ATCsforALL Forums FAQ

This agreement sets for the terms and condition that apply to the use of the ATCsforALL.com website. Your use of the ATCsforALL.com website indicates your agreement to be bound by these terms of service.

Terms and Conditions

You agree to familiarize yourself with these terms, and abide by them if you choose to use the services to which such terms apply.

User Names

ATCsforALL.com reserve the right to make slight changes to user names to avoid confusion.

Members Addresses

Addresses (home and email) are given out in trust, and to be used only for Swaps, Trades or RAKs. Any other use is an infractable offense and could jeopardize your membership.

User Conduct

You agree to abide by all applicable local, provincial, federal and international laws and regulations regarding your use of our service.

User Eligibility

You represent and warrant that you, as the person legally responsible for all use of this account, are at least 18 years of age. Parents who are themselves active artist members may trade for their under 18 children, but the children cannot be allowed their own account. Only an active adult member may have direct access to the account, including posting, uploading, and arranging trades.

Membership at ATCsforALL.com

ATCsforALL.com reserves the right to deny membership to any potential member at their discretion.

Cards/Items Traded at ATCsforALL.com

ATCsforALL.com is not responsible for replacing any trading cards which do not arrive at their intended destination. Any trade or swap agreements made on this site are between the swap host and individual players or between individual traders and not ATCsforALL.com. ATCsforALL.com provides rules and guidelines for swaps hosted on its website but the swap host must assume full responsibility for all cards collected during the swap.

Sale of Cards/Items Traded at ATCsforALL.com

ATCsforAll focuses on art trades, not sales. For this reason, we ask that you do not sell what you receive in trade on this site unless you and the original artist/trader have an agreement between yourselves.

Contents of Messages

You are solely responsible for the contents of your private messages and your posts in our forums and the consequences thereof. You agree not to do anything which would restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying ATCsforALL.com. You agree not to send any messages or materials that are unlawful, harassing, libelous, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene or otherwise constitute a criminal offense. ATCsforALL.com reserves the right to terminate your membership if you violate our guidelines.

AFA is an art site. While it is fine for members to discuss off-topic issues in the lounge, we ask that people keep such discussions civil. Links to websites, videos, or images meant to persuade or send an overtly political or religious message are not allowed. There are appropriate forums for such materials, but AFA is not that place.

All postings must be in English, for moderating purposes.

ATCsforALL.com reserves the right to monitor any and all communications throughout our website.

Copyright Violations and Prohibited Use

You will not use ATCsforALL.com to store or transmit any material that is in violation of US Federal or State regulations. This includes material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or any other statute. ATCsforALL.com reserves the right to remove illegal materials from its website.

For more information on copyright, see here: Copyright information for Artists.

Termination

ATCsforALL.com reserves the right to terminate any membership that, in its sole determination, does not conform to the Terms of Service. You herby waive all rights to dispute such Terms of Service compliance determinations made by ATCsforALL.com. You herby waive all rights to seek damages, whether monetary or other, which you may incur as a result of membership termination.

Disclaimer / Limitation of Liability

ATCsforALL.com provides its services without warranties of any kind. No oral advice or written information given by ATCsforALL.com, its board, or its moderators.

The terms of this section shall survive the termination of this agreement for whatever reason.

Copyright and Trademarks

Unless otherwise indicated, this website and its contents are the property ofATCsforALL.com. The site and its contents are protected, without limitation, pursuant to US and foreign copyright and trademark laws.

Users grant ATCsforALL.com, a worldwide non-exclusive license to display their art and other content on this website. Artist Trading Cards and other pieces of art displayed on this site are the property of the creating artist unless otherwise indicated. Articles written for this site are the property of the author and appear here with the author's consent.

Governing Law

US Federal law shall govern this Agreement, and any dispute arising from the relationship between the parties to this Agreement.

Severability

If any provisions of this Agreement shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason, the remaining provisions shall continue to be valid and enforceable. If a court finds that any provision of this Agreement is invalid or unenforceable, but that by limiting such provision it would become valid or enforceable, then such provision shall be deemed to be written, construed, and enforced as so limited.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless ATCsforALL.com against any and all claims, losses, penalties, causes of action, damages, liability, costs, expenses (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys' fees) or claims caused by or resulting indirectly from your use of ATCsforALL.com service, without limitation or exception, including your violation of any third-party's rights, (including, without limitation, infringement of any copyright trademark, service mark, trade secrets, right of privacy or publicity or any other third party right).

Pruning of Members

In order to keep the site running smoothly and the data base up to date, the membership database will be periodically pruned. Members who have not posted to the forums for a long period of time (365 days) will be removed. They are always welcome to join again when they wish to become active members.

