General Rules

Revised 9/11/13

Complete Forum Rules & Regulations

The staff at Dreamviews hopes to promote a safe, friendly, enjoyable, and educational environment for people to gather, discuss and share ideas that relate to lucid dreaming. To that end the staff will do whatever is necessary to ensure an open environment, free from disruptive people and discussions.



General Posting

1. Appropriate posting style.
Please post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". No excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly, do not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.

2. Keep it clean.
Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to an infraction/ban.

3. Outside Links / Advertising / Asking for info.
Do not post links to any commercial/personal websites, that advertise/sell anything. Doing so will earn you a warning/infraction and repeat offenders may be banned.

Same goes for a Facebook, SoundCloud, Wordpress, or any other social media page used to advertise/sell anything.

Linking to other Lucid Dreaming Forums, or any other place, that would take away traffic from Dreamviews is not allowed.

Linking to Lucid Dreaming resources is allowed, as long as they don't sell any merchandise, display links to merchandise, or collect personal information.
If you are a new user and you post a link to your personal site, it may be removed, if we decide that it was posted for a sole purpose of advertising or linkbacking.

You must contact the administrators and get permission before you attempt to post solicitations or advertising. Then it's up to staff's discretion to decide. Anything not approved will be removed immediately.

If you are collecting info for a book, news article, school project, college diploma, if you are making a movie, or anything of that nature, and you would like to ask DV members for a story or opinion, please contact Dremviews administrator OpheliaBlue or gab first, as without that you post will be deleted. Staff list

4. Arguing With Staff
Arguing with staff decisions in open threads is not permitted. If you disagree with a staff decision (whether directed at you or someone else) post a thread in the Talk To Staff section or send a Private Message to either the staff-member you disagree with or the forum administrator.

Starting a New Thread

1. Please do some basic research before posting questions.
The main site contains a great deal of information with regards to how to get started with lucid dreaming, as well as related topics. Also, many fundamental questions are covered in the Tutorials section of this site.

2. Use the forum's search feature.
If the tutorials and the site don't cover the material you're interested in, your next best bet is to use the Search function, as many questions have already been previously answered.

3. Post in the appropriate forum.
When starting a new thread please make sure to place it in the most appropriate forum. If you are uncertain about which forum to use, "General Lucid Discussion" for Lucids and General Dream Discussion for Non-lucids is usually a good failsafe. Please keep in mind that moderators may move threads that they feel would be better placed somewhere else.

4. Choose a subject title that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like "Help me!!!", "Problems", or "Read this". Be descriptive and users will be more likely to read your thread.

5. Do not post the same thread on several forums.
Do not cross post; once is enough.

6. Please don't "bump" your topic.
Replying to your own topic with "x views and no replies" to get it to the top is annoying. Try to have some patience: this is a bulletin board; not IRC. It may take some time (e.g. one or two days) before someone can answer your question.

Replying to a Thread

1. Stay on topic.
When replying to threads please keep in mind the original topic of the thread. We all tend to digress from time to time so this rule doesn't always have to be strictly adhered to, however, when others are searching for information they will likely become annoyed if threads of interest to them completely veer off-topic.

Oftentimes it's a better idea to start a new thread. Please keep in mind that moderators may move posts that they feel would be better placed somewhere else.

2. Avoid senseless and excessive posting.
Please refrain from senseless or meaningless posts. These include posts like 'Yeah...me too,' or 'That's strange,' or 'Cool.' When responding to a person's topic please consider if what you're saying is really beneficial to others.

3. Be respectful and tolerant of other users.
Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all! Obviously we'll use discretion in regards to policing this because joking around between friends is certainly permitted. If you have a legitimate complaint about another user, please contact a moderator or administrator.

4. Do not Necro-post.
Do not reply to threads that are not active anymore. If the thread starter asked a question a long time ago and he is not active and participating in that thread anymore, please do not reply.

