Special Note About Children

This Site is not intended for children, especially kids under 13. If a child under the age of 13 registers for this forum and the parent discovers this site on your computer or your child's computer contact the site owner to have account removed. Email owner@germanshepherdhome.com

Forum Rules

There is no charge for joining this Forum! We do insist that you abide by the rules and policies detailed below. If you agree to the terms, please check the 'I agree' checkbox and continue with registration process. We do not delete accounts once they are activated. ALL REQUESTS FOR MEMBERSHIP ARE REVIEWED BY ONE OF THE ADMINS. OR THE OWNER OF THE FORUM.

This is a community of German Shepherd enthusiasts with all different levels of knowledge and experience. Your behavior here, and ours, can be summed up in 4 words: 'Mi casa, su casa' (my house is your house). German Shepherd Home Forums is a place where it's okay to be yourself as long as you always act with respect for your fellow members as well as the German Shepherd Home staff of volunteers. You are not expected to leave your personality at the door. There are going to be topics and discussions that will have heated debates. Please think before you post and re-read what you type before you post it. Keep your comments limited to the debate at hand and do not make this a personal issue between you and another member.

There is tremendous diversity in age, race, gender, language, location (worldwide) and more here and there will be a lot of varying opinions on different subjects. We're all human beings and we're all drawn to this site because we have a common bond as German Shepherd enthusiasts. We will willingly listen to your suggestions and complaints, and try to incorporate your ideas into the Board.
If you come across any violations to these guidelines there is a Notify button at the bottom of each post. This will send a message to the Moderator of the Forum. If you have concerns about other board issues or a question on policy you can either PM Wisc.Tiger_Val or email owner@GermanShepherdHome.com

Considering the real-time nature of this bulletin board, it is impossible for the German Shepherd Home to review all messages or confirm the validity of information posted. Please remember that German Shepherd Home does not actively monitor the contents of all posted messages and is not responsible for any messages posted. German Shepherd Home does not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and is not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of German Shepherd Home or any entity associated with German Shepherd Home. Any user who feels that a posted message is against Board Rules is encouraged to contact us immediately by clicking the notify Button at the bottom of that post. German Shepherd Home has the ability to remove objectionable messages and will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if it is determined that removal is necessary. This is a manual process; however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately, in fact, we may not edit or delete posts that break our rules at all. We have many time constraints on us and cannot guarantee that we will be able to edit or delete posts that break the rules/user agreement. If you do not agree with this then do not view or register for German Shepherd Home. Although this Discussion Forum does not and cannot review the messages posted and is not responsible for the content of any of these messages, we at German Shepherd Home reserve the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless German Shepherd Home, Mindraven/ubbCentral/ubbThreads (the makers of the bulletin board software), and their agents with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s). We at this discussion forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

Be Welcoming!

When newcomers arrive, welcome them to our growing community. Many of our community's senior members are a wealth of knowledge and have much to share. Help new members learn about how to find information and resources, save time, and how to get involved in the Community.

Be Courteous!

Don't attack others. Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. Challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully - without insult and personal attack.

Be Cautious!

Think before you post or speak: Do you really want to put your address or telephone number on a public discussion forum? We encourage you to keep personal information personal.
In the same vein, do not ask for personal information from others. Discussion forum posts that request members to submit personal information to another party will be removed. Information that should be considered personal includes but is not limited to your home phone number, name, and age. If you must give this out for any reason, please do so privately.

Be Appropriate!

There may be places where explicit, obscene or vulgar language, graphics or behavior is appropriate however the German Shepherd Home is not one of those places. Posts containing explicit, obscene or vulgar language will be removed. Similarly, posts that solicit or offer explicit or X-rated GIFs, JPEGs or similar content files will be deleted without notice! Links to Websites with adult content/images anywhere on the site will be removed. Simply put, we do not wish to be seen as supporting any site that contains adult content - adult content being defined as any material that you would not feel comfortable showing to your spouse, your teenagers, or your boss and co-workers. In other words, anything which is 'NWS' (not work safe). This represents our values and our desire to appeal to the widest possible audience not to mention keeping clear of any restrictions that our present or future advertisers might have regarding acceptable content.
Do not post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, nudity of any kind including cartoon nudity, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, or in violation of any law.
Do not transmit or post via German Shepherd Home any information, data, text, files, links, software, chat communications or other materials ('content') that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, nudity of any kind including cartoon nudity, racially or ethnically hateful, political in nature, discussion of nudity or sexual content, including that pertaining to sexual orientation.

Be Ethical!

The German Shepherd Home website: resources, articles and discussions are based on basic, appropriate professional ethical behavior. Unethical behavior: use of member list for PM invites, email invites, spamming, warez, license sharing, and other illegal activities are completely inappropriate and will result in the loss of membership at German Shepherd Home.

Signature Guidelines.

New Members are restricted from having a Signature.
-255 Characters.
-No images allowed in signatures.
-Signature text should comply with our regular posting rules. No all-caps, no alternating caps, etc..
- You may include links to other sites if it doesn't violate any other rule.
-Signature text that is too long or obtrusive will be removed. This would include overly creative use of punctuation, color, etc. which make the signature too flashy.
-Signatures with just your username will be removed. Usernames are on the top of every post, so there's no need to have it in your signature too.
-No affiliate links!

If your signature is in violation of any of these new rules, the Staff may remove it without prior notice. If you have any questions as to whether something is acceptable, please PM a Staff Member.

