Here at The Tech Student, we strive to make our community as friendly and welcoming as can be. Whatever your reasons for using our site, we wish for everyone to enjoy their time here and be able to access quality information, assistance and advice from fellow members.

In order for us to achieve our aims and for the forums to run smoothly, we must employ an array of policies. This page serves to familiarise you with our rules and regulations. Please take the time to read through it carefully - we've tried our best to keep it brief!

1. Posting

Most importantly, no spamming. This includes:

• Advertising or otherwise blatant promotion of third party products. User accounts created for the sole purpose of advertising will be deleted;
• Posts containing false, defamatory, innacurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful,sexually oriented, threatening, invasive or otherwise offensive content;
• Posts that add nothing substantial to the converrsation. These usually consist of a single word or line;
• Posts exclusively comprised of emoticons;
  
• Multiple consecutive posts. Please use the edit button!
• Posts that breach copyright laws 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.

Give heed to your posting etiquette:

• Be respectful of other members. Flaming and abuse will not be tolerated. Don't avoid the swear filter - it's there for a reason;
• Post in a way that is coherent and consistent with humanly writing. You don't need perfect spelling or grammar, but please refrain from excessive use of emoticons, punctuation (e.g. ! and ?), text speak and capitalisation. It's annoying and people won't take you seriously;
• Avoid huge fonts and bright colours. They can cause eye strain and divert attention from the substance of your post.

Post appropriately:

• Post in the relevant forum. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting. There's a greater chance of your topics getting a response if they are in the correct forum;
• Be descriptive with your topic titles. A topic entitled "Help!" isn't very informative;
• Bumping topics should only be done when absolutely necessary. Bumping your topic an hour after posting because there has been no response is not permitted;
• Use the search tool before posting to check if a topic of similar nature already exists. Posts that are repetitive in nature may be removed or locked at the discretion of the moderators;
  
• Avoid off-topic replies and "thread hijacking". Threads whose discussion is drifting away from the original topic or have replies getting repetitive in nature are subject to closing or splitting;
  
• Do not repost something that has been deleted or edited. Ask a moderator why the original post was deleted.

Respect other people's privacy. Do not post personal details, photos or links to people's personal sites (including Facebook, blogs, etc.) without their permission.

If you find a post that you think breaks forum rules, or is in any way offensive or inappropriate, please use the 'Report Post' function to alert moderators of the situation.

The above posting rules also apply to private messaging, where applicable.

2. Cheating & Plagiarism

A homework help forum is provided to assist you in the process of learning, not to provide you with answers. Do not ask people on here to do your work for you. We cannot are not responsible for producing work that you will pass off as your own.

No cheating. Your ability to cheat threatens the very existence of our website, so we take it very seriously. If we identify any signs of malpractice or academic misconduct by a member, we shall suspend the user's account immediately. If you become aware of any academic dishonesty then report it to the administrators at once. This cannot be stressed enough.

No plagiarism. All essays provided on this website are protected by plagiarism detection software, so you will be caught if you try to steal them. They are here for consultation purposes only. Do not copy them and claim them as your own.

3. Forum accounts

User names should not:

• Imitate members of the TechStu community. This includes regular users as well as staff;
• Contain any profanities. If your username is deemed inappropriate then we will ask you to provide an alternative.

Multiple accounts: We have no reason to forbid a member from having more than one account, but if we deem your motives for creating a second account to be inconstructive or malevolent then we will suspend the newer account (if not both).

Please note that the moderation team reserves the right to edit, remove or put on moderation queue any post at any time without prior warning. Administrators also reserve the right to suspend, ban or otherwise restrict your access to the forums if you are found breaking the rules listed here or your behaviour on the forums is otherwise deemed inappropriate and unacceptable.