User Agreement - Terms and Conditions of Use

Terms and Conditions of Use of this website

Buying and Selling Rules can be found here https://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/threads/rules-for-buying-and-selling.18/

User Agreement

In terms of section 11 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act 25 of 2002 and the common law of contract, these Terms and Conditions are valid, binding and enforceable against all persons that access the tropicalaquarium.co.za website ("the website"), web pages or any part thereof.

If you do not agree to be bound by these terms and conditions you must leave the website immediately as further use will automatically bind you to these terms and conditions.

Access to this web site and use of the forums and other services offered here are subject to the terms and conditions of this user agreement and copyright notice and all applicable laws and regulations, including laws and regulations governing copyright and trademark. By accessing the services, you accept, without limitation or qualification, all of the terms and conditions in this user agreement. tropicalaquarium.co.za reserves the right to change these terms and conditions at any time. The changes will appear on this screen. By using the services of this web site, you agree in advance to accept any changes.

tropicalaquarium.co.za is governed by Administrators and Moderators (tropicalaquarium.co.za Staff). Users must obey and respect the directions and decisions of moderators at all times. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action, including the suspension or removal of membership status. The removal/banning of a member is at the sole discretion of the moderators and administrators of tropicalaquarium.co.za. tropicalaquarium.co.za reserves the right to refuse or revoke membership status to anyone for any reason, without explanation.

You agree not to post or transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, racially, ethnically, degrading, sexual or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, violate the rights of others, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law. You will be responsible for, and indemnify and hold harmless tropicalaquarium.co.za and representatives against, any claim arising from any material that you post or transmit. We 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.

You acknowledge that tropicalaquarium.co.za does not control the information available on the message boards, chat rooms and other user and member-generated pages and that any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content presented or disseminated on any bulletin board, chat room or on any other user or member-generated pages are those of their respective authors who are solely liable for their content. Although tropicalaquarium.co.za may from time to time monitor or review discussions, chats, postings, transmissions, message boards and other user and member-generated pages on this web site, neither tropicalaquarium.co.za nor any of its agents, representatives or licensers is under any obligation to do so. tropicalaquarium.co.za reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to refuse to post or remove any material submitted to or posted on the message boards. Political or religious posts by their nature can become very controversial and therefore are subject to removal at any time in order to avoid potential "flame" wars.

The member-generated content of this web site contains information, facts and opinions from various individuals and organizations. They are provided on an "as is" basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, other than those warranties which are imposed by and incapable of exclusion, restriction or modification under the laws applicable to this agreement. Neither tropicalaquarium.co.za nor its affiliates endorse or are responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement on the service or the sites.

Any communication or material you post or transmit is, and will be treated as, non-confidential and non-proprietary. You assume full responsibility for anything you post or transmit, and you grant tropicalaquarium.co.za the right to display this material on its web sites. tropicalaquarium.co.za makes no ownership claims to any material you post or transmit and agrees that all submitted materials, text, graphics and files remain the sole property of their creator.

tropicalaquarium.co.za reserves the right to refuse or terminate membership where the activities, actions or statements of an organisation or person may bring tropicalaquarium.co.za into disrepute or otherwise deemed not to be in the best interest of tropicalaquarium.co.za. Every member of tropicalaquarium.co.za agrees to conduct themselves in a manner that does not bring the forum into disrepute.

You are permitted a maximum of one account, active or inactive, regardless of how many companies/persons you represent. If you choose to ignore this important restriction, all of your accounts will be disabled. tropicalaquarium.co.za allows one account per member and one member per account. Your account is yours alone. You are responsible for any activity created with it. You may not share your account login with anyone. If you choose to ignore this important restriction your account, and any accounts associated with it, will be disabled. Username changes are not allowed.

You may not post on behalf of any banned member in any public manner. This includes all forums, private messages, signatures, and e-mail features.

If you bring suit, propose to sue, or infer legal action against tropicalaquarium.co.za or its staff, your account may be disabled and any company related accounts may face restrictions.

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Your use of this web site is at your own risk. Neither tropicalaquarium.co.za, nor any of its agents, representatives or licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any loss or injury or any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive or similar damages arising out of your access or use of, or your inability to access or use, the services of this web site and the information available on this web site or arising out of any action taken in response to or as a result of any information available on this web site. You hereby waive any and all claims against tropicalaquarium.co.za arising out of your use of the services of this web site and the information available thereon. tropicalaquarium.co.za does not review or monitor any web sites linked to the member-generated content of this web site and are not responsible for the content of any such linked web sites. Your linking to such web sites is at your own risk.

