(October 19th, 2009 - Revision 1.2)
Table of Contents
2. The Rules
3. Moderation
7. Signatures
8. Custom Icons
9. Posting and Hosting Images/Video
10. Tagging
11. Kudos
12. Frequently Asked Questions
This Community is accessible to all individuals whether you have a TVG betting account or not. We invite you to join in and discuss a variety of topics whether they may be about horse racing or not. Becoming a registered member of the TVG Community means agreeing to abide by a few simple Community rules and guidelines as outlined below:
You may not use your registration membership (or allow anyone else to use your registration membership) to post or transmit:
- Content that is abusive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, fraudulent, or that discloses private or personal matter concerning any person. This includes language, information, or images.
- Content that is threatening, defamatory or abusive, either between forum members or directed towards a moderator.
- "Rants", "slams", or legal threats against TVG or another company or competitor.
- Bigoted, hateful, or racially offensive comments.
- Political or religious statements or commentary.
- Any material that you don't have right to transmit under law (such as copyright, trade secret, or securities) or under contractual of fiduciary relationships (such as nondisclosure agreements).
- Language that promotes illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them. This includes any message that solicited or promotes the use of an illegal substance.
- Advertising, promotional materials, or other forums of solicitation including chain letters, pyramid schemes, class action law suits, or charitable appeals. This includes advertising links in signatures.
- Any files or link to a file that contains viruses, corrupted files, "Trojan Horses", or any other contaminating or destructive features that may damage someone else's computer.
- Duplicate posts, spam messages, or posts repeated excessively on one or more boards.
- Messages designed to evade profanity or other filters.
- Personal phone numbers or addresses (to protect privacy).
- Personal email addresses, private information such as social security numbers, or other contact information that is not your own, including, but not limited to TVG employee's email addresses.
- Hyperlinks that lead to sites that violate any of the forum guidelines.
- Any message that impersonates another person or affiliation with an entity, including, but not limited to, TVG.
- Intentionally violate any other applicable law or regulation while accessing and using our site.
- Interfere in any way with the operations in the Community or with a fellow user's message box, including but not limited to mail or "post" bombing, news bombing, other flooding techniques, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks, or attempts to avoid messaging blocks.
- Evading bans or suspensions or otherwise disregarding directions from moderators or administrators.
We reserve the right to modify these guidelines at any time, effective upon posting of the modified guidelines on the forum.
The goal of TVG Community moderation is to keep the forums enjoyable and free from problems that detract from the experience of others. We make many judgment calls daily on behalf of the Community and we strive to treat all members fairly and equally under the community rules.
The point of moderation is not to limit discussion or promote any specific agenda. But TVG Community moderators do reserve the right to edit, move, lock, or delete any post that we deem to be inappropriate or disruptive to the Community or ban any member at our sole discretion.
TVG Community moderators do our best to read all threads or posts a day. However, we hope to rely upon Community members like you to utilize the "Flag for a Moderator" button available under the Options drop down menu within every post. This is to alert us to questionable (though not necessarily abusive) posting behavior.
Your moderating team for the Community is:
Administrators:
Moderators:
Dany_s
Moderation Questions or Complaints
Moderators are people too. But please do not assume "it's personal" or I'm being singled out" if your posts require moderator action. While we take all complaints seriously, stirring up the public outcry within the Community is disruptive.
Warnings and Bans
Warnings may be issued within the forums, via a Private Message (if the member has not disabled receipt of Private Messages), or via email. Warnings and bans remain in effect even if a Community member doesn’t receive, read, acknowledge, or agree with the reasons behind them. A member’s entire Community history is considered when levying long-term or permanent bans. If you receive a ban, an explanatory message will appear when you try to access the forums.
Privacy
Forum discipline is handled privately. When discussing warnings or bans with an individual Community member, we will not discuss, compare, or contrast the actions of other members. Members are given warnings or banned for only one reason--rules violations.
The TVG Community Moderators reserve the right to edit, move, lock, or delete any message(s) that we deem to be inappropriate or disruptive to the community or ban any user at our sole discretion. If you have a question or comment regarding a Moderator action, please bring it to the attention of a member of the Moderation Team via the Forums Messenger.
