not solicit Lurking Glass members to join your forum or website. Doing this in any manner whatsoever will result in your site URL becoming a censored term on Lurking Glass. Any attempts to bypass the censor will be met with a ban. One week for the first offense, and permanent for the next.

There is an exception to this rule, in that you are allowed to put a link to your forum in your signature or on a defined promotional forum, assuming the rules of that board are followed and that the link posting rules are followed.

Undermine Moderation

You may not do anything which undermines the actions of the admins or moderators. This includes, but is not limited to: re-opening closed topics, excessive reporting of non-issues, purposefully posting things where they do not belong, discussing of moderator actions, discussing banned members, posting links to discussions of banned members or moderator actions on an off-site location, etc. Depending on the severity and frequency of the offense you may be warned, the post/topic deleted, or be banned.

There is an exception to this rule. You are allowed to discuss anything related to moderator actions, admins, banned members, and such on the Questions & Bitching forum. You may also discuss anything you wish via private messages to an admin or moderator.

Hijack Topics

You may not post off-topic content in a topical thread. This includes personal conversation, random comments, etc. Topical threads often naturally evolve over time to cover more than just the original topic, and that is fine. What is not allowed is the purposeful, or accidental interrupting of the topical content with something completely unrelated. Purely conversational threads on the non-topical forums are not watched for this, and are only investigated if reported.

Slander

Put simply, you may not maliciously spread rumors or make malicious and untrue statements about another member. Statements that are true or that are your personal opinion will be allowed assuming they don't violate any other rules. Accusations of slander will be investigated by admins, who will also determine the appropriate action to take depending on the severity of the offense.

Advertisements

Lurking Glass is largely supported by our advertisers. As such, we desire to maintain good relationships with them in a mutually beneficial way. We also strive to display unobtrusive ads which are targeted based on the content of Lurking Glass.

You may not interfere in any way with the delivery or display of the advertisements on Lurking Glass. Doing so damages our relationship with the advertisers and lowers our income. This includes profile modifications designed to obscure or hide the ads, browser plug-ins used to block the ads, and any other method, software, or device designed to block or disable advertisements.

If you wish to whitelist Lurking Glass and our advertisers you can do so by whitelisting lurkingglass.com and adbrite.com.

User-Content Usage

By uploading, posting, or otherwise making content (photos, text, video, etc) available via Lurking Glass you grant Lurking Glass a non-exclusive, irrevocable, permanent license to display, publish, print, archive, and profit from the use of the content.

This applies to all content on Lurking Glass, forum discussions, photo albums, attachments, blogs, and everything else.

When you upload or post content on Lurking Glass we assume that you are not violating copyrights, and that you own the content which you are displaying. If we are informed otherwise by the true owner of the content, the appropriate action will be taken.

Illegal Activities

If it is illegal offline, it is illegal online. Don't do illegal stuff. If you do, you will be banned. If you are suspected of commiting a crime against another member we will use all means available to track you down and report you to the proper authorities, likely offering a significant monetary reward for your contact information, contacting your ISP(s), your local police organization, the FBI, etc. You'd be surprised how quickly your online "friends" will sell you out for a quick profit. We will cooperate with all legal authorities.

Violate Personal Privacy

You may not post anyone else's contact information, personal details, photos, etc. Do so and you will be banned.

There is an exception to this. Photos that have been posted elsewhere on the internet are generally okay to post, assuming the person who originally posted or owns the photo does not object.

Account Sharing

You may not allow anyone else to use your Lurking Glass account. When people share accounts it not only makes it difficult to manage the accounts, but it puts your account security at risk.

There is no predefined penalty for sharing your account information with another person. Instances of account sharing are handled on a case-by-case basis. Some instances of it are harmless, and although we disapprove, those instances will not result in a penalty (Example: a couple who lives together).

