User:Bugayev

Revision as of 23:56, 11 July 2010

OCAU Forum Rules

This is a comprehensive list of all OCAU forum rules, including the overarching rules and policies and rules for the specific subforums.

All members should be familiar with these rules!

Site Rules

The OCAU Forums are a privately-owned system with access provided to the public under limited conditions. We reserve the right to revoke your access, without warning or notice, for any reason that we may or may not disclose.

• Messages should be posted in the appropriate forum.

• Offensive, illegal, abusive or deliberately inflammatory messages are not to be posted.

• Adult content of any kind is not to be posted.

• Pyramid schemes, affiliate programs or any links containing affiliate identifiers are not to be posted.

• Posting the same message in multiple forums is not allowed.

• One forum account per user. If your account is banned, you as a person are banned. Multiple accounts believed to be "false" accounts for another will be banned.

• Posting personal information about people such as real names, telephone numbers, street/postal addresses and email addresses is not allowed without permission from that person.

• Note that the "Private Messaging" system is called "private" to distinguish it from normal public forum posting. Your Private Messages can be viewed by certain OCAU Admins and in certain circumstances (such as investigating a trading complaint) they will be examined to confirm details etc.

• Commercial posts or advertisements should only be posted in the Trading Post - vendors may respond to messages in "What/Where Should I Buy?" if they can provide the service or product required. Note that "spamming", excessively promoting your business or promoting your business in a manner that we deem unethical will result in the cancellation of your forum account.

In the Shop & Swap Forums: If someone posts a 'for sale' thread, no one should jump in and offer a similar item at a cheaper price. They are instead encouraged to start a new thread with their cheaper price and it is up to the reader to keep abreast of new threads. However, of course, other readers are free to discuss/debate pricing within the thread. OCAU has no part in price negotiation in the forums, nor are we responsible for ensuring delivery, quality or even existence of goods advertised, bought or sold in the forums. Buyer beware!

• No Discussion of Sunlit/Compugate:
  • Until further notice, discussions or comments relating to Sunlit, Compugate or the persons Paul Johnson or David Wu (Sunlit directors) are not permitted. The forum software will attempt to automatically blank out the words Sunlit or Compugate if they are used - making variations of these words to bypass this automatic filter is not permitted and may get you banned forever. We do not read every post, but people can report posts to us. If we receive notice that you are discussing Sunlit, Compugate, Paul Johnson or David Wu you will be banned from making further posts on the OCAU forums!

• Be reminded that, by becoming a Member of the Overclockers Australia Forum system, you agreed not use the Overclockers Australia Forums to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy or otherwise violative of any law. You agreed not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyrighted on that material is owned by you. You agreed not to link remote images or files unless you have the permission of the file owner and host. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agreed to indemnify and hold anyone else, including Overclockers Australia and the Forum Operators, harmless with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s).

• Further, by becoming a Member you indicated your agreement that the contents of all messages are the responsibility of the individual message posters and therefore agreed not to hold Overclockers Australia, the Forum Operators or any other entity associated with the Forums responsible or in any way liable for damages of any kind with respect to the content of any message on the Overclockers Australia Forums and to the extent permitted by law you have waived all rights to make any claims against Overclockers Australia, the Forum Operators or any other entity associated with the Forums. You agreed that if you have a complaint about a message contained within the Forums your first and only action will be to notify an Administrator so that we may remove the message if necessary.

If you do not agree to these terms, do not become a member! We wish you much happiness in one of the many other forum systems on the Internet.

Defamation and Free Speech

We recently faced a serious problem in which some people claimed that they may have been defamed by comments which were posted by some other people on the OCAU forums. Despite the fact that we made it very clear in the site documentation that OCAU are not responsible for comments made by other people and indeed there is a section of the Broadcasting Services Act which seems specifically designed to protect Internet Content Hosts in our situation, they were threatening to sue us and forced us to obtain legal advice. This is a serious concern (and expense) for the operators of this website - and one reason why the OCAU forums have been down for so long.

The forums were one of the driving forces behind OCAU and we want to bring them back to their former glory. However, we won't do this unless people recognise and adhere to a few basic standards when posting comments on the OCAU forums.