If you have a question of your own related to that thread, start a new thread instead. That way you will attract users that are active and willing to help.
The administrators and moderators reserve the right to edit or remove any post or link at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, advetisemnt, etc. as noted in these points is up to Team Members and not users.

5. Trim your Quotes
If you'd like to quote someone in your reply, please do not use the entire quote, especially if it's long. Keep only relevant part.

6. Multi-quoting
If you like to reply to more than one post, you can use the multi-quote button and place more than one quote into your reply window. Use this instead of making numerous single reply posts.

7. Do not Double Post
A double post is multiple posts in a row by same poster, that can be made into one post, but the person decides to post it in two (or more) separate posts. If you would like to add something to your post that's same topic, use the "edit post" button instead.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN POSTING:

1. An attack on your ideas is not necessarily an attack on you. I know it's not easy, but please keep this in mind because this is how fights break out unintentionally.

2. When uncertain about being attacked, give the benefit of the doubt. Keep in mind how difficult it is to convey emotion over the Internet; unless it's glaringly evident that a poster means you harm, it's quite possible none was intended. (Not all of us like decorating our posts with smilies in order to take any possibly-perceived edge off.) Ask for clarification if necessary.

3. When replying to someone in order to express your differing opinion, show respect and tolerance for that user; if you disagree with him or her, state why. Do not simply denounce the poster and ridicule his or her ideas. Keep in mind he or she likely believes with the same passion as you.

4. Do not jump right in the middle of threads when you have absolutely nothing to contribute. Simply denouncing one's idea and adding nothing more accomplishes nothing.

5. Do yourself a favour and STAY OUT of threads where you know you will not be able to control yourself: for example, if you believe very strongly in God, then for crying out loud stay out of a thread that says "Atheists only." Also, creators of threads should be able to limit a discussion to a particular audience (which should be stated in the title); respect that.

6. When starting your own threads containing your own ideas, be prepared for dissent and WELCOME it; if you are unable to entertain the notion that maybe, just maybe, you're not absolutely right, then there is no room for discussion so don't even bother bringing it up.

7. If you feel you are being attacked and need help, contact a moderator or the administration.


1. Alternate user accounts.
Do not create alternate user names or accounts (alts) as this will earn your original account a temporary ban and the alternate account(s) will be permabanned. If you have forgotten your password or would like your name changed, please contact an administrator.

If you already created an alternate account, contact and administrator for help sorting it out.

2. Spoof account names / user titles.
Do not create spoof account names of pre-existing members here. For example, if there's a member named "Jason_biggs435". Creating an account named "Jason_biggs425" is what we call a spoof account.
Do not create accounts / user titles named after staff positions (for example, Administrator, Chat Mod, etc). If you have any knowledge of someone that's created a spoof account, please contact a staff member immediately and we will take care of it. Spoofing an account will result in an immediate permanent ban.

3. Name change.
If you buy a name change , please list your previous user name in your signature for 30 days in this format: "Known as [previous username]".
Violators might be automatically changed back to previous username without a point refund. All previous names need to be listed for 30 days, even if you made another name change before the 30 days are up.

4. Do not attempt to circumvent a temporary ban.
If you have gotten yourself temporarily banned, accept it and wait for your ban period to expire; users who attempt to regain access (via alternate IPs or accounts) will be permanently banned.

5. Do not attempt to hack into accounts.
Anyone caught hacking another user's account--even testing out a password--will be permanently banned.

6. Signatures and avatars.
The maximum image size within a signature is 600 by 150 pixels or 195.3 KB (whichever is smaller).
Maximum avatar size is limited to 130 by 130 pixels or 732.4 KB (whichever is smaller).

7. Post/Thread Ownership
Once posts (and threads) are posted on Dreamviews, they become the sole property of Dreamviews. The author of the post relinquishes all ownership rights of the post(s) once they themselves post it to the site. There are merely two exceptions to this clause:

1. In accordance with the Dreamviews Tutorial License, tutorials placed on Dreamviews are the property of the author and the author retains all copyrights to the tutorials. As of June 10th 2010, Dreamviews reserves the right to keep one copy of each tutorial published indefinitely. The copyright itself exclusively remains with the author.
2. The content of Dream Journals placed on Dreamviews is copyrighted by their respective authors. They reserve full ownership including the right to have their Dream Journals removed upon request.

