Forum Rules

 Why have Rules?

The ExplorOz Forum is a unique community of users, including passionate and experienced outback travellers with great knowledge of the logistics and risks in touring Australia; to newbies that are just starting out their research about buying new gear to get involved in this recreation.

The sheer volume of posts already within the system (dating back to the year 2000) and the ongoing volume of daily readers is a testament to the knowledgebase contained within. The ExplorOz site has over 40,000 registered users and typically 1000 users will be online at any time of day. One of the reasons for its success is due to the speed of reply that adequately answers a question posted into this Forum.

To facilitate the speed of response, we do not screen posts before they appear on the Forum, and due to the dynamic nature and the sheer volume of posts, moderators can not and do not read every post. This means the bulk of the resonsbility for maintaining a friendly Forum lies with you, the user. We encourage users to express their opinions but likewise respect for others needs to be maintained to ensure that people are not insulted, abused or defamed - these are all alienating activities that serve no positive purpose in our Forum.

One of the disadvantages of giving the public access to create a free flow of ideas and opinions with strangers, using only the written word, is that normal methods for communication and comprehension (such as non-verbal cues and body language) are not included. Likewise, poor grammar or hastily typed sentences can make comprehension difficult, which can quickly lead to misunderstandings.

To minimse misunderstandings and to maintain a polite and professional atmosphere we have a set of Forum Rules to govern and control the manner in which the Forum is used by all. There are also legal ramifications that can arise from Forum posts so these rules serve to protect you.

 Quick Rules Summary

• No Personal Attacks - no abuse, or insults.


• No Foul Language - no swearing, or covert swearing


• No Trolling


• No Inappropriate or Illegal Material - see Site Terms of Use.


• No "For Sale" or "Wanted to Buy" - use our Trader for these messages


• No Advertising/Self-Promotion - see options within our Business Membership program


• No Spamming


• No Defamatory comments


• No Complaints about Moderation


• No Chit Chat - send an MM instead


• No Off Topic Posts - keep your posts relevant


• No more than 1 Friday Funny post, and only on Fridays

 The Personal Attack Rule

Abuse, insults and personal attacks directed at other people, particularly other ExplorOz users, or Forum moderators, are unacceptable. There is no grey area in what is a personal attack - it is when a negative statement is directed towards another person.

This rule applies to accusations, for example that someone is trolling or that they are involved in viral marketing. Use the moderator alert button and send your comment/complaint to a moderator to investiage and SAY NOTHING in public. If you disagree with someone on a point, do not resort to name calling or personal attacks, rather argue the merits of their points.

The rule also applies to any person, company, club, or organisation/group outside of ExplorOz that implicates ExplorOz in any way that could put us in legal trouble. See the Defamation Rule.

 The Foul Language Rule

The use of foul language on the ExplorOz Forum is unacceptable. All users should respect that people of all ages can read and post, from any location (work, home, school etc). To prevent the major heavy weight swear words from ever appearing, the ExplorOz system has an automatic filter for a set of the most inappropriate swear words, auto-replacing them with bleep. Intentionally trying to bypass the swear filter (or bleepometa as its sometimes refered to) is considered a breach of the foul language rule (eg. removing a letter from a swear word and replacing it with an * or some other letter or symbol to retain contexual understanding). Swearing in another language is also unacceptable. Not that content containing lesser swear words will not normally be moderated provided the words are used sparingly and the content is otherwise on topic and useful. Be warned that non-swear insults (eg. fool, idiot) may be moderated under the Personal Attack rule. It is all about the context in which it is used.

 The Trolling Rule

Trolling is the activity of a person who posts with the sole purpose to incite controversy, conflict, cause annoyance or offence. Trolling is unacceptable on the ExplorOz Forum.

 The Innappropriate Rule

Posts that are unnecessarily repeated, new posts created on the same topic as an existing active post, new posts created to say thank you, suggestions to openly debate issues that should be dealt with directly with ExplorOz staff such as Forum operations, or any such instance where the moderators decide that the post interrupts the normal flow of the Forum shall be deemed "inappropriate".

The determination of what constitutes an "inappropriate" post lies with the moderators. External and subjective factors may alter individual views and the moderators' decision is final.

Furthermore, as stated in the Site Terms of Use, within the Communications Facilities section, it is a condition of your use of the site that you will not post or transmit any unlawful, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information or material of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable law. This means you are also restricted from posting or transmitting any material of any kind which violates or infringes upon the rights of any other person, including material which is an invasion of any privacy or publicity rights or which is protected by copyright, trademark or any other proprietary right, or derivative works with respect thereto, without first obtaining permission from the owner or relevant right holder.

