Rules of Conduct

Rules of Conduct

User's Agreement and Rules of Conduct for the Pilots of America Message Boards

Use of and participation in the Pilots of America message board (hereafter referred to as "the forums") is contingent upon your acceptance of the following terms and rules. By participating in the forums, you acknowledge your acceptance of these terms. For the purposes of this agreement, "Participant" refers to you. "The forums" refers to the Pilots of America Message board and all content associated with PilotsOfAmerica.com.

Pilots of America is a non-profit organization operated by pilots for pilots.

Rules of Conduct

These forums are primarily for discussing aviation and aviation-related topics affecting pilots in the United States of America, although membership and discussion of aviation topics are open to pilots worldwide. These guidelines are posted as a Code of Conduct, and if all of our participants will subscribe to this code of conduct, these rules will be easily observed.

Goals of the Forums

  • Show respect at all times.
  • Help build the Community.
  • Encourage discussion, interest and education in all things aviation.
The success of our forums depends upon the quality posts of our participants. To ensure our success we are posting these rules so that all participants of the forums understand what is considered unacceptable behavior in the forums, which can result in a temporary suspension or a permanent ban.
  • Personal attacks are prohibited. This specifically means any text/post that is blatantly attacking another person, on or off the forum, especially in a personal way. Make your point without calling names or casting aspersions on others.
  • Trolling is prohibited. Whenever someone is clearly and deliberately posting for the purpose of angering and/or insulting the other participants of the board, it is considered "trolling." Trolling does not encourage further healthy discussion in the long run; rather, it encourages personal attacks and ill will.
  • Pilots of America is an inclusive community. We celebrate aviation in all of its forms and by any and all practitioners. All are welcome here. We may not agree on all topics, but we welcome anybody with an interest in aviation. Exclusionary comments will not be tolerated. This includes discrimination based on religion, race, sexual orientation, or gender. It is not our goal to be the thought police. It is our goal to make this a welcome place for anybody that shares our passion for the skies.
  • Political/Religious discussions are prohibited. This includes any language or discussion deemed to be political or politically charged in nature as well as any religious speech or text. This language is exceedingly destructive to the cohesion of the community and as such will not be tolerated.
  • Solicitations and Advertisements are prohibited, except when posted in The Classifieds section. For the purposes of this rule, requests for charitable donations, raffles, etc., are also considered to be “solicitations and advertisements”.
  • Private Messages (aka 'Conversations') received on POA are considered to be private, and the contents of these, in whole, part, or paraphrased, may not be discussed publicly unless the other partipant(s) of the Private Message / Conversation agree in writing beforehand. 'In writing' can be as simple as a PM asking for and receiving said permission. The Management Council may ask to see this written agreement when investigating alleged violations of this rule, and participants agree to provide such proof to avoid sanctions or warnings for suspected violations of this rule.
  • Participants shall not post messages containing personal contact information other than their own. This includes, but is not limited to, phone numbers, email addresses and mailing/physical addresses.
  • Pilots of America, with limited exception, is not an anonymous forum. There are no rights or guarantees of anonymity. While you may post under a pseudonym, your true name may be used in posts or conversations by those who know it. If you require anonymity then do not participate in the Pilots of America Forum.
  • Pilots of America permits anonymous posting in the Medical Topics forum, as well as in the Lessons Learned forum, but ONLY when disclosing your OWN potential or existing medical condition, potential violation of FAA regulations, incident or accident in which you may have been involved. Posts made anonymously in response to such posts will be deleted unless the content of the response requires anonymity.
  • Bans and warnings, actual or suspected, shall not be discussed on the forums. Any inquiries or comments regarding bans are to be sent in private messages or via email. A moderator may choose to publicly inform the participants of a forum about bans and warnings if this is in the interest of the forum.
  • Posting of pornography, racist or otherwise discriminating remarks, threats to cause physical or mental harm, extreme offensive language, material that breaks any law, or links to pages that contain the aforementioned material may result in an immediate ban from the forums.
  • Deliberately circumventing the censor filter is prohibited. Posts containing images with offensive language can be immediately deleted by a moderator without management council review.
  • Spamming the forums is prohibited.
  • Not responding to or ignoring moderator warnings can lead to suspension.
  • Off Topic (OT) threads are not prohibited, but should be posted within reason. There are some topics that are not appropriate for the forums. All posts are subject to these rules. Excessive OT posts will be dealt with on a case by case basis.
  • All Forums have a primary theme. When starting a new thread, make sure you do so in the proper forum.
  • When a Participant lists an item for sale, please do not comment on the value or quality of the goods offered, unless specifically requested by the original Participant.

Enforcement of Rules of Conduct

The Management Council utilizes a clearly-defined “warning points” system on a 0-100 scale. If a Participant accumulates 100 unexpired points, they’re automatically (and permanently) banned from the forums. A 3-day suspension occurs automatically at 25 accumulated unexpired points, a suspension for 1 week occurs at 50 points, and a suspension for 1 month occurs at 75 points. The Management Council reserves the right to issue suspensions and bans immediately, regardless of point accumulation, if the situation so warrants.

In general, points that participants accumulate for warnings issued by the Management Council are not permanent. Warning points expire after a specified period of time (consider this “points off for good behavior”). This means somebody would only be automatically banned if their behavior over the period of a year (the longest “expires after” period) continued to be particularly awful.

