Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:42 PM
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Topic of the Week: Motivation 08/24/08 - 08/30/08 |  |
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creative-poems.com Terms Of Service Agreement Creative-Poems.com is intended as a place for amateur and aspiring poets to post and display their work. Our goal is to encourage people to write. The poetry featured on this site is for everyone's enjoyment and entertainment. To participate, you are expected to be respectful of the rights of other users. The site provides a mechanism for obtaining feedback for your work as well as a variety of features, such as a Forum, for instructive commentary by other members of the site and updates on site issues. Creative-Poems.com and any services provided to you on and through this web site are provided on an AS IS basis. This Terms of Service Agreement may change at any time without notice. Creative-Poems.com is operated and maintained by means of subscriptions and donations. Any and all support is greatly appreciated. Members are defined to include donors, paid subscribers, and non-paying members. All are equally bound by this agreement. Policy and Users Agreement:: To be a member of Creative-Poems.com, you must be thirteen (13) years of age or older. No exceptions are permitted. By becoming a member, you agree to the following stipulations. For each and every time you use or cause access to Creative-Poems. Com, you agree to be bound by these Terms Of Service. In addition, should you be using a particular service on or through this site, you will be subject to any rules, regulations, or guidelines applicable to those services and they shall be incorporated by reference into these Terms Of Service. Any member not adhering to Creative-Poems.com rules and guidelines are subject to having their email address blocked by the Administration and being permanently banned from this site. You agree that the Administration of Creative-Poems.com exclusively reserves the right and may, at any time, with or without notice and any liability to you, modify or discontinue this web site and its services, delete the data you provide, whether temporarily or permanently. Creative-Poems.com shall bear no responsibility or liability for the timeliness, deletion, failure to store, inaccuracy, or improper delivery of any data or information. You agree that any and all information or data of any kind (text, software, code, music or sound, photographs or graphics, video or other materials), publicly or privately provided, shall be the sole responsibility of the person providing the content and/or material, or the person whose user ID is used. You agree that Creative-Poems.com may expose you to content that may be objectionable and/or offensive. Creative-Poems.com shall not be responsible to you in any way, shape, or form for the content that appears on this web site, nor for any error or omission. You expressly comprehend and agree that Creative-Poems.com shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible loss (even if Creative-Poems.com has been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from or arising out of (A) The use of or inability to use the service, (B) The cost to obtain substitute goods and/or services resulting from any transaction entered into on through the service, (C) Unauthorized access to, or alteration of your data transmissions, (D) Statements or conduct of any third party on the service, or (E) Any other matter relating to the service. Please be aware that Creative-Poems.com has created certain areas on the website that contain adult or mature content. You must be at least 18 years of age to access and view such areas. Age Verification:: All members must submit and update their true and correct age with birth date. Members will have the option of keeping this information private from other members. Any member found to be providing false or inaccurate age and birth date information will be immediately removed and banned from the site, and all submitted poems will be deleted permanently without notice. User Conduct:: You explicitly agree, while using Creative-Poems.com or any service provided, that you shall not: (1) Provide any content and/or material or perform any conduct or act that may be unlawful, illegal, threatening, harmful, abusive, harassing, stalking, tortuous, defamatory, libelous, vulgar, obscene, offensive, objectionable, pornographic, designed to or which does interfere or interrupt this web site or any service provided, infect with a virus or other destructive or deleterious programming routine, give rise to civil or criminal liability, or which may violate any and all applicable laws; (2) Impersonate or misrepresent your association with any person or entity, or forge or otherwise seek to conceal or misrepresent the origin of any content provided by you; (3) Collect or harvest any information about other users and/or members; (4) Provide or use Creative-Poems.com and any content or service in any commercial manner or in any manner that would involve junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unauthorized advertising without our prior written consent; (5) Provide any content and/or material that may give rise to civil or criminal liability or which may constitute or be considered a violation of any state, federal or international law, including but not limited to laws relating to copyright, trademark, patent, or trade secrets. Registration:: All individuals wishing to become a member of Creative-Poems.com must complete the registration process in order to post their poetry or to be able to comment on the poems featured. All * fields of the registration sign up form must be completed in order to process the application. True and accurate birthdates and ages must be provided on the registration form. Any member found to be providing false information will have their accounts permanently deleted and banned. All persons aged 17 and under must obtain the consent of a parent or guardian before completing a registration sign up form. Any person under the age of 17 found to have an account without parental consent may be found in violation of federal law. Parents will be held responsible for all minors 17 and under. Only one account is allowed per person. All