Modification of Terms

ATCsforALL.com reserves the right to modify this policy at any time and without advance notice, effective upon making the modified provisions available on the ATCsforALL.com website. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these documents. Continued use of the ATCsforALL.com website after any such changes shall constitute your consent to such changes. ATCsforALL.com will not assume any obligation to notify you of any changes to these Terms.

This Privacy Policy may change over time. Please refer to this page periodically as you continue to use our site to see if any changes have been made.

ATCsforALL.com sets and accesses cookies on your computer only if you have signed on as a registered user.

ATCsforALL.com automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser.

ATCsforALL.com does not rent, sell or share personal information about our members with other companies or people. You will need to exchange your address and personal information with other members for trading purposes but ATCsforALL.com does not store that information on its website in a database or any form of organized contact listing.

There are links to other websites on ATCsforALL.com. We are not responsible or liable for the privacy practices or content found on these sites. We suggest that you check the Privacy Notice of each site you visit.

If you visit ATCsforALL.com, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Notice and the application of the laws of the United States.

AFA strives to be a friendly and safe trading site.

However, our forums are available for guests to view. Therefore, in the interests of safety in this age of internet predators, we do not allow posting of addresses under any circumstance. If addresses are posted, staff will remove them immediately and notify the poster.

We recognize that some have posted PO Box addresses in the past; these will be removed as well. We regret the inconvenience, but the safety of our membership is worth it.

The Moderators, Admins, and Advisory Board welcome everyone to ATCsforall.com. This site was created by artists, for artists, and we envision it as a welcoming, supportive, and nurturing environment for all involved.

Considering the recent experiences with the former site and discussions in our temporary flickr group about ethical issues and site policy, we wanted to take the time to discuss a few important issues to make everyone feel at home.

1) We have an open policy concerning publicly expressed opinions and issues. We do not plan on censoring threads or closing down threads. However, we ask that in expressing your opinions, you respect the rights and dignity of others. If members are feeling attacked or a situation is getting out of hand, expect the Moderators/Admin to step in. We want to keep this a positive and welcoming place for all members while respecting your own rights to your opinion.

2) Private messages are just that--private. Admins or Moderators will not read your private communication (PMs) on this site. That ability would require another module that we do not have installed nor plan to obtain.

3) We are willing to listen to you, our members, and accept suggestions and constructive criticism. Please let us know what is working for you and what isn't in site functionality, features, and policies.

4) In the very rare cases that we would consider banning a member from the site, either for substantial negative trader ratings or for causing repeated and sustained attacks on others in the community; there may be cases that will be considered and deliberated by our board before action is taken. This means members will have the right to defend themselves and provide their side of the story before any decision is reached.

5) Management reserves the right to edit or delete threads as deemed necessary to preserve the safety of the site, staff, and membership. This right will not be exercised except in cases of great sensitivity or under the advice of legal counsel.

We have an open promotions policy at the ATCsforALL.com website. No one will get in trouble for posting links to other sites or commercial stores. Promotions of this sort are acceptable at any time:

• Links to your own craft or art store
• Links to other craft or art stores
• Call for entries from publishers, galleries or other shows
• Event Listings
• Notices of other ATC trading sites or places

These types of promotions are allowed in the Promotions and Calls for Entries forum or in your forum signature. We ask only that you don't bug our members by private messaging them about your latest store sale or something cheesy like that.

Using the AFA forums or gallery to offer or arrange sales of any kind is not permitted. All sales must take place offsite as we've described above.

Promotions to non-art related sites or spammers are not allowed.

Please note that we are not responsible for the content or management of linked sites so visit at your own risk. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for details.

Private messages are not monitored at ATCsforALL.com but we ask that you refer to our Terms of Service for our policy on what is acceptable on this website.

AFA has an 'open' policy when it comes to promoting other trading sites. You are welcome to list other ATC or mail art trading sites in the 'Call for Promotions' forum. This is the best way to let people know about other mail art opportunities. However, our PM (Personal Messaging) system and member roster should never be used as a means to recruit new members directly. While we believe in free trading for everyone, anywhere, using this site's member list to recruit elsewhere is considered 'poaching' and will not be tolerated. You will receive an infraction. Please be open and direct and use our 'Call For Promotions' forum for announcements.

This is an art site. Artistic nudity is acceptable. This includes male and female genitalia and representations of genitalia. Our age of registration is 18. Pornography is not acceptable.

Erotica swaps should be handled by placing links to the gallery image in the swap forum, and placed in the Adult Art Gallery so they don't go through the Regular gallery. Adult images should never be posted anywhere in the open forums

Persons under the age of 18 cannot legally be depicted nude, partially nude, in undergarments, and in an erotic or other sexually driven manner in any art on this site. Additionally, artwork in any style that depicts images of minors in a sexually oriented manner is prohibited.

The rules regarding this matter apply equally to all forms of art posted to the gallery, in an avatar, in a profile picture, or as an attachment in a thread.