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We will not offer any information about you to any company or individual unless under court order to do so. However, you should be aware that if you voluntarily disclose personal information (e.g., name, email address, phone number) on a bulletin board, chat room or on any other user or member-generated pages, that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other parties.

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Users of this website hereby agree to also abide by the tropicalaquarium.co.za Commercial Posting policy and Posting Rules and Etiquette policy outlined below.

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Sponsors and 3rd party sellers (such as fellow tropicalaquarium.co.za subscribers) on this site sell their products as part of their own business or interests. Therefore members should research and verify any claims made by any seller of goods and services for their own protection. tropicalaquarium.co.za can not be held responsible for any failure, defect, inaccurate descriptions, inaccurate performance guarantees or inaccurate promises for any products or services initiated and concluded here on tropicalaquarium.co.za.

tropicalaquarium.co.za reserves the right to refuse any application for sponsorship or to refuse any application for advertising on any grounds or for any reason and to impose such conditions as it may deem advisable in its sole and absolute discretion in the best interests of tropicalaquarium.co.za. tropicalaquarium.co.za also reserves the right to withhold disclosure of the reason of any refusal of any application. tropicalaquarium.co.za reserves the right to terminate a sponsorship/advertising contract with immediate effect and without notice if it is deemed that the actions or conduct of the business undertaking the advertising contract are bringing the name of tropicalaquarium.co.za into disrepute. This will include any illegal business activities that infringe on or break South African Civil laws and any conduct deemed to be unbecoming of what is expected from a sponsor/advertiser. Such conduct will be reviewed by an administrative panel after which a contract can be terminated without prejudice. Furthermore no financial compensation will be granted in terms of pro-rata fee structures for the period of the contract. Examples of these actions or conduct could be consistently bad service, stock conditions, TASA member complaints, quality, and general Bulletin Board behaviour. This is obviously not an exhaustive list and each case will be considered individually.

tropicalaquarium.co.za does not host any vendor feedback forums as they tend to spiral out of control quickly due to many different personal experiences with vendors or sponsors (or private parties) amongst the whole community. As such, it is against tropicalaquarium.co.za's policy to air out one's issues about sponsors, local stores, or private deals which have been made or may have gone bad. We would ask all those who have issues like this or similar in nature to work these kinds of problems out in private. tropicalaquarium.co.za staff retains the right to retain or remove such posts from the general forums.

This User Agreement and any disputes arising out of or related to the services of this web site shall be governed by, and construed and enforced in accordance with, the laws of South Africa.

Commercial Posting

Sponsors of this site are given banner space and/or a forum to promote their business. All other posts, signatures, usernames or avatars that are deemed to be commercial in nature are not allowed and will be removed. This includes not only the general membership but our sponsors as well. Sponsors posting outside of their forum are posting as general members, not as sponsors.

tropicalaquarium.co.za (along with other online boards which utilize sponsor advertising) defines a “commercial post” as knowing and wilful posts made by private individuals or businesses, directly or indirectly seeking commerce. Additionally, posts made by individuals or businesses in regard to other commercial activities, in anticipation of direct or indirect economic benefit or relief from the subject activity, will generally be regarded as “commercial”. For the purposes of this policy, the word "post" includes messages sent via the private messaging (PM) system.

Of course many posts are subject to question, therefore tropicalaquarium.co.za reserves the right to determine whether or not a post violates the “intent” of the “commercial post” policy or definition as stated herein and reserves the right to remove posts at the discretion of tropicalaquarium.co.za. Please refrain from posting phone numbers, sales, specials, pricing information, or any information which in a context can be construed as advertising for a particular retailer.

Groups buys are not allowed if the items being purchased are in direct competition to items already supplied by current sponsors. This does not apply to DIY projects.

If you're caught shilling, your account will be terminated permanently. A shill is an owner, employee or associate of a seller of products or services who pretends (or purposefully omits) any association with the product or service, while pretending to be a satisfied customer or interested bystander. People who omit an association with a product or service for other reasons (they're paid to post about it, they're helping a friend, etc.) so that they can help promote it are also shills.

Violation of this policy can be grounds for removal from our community.

Copyright

The entire content included in this site, including but not limited to text, graphics or code is copyrighted as a collective work under the South African and other copyright laws and is the property of tropicalaquarium.co.za. The collective work includes works that are licensed to this website. Copyright 2007 - 2021, tropicalaquarium.co.za ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Permission is granted to electronically copy and print hard copy portions of this site for the sole purpose of your own non-commercial and non-public use. You may not display, download or print portions of any material from the different areas of the site, unless solely for your own non-commercial use. Any other use, including but not limited to the reproduction, distribution, display, copy and paste or transmission of the content of this site is strictly prohibited, unless authorized by tropicalaquarium.co.za. You further agree not to change or delete any proprietary notices from materials downloaded from the site.

