The Softball Forum Community Rules

Welcome to The Softball Forum.

The Softball Forum is a community for players, parents, coaches, officials, teams, organizations and fans to discuss softball, share information and help grow the game.

Healthy disagreement is welcome. Personal attacks, harassment and behaviour that puts members—particularly youth athletes—at risk are not.

By participating in The Softball Forum, you agree to follow these rules.

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1. Respect Other Members

Debate the topic, not the person.

Disagreement about teams, coaching decisions, rules, organizations, tournaments, rankings, umpiring and other softball issues is welcome.

Insults, harassment, threats, intimidation, discriminatory attacks or repeated targeting of another member are not.

Criticism does not violate the rules simply because it is negative. Members should be able to express legitimate opinions and experiences respectfully.

2. Youth Athletes Receive Additional Protection

Many athletes discussed on The Softball Forum are minors.

Do not bully, ridicule, sexualize, threaten, harass or personally attack a youth athlete.

Discussion of player performance is permitted when relevant to legitimate softball discussion, but criticism must remain appropriate and focused on softball.

Do not publish private or sensitive information about a minor.

3. Protect Personal Information

Do not post another person's private information without permission.

This includes:

• Home addresses
• Private phone numbers
• Private email addresses
• School or personal schedules
• Private messages
• Confidential documents
• Other information that could reasonably create a privacy or safety concern

Information intentionally published by a team, league, tournament or organization may generally be shared when relevant to legitimate softball discussion.

4. No Inappropriate Contact or Exploitation

The Softball Forum has zero tolerance for predatory behaviour, grooming, sexual exploitation or inappropriate sexual communication involving minors.

Adults are expected to maintain appropriate boundaries when communicating with youth members.

Content or behaviour creating a serious or immediate youth-safety concern may result in immediate account removal and other appropriate action.

5. Tryouts, Players Wanted and Team Opportunities Must Be Accurate

Use the appropriate forum and prefixes when posting tryouts or other opportunities.

Whenever possible, include:

• Age division
• Season/year
• Organization or competitive level
• General location
• Position(s) sought
• Relevant dates
• Appropriate contact information

Do not intentionally misrepresent a team, organization, player opportunity, tryout or roster situation.

6. Don't Impersonate Teams or Organizations

Do not falsely claim to officially represent a team, association, tournament, governing body or other organization.

Members are free to discuss organizations regardless of whether they officially represent them.

If The Softball Forum introduces verified organization accounts, verification will indicate that representation has been verified. It does not constitute an endorsement by The Softball Forum.

7. Criticism and Reviews Are Allowed — Know the Difference Between Fact and Allegation

Members may discuss their experiences with teams, coaches, tournaments, organizations, officials and softball programs, including negative experiences.

When discussing serious allegations, clearly distinguish between:

• What you personally experienced
• What you can substantiate
• What you were told by someone else
• Your opinion or interpretation
• Speculation

Do not knowingly publish false information or deliberately present unsupported accusations as established fact.

8. Keep Disputes Under Control

Do not follow another member across multiple discussions to continue an argument.

Do not organize harassment, encourage others to target someone or repeatedly restart a dispute after moderators have intervened.

If you believe content violates the rules, report it instead of escalating the situation.

9. No Spam, Scams or Deceptive Promotion

Relevant softball businesses, camps, instructors, tournaments and services may participate where appropriate.

Do not:

• Repeatedly advertise across unrelated discussions
• Send unsolicited promotional direct messages
• Create misleading offers
• Post scams
• Manipulate reviews or recommendations
• Create multiple accounts to promote the same organization deceptively

Commercial participation should contribute value to the community rather than simply use the forum as free advertising.

10. Post Content Where It Belongs

Use the most appropriate forum and available prefixes.

Moderators may move, merge, rename or reorganize content to keep the forum useful and searchable.

Before creating duplicate tryout, tournament or team threads, check whether an appropriate discussion already exists.

11. Respect Intellectual Property

Only upload or reproduce material you have the right to share.

Members may link to publicly available softball information and discuss it, but do not reproduce entire paid articles, proprietary scouting materials, photographs, videos or other copyrighted material without authorization.

12. One Person, One Legitimate Account

Do not create additional accounts to:

• Evade a suspension or ban
• Impersonate another person
• Manipulate discussions
• Manufacture support for an argument
• Post fake reviews
• Promote an organization deceptively

Additional legitimate accounts operated on behalf of organizations may be permitted where appropriate.

13. Follow Moderator Instructions

Moderators may intervene when necessary to protect members or keep discussions productive.

Depending on the circumstances, moderation may include:

Content removal or editing → Informal direction → Warning → Temporary restriction → Temporary ban → Permanent ban

Not every situation must progress through every step.

Serious misconduct may result in immediate suspension or permanent removal.

14. Use the Report Function

If you see content that may violate these rules, use the forum's Report function.

Do not create public threads demanding that another member be banned or attempt to organize other members against someone.

Reports allow moderators to review the content and surrounding context.

15. These Rules Cannot Cover Every Situation

No set of community rules can anticipate every situation.

Moderators may act on behaviour that clearly undermines the safety, integrity or functioning of The Softball Forum even when the exact behaviour is not specifically listed above.

Moderation decisions should consider context, severity, account history and the interests of the community.

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Our Standard

The goal is simple: talk softball, share useful information, disagree when you disagree, and treat the people behind the screen with respect.

The Softball Forum should be a place where the softball community can have conversations that are informative, candid and safe.