8. Drug Policy.
Discussion of drugs is permitted except: directly endorsing or recommending drugs of questionable legal status, or legally questionable uses of drugs; posting realistic photographs of illegal/questionable drugs or tools used to take/make these drugs; and instruction on how to take/make these drugs.

9. Copyright infringement / warez.
Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc. or re-printing material without permission will receive a warning and their post will be removed.


DREAMVIEWS TUTORIAL LICENSE
The tutorials placed on Dreamviews are the property of the author and the author retains all copyrights to the tutorials. The author may use the tutorial and any information contained within it in any way that he or she wishes. By placing a tutorial on Dreamviews, the author grants Dreamviews the irrevocable right to keep it permanently published on the Dreamviews website. The copyright itself, including all other rights such as reproduction or resale, will remain exclusively with the author of the tutorial.

For tutorials that were written by more than one person, both parties retain full rights as outlined above.

Dreamviews staff retains the right to fix grammatical and syntactical errors, but may not alter the content of the tutorial without the permission of the author. Dreamviews also retains the right to add and edit links within the body to other tutorials, as long as the visible content does not change. Dreamviews may also add and edit links in the Useful Links section of the tutorial at any time.

Dreamviews has an obligation to its members to keep the tutorials within it accurate and up to date. If alterations are required to a tutorial they may be done at the will of the Dream Guide Team. If an alteration is made the editor must notify the author of the change via private message for them to approve or deny the change. In addition to this, the editor will make a copy of the original tutorial and place it in the The Graveyard. If the changes are not approved by the author, the original tutorial will be restored from this copy.

If the author denies the alteration then the Dreamviews staff must reset the tutorial to the one saved in the archive. Because of Dreamviews' obligation to provide accurate and complete tutorials, the tutorial that required the alteration may be removed from the tutorial list.

If a tutorial is to be removed from the forums for any reason then the original tutorial will be sent to the author via a private message.

Due to the casual atmosphere of the Dreamviews forums, information contained within the tutorial may be quoted at any time, with or without proper citation, within the confines of Dreamviews. However, outside of Dreamviews, standard citation to the tutorial must be presented.

If a tutorial is translated into another language, the original tutorial must have a link to it and credit the translator. The translator's name will also appear in invisible text under the author's name in the translation. The content of the tutorial may not be changed; only altered to make it logical in the translated language.

DISCLAIMER
All opinions, techniques, and methods posted at this forum are the sole responsibility of the author of said posts. Although we try to read the majority of the material posted here, we cannot verify all postings for correctness, efficacy, and safety. Please use your own judgment when following any suggestions that are posted here, and bring anything seemingly dubious to our attention.

DISPUTES
Finally, all disputes that arise from conflicts or vagueness in these rules and guidelines are to be decided solely by the administrators and moderators. If you believe you have witnessed inconsistencies in the implementation of our polices, or you have ideas on how things can be improved, please contact an administrator.

1 - Users must adhere to DV's General Rules in order to avoid partial or total loss of current points.

2 - Dreamviews will NOT tolerate fraudulent payments. Users who attempt to complete a fraudulent purchase of points using the DV Points Converter will be perma-banned. Such user will be e-mailed directly and will be granted access to the "The Island of Misfit Members" in order to appeal the ban. The user will have two weeks to appeal. After two weeks, that user will be removed from the IMM. In addition, Dreamviews will pursue legal action against that user due to fraudulent payments.

3 - The Community Hall and Points System funds are for the upkeep and the continuous development of the Dreamviews community. Suggestions are to be made over the Meta Forum. Any public behavior tarnishing the Community Hall or Point Market structures and features is considered a severe offense against the welfare of the community and is strictly prohibited. This explicitly includes the creation of accordant threads/posts. First time violators will be banned from both DV and the IRC for a week. Second time violators will be perma-banned without access to the IMM.