We have never and will not be censoring the forums or monitoring every post that appears. To check all messages is impossible for the people that run OCAU given the sheer volume of messages that appear almost constantly. Further, as we are not lawyers, we cannot reasonably be expected to know which messages are legally appropriate and which are not. In the majority of cases, there will be no way for us to tell if a message is comprised of entirely factual statements. Deleting all messages that are negative in any way would be a severe infringement upon the free expression of our contributors. Therefore, OCAU will in no way take any responsibility for comments you make on these forums.

You are personally responsible for what you say on these forums. If you post a comment that might be defamatory, expect that someone will sue you personally for defamation! Think: Do you want to lose everything you own/ your parent's house over a comment you made on these forums?

If you post a message about someone and they think that it may be defamatory, we will happily and fully comply with any court order requiring us to hand over everything we know about you and that post. If we didn't, we would likely be found in contempt of court which carries severe penalties including imprisonment - so don't think for a second we won't hand over any and all info we have. Remember, you are not anonymous on these forums! We log your IP address and connection time and if a court requires us to reveal that information, it can be used to link you to your ISP (they know who you really are).

So what is defamation and what about free speech?

These forums are hosted in Australia and there is no "right of freedom of speech" in Australia (except in relation to political speech: ie. comments about politicians and political parties). So forget everything you've seen on American legal dramas on TV - it just doesn't apply in Australia.

Basically, you can be sued for defamation if you write a post that could lead a reasonable person to have a lower opinion of the reputation or honour of the person whom you are talking about in that post. Eg: Do NOT say that [Mr X/Company Y] is a liar, a thief, a cheat, a criminal, a scumbag, they ripped me off, they suck, they are dodgy, etc - anything you say must be based on facts you can prove in court.

You are allowed to post messages which contain statements which you can prove in court are true. Therefore, we suggest that if you have critical or negative comments to make about a person, a product or a supplier, you limit your comments to a strict factual description of what happened. Eg: I ordered [insert product] from [insert name of person/store]. It [arrived broken/ never arrived/ wasn't what I ordered]. I have contacted them but received [no response/ unsatisfactory service]. Based upon this experience, I will not order from them in the future. Bear in mind that as per point 5 this is not legal advice - if you are considering posting a critical comment you should seek legal advice first. We take no responsibility for you relying on this statement. It is provided merely to alert you to the issue of defamation when criticising vendors. Use it at your own risk!

If you are concerned that a message that you are considering posting to the OCAU forums may be defamatory in any way, you MUST seek your own legal advice before posting it on the forums. Don't ask us whether it would be defamatory or not - we are not lawyers!

Think twice before you post a message. A defamatory message starts doing damage the instant it is posted.

If you are in any doubt, don't post! Instead, take some time to chill out and think about what you want to say - you can communicate that you are disappointed with what someone has done to you without being defamatory. Ask a friend, ask your parents - ask a lawyer! Posting forum messages when you are angry or upset is never a good idea.

If someone complains to us about a post that you have made that they consider defamatory, we will delete it as soon as we can - this is for YOUR protection.

If you have a complaint or are concerned about a message you think may be defamatory, click the link "Report this post to an Administrator" link under the message.

The Broadcasting Services Act provides a statutory defence for Internet Content Hosts against suits for subsidiary publication of defamatory materials. Therefore, if a person has a problem with the content of a post, their only remedy is to contact OCAU to ask that the post be removed. If they want to know the identity of the person who made the potentially defamatory post, they should apply to a NSW court for an order for OCAU to hand over whatever information OCAU has which could potentially be used to identify the person. They will have to pay all costs associated with that court order. Once OCAU receives such a court order, we will happily comply with it and then the person with the complaint is free to attempt to directly sue the person who actually made the post for defamation, at their own cost. OCAU will play no further part in the matter.

Forum Administrators

OCAU has administrators for many of the subforums as well as forum-wide administrators who are capable of administering the entire site, issuing bans, etc.