accounts added after the first will be removed from the system without notice. Anything related to those accounts will be erased. The primary account may be suspended. If for some reason, you cannot access your account, that is NOT cause to make another account. You are required to notify the Adminstration using the Contact Form. Subscription: Subscriptions may be purchased using site tools or by mail, following successful registration. Subscription begins immediately after funds are received and expire automatically, on the same day of the month, following the subscription period unless renewed. If PayPal was used in the subscription process, funds will be automatically transferred by PayPal to renew the subscription, until cancelled by the user. You agree to this automatic transfer of funds on a monthly or yearly basis when you complete a PayPal subscription. Subscription cancellation via PayPal is also an automated process and this is separate and apart from our site's Cancel Account function which instead deletes all traces of your account on our server. It is not our responsibility to cancel your PayPal subscription for you should you use our site's Cancel Account function. Upon cancellation of your subscription using the PayPal tool, the user's membership will automatically be depreciated, for example, from Premium to Free, at the end of the paid subscription period. Refunds will be provided for unused service, should cancellation occur before the end of the subscription period, however, no refunds for a partial month's service (less than $5.00) will be provided. For example, if you cancel your monthly subscription after only a few days of service, no refund will be provided for the current month. Every effort will be made to provide an appropriate refund for more than 1 month's service for members in good standing, having paid subscriptions, should they cancel their subscription or should something unforseen happen to our service. In the unlikely event of a site closure, all subscriptions will be cancelled by us, and refunds provided as discussed above. Suspension or dismissal is not grounds for a refund of your subscription. In the event your account becomes either suspended or removed because of a violation of this Terms of Service agreement, all rights to any refund are forfeited. Subscriptions provide no gurantee of service. Rates of subscription are guranteed for the current paid subscription period (month or year) only. Features, specific conditions, and terms may change at any time without notice. Copyrights:: All members should create a copy of their poems before submitting them, as Creative-Poems.com will not be responsible for the loss of any poems. All members are asked to copyright their poetry, either formally or informally. The US Copyright office will protect your material and all rights associated with your poems. One suggestion to aid you should you seek formal copyright is listed here to use at your discretion. It is http://www.clickandcopyright.com. Creative-Poems.com bears no responsibility for any advice, fees and satisfaction you may or may not receive from this suggestion. You also have copyright protection informally by agreeing that all poetry is of original origin. All poetry submitted remains the property of the author and its use both, in part or whole retains all copyright privileges. All submissions will be displayed as submitted, if possible. Offensive Comment, Poem, PM, and Forum Reports: Offensive material contained within poems, comments, personal messages, and forum posts are to be reported by affected members using the tools within the viewing utilities provided by this site for these items. Offensive materials are not characterized as opinions or ideas you may not agree with. Rather, these items become offensive when they violate the principles specified in "User Conduct" as outlined within this Agreement. For example, if someone makes a threat, repeatedly makes inappropriate remarks, or disparages or isolates another member, these should be reported to the Administration using the appropriate Offensive report tool. If you do not report such behavior, you cannot expect it to be noticed by the Administration or our Moderators. There will be no negative consequences to you for filing such reports, however, you are expected to include a specific violation from among those listed in this Agreement and accurately describe the offensive behavior. Do not file frivolous or unsupported Offensive reports. Further, all members of our staff, both our Moderators and Administrators, will be held to the same standards of conduct as described herein. The Offensive Report tools should be used to report specific staff behavior which is not in line with this TOS agreement. All Offensive reports will be reviewed promptly by members of the Administration. A log of all reports and Administrative actions is maintained which is reviewed by the site owner. This log includes the specific reason or reasons the Administration took action. When action is taken, personal messages or email is sent to the person whose poem, comment, personal message, or forum post was affected. This message will include a dispute resolution option, to be exercised if the affected user does not agree with the action taken. Specific reasons should be provided. It is possible for the action to be overturned following review. Dispute Resolution: Members are encouraged to dispute any and all actions by Moderators or the Administration using the Dispute software tools provided. Typically, such a dispute may arise because of the removal of a poem or comment by our staff or a more complex issue may arise. This Terms of Service agreement must form the basis for any and all of your complaints. All disputes reported will be considered promptly by the Administration team. A permanent log of all such disputes, as well as all Offensive reports, is maintained and all are reviewed by the Site Owner. Submitting and Posting Poems:: Must: 1) Be a poem, short story, lyric, etc. 2) Be your original creation - not simple replication of previously existing work. 3) Contain a reference to original author when any included articles are not yours. 4) Be suitable for the intended audience. 