Account sharing which allows someone access to areas or features they would normally be prevented from viewing or using are an exception. These violations will minimally result in the privileged access being stripped from any accounts used by the involved parties (paid subscription access will be revoked with no refund). If site or server security is compromised, the involved parties will be banned.

Signatures

The content of signatures is held to the same standards as the rest of the site. Violations will be handled in the same manner as if the offense took place elsewhere, and you may lose the privilege of having a signature.

Hacking

Any attempts to exploit weakness in Lurking Glass code or server, elevate your privileges on the site, phish passwords from Lurking Glass members, exploit XSS or CSRF vulnerabilities, cause any type of denial-of-service, or carry-out any other malicious act are strictly forbidden. Hackers, and would-be hackers, will be banned and reported to the applicable authorities.

Adult Content

Nudity and other adult content has its place. And, that place is on the forums in the Explicit category or in your photo albums. Please don't post content which is not safe-for-work elsewhere.

There is an exception made for nudity in art or for educational purposes. Such things can be posted on applicable forums.

Albums

You may upload adult content in your photo albums. However, the cover shot on the album may not show exposed genitals and the album name must give adequate warning of the explicit content within.

Blogs

Blogs and blog comments are subject to the same rules as the rest of the site.

Copyright Violation

Do not post things which you do not have authorization or rights to post. Photos or other content which infringes copyrights will be removed when reported through the proper channels. DMCA take-down notices will be honored in a timely fashion.

Minors

Lurking Glass does not allow minors (those under the age of 18) to register. There are a very limited number of minors who were transferred from Helldot.com. These accounts have limited access to the forums. Minors' usernames are flagged in yellow.

Minors are to avoid viewing adult content. Lurking Glass makes every attempt to ensure that adult content is clearly marked, it is the responsibility of the minor to avoid it. If our logs, comments, or posts, indicate that a minor has violated this rule the minor will be banned.

If a minor posts a photo of themself engaging in an activity which is illegal at their age in the United States the photo will be removed and the minor will be warned. If it continues they will be banned.

Minors may not post sexual or flirtatious messages, even to other minors. If it occurs the minor(s) will be warned. Continued violations will result in a ban. If a minor attempts to bait an adult into a sexual conversation the minor will be banned without warning.

Solicting a minor sexually or carrying on sexual or flirtatious conversation with one will be met with a warning. If it continues, you will be banned.

Donations

Donations are greatly appreciated, and are used to ensure the continued operation of Lurking Glass. Donors are rewarded by seeing less advertisements. However, donating doesn't buy favors or exemption from the rules. Donations are considered a gift and as such are not eligible for return.

Exceptions & Amendments

Forums or areas of Lurking Glass which have rules deviating from these will have an amendments thread "stickied" in them or otherwise have the rules clearly stated. In such areas, all of these rules are in effect, unless specifically contradicted by the amendments.

External Links

In places where it is allowable to post links directing to sites or content outside of Lurking Glass the following rules must be observed. Failure to observe these will result in a loss of the ability to post links.

• Links must not obfuscate or obscure the real destination of the URL. You may not use TinyURL or other such services.
• Any site which is linked to must be visible to the public. Meaning that you do not need to register, sign-up, or otherwise jump through any hoops to view the content.
• Links to adult material or material that would not be considered safe-for-work must be clearly labeled as such.
• Sites which are linked to must not have a significant amount of content which has the purpose or intent of undermining the smooth operation of Lurking Glass.
• Links directing to viruses, worms, or other malware are strictly forbidden. Linking to such things will result in a permanent ban.

Social Groups & Social Group Forums

Lurking Glass Social Groups provide a way for people of like mind, friends, or whomever to congregate. If enough people (25) join the social group, the leader can create a forum for the group. The reason for this is to allow easy discussion and interaction about topics which are not a part of the official Lurking Glass forums.

The forums created by social group leaders are not moderated by Lurking Glass moderators, but instead by the leader of the social group. Lurking Glass administrators can moderate social group forums, but will only do so if there is illegal or disruptive activity occuring.