 For Sale/Wanted to Buy Rule

The ExplorOz site offers a specific facility for users to post For Sale and Wanted to Buy notices. This facility is The Trader. Your Profile will automatically contain links to any Trader Listings you create - this enables Forum readers to instantly browse your Trader ads without you pointing them to it.

 The Advertising/Self-Promotion Rule

The ExplorOz website is funded mostly by the advertising fee we collect from businesses that place advertising on the site. For this reason, it is highy inappropriate for any person, business or company to use the Forum to gain free publicity via the posting of threads. We acknowledge that the Forum audience may represent the ideal audience for you to gain either R&R insights, feedback, or even brand awareness however this can be achieved by our carefully constructed campaign offerings (fees apply). Please refer to the Advertise with Us page where you can download various documents and take links to pages for further information.

There are some conditions under which we will allow a certain level of business-consumer interaction in the ExplorOz Forum. These are:

• A representative of any business may respond to any direct questions regarding the products and services they offer (but only if the user mentions your company or unique product/service)


• Our clients (Business Members) are provided with a Profile for using the site that includes a Forum Footer containing their logo, contact details and links. Provided the post entered by the Business Member is appropriate and does not breach any of our Rules, then their post (containing this promotional footer) is allowed. Business Members are NOT allowed to create new threads which are in any way related to their products or services.


• If a user wishes to contact you, or requests you to contact them, then feel free to do so.

 The Spamming Rule

Persons who create electronic spam are called spammers. Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited messages. Spamming on the ExplorOz Forum is unacceptable.

 The Defamation Rule

On ExplorOz, we aim to protect individuals and businesses alike from the threat of defamation and our moderators will use their discretion to remove posts that could potentially be viewed as such. Note that our Moderators are volunteers and whilst all care is taken we do not guarantee to review every post. Anyone who feels they have been defamed, or they believe a post contains defamatory information about another person, should send a Moderator Alert to ensure the post is reviewed.

 The Moderation Complaints Rule

Quite simply, if your post has been moderated, or you disagree with the fact that someone else's post was moderated, don't make things worse and whinge about it on the Forum. Check the reason why the post was removed, read the applicable rule and learn from the situation. If you are upset over the handling of a moderated post, respond to the moderator and state your case politely. If you retaliate with threats, you will simply be ignored or banned for a period of time. See our Legal Threats Policy.

 The Chit Chat Rule

The ExplorOz Forum is a public medium - it is not a chat room for a few buddies to have covert conversations that only mean something to a few in the know. This type of communication is alienating, and inappropriate for the Forum. That said, ExplorOz does offer a private off-Forum messaging system called Member Messaging (MM). If you wish to have a private chat with someone, or with a few select people then please send an MM to the person with whom you wish to communicate. You will need to purchase a Membership Subscription to utilise this feature.

 The Off Topic Rule

The Forum should only contain posts that relate to the ExplorOz topic. ExplorOz represents the promotion of Australian destinations; we respect and encourage people to learn of its history of exploration, pioneering, and development and to learn of its fragile and harsh environments. We encourage people to explore its many regions via all manner of recreational/hobby pursuits such as camping, caravanning, 4WDriving, boating, fishing, hiking, cycling, photography, and fossicking. We also encourage consideration of the often complex issues of itineraries & planning, vehicle choices, navigation, fuel prices, road conditions and safety precautions to necessitate that travel including family and schooling issues along with pets, permits and state legislations governing modes of transport, insurance, road rules and so on. As a guide, the list shown under the Articles tab is an outline to the types of information that is core to ExplorOz but quite clearly, there is an almost infinite array of issues that can be discussed "on topic".

By having an Off Topic rule, we are really saying that we don't want our Forum to be used as an open venue for people to create pointless posts, unrelated jokes, posts about politics, religion, football, work, your private home life, or posts with links to other Forums, photos or newspaper articles on unrelated topics etc.

We do however, offer our Members the ability to create and publish a Blog - the topic of these is totally unrestricted as these fall outside the bounds of the Forum Rules.

 The Friday Funny Rule

As an end of week treat, every Friday (system time) we allow ONE post to be titled "Friday Funnies", to which people may add as many jokes as they like as Replies. However, if you post a thread of this nature before Friday (system time) it will be considered a breach of this rule, as will any attempt to create multiple joke threads on the same Friday. A little leniency is given to our Inappropriate and Foul Language Rules so as not to spoil the delivery of a joke or punch line so you are advised to avoid opening this post if feel you might be offended by such comments. That said, the moderators have the final say and may remove any part or whole of any Friday Funny post if it is felt warrranted for any reason whatsoever.

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ss--ss : 17 Jan 10 15:08

ModSquad : 10 Jan 10 15:05

Member - Dennis P (Scotland) : 29 Oct 08 21:56