Rules and Guidelines

Rules and Guidelines for Posting

Please Be Polite

Treat others as you would like to be treated. No personal attacks will be tolerated. You may be warned after your first offence; repeated offences may get you banned from the forum. Spirited discussions are allowed and very much encouraged. But please keep your focus on the topic and not the poster.

Moderators and Administrators have the final say in this matter.

Do Not Advertise

Why can't I advertise?

We take this matter very seriously. This resource is free to all members. In order to keep it free, we do not allow any unpaid advertising of products, services, resources for hire, or open positions.

We may provide such services for a minimal fee in the future, but make no guarantees to do so.

What if I am looking for work? Or trying to fill a position?

Job offers and requests for work are currently not allowed on this forum. We reserve the right to revisit this policy at some point in the future, but make no guarantees as to whether we will do so. Until that point, this type of posting will immediately and without explanation be modified or deleted.

What about linking to other websites?

Members may NOT use the forums for the sole purpose of directing other members to web sites in which they have a commercial interest in. These include, but are not limited to, commission or referral hyperlinks.

You may not post such links, nor may you use them in your signature. Disguising a link does not make it acceptable and this type of posting will immediately and without explanation be modified or deleted.

What if I'm representing a company?

If you are representing a company while using CertForums you must indicate this both in your profile and username.

If you are representing a company you must enter your username in the following format: "Company name Yourname" eg. "Examsim Dave" or "Compteach Anne". To change your username you must contact an administrator by private message, a list of staff members can be found here

If you are representing a company you must use your company email address, we can then varify that you are a valid representative of that company. You may amend your email here.

To enter the details in your profile complete the "Company Representative" section here.

Your activity in discussions related to your product or services are vital both to you, and to CertForums. Essentially, it ensures that proper, verifiable information is given to our membership, by an accountable party. Sometimes, in online forums, discussions related to a particular product/service can contain mis-information, heresay, etc. This does a disservice to the company providing that service, and offers nothing of real value to our membership reading that particular discussion. That being said, we do not allow blatant advertising, or sales-pitchy posts by companies, nor do we allow link-dropping, except where absolutely necessary to the content of the post.

We also discourage companies from posting negative-isms about their competition. Leave that to the members, and the other company will come in to defend themselves. In discussions related to a product/service, a company representative can help us to get the facts out there, and since the company is generally tightly involvedin their own industry, we encourage you to offer more than just the company line, but also to offer your expertise and educate us along the way.

Can I suggest a service if I have used it? Or recommend a company?

In most cases, members may not use this service to recommend or praise other products or services, or any company, unless they have directly used them before. This includes companies recommending other companies. On the other hand, if you have successfully implemented a third-party solution to a particular problem, others will want to hear about it. Posting a referral for your own product using an assumed name or by hiding your identity is not allowed.

What if I am looking for opinions on a service that I or my company offers?

Members may not solicit the membership for feedback or suggestions on their product or services. Build your own website and your own forum if you want to get feedback from your users. This policy may be waived if prior permission is granted by the forum administrator. Moderators may not grant this waiver.

What about my signature? Can I put a link there?

See also: 'What about linking to other websites?'

Signatures are provided as a way to personalise your presence on the forum. They are NOT intended as a way to circumvent the no advertising policy of the forum.

CertForums Signature Rules

Members signatures must not contain:

  • offensive insulting or derogatory material towards either CertForums, its members, or its staff.
  • more than one image.
  • images in excess of 400 x 80 in pixels in size.

  • Example:
  • images in excess of 40KB in total file size.
  • links to affiliate programs or pay per click links.
  • any details of pricing, sales, or discounts to products.
  • any text larger than size 2
  • CODE, HTML, PHP, QUOTE or HIDE tags
  • links to company websites

Members signatures may contain:

  • 1000 characters
  • 4 paragraph lines (2 lines only for new members)
  • formatted text using the forums text formatting tools
  • forum smiles
  • a link to a personal website
  • a link to a personal blog
  • your personal certifications.
  • work in progress
  • your personal email address link (please be aware spiders crawl the Internet and harvest email address so expect a few spam emails)

We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature at any time, for any reason.

What about posting images?

