Community Rules

We have created the following set of Community Rules and Guidelines to foster an environment of shared values, mutual respect and trust.

These apply to any user contribution on any content using DotSpots.  DotSpots reserves the right to remove any postings or user accounts that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • You are responsible for any content you post. Where it relates to an existing user contribution or paragraphs and articles, ensure that it is relevant and will prove useful to other members taking part.
  • You are also responsible for copyright infringement in your contributions. Please do not post copyrighted material in your messages unless covered by "Fair Use" or you yourself hold the copyright or have received permission from the author.
  • Please be polite and respectful towards other members of the community, and remember that others may not always share your point of view. Disruptive, offensive or abusive behavior will not be tolerated. This is a sensitive area and DotSpots reserves the right to take action if requested by a community member.
  • Please do not use DotSpots for self-promotion. This can take the form of advertisements for your professional services, products etc. However, linking your blog content/URL is normal as long as the links are to be used as reference or add to the contribution as a whole.
  • Please remember that many members may not be native English speakers; keep you language simple and clear.
  • The DotSpots side-panel or pop-up widget are not designated for the promotion of commercial activities. Please keep in mind that dots are user annotations intended to raise people's awareness by enriching each news story with well-written, accurate and grammatically correct contributions. If the event that you are promoting does not add any value or is off topic, then the community will not find it useful and mark it 'off-topic'. Misusing DotSpots for advertising or promotional purposes will cause your account to be terminated.
  • Contributions containing harmful code, which causes disruption to the service, will immediately be flagged and removed, and the responsible account may be terminated.
  • Repeated use of DotSpots to make defamatory or commercial postings, offensive behavior towards other users, or any illegal activities may result in a user being banned from the community and his / her ISP being informed.

DotSpots.com reserves the right to change or add to these rules at any time.

Last modified: January 1, 2009