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The USAFPatches.com Forum is privately run, publicily accessible bulletin board designed to foster interaction among U.S. Air Force patch collectors. Portions of the forums are restricted to registered members of the forum. Registration is easy and FREE.
In order to promote a friendly community environment on USAFPatches.com, the following guidelines have been developed for posting messages. By registering with this website, you agree to abide by the terms listed below. Failure to do so, can result in your post being deleted, suspension or removal of your account. Forum membership is not a right, but a privledge and the Webmaster reserves the right to remove or delete any post.
1) Posts Must Relate to US Air Force Patches. "Related" means zaps/stickers, uniforms as they pertain to patches, USAF unit information and publications that can be used as reference material for USAF patch collecting. Also per the user agreement: "Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are forbidden on this forum."
2) All Post Must Be in English.
3) Do Not Post Classified / Information Not-Cleared for Public Release. Remember this is an open forum viewable to the entire world -- do not knowingly post classified or other information not cleared for general public release. This especially applies to information from .mil/.gov restricted domains. If you see any such info, please notify let the Webmaster immediately. Do not attract anymore attention to the fact by acknowledge the information could potentially be classified.
4) No Commercial Advertising on the Forums (Other Than Appropriately Designated Areas). For the purpose of this site, "commercial" is defined as any individual, group or company that meets at least one of the two criteria:
Posts by a commercial vendor or by any individual which promotes or has the appearance of promoting items for sale by a commercial entity will be removed. Forum members are more than welcome to ask questions about and discuss their experiences with vendors. Vendors are more than welcomed to take part in discussions and posts personal messages in the Forums Classified section.
5) Search Before Posting / Don't Post Information That Appears Elsewhere on the Website. Before posting, verify that the information does not already exist elsewhere on USAFPatches.com by using the search engines provided.
6) Post to the Correct Forum. Please post in the section that most closely matches your topic. If you are unsure of where to post, please ask the Webmaster.
7) No Political or Religious Discussions.
8) Keep It Civil / Be Respectful / Don't Get Personal. I’m not trying to make this forum a bastion of political correctness, but rather a friendly social gathering place where people can share ideas, experience and knowledge regardless of who you are or where you come from. Everybody is entitled to their opinion and is also entitled to disagree with other’s opinions. Intelligent debate enhances our knowledge while petty arguments, get personal, name-calling and the like do not. Pointing out our errors and inaccuracies in posts is perfectly acceptable if done respectfully. Calling someone an “idiot” is unacceptable. All of us were novices at one point (I still consider myself a novice), so try to remember how it was when you were in their shoes. Avoid posting “heat of the moment” messages – take a deep breath, collect your thoughts and put them into an intelligent post. You are much more likely to win friends and less likely to alienate forum members. Before posting a message, be sure to critically read what you wrote - if this was someone else’s post would you take offense? The written word does not always convey thoughts and ideas the way speech does. Use the emoticons to help readers determine if you are being serious or joking.
9) Don't Post Copyrighted Material Without Permission From the Copyright Holder.
10) Stay on Topic. As you will discover, it is quite easy to stray off topic. Please resist the urge to do so; if you want to discuss something else, post a new thread.
11) Take One-on-One Conversations Offline. Use e-mail or a personal message for one-on-one conversation. Only post if your comment/question is relevant to everyone. (E.g. -- If you want to find out if a collector has another patch they just posted for trade - e-mail or personal message them.)
12) Keep It Relevant / Quality not Quantity. When posting replies, be sure your post is relevant and adds to conversation to the topic at hand. In the forum environment, there is often a tendency for “me too” post; avoid this whenever possible. USAFPatches.com forums uses a one to five star system to rank members based on the number of posts they have made. They are mainly used as a forum management tool and not intended to indicate “experience” or "status”. “Neffing” (posting purely to drive up your post totals) will not earn you any real special privileges (not even a discount at a fast food joint), so focus on quality and not quantity.
13) Limit Image Attachment File Sizes. There is a finite amount of disk space available for hosting the information on this website. There is a 400kB limit on file size with a maximum of 10 attachments per post in the forum. For images, JPEGs are highly recommended and images of a single patch should be no larger the 25kB. All other images should be no larger than 75kB.
14) One Unknown Patch Per Post. Please create a new topic for EACH patch you would like to post (exception – variations of the same patch). Do not post multiple unknown patches under the same topic.
15) Subject Line. For the subject line, please put the ENTIRE inscription on the patch and nothing else! If there is no inscription, please give a very brief description. This allows the search engine to index the web page so individuals can search for a particular inscription. Please see the examples below.
16) List All Items in One Post – One Post Per Person Per Day. Do not list items separately, combine them into one listing.
17) Delete Posts That Are No Longer Valid. Delete posts that are no longer applicable to prevent unwanted solicitations or offers.
This page is in no way sponsored or endorsed by the United States Air Force. Opinions and views expressed are those of the Webmaster (unless otherwise noted) and not necessarily those of the Department of the Air Force. Information appearing on this site is for reference/educational purposes only. Official U.S. Air Force emblems are protected by federal law; reproduction for commercial use or for profit is not permitted without express permission from the individual unit commander. Copyright 1996-2007 by R.M. Operhall, all rights reserved.