You may link to an image or screen shot that is required to support a question or answer. You may put a SMALL logo or banner in your signature, as long as it does not violate our "no advertising" policy, images deemed to be of an obscene or offensive nature will be removed, anyone who repeatedly posts images of this nature may have there account access restricted or even removed from the forum.

If I use a logo, how large can it be?

Please be considerate of folks with less bandwidth and keep image posting to a minimum. The forum moderators have the right to change your image to a link, or remove it altogether if it violates our posting policies.

Do Not Spam

What is spam?

Spam is generally considered to be anything undesirable. Some examples of what we consider spam are found in the following points.

Off topic posts

Posts unrelated to the forum topics are not allowed. That is why we have Off Topic areas. Members should post their messages to the relevant forum. Messages posted in the wrong forum will be moved or deleted as deemed appropriate by a moderator or administrator.

Cross-posting

Cross-posting the same message on multiple forums is not allowed. Our forum structure is fairly simple. If you aren't sure where to post your question, simply put it in the most likely spot. A moderator may move or even split your topic if deemed appropriate.

What happens if I do post something considered spam?

Posts considered to be spam will be deleted and repeat abuse will lead to your account becoming banned. If one of your posts has been deleted or if you have been banned and you can't understand why, please contact a moderator

What if I email instead of posting on the forum?

Our member list is not a resource to be used by any individuals, groups, or businesses. Members may make their email address public on this forum, but that does not give you the right to collect those addresses and use them for your own purpose.

Do Not Break the Law

Copyright Infringement

Do not post material that is owned or copyrighted by another party. You may post links to that material or provide excerpts with proper annotation and credit.

Illegal Services

Do not post requests for illegal services in the forums, this type of posting will immediately and without explanation be modified or deleted.

Pornography

Legal or not, we do not allow posting of or links to pornographic related materials, or anything else that may be considered offensive. If you aren't sure, don't post it. Moderators will remove any offensive or illegal material.

Other Unacceptable Postings

Other unacceptable postings are:

  • Posting instructions or requests for instructions on how to commit illegal acts
  • Posting material that contains viruses, trojan horses, or other undesirable content
  • Impersonating a moderator or other member of the forum
  • Attempting to hack or otherwise disrupt our service and/or servers
  • Distributing unsolicited email to member email addresses

Use Your Common Sense

What does this mean?

Our policy, subject to the restrictions listed above, is to provide an open forum for discussion, exchanging problems and solutions, and having a little fun. Because of this policy, we cannot determine the accuracy of or be held liable for anything that may be posted in the forums.

Who validates the information posted here?

Opinions, advice and all other information expressed by our members are those of the author. You rely on such information at your own risk. All members are urged to verify and validate any and all information provided here and not rely solely on advice or opinions given in the discussions.

Moderators and Administrators

Who decides if a post has violated any of these rules?

The moderators and administrators of this forum.

What if I disagree with their assessment?

All of our moderators are volunteers. As such, they deserve your respect. If they have edited, moved, or deleted one of your messages, you are allowed to ask why, please private message a moderator for information.

Who do I contact if I have a problem with any of these items?

If you have any queries or comments, please contact the forum administrator at [email protected]

Braindumps Policy

Braindump Definition

A brain dump (sometimes spelled braindump, or brain-dump) is a complete transfer of accessible knowledge about a particular subject from your brain to some other storage medium, such as paper or your computer's hard drive. It is common for someone who maintains a blog, a personal journal that's shared on the Internet, to refer to the blog as a brain dump. The term brain dump can also be used in an educational context. For example, someone preparing for an exam might perform a brain dump by writing out as much information as they can remember about something they've studied.

Brain dump Web sites for exam preparation purposes are fairly common, especially for computer-related certification programs. Someone who has taken an exam might perform a brain dump by writing out as many of the questions as they remember, for distribution as a study guide for other people who intend to take the same exam. However, the practice is not encouraged by authorities, who argue that studying for only certain questions within a subject area might yield a pass on an exam, but doesn't yield any real understanding of the subject matter. Furthermore, running that type of brain dump Web site is usually illegal. In January 2003, Robert Keppel was sentenced to 12 months plus a day in prison and fined $500,000 for maintaining a brain dump (cheatsheets.com) that sold Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) and Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) exam questions.

Braindumps and Non-Disclosure Agreements

The posting of Braindumps are a clear violation of nearly every certification providers Non-Disclosure Agreement and therefore illegal.

