The Bubhub Forum Rules

[BHCommunity]

Welcome to Bub Hub

Welcome to our online support community! Before you get started, please take a minute to read what we are about. Some of our 100,000+ members have put together the Spirit of Bubhub Constitution, which encapsulates it all!

Spirit of Bubhub Constitution

Our purpose
This is a safe, respectful environment to give and receive support and information from others who have had similar experiences. We’re also making friends and having debates, expanding minds, socialising, venting, and procrastinating about doing housework.

Our personality
The perfect analogy: we’re a woman! We have our ups and downs, and moods, but we’ve matured over time. This forum acts like a sister with the way we can disagree, support, care for, and laugh amongst ourselves – and every other interaction we can think of – and still come back tomorrow.

The recognition
For regular, committed members, there are VIP sections as reward for posting so often. There’s the VIP Trading section (to trade items between members), and the Marketplace (where you can advertise your business) which become available one you have 300 posts, and a couple of other VIP sections that aren’t talked about in open forum; they become available after a certain number of posts too. Also, the more you post, the more love and adoration you get from other members, and who doesn’t want that?


We also ask you to take a few minutes to:

• read our rules (below)
• check out our How To section for tips and guides to using the forum - here

The RulesOur rules are simple - please have a read through as we will ask you to respect them and abide by them.

Please post in the Spirit of Bubhub
That means not:

• making rude, insulting or attacking comments to or about other members either in posts or private messages – What constitutes insulting/offensive comments (link)
• posting comments considered offensive by the community at large
• revealing personal information about another member (past or present) that they wouldn’t want generally known (malicious gossip)
• being deceitful or creating fake personas purely to mislead people
• posting contentious or deliberately argumentative posts purely for your own entertainment (known as ‘flaming’ or ‘trolling’)

No Advertising or promotion
That means not:

• advertising websites or business services (in which you have an interest) in any way shape or form, including:
  o text or links in your signature, username or avatar
  o sending promotional/advertising personal messages
  o advertising in posts (including party plan, Tupperware businesses, self-promotion, etc.)
• attempting to buy/sell goods except in the official trading area

If you would like to promote a business service to your viewers, please view our advertising options page.

We understand that you are happy to recommend services and products to each other and that’s okay, but promoting a service or product when you have a business or family / friend interest in that service or product is not okay.


Minor infringements
We respectfully request that members don’t include the following in posts or personal messages:

• the condoning of illegal activity
• links to:
  o websites which could be considered competitor websites to Bubhub
  o online competitions, polls, or elections that are not part of the Bubhub website or from which you or a family or friend personally gain.
  o any site at which members receive financial (or other) rewards for referring friends.
  o any material that could be potentially offensive and or graphic (this includes links to jokes or YouTube)
  o eBay stores- the moderating team simply do not have time to work out if it is YOUR business or not.
  o general eBay auctions (the only exception to this rule are e-bay auctions that our members might find interesting or different e.g. funny/ abstract items up for auction.)
  o Facebook business pages- the moderators simply do not know who owns what page, so please refrain from linking directly to a Facebook business wall.
• continual complaining about moderation decisions on the forum
• “Too much information” – e.g. extremely inappropriate graphical discussion
• repeated ticker infringements – Ticker specifications [link to “how to” note]
• repeated signature infringements – Signature specifications [link to “how to” note]

Unacceptable infringements

• cyber bullying (extreme bullying, stalking, harassment, etc.)
• malicious actions that are intended to damage or impact negatively on Bubhub’s business.

These unacceptable infringements will not be limited to actions taken on Bubhub. For example: if you defame Bubhub in print, online, television, on Facebook, etc., or continue to cyber-bully, or stalk a member on other mediums, we can remove your access to the Bubhub forum.

Please note that there is a difference between feedback and genuine complaints, as opposed to downright insults and bad comments for your own entertainment, and the latter will not be accepted. This pertains to general posting style, including contacting moderators.



Rules for new registrants
New registrants who appear to have joined solely for the purposes of any of the following behaviours will be banned instantly. The ban will not expire. Bans will not be reversed unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances:

• previously banned member re-joining under a different username
• discussing illegal activity
• advertising or promotion (via posts, signatures, personal messages, usernames, etc.) If you would like to promote a business service to your viewers, please view our advertising options page [link]
• deceitful posting (pretending to be somebody you aren’t)
• posting purely to denigrate a particular business, service, product or medical practitioner
• posting hateful comments (e.g. racist, offensive comments, etc.)
• spam posting
• troll – i.e. somebody who joins purely for the purpose of posting contentious posts for their own entertainment
• registration IP address is recorded on spammer databases and similar tools

If you don’t agree with our rules and think you’ll struggle to stick to them, then maybe we are not the forum for you!


What happens if I break these rules?
If you break the rules (deliberately or not), our moderating team will make a decision on the action to take. This could mean a polite email from a moderator, an official warning, or infraction points.

Infraction points are like green, yellow and red cards in sport. You accrue points for certain misdemeanours. If you accomplish the difficult task of accumulating 10 infraction points, your forum membership will be revoked.

Infraction points do expire after a set time. The points and expiry period are:

Not posting in the Spirit of Bubhub - 4 points - expire after 12 months
Unapproved advertising or promotion - 2 points - expire after 6 months
Minor infringements - 2 points - expire after 6 months
Unacceptable infringements - total ban - no expiration

For more information on how infractions work, please read this How To Tip [link]

If you are banned, that means you will have accrued 10 points or more in less than a year. In this case, your banning will be PERMANENT and the timeframe for when points expire will become irrelevant. We feel that if you have broken the rules enough times to be banned, you will have received more than enough warning to change your behaviour before being banned, and therefore continuing to break the rules is completely unacceptable, and your access to the forum would be removed indefinitely.