5) Not contain threats or harm to another individual's life. 6) Not interfere with the operation of the site. 7) Be posted with an understanding that the site reserves control over it's display. The poem section is strictly for posting your poems. If you would like to discuss something, or have a topic that you would like to converse on then you must use the Forum. Any and all material not considered in poetic form or nature that is submitted to the poem section will be removed with or without notice. Creative-Poems does not permit simple reproductions of other's work (poems, lyrics, quotes, etc.) found elsewhere. If you include a small portion of someone's work to support your own creative thought or idea, then you may post it assuming you include proper reference to the original title and author (not a link) and other copyright considerations are resolved. Generally, you must credit all sources of material not created by you. This includes pictures, music, and other digital articles which appear on our site through links. In such cases you must identify the name of the author and/or owner of all such items. The only exception is granted for material in our SIGS. Posting links is insufficient, as that is already obvious with a right click. If you are posting a link that involves a performance, including such as a MIDI, audio, or video you must name the author or writer, the title of the melody, song, or video, and the performer if different from the author, and the copyright owner should that differ from the author.Whoever originally created the work or item must be properly cited or it will be considered plagiarism by our staff. If all the appropriate information cannot be identified, links to the item may not be used on our site. Note this is different from the policy of many other sites. On Creative-Poems.com, you are expected to properly credit the sources of all material not created by you. Irregardless, you are hereby notified that if you post the work of others, you bear full and complete responsibility for any potential liabilities relating to the unauthorized reproduction of material copyrighted by others. You are expected to research and comply with their requrements. It is strongly urged that common sense and a modicum of decency be considered when choosing the subject your poetry is based on. You must remember to keep our young readers and authors in mind and act accordingly. Before hitting the "Publish" button, briefly consider the impact of your write on our members and users. We provide you the freedom to write, however, as a member you assume full responsibility for what you write. Our members have responsibility for their comments but have recourse should they consider your write personally offensive. All are bound by this document. Any poems containing contents of violent nature, such as threats to another's life or threats to cause bodily harm to a named another may be deemed illegal and punishable by law. These poems will be deleted immediately without further notice. Graphics and signatures are allowed to be used with poems as stated above. However, the Administration reserves the right to remove any graphic or signature that is found to interfere with sites home page with or without notification. By submitting and posting any content or material to Creative-Poems.com: (1) You comprehend and agree that we shall have the right, but not obligation, at our sole discretion, to refuse to publish or to remove or block access to any content or material you provide at any time and for any reason, with or without notice. (2) You agree to grant us permission to display your work on Creative-Poems.com. Explicit Category:: Poems that may be offensive, vulgar, violent, or contain the intense use of profanity must be placed within this category. This includes any use of profanity in poem Titles. This is the singular category where explict language is allowed to exist in poem titles. For this reason, such titles will never be found on the Home page. Poem lists will contain poems from this category only when the user allows it. Any poems containing contents of violent nature, such as threats to another's life or threats to cause bodily harm to a named another may be deemed illegal and punishable by law. These poems will be deleted immediately with or without further notice. Note that all sexually explicit material must be placed in the Adult section, as outlined below. Adult Categories:: Any and all sexually explicit poems must be placed in the Adult category. A number of sub-categories are provided for your convenience. Explicit words are not allowed in the titles of poems in the Adult categories or anywhere else except the Explicit category. Any poems with explicit words in their titles will be removed without exception. This is required to prevent explicit words from showing in the Home page and/or in poem lists without user approval. You must be a Premium subscriber to post or view poems in this category. Members under the age of 18 are strictly prohibited from posting and viewing within this category. Age verification will be required before entering and posting these types of poems. Any member that provides false or inaccurate age and birth date information will be immediately removed and banned from this site, and all submitted poems will be deleted permanently without notice. Topic Of The Week:: Any poems deemed to be the current topic of the week will be relocated to that category. Featured Poems:: By submitting your poem to the Featured Poems List, your poem will be viewed and rated by anonymous teams composed of members of Creative-Poems.com. These are volunteers, selected by the administration. Creative Poems Awards are based on creativity, originality, meaning, spelling, punctuation and on the format. Only one poem is allowed to be added per week. Ten poems per week will receive the "Creative Poems Award Ribbon", which will show up next to their poem. All poems submitted must NOT contain the author's name. Any submitted with the author's name appearing will automatically be disqualified. Poem Limits:: Premium members are allowed to post eight (8) poems in a 24-hour time period. All other members are allowed four (4) in a 24-hour time period. Specifically, when you attempt to submit a poem, site software will count the number of poems you submitted in the previous 24 hours, and deny the submission if 5 poems were already