Admin Announcement: AVSIM's Policy Regarding Commercial and Freeware Support Forums

[Jim Young 2,356]

AVSIM’s (Tom’s) Policy Regarding Commercial and Freeware Support Forums at AVSIM

Did you know AVSIM provides free space for commercial and freeware developers so they can provide support for their product(s)?  The Board of Director’s continues Tom’s legacy and the commercial support forums are still free.  Developers can also advertise within their forums and even provide links to their respective product(s).  There are rules the commercial developer must abide by though and this document is to provide information about those policies since there was never any written policy provided. 

• If a commercial or freeware developer wants to create a support forum here at AVSIM – Using the AVSIM Contact Form, please provide the name of your forum; a short description, to include sub-forums, if applicable; a link to your website if you have a website; a logo we can use to identify your forum (see examples in our commercial forum section; logos cannot be wider than 170 pixels wide), and name of individual(s) who will help you moderate the forum (they must be members at AVSIM in good standing).

•  Rules after forum is created – Must be flight simulation related (i.e., an add-on for a flight simulation product).

AVSIM reserves the right to remove or close any forum at any time. When necessary, we will contact the forum owner of any action taken.

Advertising is allowed within main forum and all sub-forums.

You are responsible for moderating your forums.  AVSIM moderators will moderate the forums only for certain violations of the AVSIM Terms of Service as follows:

1. Threats and Intimidation of Staff and Members
2. Stalking, Predatory Practices, Pedophilia, Pornographic links or material
3. Piracy, Key Sharing, Link Sharing, EULA Busting, etc.
4. Spammers
5. Copyright violations

Use the “Report Post” inside each topic and post to immediately inform the AVSIM Moderating Team of a violation, to include posts or topics where you believe the member should be warned (you will have the ability to remove or delete an offensive topic or post).

If necessary, pin Forum Rules.

AVSIM must be the only location for your support forums (does not apply to Freeware Forums).  If it is discovered you have forums setup on other websites, to include your own, the forums at AVSIM will be immediately closed and the developer notified of the violation.  AVSIM does not provide free advertising for any developer and, having a forum on several websites would constitute free advertising.  Advertising revenue is one of the resources used to keep AVSIM running.

Your website, if any, must include a link to your support forums at AVSIM.

Notify Forums Administrator or AVSIM Staff immediately when you decide to close your support forums. 

Forums will be closed when discussions end.  Forums are then locked/read-only and eventually sent to the AVSIM bottomless pit.

AVSIM reserves the right to change any rule and charge developer’s for use of the AVSIM site for their support forums.  We will provide at least a two weeks’ notice if the CEO or Board of Director’s decided to implement an annual fee.

The main contact for creating/removing forums is the Forums Administrator (currently Bob Scott- w6kd) and/or Jim Young.  These Administrator’s will also be the contacts you should use if you have further questions or need further assistance.