Overview
AST Products, Inc. hosts this Discussion Forum to provide a place for professionals in the field of surface modification to exchange information, make comments and ask questions about surface modification issues and generally share their experiences in the field. AST representatives will monitor the Forum and respond to questions as appropriate. AST postings reflect the perspectives and opinions of the Forum moderator(s), and in some cases may not represent the corporate positions and policies of AST Products, Inc. In any event, postings by AST employees should not be considered official support from the Company.
Specific Guidelines for Use
1. No Illegal Conduct. Participants must not engage in any illegal conduct in the Forum. In particular, you cannot post, publish, or distribute any defamatory, obscene, infringing or other unlawful material or information in the Forum.
2. Observe the Golden Rule. Please treat others on the Forum as you would expect them to treat you. Personal or ad hominem attacks or any type of “flaming” of other Forum members will not be tolerated. Participants who “talk trash” about another user may be banned from the Forum. Please also refrain from “trolling”, i.e., posting topics or opinions that are designed to provoke a negative response from one or more specific users.
3. Avoid Offensive Language. People can have differing sensibilities about what is offensive language but common obscenities and vulgarisms are unnecessary and should not be used. If you have any doubts about whether a particular statement might be considered offensive by other users, please do not post it.
4. Don’t Undermine the Topic. Do not engage in disruptive activity on the Forum, such as persistent off-topic postings or comments, or statements that might incite other users to violate these guidelines or participate in illegal activities.
5. Don’t Violate Intellectual Property Rights. Do not post messages or upload files that contain photos, software or other material protected by intellectual property laws, rights of privacy or publicity, or any other applicable law unless you own or have rights to these materials. AST is not responsible for the use of anything you say or post in the Forum.
6. Do No Harm. Do not post any instructions, software or other materials that would allow Forum users or third parties to harm other users’ computers or to inappropriately access software or websites. You are not permitted to post any computer programs that contain destructive features, such as viruses, worms or Trojan horses. In addition, you cannot employ any type of bots for the use of scrolling, showing multiple screens, or other activities that might disrupt online communication.
7. Be Yourself. You may not impersonate any other person in the Forum, including AST employees or agents. You also may not misrepresent the source of anything you say or post.
8. Don’t Spam. You may not use the Forum to spam other users, including sending identical and irrelevant submissions to many different discussion groups, mailing lists or communities. Such postings will rarely be of interest to any Forum participants.
9. Don’t Advertise or Solicit. You may not post any content for commercial purposes. This includes, but is not limited to, advertisements for your business and solicitations for a charity. Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify the validity of each and every organization that solicits donations. Therefore, in an effort to protect Forum users from fraud, we must prohibit solicitations for charities.
10. You Own What You Post. You are responsible and liable for all your activities while participating in the Forum, including anything you say or post.
11. The Forum Is Not a Warehouse. Please do not rely on the Forum for the safe and secure storage of any materials, such as photos, documents and software. The Forum is not designed as a place to store any of these materials, and AST is not responsible for the alteration, deletion or loss of any stored items. We strongly recommend that you create back-ups for any materials that you post to the Forum.
12. You Post, We Decide. AST reserves the right to remove at any time, without notice, any message or posting that violates these guidelines. AST also reserves the right at any time, without notice, to ban from the Forum a user who has violated these guidelines.
13. Links Must Be Appropriate. Some participants may post Internet website links. AST is not responsible for the content on the websites associated with these links. Users are cautioned that links may connect to inappropriate or even malicious websites. AST will remove any postings that contain links it considers inappropriate. However, we are not able to monitor the Forum constantly and, therefore, clicking on a link in any posting is done at the user’s own risk.
14. Decide for Yourself. You are responsible for any actions you may take based on information or advice you receive through the Forum. Please use your own good judgment when evaluating information provided through the Forum . The decision to share information or conduct transactions with anyone is your own – please conduct your own research prior to making any decisions.
15. Help Us Help You. AST will do its best to enforce these guidelines but relies on Forum users to alert it if a posting is inappropriate or not in compliance with these guidelines.