submitted. You will, however, be offered the opportunity to save up to five (5) drafts in any 24 hour period. This limit has been imposed due to the growing number of members. It is imperative that you adhere to this limit! Content and/or Language:: Creative-Poems.com reserves the right to amend or deny submission of any poetry at any time. The content and/or language of poetry submitted will be under the review of the Moderators working on behalf of Creative-Poems.com. You must enter explicit material in the classification provided. Any material deemed explicit by the Moderators or Administration that is wrongly classified will be moved with or without notice and redirected to the appropriate classification. Creative-Poems.com has this provision as a protection for our underage members. Should a member attempt to over-ride the poem placement provided by the Moderators, that poem will be removed from the site. Such a user may face suspension. Members are urged instead to use the Dispute mechanism to contest actions they do not agree with. Third Party Services:: Goods and services of third parties may be advertised and/or made available on or through Creative-Poems.com. Representations made regarding products and services provided by third parties are governed by the policies and representations made by these third parties. We shall not be liable for or responsible in any way, shape, or form for any of your dealings or interaction with third parties. Poem Commenting:: Once a comment is posted, it can not be edited. If comments contain profanity or insults, or otherwise constitute a Terms of Service violation, they are subject to removal. Creative-Poems.com reserves the right to approve or deny comment removal requests made by members, and to remove comments at any time with or without notice or explanation. The Offensive Comment Report tool is available for users to report such comments. Remember, this is a poetry website whose members aspire to improve writing skills. The comment section is provided to applaud and instruct the author from other viewpoints. Commentors are expected to provide the level of feedback indicated by their Comment Preference selection. All comments made must be in good taste, constructive, and non-abrasive in nature. Commentors who disagree with a writer's point of view are required to express themselves respectfully. Discussion is prohibited within poem pages. As is mentioned above, discussion may only reside within the Forum. Solicitation:: Absolutely no soliciting is allowed on Creative-Poems.com! Anything that is considered soliciting will be removed without notice. Links and Url’s:: You may put website links and url’s in your profile and link exchange. It is your responsibility to comply with our requrements and the remote web site's requrements. The ‘About poem’, 'commenting', 'forum' and other sections should never contain a website url unless approved by site owner. All links that are found where they should not be, will be removed immediately. Link Exchange:: contains links to other Internet sites. These links are provided solely as a convenience to you and are not endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information in such site has been endorsed or approved by Creative-Poems.com. These third party sites may also contain opinions and viewpoints of third parties that do not necessarily coincide with our opinions and viewpoints. Those sites may also have privacy policies different than our own privacy policy. Inactive Accounts:: Posting poems in not a requirement for membership. However, accounts must be used to remain active. All accounts that are inactive for 30 days and do not contain a poem may be removed. All accounts that are inactive for 90 days and contain a poem or poems are subject to removal. Chat Room:: Creative-Poems.com has the unique feature of including a free on-site chat room. This is a wonderful tool for communicating with the other authors and readers of our site. We strictly enforce behavior and language in this chat room. Breeches of this discipline are subject to expulsion from the Creative-Poems.com website. Moderators will police the site and report to the Administration on all incidents of misbehavior and misuse. Because young authors and readers use this provision, the chat room must be a pleasant and courteous place to chat. The Administration reserves the right to ban anyone from this site at any time for misuse, misbehavior or not adhering to the guidelines and policies of this site. Private Messaging (PM):: Creative-Poems.com has an on-site messaging service. This is provided for poets to talk between themselves and receive feedback on comments made or given. Messages should be in good taste, non-abrasive and non-insulting. All obscene and sexually explicit content and/or material are prohibited. It is forbidden for PM's of other members to be circulated or posted in poems without the express permission of their author. For example, it is a TOS violation to post someone's PM or Comment in your Comment area without their permission. In no case shall PM's from this site be removed to other services. Creative-Poems.com prohibits all SPAM from being distributed through the PM service. Chain letters are forbidden. Violators may be suspended or removed without notice. A provision is available for each poet to report offensive messages. It is available in the PM service. It is the responsibility of the offended member to report such messages to the Administration immediately using the tool provided. Please note that PM’s may be viewed periodically by the Administration for the purpose of maintaining the integrity of this website. Forum:: The Forum is to post questions, opinions and replies. All discussion is required to be of good taste. Profanity and abusive comments will result in removal of the same. The Forum is policed by the Moderators to ensure topics and comments are free of profanity and abrasive content. Groups:: All groups must contain more than one member. Group poems are to be written as a group. If a poem is written by one person in the group the poem posted will be removed. Each poem should have a signature of all members that helped write the poem, which was posted. All members should be given credit for the poem posted. You may not exceed three poem posts per