• Owner and Caring Overlord: Agg
• Site Manager: Ma Baker
• Forum-Wide Administrators
  • Admiral
  • Andypoo
  • Bern
  • gords
  • Jab
  • Manaz
  • sabretooth
  • Sciby
  • SLATYE
  • VooDoo
  • Wolfy

Subforum Rules

Newbie Lounge

Administrators: looktall

Overclocking and Hardware Discussion

Administrators: Dr Kildare, RaD, DiGiTaL MoNkEY

Troubleshooting Help

Administrators: looktall

Modding

Administrators: BlueSmurf, skootyloops, ChrisH

Electronics

Administrators: Goth

PC Audio

Administrators: DiGiTaL MoNkEY

Extreme Cooling

Administrators: Goth

Business and Enterprise Computing

Administrators: saba, Rogue, spectral

Networking, Telephony and Internet

Administrators: TheWedgie

Video Cards and Monitors

Administrators: DiGiTaL MoNkEY, skootyloops

Storage and Backup

Administrators: BlueSmurf, eva2000, saba

Memory

Administrators: eva2000, skootyloops

Portable and Small Form Factor

Administrators: DiGiTaL MoNkEY

Intel Hardware

Administrators: flu!d, chainbolt

AMD Hardware

Administrators: Lombers, Mal

VIA Hardware

Administrators: (none)

Apple Hardware and Software

Administrators: skootyloops, Dr Kildare

Windows Operating Systems

Administrators: mpot, DiGiTaL MoNkEY

Other Operating Systems

Administrators: mpot, cleary

Programming and Software Development

Administrators: mpot, bugayev

Games

Administrators: aftahours, RaD

General Software

Administrators: mpot

Audio Visual

Administrators: Tony

Game Consoles

Administrators: Deeman, Freaek, DiGiTaL MoNkEY

Geek Food

Administrators: PostModern

Graphic Design and Digital Art

Administrators: mpot, bugayev

Mobile Phones

Administrators: Freaek, DiGiTaL MoNkEY

Musicians

Administrators: ChrisH

Other Toys

Administrators: Freaek, Badger, DiGiTaL MoNkEY

Pets and Animals

Administrators: Silent Remorse

Photography and Video

Administrators: f@rmboy, White Rhino, sir_bazz, mpot

Science

Administrators: Goth

Career, Education and Finance

Administrators: chainbolt, Badger

Politics and Policies

Administrators: Wolf, HyRax1, Badger, mshagg

Current Events and Serious Discussion

Administrators: MR CHILLED, Wolf, Badger, HyRax1

Entertainment

Administrators: looktall, MR CHILLED

Lifestyle

Administrators: Silent Remorse

Motoring

Administrators: flu!d, Andres, Badger, Mal, spectral

Sport, Fitness and Health

Administrators: kangfu, Badger

Trading Forums

Administrators: Rogue (all), bugayev (all), Rod M (What/Where only)

