Hashkafah.com: Registration Form

Forum Terms & Rules

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE JOINING!!!


Before your account becomes active, you will need to validate your registration by clicking on the validation email. Please check your email account within 24 hours after joining. Accounts that have been registered and have not validated their accounts via email will be deleted after a few days.

Welcome to Hashkafah.com!

Hashkafah.com is an online Jewish forum where everyone in the world can gather and exchange information on Jewish related topics. We welcome anyone who is interested in participating by asking relevant questions and giving useful information that benefit the members of this site. The content discussed here is strictly for entertainment purposes and in any real situation, you are asked to speak to a competent halachic decider. Our Frequently Asked Questions section functions as a supplement to these rules.

Please read everything here and in the FAQ's before joining/contributing to the site.

My House, My Rules

This site is privately owned and rules have been set up to protect the membership as a community and encourage healthy discussions. The rules are pretty clear cut and members are expected to follow them. If you feel that you cannot subject yourself to the rules of this site - we encourage you to continue reading the content of this site, but not to join as a member.

Moderators are members who help enforce these rules and make this site function. If you break a rule of this site, you will likely encounter a moderator who will make that clear to you.

The Moderators

Our moderating team maintains the board using these rules to help promote an environment conducive to discussion. They hold a neutral position on this site and some have duplicate screen names to make that possible. If they do participate in a discussion, it's usually to help facilitate it. Otherwise, you will find them moving topics, correcting typo's, removing undesirable content, keeping spammers at bay, and helping resolve any problems or issues with the site. Please help the moderators out by reporting offensive or suspicious posts.

The members who function as moderators are volunteers. Being so, we expect our members to show the utmost respect to them - even when they are the subject of a penalty issued by a moderator.

Member Expectations

There are responsibilities that come with membership to this online community. 'Following the rules' is obvious. But because the members are from different parts of the world with different values and beliefs, you are expected to be friendly, respectful, and 'current' on site-wide changes including our rules.

The Rules

1. Respect the moderators. We know this should be obvious - but it's not the case. No one likes to be dealt a warning or penalty for their actions. But we expect members to overcome their dislike for authority and show respect for the moderation team. I you have an issue with a specific moderator, bring it to the attention of an administrator via PM.

2. Do not proselytize other religions. This is a Jewish discussion board. Not a platform to preach to Jews about why they should accept another religion. If you want to ask a question, that's fine. But don't use it to push your agenda.

3. Do not post insulting comments or statements. This includes all personal attacks, racist comments, blatant anti-Semitism, Loshon Hora (rumors, slander, defamation), foul language, general rudeness, and nuisancy.

a) We do not allow members to talk about other members who haven't already publicly disclosed personal information about themselves.

b) Online forums have become a magnet for discussions about community scandals, corruption, fraud, abuse, and the like. People feel that their anonymity will shield them from the taking responsibility about what they write abut others. We do not tolerate any threads or posts of this sort – especially in regards to Rabbis, Jewish leaders and officials, or anyone who falls in the applicable laws of loshon hora (as mentioned above).

c) Interactions and incidents between yourself and the moderation team shall remain private. Posting a complaint against the moderators in the public forum about mistreatment or lack of fairness will be closed and the member account penalized by suspension or ban. If you have a problem with a moderator, report it to another moderator or administrator via PM.

4. Do not post on Shabbos (The Sabbath) or any Jewish Holiday which forbids computer use. The Sabbath begins shortly before Friday sunset and ends after Saturday sunset. We keep the boards open at all times as our member base spans the globe with differing time zones. If you are not Jewish or a Sabbath observer, this applies to you as well. We can use your IP address to determine your location and if it was Sabbath at the time you posted. This also applies to the Jewish Holidays which can occur in the middle of the week and span for more than one day.

5. Do not post links to or requests for unlawfully obtained copyrighted materials. If you post material that may be copyrighted, please be the owner or have permission to do so.

6. Mind your posts. You should make an effort to leave your posts in a manner that is legible and fair to all readers of this site. This includes:

• Using floodlines (lines that are long and run off the edge of the screen).

• Posting in other languages (other than Hebrew for reference/use of common Hebrew/Yiddish words).

• Attempting to bypass the bad word filter that makes the word you’re trying to use legible to viewers.