By accepting the Registration Agreement you agree that you will not provide braindumps, ask for information about the location of braindump sites, or provide any information intended to guide people to braindump sites.

Posts considered to be braindump related will be deleted and repeat abuse will lead to your account becoming banned. If one of your posts has been deleted or if you have been banned and you can't understand why, please contact the administrator.

Our User Agreement

Copy of our User Agreement

Registration to this forum is free! We do insist that you abide by the rules and policies detailed below. If you agree to the terms, please check the 'I agree' checkbox and press the 'Register' button below. If you would like to cancel the registration, click here to return to the forums index.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF AFTER READING THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THEM, PRESS THE "I have read, and agree to abide by the CertForums rules. CHECK BOX; THEREUPON, YOU WILL BE DEEMED TO HAVE AGREED TO BE BOUND BY THE SAID TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND TO FAITHFULLY COMPLY WITH THE SAME. However. if you have any questions about this Agreement, email [email protected]

1. Registration. Information required upon registration for each participant on certforums.com must be accurate and complete. You must update such information as needed in order to ensure that the information remains to be accurate and complete.

2. Use of Username and Password. certforums.com assumes that all activities made using your username and password are authorised by you.

3. Posting of Messages. Upon registration certforums.com allows you to post a message (including without limitation text, data, photos, graphics, music, sounds and videos) in the Forum in a number of forms, such as your opinion about any of the topics in the Forum and comments to other people's messages. (the "Messages").

4. License. By participating in the certforums.com Forum, you agree that we shall have unlimited and irrevocable rights (including economic, moral and all other rights that may exist in such material) and license to use, display, publish or communicate to the public, permit others (including without limitation co-brand partners) to publish, the Messages, online and offline, for a fee or otherwise, in whole or in part, throughout the world and in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed without need of any notice, remuneration, compensation, royalties or attribution to you. Nothing herein, however ,shall permit certforums.com to use the name of the user, or the title of his work, or otherwise to make use of his reputation with respect to any version or adaptation of his Messages which, because of alterations therein, would substantially tend to injure his literary or artistic reputation; or to use the name of the user with respect to a Message he did not create or post.

5. User Conduct
a. You agree not to provide any Messages to the Forum that (a) infringes any third-party intellectual property or publicity/privacy rights, (b) is knowingly false, and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law or regulation, (c) contains any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information, and (d) promotes piracy.

b. As each forum is specifically tailored to address certain topics, you are responsible for initiating new threads in the correct forum. You should stay on-topic at all times. The appropriate content for each forum is described in detail on the Forum Homepage.

c. You agree not to post the same message in multiple forums without permission from the Administrator.

d. "Impersonation," or assuming the character of another member by copying his username and manner of writing, is not allowed.

e. "Flaming," or lashing out at other participants is strictly forbidden. Proper etiquette is required for participation at certforums.com.

f. "Spamming," or sending unsolicited electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings, in any form, is strictly forbidden.

g. "Trolling," or posting insulting or deliberately divisive threads/replies for the purpose of (1) harvesting retaliatory insults and flames, or (2) throwing off the balance of the forum, is also disallowed.

h. You agree not to disrupt the normal flow of dialogue or “flood,” cause a screen to "scroll" faster than other users of the Service are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in real time exchanges.

i. You agree not to use the Forum to either advertise or promote commercial endeavours, which includes direct posts, as well as, active links to other sites on the Internet, without permission from the Administrator. All such requests for permission should be directed through the Administrative forum. You may, however, include URLs or active links to commercial sites, reasonable in number, only for the sole purpose of expanding on comments or providing additional information as part of regular forum interactions.

j. You agree that you will not incorporate any word in your name, Message ID or custom user title that is defamatory, obscene or profane, or which violates any trademark, service mark, or other proprietary/intellectual property rights of any third party, including, without limitation, that of certforums.com.

