Rules and Guidelines

[Administrator]

Rules and Guidelines for using the forum

Updated February 21, 2006

The Armenian Genealogy Forum is created to allow discussions with relation to Armenian ancestry, history, research and education for the purpose of sharing information and knowledge to help Armenians in their research of their Genealogy.

You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not use this forum to post any material which is abusive, hateful, vulgar, harassing and obscene; you also may not post any massages which insult the Armenians, Armenian tradition, history, religion or any aspect of the Armenian Heritage.

It is strictly forbidden to use this forum as a venue for advertising or soliciting for business. Any advertisement in the form of avatars, signature or links to external web sites that the poster is affiliated with, which does not relate to the forum subject, will not be permitted. Also it is not permitted to post copyrighted material unless the material is owned by you or you have the permission from the owner to post such materials.


The administration of this forum has the right to delete any post, ban any member or move posts to different forum without prior notice

When posting, please follow these general guidelines.

- Post in the appropriate forum. Massages in the wrong forums will be moved.
- Include a descriptive subject line.
- Do not spam or post the same massage multiple times.
- Post only massages related to the subject of the forum. Massages that the administration thinks is not related to the subject or it is waste to the forum will be deleted.

These Rules & Guidelines may be amended at any time.

If you believe an individual is breaking the rules, please report to admin/moderator.

Please enjoy your stay and share your knowledge with fellow Armenians to better themselves and help them with their research.

Thank you and welcome to the forum.
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Armenian Genealogy Forum

[debbi]

Ok I know this is going to sound stupid but , has someone been hurtful etc.. to another Armenian (or any one ) on this site ? Really I think you have a great site going here , and I hope the mistakes of a few will not wreck it for all... debbi

[Administrator]

The rules of this board are only intended to protect and respect the members and the administration of this board. It is in no way to offend or hurt anybody. I am glad that our members are all people of good morals and characters. Their contribution to the site as always has been very informative and helpful. As the board is growing, we need to keep the focus on the main subject of this forum and not waste the members and the administration time in reading posts that are not related to our subject. And I think without the rules and guidelines it will be difficult to accomplish that.
No Debbi, nobody has been hurtful to another Armenian on this board I just want to make sure that things stay that way.

Thank you all for your time and contribution to the board.

The Administrator.

[odar 72]

Can't this site be monitored more closely? One doesn't expect to find ~~~~ on a genealogy site.

[JACK R NASEP]

I agree Odar 72, I hope the Forum Administrator Acts now and deletes the ~~~~ and Advertisements and blocks the user from our Forum all together. GOOD FOR YOU, for standing up. Jack, Manitowoc, WI

[debbi]

Please lets get B spears off our site .......................... Personally I would BAN <iilizium > from our site * see what started this for my cooments for the record...............love to my friends debbi

[debbi]

More spam ?????????????
At least its not ---- photo's
Have a great day all..............debbi

[bvahan]

why admin/moderator(s) do not clean these Britney spam that is all around??

as i know the software has filters - do you use them?

... its so evident that some folks will disturb this forum (Esterbas is another nick spreading dirt here)

MY SUGGESTION
let's approve membership ONLY by a reference from existing members
(I think, google' gmail has/had such a rule)

[odar 72]

I agree with bvahan that it should be possible to clean up this site. References from existing members, as suggested, will not work as the membership is so corrupted with spammers. They are joining as I write this. First the membership list has to be cleaned out and I don't know how that is done. A start would be removing members who are actively spamming, but what prevents them from joining up again under a different name? The problem does have to be addressed because serious genealogists will be discouraged from using this forum.

[avedis]

I work as an admin on another web forum. When we get spammers, we delete the spam and block their IP number. They usually don't register as members, but it's easy enough to delete them if they do. In a few cases, we followed the links and found abandoned web pages that were nothing but long lists of spam links. We alerted the webmasters there, and the pages were removed.

In some cases, we've had to block whole ranges of IP numbers from a single ISP. That can lead to problems if there are legitimate posters from that ISP, but generally, that's not the case. For instance, it's not likely that posts from Korea or China to this forum are relevant posts.

Dealing with this problem is not just the responsibility of the administrators of this or any website. Much of the spam on the internet comes from botnets, which are networks made up of infected computers that are controlled by someone other than the owner/user of those computers.


Things that everyone can and should do:

Keep antivirus software up to date and running.

Use legitimate anti-spyware programs. Be careful. Some anti-spyware programs are actually spyware in disguise.

Don't run your computer as administrator. Unfortunately, this is the default setup for windows. Instead, create a user that does not have admin powers, and log in as that user. The only time you need to be administrator is when you're installing software. Running as admin allows strangers anywhere on the planet to install malicious software on your computer.

Turn off unused services in windows. (Look it up.) This is the equivalent of locking the doors to your house to keep robbers out.

Run a firewall that blocks both inbound and outbound traffic. (The Windows firewall that comes with XP only blocks inbound traffic, so if someone is using your computer as a mail server to send out spam, you might not notice.)

Here's a list of common unsafe computer habits:
http://www.schoolcio.com/showArticle.ph ... =193401932


.

[Administrator]

For the last several months, we are facing with the ugly problem of internet spam on our board. those spam are both done by automated bots and by immature people that have nothing better to do than to ruin our board and upset our members. We have been deleting more than 30 spam post per day and removing new members that we suspect are spammers. Fortunately the measures we have implemented so far were able to stop the bots , however we are still facing the other half of spammers which we are also implementing new measures on daily basis. Please keep in mind that this board is moderated by individuals on a volunteer basis they can not monitor the forum on a 24 hour basis. However I thank all the efforts that they have done to clean and maintain this board.

Thank you all for all your suggestions and inputs, please keep those coming so we can create a better environment for all that cares about Armenian genealogy.

I am thinking of changing the registration procedure where an individual can not post unless the moderators approves his/her registration which might take several days . This will delay the posting time for a new legitimate members but will prevent potential spammers from registering. There are also some extreme measures that I hate to take but I think will be necessary if things get out of control.

As some of you mentioned please make sure your computers are protected from spam and spy ware and we will do our best from this end to keep this forum a pleasant hangout for all Armenians interested in their ancestry.

Thank you for your particiption and enjoy your stay

John Melidosian
Administrator

[Samourian]

Is it okay to speak up for recognition of The Armenian assimation, aside from the Genocide, or the historical discrimination against Armenians that has happened in America or is it considered Racist on your website? Can we discuss how the melting pot has made it extra difficult to find our ancestors by there last names.