Welcome to the Flying Solo forums: please play nicely!

Developed with the help of our members, these guidelines help us make Flying Solo a great place to hang out.

In a nutshell they are designed to encourage respectful, supportive and non-promotional discussions.

If you're new here, be sure to check out our tips for new players. Then dive on in! If you do spot anything dodgy, please let us know by using the ‘Report’ link below each post.

Please note: as well as complying with the following guidelines, all contributions to this forum must comply with Flying Solo's general Terms & Conditions.

Full community guidelines:

1. The Golden Rule: Respect: We pride ourselves on being the friendliest, most helpful forums around, so please treat your fellow community members with courtesy and respect. While we welcome robust debate and contrary opinions, if a person behaves in a negative, unhelpful and detrimental way we are entitled to ban them from participating.
   
   Public disputes: Flying Solo is not the appropriate channel for disputes or arguments between named individuals or companies. Any specific gripes about a business, product or service should be taken up directly with the company concerned.
   
   Limitations on liability Any advice or suggestions posted by anyone (not just members) needs to be viewed as general in nature and not personal to your circumstance. If advice is relied upon to your detriment, it is at your own risk.
   
   
2. Negative reviews and complaints: Despite their best endeavours, any business can attract complaints from time to time. There are ample public spaces online to air grievances, and Flying Solo is not one of them. Trying to judge the validity of public complaints is a role Flying Solo has no intention of playing. It is our policy not to get involved, and any such discussions may be edited to remove names, or more likely deleted.
   
   
3. First time poster? Start by reading our tips for new players. To help us give you a personal welcome, please start by posting in the introductions thread and also let us know a little about yourself by filling in your profile in 'Control panel', including details of which state or suburb of Australia you're based in. Having a completed forum profile is very important to other community members and enhances your credibility. Please read guideline #5 (below) before adding a signature. To further distance yourself from ‘one post wonders’ avoid over-promoting your offering in your introductory message. A short overview of your business is fine, but the community will not tolerate new users registering purely to advertise. Remember, first impressions count!
   
   
4. Don’t contribute for the purposes of advertising or promoting: We review all posts daily and have 'no-follow' attributes on all external links. Any commercial or promotional links to your own, or third party, websites should be directly relevant to an ongoing discussion in all instances and should not be affiliate links. This includes re-posts of articles and blogs that appear elsewhere and that are clearly posted here purely to drive traffic and/or promote you or your business.
   
   As a general rule of thumb, it's best to avoid posting links to your own blog (or any other part of your website) in the forum unless someone has specifically asked about a product or service that you offer. The community feels very passionately that the forum should be somewhere to come for conversation and discussion, and tends to view links to blogs as a form of advertising or spam.
   
   
5. The following types of posts are not permitted: job advertisements, businesses for sale, office space for rent, FREE offers, product reviews, affiliate links, link exchanges, research, those promoting events or workshops (even free ones), promotions or contests including design competitions, selling or giving away products or services, and posts made on behalf of other businesses or individuals, and posts made purely for the purposes of SEO. We are entitled to ban any member that consistently makes these kinds of posts.
   
   
6. International membership: Membership of the Flying Solo community is intended for individuals residing and operating in Australia or New Zealand. For more information on International Membership, see point 2 of our Terms & Conditions.
   
   
7. Adding value: Please ensure that all your posts add value to discussions and/or continue ongoing conversations. Empty posts that we deem are purely posted for promotional purposes will be deleted, and repeated posts treated as spam. Examples include copious, impersonal welcome messages to new members that serve purely to raise post count and self promote. Of course this guideline is not designed to limit genuine conversations, polite banter or common courtesies!
   
   
8. Signature guidelines: Signatures should be kept short (4 lines / 200 characters maximum), simple and professional – adding a tagline and linking to your business website is fine in your signature, but no more than 3 links and no images. We reserve the right to edit existing signatures that are outside these guidelines.
   
   
9. Keep personal information personal: Be mindful that posts may appear on external search engines as well as our forum. Avoid posting information such as home addresses and phone numbers, instead share these via private message or by linking to your website.
   
   
10. Keep it clean, decent and legal: No adult content, porn, links to pirated software, illegal activities or just general nasty stuff – there’s enough of that online already! Insulting, defamatory, prejudicial or offensive posts and posters will be deleted and we reserve the right to edit or remove links, mentions or images to any content that we consider may offend other members on topics including race, religion, politics, blasphemy or general bad taste. If you're unsure, seek guidance here before posting.
    
    
11. Spreading the word: We may occasionally share the wisdom of the Flying Solo community with a wider audience. This may mean an extract of your post is mentioned in a newsletter, on the website or within an article or media release. Where relevant, original posters will be identified by their member name and a link to the full post on the forum. If, at some time in the future you wish to no longer be identified with our community, we can delete your profile information and signature to remove identifying characteristics.
    
    
12. Management of posts: While we generally do not remove legitimate posts, we may close threads that have run their course, move threads to more relevant areas or edit posts not complying with the guidelines. Additionally, we may amend the titles of threads or posts to assist clarity or general visibility.
    
    
13. Posting tips:
    • To maximise the chances of people finding your post, please use subject titles that are clear and easy to understand. The more descriptive, the better.
    • If you’re asking a question, be sure to provide enough background and detail for a meaningful answer.
    • Don't re-open old dormant threads to respond to requests for services, as the request will no longer be relevant.
    • If your posts start to head off-topic, consider starting a thread on that new topic.
    • Place messages in just one forum section – don’t cross-post or duplicate them to multiple discussions. All duplicate posts will be deleted.
    • Use the preview feature to check spelling and formatting.
    • Format long posts using paragraphs, numbers and bullets if needed.
    • Search the forums before adding a new thread to see if your topic is already covered or under discussion. The ‘search’ facility is in the right hand margin of every page.
    • It’s best to avoid discussion on politics, religion, legal advice and medical advice as these often lead to unproductive discussions and are likely to be deleted.
    
    
14. Help us keep our house in order! If you see any violations or dodgy behaviour then please let us know using the ‘Report’ link below each post. If you have any feedback or technical problems, please post them here.

Thanks for joining us! We look forward to seeing you get involved in the discussions.

Love your work!

Robert, Sam, Peter, Dave, Paul, Kelly, & Lisa

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