• Any person caught shill bidding and bumping each others threads in order to gain higher selling prices or generate false interest in items they are selling will be permanently banned from the forums.
• The For Sale forum is to be used by private individuals only, who may offer things for sale on an "occasional" basis. It is not for vendors or professional traders (with the exception OCAU Sponsors).
• Maximum of 2 concurrent ACTIVE* (see below for more details) threads in each of OCAU's trading forums.
• Do not 'repost' an item that has been listed for sale within the last seven days.
• NO NEW ITEMS. Items must be at least 7 days old and used before they can be listed for sale here. New items for sale may only be posted by persons or vendors who are current OCAU advertisers or sponsors. Opening the package does not count, nor does using it for a few minutes just so you can evade this rule.
• NO SELLING FOR OTHERS - If you do not own it, you can't sell it!
• No Modded Consoles - We don't care if it is legal or not, it's not allowed here!
• No mod-chips
• No Flash Carts
• No backup games
• No MMORPG games or accounts (including Steam accounts)
• We're going to allowed the sale of Steam games where you buy a 4 pack and sell off the extras if you're looking to save a few bucks? Sure, buy a 4 pack, sell the extras. Looking to profiteer? Here's your complimentary thread closure.
• No CD Keys for games
• If you have a stupid thread title (e.g. ****SALE SALE HOT STUFF*****) it WILL be edited or closed!
• Links to sales on eBay, CarPoint etc. are not allowed.
• If you are selling goods elsewhere, please don't offer them for sale here. If you have a thread closed due to this and decide to close/delete the other listing, you must wait a further 24hrs before re-posting it on OCAU. The only items that you're allowed to advertise elsewhere when you're advertising here are houses, cars and motorbikes.
• No "Possible Sales" (EOI) - If it is not for sale right now, don't post it!
• No selling firearms
• No selling swords, knives or weapons of any kind
• No selling lasers of any kind
• No trading/selling alcohol/cigarettes
• Selling of adult only content (including pornography, and anything else prohibited to minors) is not allowed, as the age of the purchaser cannot be determined.
• No group buys (unless authorised by Agg)
• No selling Engineering Sample items
• Selling equipment/software circumventing a TPM
• Selling OEM software is prohibited
• Do not start a thread in the For Sale forum with a link to eBay, Gumtree or other similar sites. A small link in your signature is allowed at present, but this can be reviewed at any time.
• Please do not cross post in the Trading Forums. If you don't get a response from the forum you have posted in, please report it to be closed before starting a thread in another of the Trading Forums.
• No feedback about members/vendors
• If an administrator edits out an item in your thread, or even if he/she fixes your links, please do not remove their comments. They were made for a reason, and it's not your place to un-make them. Just leave them be.
• If you're not bidding or making a genuine enquiry please do not post.
• Do not post a price without a valid link to the exact same item to back up your claim.
• Any discussion (including price/availability/avenues of purchase) for any item that isn't allowed to be sold on these forums, is also prohibited.
• Tickets for any events, concert, sport etc can only be sold on these forums for the cost of the face value of the ticket. If you want to sell it for more than the cost price please take your sale elsewhere.
• The sale of single use items is allowed (e.g. CDs, DVDs, ink cartridges, toners, movie tickets etc.), but only in reasonable quantities. For CDs and DVDs - less than a spindle, for ink cartridges and toners - only one of each model number or colour, for movie tickets - a maximum of six.
• You are not permitted to request, or offer, funds transfers in exchange for cash/DD via Paypal. For further details, see below.

• Active Threads - Any sale which is less than 7 days old or has not been completed is considered active. If you have completed a sale, please change the thread prefix to [Sold] and report the thread so it can be closed. Do not remove the title or the contents of the first post.

Commercial Trading

This includes bulk sales of multiple items. A couple of fans etc for sale privately is allowed. Bulk sales for systems, laptops, major components, phones is classified as commercial and will be deleted unless approved by Agg. The only exception to this is if you're a forum sponsor/advertiser. There is also a trend to sell a couple of items then starting a new thread with more of the same. Expect these to be deleted. Link HERE

Engineering Samples

If you read here it is illegal to even own an Engineering Sample if you don't have a Intel NDA agreement.

OWNERSHIP. All right, title and interest in the intellectual property embodied in the Pre-Release Product, Pre-Release Software and accompanying materials, if any, are owned by Intel or its suppliers and licensor's and may be protected by copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret law and international treaties. Any rights, express or implied, in the intellectual property embodied in the foregoing, other than those specified in this Agreement, are reserved by Intel and its suppliers and licensor's. Nothing in this Agreement shall constitute a license of all or any part of the Pre-Release Product or of any right to sell, make, or have made the Pre-Release Product. You will keep the Pre-Release Product free of liens, attachments, and other encumbrances. You agree not to remove any proprietary notices and/or any labels from the Pre-Release Product and accompanying materials, if any (including but not limited to the engineering sample label), without prior written approval by Intel.

Firearms

The sale of firearms and ammunition is prohibited because we cannot be certain that the legal requirements are being met.