4 - Referrals will be tracked for duplicate accounts. Users who wants to refer people from their same household and/or people who are sharing the same Internet connection, should notify immediately any mod or admin. The staff will track these accounts as "IP Sharing" with IP Addresses and users names. Such accounts will be monitored closely for possible duplicate account violation.

5 - Any unnecessary activity, spam or incorrect usage of the sections of our community in order to increase points and/or achieve awards will lead to a partial or total loss of points and/or awards or complete exclusion from the point system.

6 - Users with gambling problems should NOT purchase the Gambling Access. Dreamviews will be not held responsible for partial or total loss of points here.

7 - All purchases are final. You will be required to confirm you really want to purchase a feature or goodies by clicking on a checkbox. There won't be a refund.

8 - Users who purchase a nickname change will be required to add, "Known as [previous username]" on their signature for a month. Violators might be automatically changed back to previous username without a point refund.

9 - Point donations are final. Once a donation has been made, the points will be transferred to the user who is receiving the donation. The staff cannot cancel this transfer of points.

10 - Custom name/title changes (both own and other user's) must not contain +21, racist, terrorist, politically/religiously offensive, flaming or offensive content. In addition, the following words are not permitted: "Dream Guide", "Mod", "Admin", "Owner", "Staff", "Moderator", "Administrator", "Banned", "Executive". Violator's title will be reset to the default title without a point refund. In addition, temporary or permanent ban may occur.

11 - It is not possible to reverse or convert DV Points to any other currency.

12 - These rules are subject to change without prior notice.

Infractions Info

Infractions log your history of offenses on DreamViews and can translate into a temporary/permanent ban if and when enough points accrue. Infractions may result in restricted access until they expire. Serious infractions will never expire. You are expected to understand and follow the rules currently in place. Failure to abide by them will result in an infraction and/or ban.


The following is a list of what will earn a user infraction points should they choose to break the rules.
Note: Infraction point values are dependent upon the severity of the offense.

1. Posting of Inappropriate Image(s)
This includes pornographic, drug glorifying, snuff, overtly large, and shock images.

2. Lewd Behavior
Includes all text/verbal sexually explicit content. Does not apply to dream journals.

3. Inappropriate Language
Excessive swearing. What is considered excessive will be left to the discretion of the moderators and administrators.

4. Insults/Harassment
This includes all personal attacks/insults and anything that can be construed as the harassment of an individual or group of people.

5. Minor Chat Violation
Spamming, inappropriate channel names.

6. Advertising
Applies to unauthorized advertisements posted on our forums. Spamming of advertisements will earn the user a permanent ban.

7. Drug Policy Violation
Discussion of drugs is permitted except: directly endorsing or recommending drugs of questionable legal status, or legally questionable uses of drugs; posting realistic photographs of illegal/questionable drugs or tools used to take/make these drugs; and instruction on how to take/make these drugs.

8. Trolling
Trolling is defined as any deliberate attempt to disrupt a thread.

9. Creating Alternate Account(s)
The creation of "alt" accounts is against forum policy. Violation of this rule is accompanied by a temporary ban at least.

If there are multiple members of the family registered on DV that use the same computer/network (IP address) then you may be asked to verify the existence of each member that any additional user-names were created for.

10. Arguing With Staff
Arguing with staff decisions in open threads is not permitted. If you disagree with a staff decision (whether directed at you or someone else) post a thread in the Talk To Staff section or send a Private Message to either the staff-member you disagree with or the forum administrator.

EXECUTIVE MEMBERSHIP RULES

1. Users must adhere to DV's General Rules in order to avoid partial or total loss of executive membership.

2. Users with a @dreamviews.com e-mail must not use his or her e-mail in order to send spam, scam or other unwelcome activity. Remember, with this e-mail you represent our community and you must behave properly. Violation will result in loss of e-mail account and temporary/permanent BAN without refund.