TVG Forums - A place to discuss!
TVG Blogs - TVG spotlight authors share their thoughts with us
Knowledge Base - The Knowledge Base offers all sorts of informationfrom users and administrators. Improve your knowledge on all aspects of horse racing with this great online resource.
Suggestions and Feedback - Have a question about the TVG Community? Want to leave feedback for improving the forums? Found a new forum feature or tip you want to share with others?
Frequently Asked Questions - Any question you have, check here first to see if it has been asked already. FAQ's are now locaterd in our Knowledge Base.
Forum ranks are a fun way to show off who you are in the Community. As you gain more experience your rank will change to reflect such. Below is a listing of the current ranks:
- Triple Crown Winner
- Classic Winner
- Graded Stakes
- Stakes
- Allowance
- Claiming
- Maiden
This guide is meant to be a brief overview of the WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") Post Editor:
- Message Subject - Enter the subject of your message or thread here. This field may be populated with "Re:" and the subject of the thread/message you are replying to.
- HTML Editor - Clicking this tab will take you to the HTML editor, which accepts plain text and HTML code.
- Preview Post - This tab allows you to preview your post before clicking the Submit Post button.
- Spell Check - This will take pop up a sub-window if there is anything that the Spell Check function does not think is a proper word.
- Macros - Insert predetermined macros here. This option will not appear if you have not specified any macros. They may be created and deleted within your user profile under the Macros tab.
- Bold - Bold your text.
- Italics - Italicize your text.
- Underline - Underline your text.
- Strikethrough -
Strikethroughyour text. - Insert Code - This will allow you to paste code directly into the Rich Text editor without having the HTML dictate your formatting.
- Paste from Word - This will allow you to paste text directly into the Rich Text editor without transferring unnecessary Microsoft Word code. If this is confusing, paste something from Word into the message body without using the Paste from Word function. Within the HTML tab, a lot of unnecessary code will be there making the body too long to post within the character limit.
- Insert Smileys - Select from many Smileys to display your feelings toward a topic or discussion.
- Insert Hyperlink - You may use this option to insert hyperlinks into your post.
- Insert an Image - You may use this option to insert images into your post. You may use images directly from your computer, from already hosted within your Gallery, or from another site.
- Insert a Video - You may use this option to insert videos into your post. You may use videos directly from your computer as long as they are within the file size constraints, from already hosted within your Gallery, or from Youtube.
- Ordered List - Create a numbered list.
- Unordered List - Create an unordered or bulleted list.
- Font type - Specify a font type for your post.
- Font size - Specify a font size for your post. Please keep in mind that using very large or very small fonts can make reading your post difficult.
- Font color - Specify a font color for your post. Please keep in mind that using very bright or very dark colors may make reading your post difficult.
- Message body - Type your message here.
- Window drag - This can change the height of the message body.
- Attachments - You may attach files to your post just like you would a typical email. Please keep in mind that there are restrictions on what you can attach and that it must meet the requirements of the Community Guidelines.
- Submit or Cancel Post - Submit or cancel your post. Please be aware that by canceling your post, you will lose all unsubmitted progress.
- Subscriptions - By checking this box, you will receive Subscription Notifications when a user responds to your message.
- Tags - You may add tags to your message here.
- No tagging - Checking this box will disable anyone else from adding tags to your message.
- No kudos - Checking this box will disable anyone from giving you kudos for this message.
What is a signature?
A signature is predefined text or images that are automatically displayed at the end of every post you make. In general, most people choose to use a signature that displays something about themselves (I.E. Favorite sports teams, movies, games, etc.). Signatures give you the chance to customize your posting experience here at the TVG Community and show your uniqueness!
Who can use a signature?
Every user can use the signature feature.
How do I use a signature?
You can update your signature by going to your Personal Profile and entering text or simple HTML in the Signature field.
How do I use an image in my signature?
Once you have created an image or found one on the web that you would like to use as a signature, you need to host it for display here on the community. You can do so by hosting it within your Gallery or by hosting it on a common site such as photobucket. Apply simple HTML to add the image to your signature.