Posting Rules and Etiquette

Anyone can read and search the forums, but you must be a registered member to post. Please be aware that you are a guest on a privately-owned site. Posting here is a privilege that we hope you will enjoy and respect, bearing in mind that this forum is actively used by both children and adults. By posting on this forum, you agree to observe the following guidelines, as well as our User Agreement and Commercial Posting Policy.

Advertising of other means of communication

Please refrain from posting on the forums encouraging others to join other forums, groups, facebook pages, whatsapp groups or the like. This is not conducive to the purpose of this forum which is to encourage discussions and sharing of idea's and knowledge on a searchable format for the benefit of everyone who reads the website. Advertising or pointing others towards such groups will be considered to be a violation of this User Agreement and may result in your account being suspended indefinitely.

GENERAL ETIQUETTE

This is a moderated forum. We expect this forum to be a place where people can feel comfortable asking questions and where debates and discussions are conducted in civil tones. Please respect your debating opponents. Debates are about issues, not people. If you disagree with an idea, go ahead and argue your case against it, but do not confuse ideas with the person posting them; at all times we must conduct ourselves in a respectful manner to other posters. Attacks on companies, businesses or individuals, insults, name calling, trolling, baiting or other attempts to sow dissension are not acceptable. If you feel that someone has attacked you or otherwise violated the policies of this forum, do not respond in kind. Instead, contact a Moderator by PM or report the offending post asking for it to be reviewed.

Please remember that any poster can edit their own posts after submitting them, so comments made in haste can be rephrased. If you saw red and realised later that you should have counted to ten before posting, consider rephrasing.

We also request that you be considerate of our readers and:

• use meaningful titles on new topics/threads
• avoid posting in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS or otherwise using distracting formatting
• post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing"
• do not use shortened words as if you were sending an SMS or Text Message

Please use proper words and avoid "chatspeak" or "leetspeak". We understand not everyone speaks English as their first language, however your posts should be more legible than something like this:

r0biter isnt wrkin i instl ninetyhundred addn0s 0n nw is crsh n ld hlp plz hlpme

Bad Language: It is a bad idea to use such language. Foul language is hardly ever acceptable in mature public conversations, such as most forums are intended to be. If you are prone to the use of foul language in your life off the forum (as many of us are) it is probably best to proof read your posts until you get in the habit of not using such language.

We take the "Be Polite" rule very seriously. We do not tolerate any rudeness. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be banned without warning.

Avatars and Signatures: Avatars and signatures can be fun, but they are also potential sources for conflict and disruption. Please note that an avatar or signature may be deleted by a moderator or site admin at any time if it results in multiple complaints from your fellow members or if it violates any of the following rules:

• no ads or commercial messages (excluding sponsors)
• no misleading photos
• no offensive or disturbing images or text
• no religious or political images or text

UNACCEPTABLE TOPICS

Politics and Religion

In order to avoid the inevitable frictions that arise from these topics, political or religious posts and comments are prohibited. There are many different religions as well as cultures making use of the forum and they need to be respected.

You also agree not to post any:

• Abusive Material
• Obscene Material
• Vulgar Material
• Slanderous Material
• Hateful Material
• Threatening Material
• Sexually-Oriented Material
• Material That May Violate Any Applicable Laws

Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the Webmaster, Administrators and Moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the Webmaster, Administrators and Moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

Freedom of Speech

The free and open exchange of assistance, ideas, and opinions is highly regarded and encouraged on the forums, but it must be noted that the freedom granted to forum members is relative freedom. It exists within the boundaries and constraints of the above guidelines and principles. Complaints of 'censorship' are therefore baseless and unfounded, since this necessary framework must simultaneously provide reasonable limitations. We don't intend to censor messages based on the opinions expressed within posts, but we will enforce the policies outlined both here and on the Forum. We reserve the right to remove, modify or move posts at our discretion and without explanation.

We reserve the right to modify and amend these terms at any time without notice. It is your responsibility to remain informed of current tropicalaquarium.co.za policies.
We do not monitor private messages. But we will investigate all allegations of PM abuse.
We further, reserve our right to disable any account at any time for any reason and without notice.

Finally; any abuse towards our staff and/or management in any form, may result in immediate suspension of your account.