Permanent bans will only be reversed if there are extreme extenuating circumstances.


What happens if I think somebody else has broken the rules?
If you see a post somewhere around the forum that you don't like or is against the rules - spam, advertising, insulting comments, etc. - you should report it so that the moderators know.

(include image showing report button)

Please don't retaliate in the thread, report the post that offends you and let the moderators handle the situation

Here's how to report a post. [link]


Our Moderators

The Bubhub Community Forum is moderated by a group of volunteer members. The Forum Moderators donate their time to ensure that the forum remains polite and friendly, free of advertising, and that forum issues are sorted efficiently.

Please appreciate that the moderators may not always be available to answer questions due to their own work/family responsibilities. If you do contact a moderator, please allow them a reasonable and fair amount of time to respond.

If you need to contact our office urgently, please see our Contact Us page.

[BHCommunity]

Some final points

• please remember that everything that you post on Bubhub is available to anyone with a computer and will appear in internet searches
  ​o if you aren't OK with your ex-husband, mother in law or sister reading what you write, then you need to think about whether they will be able to identify you (or just don’t write it at all)
  o please take care to not publish your personal details such as email, phone number, mobile number, address or Facebook ID on Bubhub. If you wish to send private information to another member, please do so via the Private Message system that is in place. Sensitive information will be deleted at the discretion of the moderating team.

• do not allow other people to access your account - to view posts, or to make posts. Your account is yours- no one else’s. If the moderating team believe that you are sharing an account, your account may be closed. You are responsible for all posts and Bubhub forum activity made with your account
• while we understand that some members create second usernames for the purpose of discussing something more intimate, or embarrassing on the forum, any member found to have created an alternate username for the purpose of conflict, stirring or deceit, may receive an infraction or temp ban for the deception.
• messages should not be duplicated or posted in multiple areas of the Bubhub forum. If you feel that your thread topic does not 'fit' in a specific area of the Bubhub forum, please contact the forum administrators who will discuss different options with you.
• Bub hub has a zero tolerance approach to cyber bullying on bubhub. The fact is, cyber bullying is disgusting, it’s weak, it’s nasty and it’s honestly worrying that grown adults act in such a manner online. If we receive information regarding malicious comments being made - either on bubhub, or off bubhub (referencing bubhub topics or bubhub members)- we will respond appropriately (options include temp ban or immediate permanent ban). We simply do not want members who think cyber bullying is acceptable- on our site. Members should be able to feel safe on Bubhub.
• while Bubhub is aware that many members are willing to help those in need, the internet is full of virtual strangers. There have been cases where charitable transactions have gone wrong, or have been of a deceptive nature. For this reason, any threads that refer to needs/wants of specific members or charities will be removed.
• Bubhub takes no responsibility whatsoever for any financial or charitable transactions that members enter into privately.
• Please do not place advertisements or requests for:
  o house-sharing, rent, accommodation-to-let, tenants or any other form of accommodation enquiry. There are other media outlets for this subject matter.
  o ‘free-to-good-home’ ads, ‘for sale’ ads or offer to take/purchase items.
  o Organising ‘testers’ for a possible product or business idea
  o positions vacant or employment requests. Looking for another family to ‘Nanny Share’ is an exception to this rule.

Legal Stuff

We reserve the right to provide any information to legal authorities if we feel a law has been broken by somebody using the Bubhub Community.

Members should not post or PM information that -infringes on any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity or other proprietary right of any party, constitutes unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, junk or bulk email (also known as "spamming"), chain letters, any other forum of unauthorized solicitation or any forum of lottery or gambling.

The content of the Bubhub Community is copyrighted in its entirety and no portion may be reproduced or copied by others for further distribution. You may not post information for which you do not have the copyright without the written permission of the owner.

The information/posts contained within the Bubhub Community Forum are independent views and opinions and are not necessarily representative of the Bubhub’s views or opinions. We take no responsibility for information accuracy or content.

The owners and moderators of The Bubhub Community Forum reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread/post for any reason.

We reserve the right to ban any users from our forum and its features. If we have banned you, know that there would be a significant reason for doing so. We are not obligated to give that reason or enter into any correspondence in that regard.

[BHCommunity]

Duty of Care

Bubhub is a public parenting forum - a place where we can connect with other parents, ask for advice, and vent to each other about our stresses. Often bubhub members post information about themselves or their personal situation on the open forum. This includes information regarding issues such as violence, depression, child custody arrangements and stressful moments they have as parents/ parents to be.

Usually bubhub members are merely seeking advice for how to deal with the situation, and other members, including professionals in the field, can give very good, well informed advice. Sometimes the posts involve concerning information - sometimes information that is concerning to other bubhubbers.

Please note - The moderators on this forum are volunteers, not professional counsellors or members of the legal profession. This forum is an open discussion area and the moderators have the role of keeping the discussions polite and supportive (and deleting spam, etc), they are not here to uphold the law.

PLEASE - as a bubhub member, if you feel that another bubhubber IS in danger or is behaving in an unsafe manner - direct them to the services that are available to them in their local area (http://www.bubhub.com.au/serviceshelplines.php ) If you feel that more needs to be done PLEASE ring those autorities (e.g. police) ... either anonymously or not, and give as many details as you have regarding the situation.

You, as a forum member should feel empowered to take any action that you think is necessary. All any authority needs is a link to the forum and the name of the member you are concerned about. Don't expect moderators or the site administrators to pick up on issues as quickly or as well as you might, we all spend time in different parts of the forum.