3. Each Executive/Executive PLUS 3-year Subscriber has the option to get one Personal User Forum. The Personal User Forums are being created in the "User Forums" section only. User Forums by Executive PLUS Members will be listed on top. The prospective names and topics of the forum must have either a close relation to Lucid Dreaming or Dreaming in general and must not harm the general welfare of the community. Either the forum name or the description need to state the name of the creator. All threads/posts of the User Forums are subject to the general DV rules. The creator is solely responsible for enforcing those rules in his forum and will be held liable in case of rulebreaks. In case of rulebreaks in a User Forum, the creator may - depending on the case - be withdrawn his User Forum without refund. The creator may nominate up to three users of his choice to become moderators in his forum. The moderators' approval is subject to the DV administration. If the User Forum is inactive, i.e. no new threads/posts within the last three months, it may be put invisible until reactivation by the creator. If the creator does not reactivate it within six months starting with the deactivation, the User Forum may be irrevocably deleted without refund.

4. The Executive Lounge is only accessible by Executive Members. The whole content of this forum including all threads and posts is to be treated confidential and mustn't be published anywhere or to any non-executive. Violation may result in instant loss of executive privileges without refund or temporary/permanent ban depending on the case.

5. User's chatname must not contain +21, racist, terrorist, politically/religiously offensive, flaming or offensive content. Nor should it be impersonating another Dreamviews member. Breaking this rule will count as any other chat rule break. Punishment will be more or less severe depending on the situation. For example, an impersonation will result in a steeper punishment than most other things.

6. The Executive Membership funds are for the upkeep and continuous development of the Dreamviews community. Suggestions are to be made over the Meta Forum. Any public behavior tarnishing the Executive Membership structures and features is considered an offense against the welfare of the community and is strictly prohibited. This explicitly includes the creation of accordant threads/posts. First time violators will be banned from both DV and the IRC for a week. Second time violators will be perma-banned without access to the IMM.

7. Uploading copyrighted material to the Dream Tube is strictly prohibited. Please note that Dreamviews is legally obliged to support copyright owners enforcing their rights.

8. The chat bouncer may not be used in a way that affects the server load negatively.

9. If an Executive Member is getting banned temporarily or permanently for breaking any of Dreamviews' rules, there won't be a refund of payments regarding the remaining time of his subscription.

10. The specific features of the Executive Membership subscriptions may vary anytime depending on technical capabilities.

11. In case Dreamviews in general partitially or completely discontinues the provision of Executive Membership subscriptions for any reason, refund will be given according to the following scheme: Temporary subscription holders get no refund if their subscription is being ceased after 75% of the subscription period elapsed. If 50-74% elapsed, they get 25% refund. If 25-49% elapsed, they get 50% refund. If 10-24% elapsed, they get 75% refund. If 0-9% elapsed, they get 100% refund.

12. In case Dreamviews is temporary unavailable because of technical reasons for more than a total of 10% of the subscription period, Executive Membership subscribers will be given 25% refund. If the total downtime is 10-25%, a 50% refund is applicable. If the total downtime is above 25%, a refund of 75% will be given.

13. In case Dreamviews is temporary unavailable due to force majeur or flooding/hacking/spamming/cracking or other malicious attacks, no refund will be given.

14. Executive Membership subscriptions are subject to automatic renewal unless being cancelled before expiration.


The privacy of our visitors to Dreamviews.com is important to us.

At Dreamviews.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use and visit Dreamviews.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on Dreamviews.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

DoubleClick DART cookies
We also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (”interest based targeting”). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history (For example, if you have been viewing sites about visiting Las Vegas, you may see Las Vegas hotel advertisements when viewing a non-related site, such as on a site about hockey). DART uses “non personally identifiable information”. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers. You can opt-out of this ad serving on all sites using this advertising by visiting http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/dart_adserving.aspx

You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

Deleting cookies does not mean you are permanently opted out of any advertising program. Unless you have settings that disallow cookies, the next time you visit a site running the advertisements, a new cookie will be added.

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