The following is an extract from the Federal Attorney-General's Guide on Firearms

Who can sell or advertise firearms? Sales, including mail order sales of firearms, may only be conducted by or through licensed firearms dealers. Advertisement of firearms for sale will be prohibited unless the sale is to be conducted by or through a licensed gun dealer. Dealers will be required to ensure that purchasers are appropriately licensed, and record and maintain details (type, make, calibre, serial number) of each firearm purchased or sold against the identity (name, address, licence number) of the seller or the purchaser. Dealers will be required to provide records to licensing authorities. Commercial transport of ammunition in the same consignment with firearms will be prohibited. In remote areas where licensed gun dealers may not be readily available, special arrangements will be made to facilitate sales and purchases of firearms and ammunition.

Selling equipment/software circumventing a TPM

Recently the Copyright Act has been amended to incorporate provisions dealing with equipment or software whose primary purpose is to circumvent a Technical Prevention Measure (TPM). OCAU cannot risk allowing the trade of such software or devices, nor equipment in which they are an integral component. Consequently sales of such devices will be closed.

Selling for others

Selling on behalf of other people is not allowed under any circumstances. If they want to sell something they can sign up and observe the 90 day rule.

Selling OEM Software

Microsoft OEM, Licensing, Transfer Information for Selling, Using and re-selling Software. Click here for a downloadable Microsoft Word Document with all the details you will need. This document has been approved by Microsoft for publishing.

No selling of new goods

Unless you are a site sponsor, you are currently not permitted to sell brand new items on these forums. Unused goods, mostly new items, almost new things, refund items from RMA where a faulty item is replaced with a new item, or items still in their packaging. Opening the package does not count, nor does using it for a few minutes just so you can evade this rule. Items must be at least 7 days old and used before they can be sold here.

eBay/Sold/Other site sales

Links to auctions/sales on other sites such as eBay, Sold, etc are not permitted. If you are selling something, either sell it here, or don't talk about it here.

Selling on Other Sites

If you are selling something, either sell it here, or don't talk about it here. If you have a thread closed due to this and decide to close/delete the listing on the other site, you must wait a further 24 hours before re-posting it on OCAU. The only items that you're allowed to advertise elsewhere when you're advertising here are houses, cars/motorbikes.

CURRENCY TRADES ARE PROHIBITED!

What does this mean for you?

It means you can't:

• offer to trade real money for paypal funds
• request someone pay for something on paypal, and then DD them cash later
• request someone transfer you money on paypal, and then DD them cash later
• sell an item for low value in return for more money via paypal, and then a cash refund along with the low-value item

What will happen if you do?

Your thread will be closed, and you will be banned. There will be no exceptions, regardless of urgency.

Importing, C-tick and A-tick

The short answer about C-Ticks and A-ticks is that most electrical and electronic products that are placed on the Australian Market for use in the domestic, commercial and light industrial environments are required to be marked with the C-tick compliance mark to indicate that they comply with Australian Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Standards.

The onus for demonstrating compliance falls on suppliers, i.e. manufacturers, for products manufactured in Australia, and importers, for products manufactured overseas. The compliance process is by way of making a declaration, for each particular product to be placed on the Australian market, that it meets the applicable EMC standard. The declaration must be held by the supplier in a compliance folder for possible audit by the ACA. Along with the compliance mark the product must be marked to identify the suppler, i.e. with the supplier's ABN.

There are three compliance levels depending on the level of risk the product poses of causing interference to other electrical of electronic products. At level 1 C-ticking is voluntary and testing is not mandatory, at level 2 a copy of a test report must be included in the compliance folder but it is not mandatory that the test report be obtained from an accredited test laboratory (test reports to equivalent European Standards are also accepted), while at level three it is mandatory to obtain a test report from an accredited laboratory (this may be overseas).

It is an offence to supply a product to the Australian market without being C-tick marked, if the legislation requires that it be so marked. It is also an offence, of course, to fraudulently apply the C-tick mark.

Full details of the EMC compliance arrangements may be found on the ACA's web site at http://www.aca.gov.au/standards/emc/emc.htm

Because the offence provisions apply to suppliers, it is unlikely that the forum organisers are liable as a result of the use of the forums to sell non-compliant equipment. However, you should be aware that intentionally aiding the commission of a crime is an offence under the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995.