What is a custom icon?
A custom icon is an image of your choosing that will be displayed as your icon. This means you are not limited to the default set of icons. Please keep in mind that all standard forum rules and policies apply to icons.
Who can use a custom icon?
Custom icons are granted to all users.
How do I go about setting a Custom icon?
To choose a Custom icon, click on My Settings. You will find default and custom icons within the avatar tab.
Posting and Hosting Images/Videos
Who can post images?
All users can post images.
Who can host images?
You can host images elsewhere such as photobucket.com or imageshack.com. However, you can host images here. You can add images to your Gallery within this Community.
How do I post an image/video?
To post an image on the Community, use either of the methods described below:
- Graphical Editor - click
for image or
for video. You may automatically host either from your computer, post from your gallery, or from an outside URL.
- To insert an image with HTML, use the following code with the URL of the hosted image.
<img src="URL_HERE">
Who can tag?
All users can tag.
What is a tag?
A tag is a single keyword applied to a post that describes a topic, theme, or category of the post. Each post may have multiple tags.
What is a tag cloud?
A tag cloud displays tags used frequently within an area of a community. Tags applied frequently will appear in a larger font. A tag cloud can give you a sense of what the hot topics are in a given area.
What can I do with tags?
Tagging items helps other users discover interesting posts. You can use tags to bookmark, categorize, or identify a post. A well chosen tag will also help other users find interesting content.
Why do people tag?
Some users will tag posts for their own convenience in finding them later. Other users enjoy helping categorize interesting posts for the benefit of the community.
What is an acceptable use of a tag?
- Tagging to describe a topic, theme, or category.
- Tagging to bookmark related items.
- Tagging to categorize messages.
- Tagging by user (ex: If Kooldac posts in a thread, you might tag his message or thread with "Kooldac", "moderator", and/or "Administrator").
What is not an acceptable use of a tag?
- Tagging with inappropriate language.
- Tagging with insults or tags meant to demean or belittle.
- Tagging messages with irrelevant tags. (of, and, it, is, I, the)
- Tagging to show agreement or disagreement.
How do I tag?
- Navigate to an interesting or comment. When you're at a place where you can read the bottom of the message, you'll see the tag cloud below the message body.
- Type a single-word topic into the Add Tag field. You can type more than one word at a type. Just make sure to space each tag word with a space.
Where are my tags?
Find messages you've tagged by visiting your profile and choosing the tag. You can also click on the tag on any cloud and look for the My Most Tagged Messages section.
What do I do if I find abusive or inappropriate tags?
Please click "Flag For a Moderator" under the Options drop-down menu on the message with the tag and leave a message in the field explaining why the tag(s) you feel are abusive or offensive.
How do I alter my tagging preferences?
You can alter your tagging preferences by going to the Tagging tab in your profile.
What are Kudos?
Kudos are a way for you to give approval to content you think is helpful, well-informed, insightful, or otherwise generally valuable to the Community.
How do I give a Kudo?
There is a kudo button in every message or blog post. Simply pressing it will give a single kudo to the author. Pressing it multiple times will NOT give multiple kudos however.
Why is it good for the Community to have kudoed content?
It not only gives a "pat on the back" to the author to encourage further posting, but it also gives a way for users seeking knowledge to tell which answers have been well received by others.
When is it appropriate uses of the kudo button?
The kudo button should be used to acknowledge insightful, meaningful posts by community members. The kudo button is also appropriate to use in order to give encouragment to other posters.
When can kudo use lead to abuse?
While use of the kudo button is encouraged, it should not be used in excess. It is important to maintain the integrity of kudos and the leaderboard in the community, and over use of the button can be detrimental. Abuse can lead possible bans or other repercussions. With that in mind, here are a few examples of possible kudo abuse:
- Kudoing all posts by a specific community member without regard to the actual content in their posts
- Kudoing an vicious or slanderous posts about any individuals or organizations within the TVG Community
- Soliciting other members for kudos to improve kudo board standing
- Creating additional accounts with the intent on giving kudos to yourself
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