• wr171n9 1n 4 w4¥ 7h47 m4|{3$ 17 h4rÐ ƒ0r m3mb3r$ 70 r34Ð. (or IN ALL CAPS)

7. Do not SPAM. Unsolicited advertising that is of commercial benefit to the poster is considered spam and subject for removal. In some cases, the moderation team allows advertising that is of direct benefit to members of this website such as links to a singles event, a seforim store and the like. If you want to know if your post is SPAM, contact a moderator.

8. Do not post indecent imagery. This includes a wide range of anything from pornography (sexually explicit) to general immodesty. For more details as to what we allow, read the FAQ.

9. Members are permitted only one account. Discovery of duplicate accounts will result in deletion of any one of the accounts (or both) without notice.

10. Keep these rules. Some members will use these rules to determine what they can get away with. Member posts that appear as an attempt to be 'borderline' or general annoyance may result in penalty.

Moderation Actions

Any violations of these rules may result in any of the following actions:

1) Being asked to edit your own post.

2) Moving/deleting/editing the post – without warning.

3) Adding your posts to a mod queue before they’re visible on the main site.

4) Temporary suspension of your account.

5) Permanent Ban.

Legal - Terms of Use

By using this site, you signify your agreement to all terms, conditions, and notices contained or referenced herein. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this site. We reserve the right, at our discretion, to update or revise these rules and guidelines at any time and without notice. Please check them periodically for changes. Your continued use of this site following the posting of any changes to the rules and guidelines constitutes acceptance of those changes.

Content Use

For members who have joined after October 15, 2009, the content you post or otherwise provide to Hashkafah.com, you grant Hashkafah.com permission to (1) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat your content, and (2) sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Hashkafah.com will not pay you for your content.

For members who have joined before October 15, 2009, the content you post or otherwise provide to Hashkafah.com, you grant Hashkafah.com permission to allow content to be publicly displayed, edited, modified, reformatted, to the maximum extent permitted by US copyright law. Hashkafah.com will not pay you for your content. (This means that copyright remains with the owner, but Hashkafah.com has your authority to display, edit, etc the content as per US copyright law).

Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Hashkafah.com, its officers, staff, members, and associates, from any and all damages, costs, claims, losses, expenses, or liabilities arising from or related to any actual or alleged violation by you of these rules.

Jurisdiction

These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of the State of New York including any conflicts of laws principles that may provide for the application of the laws of another state. Each party hereby consents to exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in New York.

Free Speech

The First Amendment is greatly respected here on Hashkafah.com, as are all other Amendments. However, Hashkafah.com is private property and requests that members adhere to all rules and guidelines. It is a contract agreed to by all who become members of Hashkafah.com. Those who break forum rules cannot invoke censorship or freedom of speech.

We do not accept responsibility for topics, posts, polls, private messages etc. or the contents of them.

If you have a serious issue, or need immediate help, contact your Local Halachic Decider/Rabbi (or the authorities).

Privacy Policy

For each visitor to our Web page, our board software (and web server) automatically recognizes the consumer's domain name, IP Address, and e-mail address (where possible).

We collect the domain name and e-mail address of visitors to our web page, the e-mail addresses of those who post messages to our bulletin board, the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail, the e-mail addresses of those who make postings to our chat areas, aggregate information on what pages consumers access or visit and IP Addresses.

The information we collect is used to improve the content of our web page, used to customize the content and/or layout of our page for each individual visitor, used to notify consumers about updates to our Web site, shared with agents or contractors who assist in providing support for our internal operations, used by us to contact consumers for marketing purposes, disclosed when legally required to do so, at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our Website and applicable laws or to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Website.

With respect to cookies: We use cookies to record session information, such as items that consumers add to their shopping cart, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, record past activity at a site in order to provide better service when visitors return to our site, ensure that visitors are not repeatedly sent the same banner ads, customize web page content based on visitors' browser type or other information that the visitor sends.

From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes to our Web site to notify you of these changes and we will use for these new purposes only data collected from the time of the policy change forward. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our web site periodically.

Advertising

If you would like to place a banner to advertise your website, product, or service on Hashkafah.com, please email us for more information at the email address below.

Contact Information

We can be reached via e-mail at teamhashkafah@gmail.com