Precautions to take when buying/selling

Please note: Neither OCAU nor its owners or administrators play any role in any sales. The following list of precautions are not guidelines, merely a list of things you may, or may not want to do.

1. Contact the buyer (or seller) via PM, and ask for their Full name, current address and email, current home phone number, and current mobile telephone number. Ring both, and double check that person exists at both numbers. Cross check the addresses in the white pages and (if possible) match the home phone numbers. Check that the email works. If they are a business, get their ABN and Fax no. too. In a worse case scenario, this info is essential. If the person sounds young, maybe even a parents work no., mobile no., or consent.

If the number is private, it won't be in the white pages. Its up to you then to trust them on their own accord. It's also worth checking if a mobile phone number is pre-paid or on a plan. Pre-paids are usually not liable to give valid details when signing up, people on plans do.

2. Ask the buyer/seller if they've traded with anyone else before, and get in contact with them to see what they thought of the trader.

3. If you are the buyer, get the users bank details - Account Name, BSB Number and Account number. If possible, ask for the branch name. It is possible to get the Branch name and location out of the BSB - ring any bank and ask. Cross check this with the address. It IS possible they have made an account in another state, then moved, but again, thats up to you to base on trust. Ring the bank and check the account is valid. Keep all receipt numbers of sent money. Then rectify that money was sent, by asking the seller for the transaction number.

If you are the seller, do not send anything out until the money is in your account and cleared. As simple as it sounds, I've noticed a lot of people have sent goods and not waited for money to clear. Do not send if postage costs are missing, the amount is incorrect or only partially sent. If you need the extra precaution as a seller, ask for their bank details too. Its extra collateral if the case comes down to a scam - the feds or local police will be able to get a lot of information out of a valid bank account. Check with the bank to see if its valid. Gather receipt numbers of sent monies.

If you are really paranoid - Escrow is another choice. Basically, it involves a trusted third party company, which inserts a middle man into the transaction. You send the money and the goods to the escrow, and the escrow sends the money and goods to the appropriate people. If you take this option it might be a fair idea to split the costs between both parties.

4. If you are selling, pack the goods properly. Nothing is worse then recieving a $400 OEM Geforce in a tiny little plastic bag. Measure the boxes/goods, then get the postage costs. Add on a few bucks, and get some decent bubble wrap and box. Use registered post, since they chuck on insurance for free, keep all reciept no.s and post. If they ask for express post, clarify with them. If they ask for a courier, ask specifically which company. If they offer a tracing service, use it. Basically, make sure you have some sort of insurance or genuine way to back up the delivery. Because if it fails, its your arse. Take responsibility for damaged goods.

If you are buying, make sure you choose a decent type of delivery method to avoid trouble. Avoid normal post at all costs. There is no guarantee you will recieve it, no insurance and up to a weeks wait. Express post is a bit better - its guaranteed next day, they have a small type of tracking system (good luck though), and its only a few dollars more. Registered Post is easily the best service from Auspost - They have up to $100 free insurance (more if you pay a little bit), proper tracking system, and it really doesn't cost that much.

Couriers are different matters. Both can cost quite a hefty fee, depending on how big the goods are and where they are going. Companies like Australia Post, FedEx, Mayne Logistics all offer pickup and deliver to the door services. If your goods MUST arrive at a certain time, date, hour - couriers are the best way to go, if you are willing to pay.

5. If there are any problems - consult the buyer directly FIRST. Ring them up, send an email, send them a PM. Don't fight about it in the public forums, it brings other people into it and makes it a huge scene. If you have taken all the precautions noted by now, the person would either be a REALLY fantastic scammer, or simply just made a mistake. Rectify everything carefully, and dont hestitate to call the police if weeks pass and you hear nothing. You do not have to sit by and be ripped off.

A useful thing to remember when considering purchasing an item:

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Big thanks to Christopher Nolan, Voodoo, Silent Remorse, Rogue, and Wolfy for their contributions to this guide. __________________

The Pub

Administrators: Whitey Ford, aftahours

Team OCAU: Distributed Computing

Administrators: Bollocks, Teddy2