If images are found in violation of this policy, the Atcsforall.com staff will immediately remove the content and will notify the member via PM.

The following is a specific list of situations describing prohibited content:

No Erotic Child Nudity:
Images of children or characters resembling children (including teens or child-like fairies and other fantasy figures) resembling under 18 years of age displayed in erotic, seductive, provocative poses or context.

This includes:

• Minors depicted without clothing from any angle with genitalia showing.
  
• Minors depicted in undergarments or lingerie.
  
• Nude or partially nude images of minors or characters/images representing children (such as child-like fairies) displayed in an erotic, seductive, or provactive pose or context.
  
• Since age is difficult to identify with certain art styles or 3d models, this will be at the discretion of the reviewing staff member.

No Child Sexual References: Artwork depicting minors in sexually alluring positions is prohibited. This includes:

• Minors depicted in an S&M or ‘Bondage’ situation.
  
• Minors depicted in a sexual or 'alluring' pose (dressed or undressed).
  
• Minors in the possession of ‘adult’ sexual toys.
  
• Minors depicted with words or sexual references.
  
• Minors depicted with transparent clothes, blurring of nude areas, or the use of “blots” or “Censored” wording or props to cover areas that are otherwise not clothed.
  
• No depictions of fictional young humanoid characters/children giving the appearance of being under the age of 18 displayed in erotic, seductive, provocative poses or context.

The following is allowed: Babies in diapers are allowed. Toddlers and younger children may be held to the restrictions stated above as judged on a case-by-case basis depending on the context of the art or photograph.

Artistic nudes of consenting adults are allowed.

AFA has the following policies in place to ensure a friendly, open community. Actions that are not in keeping with this goal will result in infractions and/or warnings.

Individuals are first warned about their behavior by staff, in addition to the warning, staff will inform the member of the consequences of not following the AFA TOS (subsequent temporary suspensions, and how trading with be affected). If the behavior continues, they would normally receive an infraction and a temporary suspension (i.e., of two weeks). After an additional infraction the member will go before the board of directors where the case will be discussed (a banning is a possibility at this stage.) Banning is a possibility in any extreme case.

There are two reprimand categories:

A) Being Rude, Offensive, or Harassing to Other Members

B) Spamming the Forums

If member LaLa commits a 'B' offense, they are giving a warning. if member LaLa then commits an "A" offense they are giving an warning. If member LaLa commits a second "A" offense, they are given an infraction and the temporary suspension. This insures that a member does not earn excessive infractions for something fairly innocent, like spamming.

Examples:

Being Rude, Offensive, or Harassing to Other Members ("A" class offenses)

• calling people out in threads--i.e. bringing a private situation between one or more members to light in the public forum in order to attempt to accuse, blame, question, slander or embarrass them.
• Offensive and nasty language in a PM or on the forums, gallery comments, rep points, etc.
• Harassment of members, such as to annoy persistently or to create an unpleasant or hostile situation by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct

Spamming ("Crapping") the Forums ("B" Class Offenses)

• Spamming (Crapping) the forum by repeating posts of similar topic/content in multiple threads
• Advertising Spam
• Posting advertising in inappropriate places
• Useless posts that are not on topic, such as posting "Yeah, you're right" or "I can't help you," are considered spam as they add to threads without adding value. Such messages, if considered vital by the writer, should be sent via PM

Moderators/Administrators have the authority to issue infractions to users who violate these policies.
This applies to remarks made in the Forums, Threads, and in Personal Messages, to a member or Moderator/Administrator.
- Violations receive an infraction which is recorded in a timely manner of the offense or complaint.
- Users who have 2 or more infractions will be called before the Advisory Board, who will determine whether to ban the user from AFA.

- All infractions are considered 'serious' and do not have an expiration date.

Members are not banned without serious reason or a review of the situation and vote by the Staff.

Banned members are not allowed to return to AFA. Their membership is revoked permanently.

Policy Regarding Slander/Libel:

Posting information about members in any way that could be considered embarrassing, negative, defamatory, slanderous, or insulting is not allowed. This includes discussion about current or banned members, reasons behind such banning, and any discussion of such decisions.

Posting personal or sensitive material about another person could conceivably make AFA, the Board, Admin, Mods, and posters vulnerable to possible legal action by allegedly injured parties.

For that reason, when members leave or are banned, we will not discuss or allow posting threads discussing the situation.

Members with questions or concerns are welcome to ask in private messages to Board/Admin/Mod staffers, but be aware that in an effort to protect both current and past members as well as the board, specific details will not be divulged.

Please note that while editing or deleting posts and threads partially or in their entirety is not AFA's desire, anything which could conceivably open AFA to possible action or cause harm or embarrassment to members, past and present, will be removed at the discretion of the management.