Warning Points are based on severity of the offense. Thus, the system is structured so that personal attacks, at 20 points each, would automatically escalate into a 3-day suspension after a second attack in a one year period (20 x 2 = 40, exceeding the 25 point time out threshold), OR a one week suspension after three attacks (20 x 3 = 60, exceeding the 50 point 1-week suspension threshold), OR a one month suspension after four attacks (20 x 4 = 80, exceeding the 75 point 1-month suspension threshold).

The full list of pre-defined warnings, their standard point accumulation, and their standard warning expiration period, are defined below. The Management Council always retains the right to override any of these settings on a case-by-case basis, but will generally only do so in particularly egregious situations.

Warning Title Points Given Expires after
Personal Attack 20 1 year
Disclosing contents of private messages 20 6 months
Discussing bans & warnings 20 6 months
Porn / Racist / Illegal content 20 6 months
Ignoring moderator / MC warning 20 6 months
Posting personally identifiable information 20 6 months
Political / Religious / Spin Zone material 20 6 month
Extremely offensive post/picture 20 6 month
Trolling 20 6 month
Abuse of Anon 15 1 month
Copyrighted material 10 1 month
Circumventing censor / bad words filter 10 1 month
Classifieds section rule violation 5 1 month
Medical Topics Violation 20 6 months

Classifieds

The Classifieds forum is for the posting of items or services for sale or rent and requests for charitable donations. No illegal items or services may be posted in this or any forum. POA reserves the right to delete any posting that is distasteful. Pilots of America does not, endorse, warrant or guarantee any item or service being offered for sale or rent and offers no opinion on the authenticity, safety or warranty for a particular purpose of any item or service being offered.

Participants who are selling items must comply with the following rules:
  • Posts offering items or services for sale must include an asking price.
  • If the item or service is being offered by a commercial concern (i.e., this is your business), the full name of the business and location must be included.
  • Non-aviation items may be listed, as long as the thread's title starts with "[NA]" to clearly mark the listing as "Non-Aviation". For example, "[NA] 1969 Ford Mustang"
  • Once an item is sold the Participant must make a post stating the item has sold.
  • Participants may not use the Classified or any other forum for false testimonials. This means that if you are the seller or manufacturer of an item or have any association with the seller or manufacturer of an item you must disclose this fact and may not post a testimonial or a post encouraging others to “ check it out” without such a disclosure.
  • Users must have a minimum of 50 total posts to create or to respond to a thread in The Classifieds.
Participants who are browsing items for sale must comply with the following rules:
  • Participants must not comment negatively on the value or quality of the item.
  • Participants may ask as many questions regarding the items as necessary.

Chat Function

Pilots of America has a Chat feature available for all members. Virtually all topics are permitted for discussion in Chat, as long as they are discussed in a civil manner; however, exclusionary or hate speech of any kind will not be tolerated and may invoke a temporary or permanent suspension from the Chat function and/or the forum. Pilots of America also reserves the right to remove any content that it finds in violation of the Rules of Conduct or otherwise objectionable for any reason.

Medical Topics

The Medical Topics sub-forum is for discussing all things regarding conditions that may prohibit the issuance of an FAA medical certificate, your own existing medical condition(s) or just a general discussion about a medical condition, procedure, or various health related issue. Due to the personal nature of the posts in this sub-forum, it is subject to additional moderation criteria. Replies and discussion in this sub-forum must relate to the subject at hand and should not wander off-topic into unrelated matters. Additionally, comments that are insensitive about a poster (for instance, about their life choices or decision making skills), even if he or she is anonymous, may be interpreted as a personal attack.

Rights of Pilots of America / Disclaimer of Liability

The content of these forums are supplied by its members with occasional responses from Pilots of America. Pilots of America shall not be responsible for policing, monitoring, or editing such content, exercises no more editorial control over such content than would a public library, bookstore, newsstand, or other distributor of content, and accordingly, shall not be responsible for exercising editorial control over such content. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Pilots of America shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor such content in order to respond to or comment upon communications by Participants and in order to determine compliance with the foregoing Rules of Conduct. Pilots of America shall have the right and sole discretion to edit, to refuse to port or to remove any content whatsoever which it finds to be in violation of the provisions hereof or which it finds in its sole discretion to be otherwise objectionable for any reason.

The opinions expressed in the forums are those of the individual posting the comment and not those of Pilots of America. Pilots of America is not responsible for any materials provided by users which are deemed harmful or offensive to others. Pilots of America is not responsible in any way for any injury, loss, or damage which occurs as a result of a statement or opinion expressed or information provided in these sections of the site. Pilots of America is not responsible for the content of any sites linked to the Pilots of America site.

Pilots of America makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the content in the Pilots of America site or the accuracy or reliability of any information or statements contained therein. All statements, advice and opinions made by Participants in Pilots of America message boards are those of such Participants only, and Pilots of America neither endorses nor shall be held responsible for the reliability or accuracy of same.

Pilots of America will use any information obtained from the user as a part of our own private database, which may be used at any time by Pilots of America in order to gather or provide information specifically pertaining to the topics provided within our set of message forums.

Termination

Pilots of America shall have the right to immediately terminate any Participant's use of the Pilots of America site if Pilots of America determines in its sole discretion that Participant has violated the Rules of Conduct set forth herein or otherwise breached this agreement, or has engaged in conduct which Pilots of America determines in its sole discretion to be unacceptable.

Thank you for being a part of the PilotsOfAmerica.com community! If you have any comments or questions, feel free to send us a private message or an e-mail to support@pilotsofamerica.com.
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