day as a group. All poems over that limit will be removed. Profile: All user/member names and any information contained on your profile page must be in good taste. Information deemed explicit or inappropriate by the Administration will be removed with or without notice. Profile Picture:: Creative-Poems.com gives each author the choice to post his/her picture to his or her profile. These images, or a representation of them, will be used in various locations on the website. All images are required to be non-violent in nature, in good taste, and suitable for all age groups. Pornography, nudity and partial nudity are strictly forbidden! Sexually suggestive material of any type is expressly forbidden. All pictures will be reviewed and accepted by the Administration before they will be posted to your profile. Your profile picture is expected to be a personal photograph owned by you. You may NOT upload photographs or graphics created or owned by others without the creator or copyright owner's information clearly visible within the photograph. Further, you will be challenged by Administration to show the expressed permission of the actual creator or copyright owner. These images may be removed at any time without notification. Personal Pictures: An additional number of personal pictures may be uploaded by Premium subscribers. The guidelines for Profile Pictures (above) also apply to these images. Personal pictures will be periodically reviewed by the Administration and may be removed at any time without notice. Contests:: We will be featuring poetry contests in which all members can participate. A judge’s panel may be selected to evaluate poetry for this contest or a voting system by all members of Creative-Poems.com may vote. The future is a boundless region at Creative-Poems.com and we welcome you to be a part of it! Privacy:: All information of a personal nature entered onto this site shall be kept in the strictest of confidentialities. Information from this site by the Administration or members may not be released to outside persons or businesses at any time. This information includes the list of members, all poetry submitted, comments made on other member’s poems and any additional site information. Regulation:: Respect for the rules on Creative-Poems.com will be maintained through regulation. All poets must adhere to the specifications listed herein. In the event of disregard for the rules governing Creative-Poems.com the Administration of the site may issue the offender a warning. In such a case if a second offense occurs it will result in suspension and/or will warrant removal of the offender from the site. Some offenses may result in immediate suspension without warning. COPPA Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act:: The Federal Trade Commission’s Online Privacy Act of 1998 (COPPA) is intended to protect the privacy of children using the Internet. As of April 21, 2000, many Web sites are required to obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of thirteen. See COPPA News Release and Full Text of Federal Register Notice at http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/10/64fr59888.htm Disclaimer:: Creative-Poems.com reserves the right to remove any account, poem, or comment at any time with or without notice or explanation. The terms of this service agreement may change at any time with or without notice solely at the discretion of the operators. Creative-Poems.com disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, material, behavior, completeness, legality, reliability, operability, or availability of information or material displayed on this site, even if Creative-Poems.com or its authorized representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Creative-Poems.com disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from downloading or accessing any information or material on Creative-Poems.com. You comprehend and agree that your use of Creative-Poems.com and any services or content provided (the service) is made available and provided to you at your own risk. It is provided to you AS IS and we expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind, implied or expressed, including but not limited to the warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, and non-infringement. We make no warranty, implied or expressed, that any part of the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, virus-free, timely, secure, accurate, reliable, of any quality, that any content is safe in any shape, for, or manner for download. You comprehend and agree that neither Creative-Poems.com, nor any participant in the service provides professional advice of any kind and that use of such advice or any other information is solely at your own risk and without Creative-Poems.com liability of any kind. Indemnity:: You agree to indemnify and hold Creative-Poems.com, affiliates, officers, agents, co-branders or other partners, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of content you submit, post, transmit or make available through this website, your use of this website, your connection to the website, your violation of the Terms Of Service, or your violation of any rights of another. Choice Of Law And Forum:: The Terms Of Service and the relationship between you and Creative-Poems.com shall be governed by the laws of the State of Florida without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and Creative-Poems.com agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of Duval, Florida. Waiver and Severability of Terms:: The failure of Creative-Poems.com to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms Of Service shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Terms Of Service is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Terms Of Service remain in full force and effect. Statute of Limitations:: You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of this website or the Terms Of Service must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. The section titles in the Terms Of Service are for your convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Check our Home page! User poems are sometimes graced by images and textures stored on our site courtesy of GRSites.com, Sandy Hradil, and Sherri Emily. |
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