6. Content Filtering.
a. certforums.com reserves the right to edit, delete, or prune any and all Messages which, in its sole opinion, violates any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

b. certforums.com may elect, at its sole discretion, to monitor some, all, or no areas of certforums.com for adherence to these terms and conditions or certforums.com rules and guidelines. Moderators of certforums.com control individual forums. Questions about a particular forum should be directed to the respective forum moderator.

c. Any user who feels that a Message is objectionable may request certforums.com to delete said Message by email through the above-mentioned address. Upon receipt of such a request, certforums.com will determine, in its sole opinion, if such deletion is necessary. If deemed necessary, certforums.com will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable period.

d. certforums.com does not endorse or recommend any of the opinions or ideas contributed by its users. However, certforums.com permits others to make judgments about your Messages.

e. certforums.com is not responsible for any and all Messages expressed in the  Forum. certforums.com does not attempt to control or validate any comments or recommendations provided by the participants and is not responsible for any inaccuracies in the Messages. Therefore, you bear the risk associated with, the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of the Messages.

f. Information contained in the  Forum, including but not limited to those relating to law or medicine or other fields, is not intended to substitute for the advice or opinion of your own lawyer or physician or professional adviser. You agree not to rely solely on any of the advise or opinion expressed. Under no circumstances, including but not limited to negligence, shall certforums.com be liable for any reliance on any such information, nor shall certforums.com be liable for any direct, incidental, special, consequential, indirect or punitive damages that result from the use of, or inability to use, the information in certforums.com.

7. User Privacy.
a. certforums.com collects information during the registration process to operate the site ("Registration Information"). It collects non-personally identifiable information (often referred to as demographic information) such as: country, region or city, zip or postal code, gender, birth date and occupation.

b. Your Registration Information is used only for demographic statistics.  keeps all of your Personal Information private and does not share it with any third parties.  will not disclose your Personal Information unless acting under a good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (1) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process; (2) protect and defend the rights or property of certforums.com; (3) enforce the User Agreement; or (4) act to protect the interests of its members or others.

c. A special registration form during contests/promos may be used for the purpose of gathering demographic information from the contest/promo participants. This information can be shared with the contest/promo sponsors depending on certforums.com agreement with them.

d.  certforums.com will not send you any unsolicited information, including e-mail, unless you choose otherwise.  may also send periodic member letters to announce important service changes, new features, and technical issue updates.

e. If at any time you believe that  has not adhered to these principles, please notify us by e-mail at [email protected] and we will use all reasonable efforts to promptly determine and correct the problem. If you have questions about this policy, please e-mail us at [email protected].

8. Parental Supervision. certforums.com encourages parents to monitor their children who are under 13 years of age. While content is moderated to filter objectionable posts, some topics may still not be suitable for children.

9. Limitation of Use. certforums.com reserves the right to limit the use of  Forum to any individual or group at any time.

10. No Warranty.
a. certforums.com disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, or operability or availability of information or material in the  Forum.
b. certforums.com disclaims any responsibility for the deletion, failure to store, misdelivery, or untimely delivery of Messages.
c. certforums.com disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from downloading or accessing any information or material through certforums.com..
d. The certforums.com web site and services are provided "as is," and certforums.com and its co-brand partners expressly disclaim all warranties or conditions of any kind (whether express, implied or statutory), including without limitation the implied warranties of title, non-infringement, and fitness for a particular purpose. Without limiting the foregoing, certforums.com does not promise or warrant to you that any aspect of the web site and system will work properly or will be available continuously.

11. No Liability. In no event shall certforums.com be liable to any party for any loss or damage, including but not limited to lost revenues or profits or special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages (howsoever arising, including negligence) arising out of or in connection with the certforums.com website, its services or this Agreement.

12. Access Limits. Without the prior written consent of certforums.com , you may not (a) use any automated means to access the site or collect any information from the certforums.com website (including without limitation robots, spiders or scripts), or (b) frame the site, place pop-up windows over its pages, or otherwise affect the display of its pages.

13. Services, Fees and Charges. certforums.com reserves the right to modify the services offered by certforums.com from time to time, with or without notice, including the right to terminate such services. certforums.com reserves the right to charge any fees for use or participation in the  Forum. At present, however, certforums.com does not charge any fees for participation in the  forum.

14. Amendments. certforums.com reserves the right to amend any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement at any time. Such amended terms and conditions shall be effective when posted at the certforums.com website.

15. Termination. certforums.com reserves the right to terminate your use of certforums.com. at anytime, with or without notice. Following termination, at its sole option, certforums.com may remove some or all of your Messages from the certforums.com website or leave it available for public review, without need of notice or approval from you.

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