Venice Florida! dot com - Discussion area FAQ

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Venice Florida! dot com
Message Boards FAQ
aka: common sense on the web

All General guidelines for all boards
Do not SHOUT (using words with all capital letters). Just write your header and text like a normal sentence with the first word and all proper nouns capitalized. SHOUTING is considered rude anywhere on the internet. It visually junks up the boards, making the pages difficult to skim. The use of capitalized acronyms (like AARP, FSBO or 2BR) is not considered SHOUTING. Posts with SHOUTED words will be immediately deleted. If you make this mistake, please feel free to repost your message -- just don't SHOUT it again.

Do not post ads on the general message board, use the two classified public boards that are set aside for that purpose. You can have as much discussion as you like in the two classified areas as long as the discussion remains on-topic for the board. We try to be as wildly loose as possible in interpreting what is on-topic on the two classified boards.

Venice Florida! dot com reserves the right to edit posts for spelling, punctuation, paragraph breaks, typos, etc. The general content of posts will not be altered, nor will we delete a portion of a post. These are your words, you took the time to write them and we will always respect that. This type of alteration is akin to what happens when you submit a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. We do not edit all posts, nor will we edit most of them. We edit posts whenever the mood hits us.

Venice Florida! dot com reserves the right to delete any post due to inappropriate content. Such a decision is not made lightly and is done on a case by case basis.

Three things will get a post deleted automatically:

1.) Being rude to another poster for no discernable reason (aka Tourette's flaming);
2.) The posting of potentially slanderous/libelous statements -- going after a public figure's personal life, for example;
3.) The use of any of George Carlin's "7 words you can't say on television" without substantially disguising the words with symbols and such.

Do not 'nick-shift,' which means don't post using multiple nicknames in an effort to make it look like one person is many people. It's a deceptive practice that undermines any statement that the writer is making as it makes the writer of such posts appear to need psychiatric help in the area of schizophrenia. Pick a nick and stick with it. If you really do have multiple personalities, please appoint one (and only one) to be the spokesman for your group.

Merely sounding off on a news article from the main site or even calling the staff of this site a few names is generally not going to get a post deleted -- you have to get pretty edgy before the delete button is actually used.

If you just use plain old common sense, this whole section should be unnecessary.

Other stuff -- specific guidelines
Message Board:
Post comments, questions, non-profit public service announcements, rants and just about anything else that relates to Venice Florida or surrounding areas. Messages posted here are cleaned out on a first-in first-out basis as allocated server space is used (usually about 90 to 120 days).

Real Estate Board:
Anyone (buyers, sellers, renters, landlords, realtors, etc.) may post free real estate classifieds and discussion messages here. The only requirement is that all posts must relate to real estate or rental information in the Venice, Florida and surrounding areas (including all of Sarasota County and north Charlotte County).

Messages will be removed after 60 days, however feel free to repost your message after it has expired.

Feel free to create a hyperlink to a property that you are discussing. Do not put up a generic advertisement for a web site -- if you wish to advertise your web site, you may purchase a banner ad.

General Classifieds and Announcements:
This area is basically for everything that doesn't fit on the other two boards (above). Anyone (individuals, businesses, non-profits, etc.) may post classifieds and discussion here, including announcements, for-sale info, garage sales, cars for sale, legal notices, personals, etc. There are no hard and fast rules as to content. The only requirement is that all posts must specifically relate to Venice and surrounding areas -- in other words, no make money fast spam scams or generic ads for out-of-town businesses and web sites are allowed.

Posts will be removed after 60 days (maybe longer if the activity in there is sparse), however feel free to repost your message after it has expired.

Feel free to create a hyperlink to an item that you are discussing. Do not put up a generic advertisement for a web site -- if you wish to advertise your web site, you may purchase a banner ad.

How to hyperlink to another web page or site in your message:
If you put in the full URL with the "http://" at the front, a link will automatically be created to the site or page that you want to link to.
Do not put any punctuation or any other characters adjacent to the URL. The URL, with the full "http://" prefix, must stand alone with a space both before and after it.

EXAMPLE:
Typing in "www.venfl.com" or "www.venfl.com/index.htm" will not create a hyperlink;
Typing in " http://www.veniceflorida.com " or " http://www.veniceflorida.com/index.htm " (without the quotation marks and with a space both before and after the URL) will create a hyperlink.

Do not post a generic promo ad / hyperlink just to promote your web site:
We sell advertising just for that purpose.
The classified areas are to promote individual properties, items, services, etc., and you can post a hyperlink pointing directly to the item, service or property that you are discussing. Generally speaking, if you post a link to the front of your web site, the post will be deleted. If you only have one service that you offer and you post a link to your site, that would be considered something more appropriate for a paid ad. On the other hand, if you are having a special sale on a particular item and link just to that item, that is considered as appropriate. It's an admittedly murky line that this site is still in the process of defining. If in doubt, just advertise your service and omit a link or you can contact us and ask if it is an appropriate ad.

Just to be clear:
An advertisement for a product, service or item is fine. An advertisement for the purpose of promoting a web site needs to be run through our advertising department. You like to eat. So do we.