No Cross-Posting

Do not post the same discussion more than once on a discussion forum or on many forums. Duplicate discussions are frustrating and counterproductive for other members, especially for those whose time and energy is limited. Duplicate discussions will be deleted.

No Advertising / Spam

Do not heedlessly place your advertisements through the Discussion Forums. This will be considered SPAM and could result in the loss of your German Shepherd Home Community Membership. Affiliate links are not allowed within the forums. Since this board is funded from limited advertising and affiliate links, we request that members do not post affiliates links.

No Abuse the messaging systems (PMs, IMs, and email form)
Personal Messaging is provided to the members of the Germans Shepherd Home as a service intended to enhance the Community experience. The purpose of personal messaging is to allow for discreet conversations to take place between members. This privilege is not to be abused! Solicitation, spamming, or harassment of any kind is strictly forbidden. Any member receiving an inappropriate personal message should forward that message to an Administrator or Moderator right away. Although PMs are normally only accessible by those who send and receive them, they are part of the database and as such, property of The German Shepherd Home. An Administrator, if so inclined, could locate the Private Messages in the database and read them. They are private, but not necessarily secret. In addition, Private Messages are not intended to deprive the Community of valuable information or experiences which could benefit the entire group. Please do not use private messages if the content of the message can be helpful to others.

Competing Sites.

The internet is a big place, and there are many German Shepherd sites out there. We have no issue with that. Many people are members on another board or even Mods or Admins on other boards, that isn't a problem. But German Shepherd Home, will not allow its board to be used to build traffic or members for a competing board, any post containing a competing site will be deleted. The only links other German Shepherd forums allowed are to Pedigree links from the Pedigree Database or other reputable sites.

No Copyrighted Material.

Information copyrighted or owned by any individual or entity other than the member should not be posted on the discussion forums without the consent of the owner. If such an event occurs, the individual posting the information shall be held solely responsible. The German Shepherd Home shall not be held responsible for member-posted information that may violate copyright law.

You cannot legally post entire articles or news in the forum without permission from the copyright holder. Even if you attribute the article correctly it's still copyright infringement. Copyright law does not care if you make any money off of the work or not, what matters is if you hurt the potential income of the copyright holder. In this case you would be depriving them of ad revenue and it is illegal. Under Fair Use provisions you can legally post a small abstract of an article - or perhaps the opening paragraph. So if you want to post an article you should do this and include a link, or just post the link. The exception to this rule is press releases; press releases are meant for distribution and can be copied and distributed as much as you want. If you are not sure if you can copy something then always err on the side of caution and simply post a link to the material.

Copyright Photos, Unless you are the copyright holder of the photo or you have been given written permission to post a photo that you have, then do not post the picture.

German Shepherd Home, reserves the right to use photos from contests on the Front page of the website. If any other use of Photos would be wanted the Owner would contact you with the intended use, you as the copyright holder could say yes or no.
Reminder Notice will be posted in the Photo Contest rules.

*Solicitation of funds

As a rule German Shepherd Home will not allow posting for the purpose of solicitation of funds, contests, raffles or other fund raising options. German Shepherd Home Owner and Admins. may or may not approve a special circumstances request. German Shepherd Home may run a special contest or fund raiser for a special circumstance.

Rescue Posts.

Please keep the posting to the guidelines of Pure Bred or Appears to be Pure Bred. If you are not certain send a PM to one of the Admins or Moderators of the Rescue section.

Warning and Suspensions.

You agree to follow the terms as listed above. Violation of the terms can/will result in a Warning or Suspension of your Board Privileges.
At the discretion of the Owner or Admins. the Warning and Suspensions could follow this order:
- First Offense Warning
- Second Offense of Any nature - 1 Week Suspension
- Third Offense of Any nature - 1 month Suspension
- Fourth Offense of Any nature - Could result in lifetime ban.

German Shepherd Home Discretion.

German Shepherd Home and its assigned agents reserve the right to remove a post which does not relate to the topic being discussed in the forum. In addition, German Shepherd Home reserves the right to organize discussion forums in order to best serve the majority of our members. For example, narrow-interest or minimal activity topics may, at German Shepherd Home discretion, be relocated to a more appropriate discussion forum, or deleted entirely. German Shepherd Home or its assigned agents also reserves the right to prohibit or delete discussions that are thought to violate applicable law or that may be harmful to other members, the sites that comprise German Shepherd Home or the rights of the German Shepherd Home or others. That said, we cannot ensure prompt removal of offending discussion forum posts. We also reserve the right to remove your membership from you should you violate these Guidelines.

Use of the site is at the discretion of the Administration of German Shepherd Home, and that any use may be terminated by the Administration at any time.

German Shepherd Home is a provider of an 'interactive computer service'. Postings on German Shepherd Home are 'provided by another information content provider' and not German Shepherd Home unless posted by the owner. German Shepherd Home is not the 'publisher or speaker' of any posts in the discussion forums unless posted by the owner.
German Shepherd Home is not responsible for any comments or views posted by its members or visitors who use the forums.

German Shepherd Home is not responsible for any of the contents displayed or held by any of the linked web sites.

German Shepherd Home also reserves the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) to the proper authorities in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

The user agrees as a condition of registering at German Shepherd Home to be truthful in regard to all information given during the registration process, to use the site as per the instructions, not to disclose his password to others for use.