FORUMS CODE OF CONDUCT

We want to make the Gaines & Gaines Forums a positive environment for you to discuss legal, political, newsworthy and other social topics, and to give us your feedback on various matters.

To facilitate this, we ask that all members of the forums follow a set of guidelines known as the Gaines & Gaines Forums Code of Conduct; or Code of Conduct for short.

Please remember that your forum users should always be treated with respect, without exception. The best way for us to improve the experience for everyone on the forums is for us all to be able to reach mutual understanding. That doesn’t mean we’ll always agree, and it doesn’t mean we’ll always achieve a compromise, but it does mean that we have a better chance to assess any issues. 

Discrimination and Slurs based on Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality, Gender or Gender Identity

We want the Gaines & Gaines Forums to be a welcoming place for everyone, this means that discriminatory slurs both clear and masked in words or images are not appropriate, ever.

Threats

Members of our forums should feel safe to express their thoughts and opinions, and to do so without fear or intimidation. To this end, any threat of physical harm toward another forum user will not be tolerated.

Harassing or Defamatory Content

For the same reason, harassing, bullying or defamatory content will also not be tolerated. Throwing around insults or targeting individuals or groups with malice has a negative effect on everyone’s experience in the forums. Harassment takes many forms, if we believe that there is an intent to bully other forum users or make them feel uncomfortable in this environment, action will be taken.

Obscene / Vulgar or Inappropriate Language and/or Images

Some people are comfortable with all kinds of colorful language and images, others are not. We ask that our forum members remember to treat each other with courtesy and respect and remember we do not all have the same expectations when it comes to what is acceptable. Remember that if you can’t make your point without using vulgar language, you probably don’t have a point at all.

Spamming, Trolling, or Topic Bumping

Forums are an excellent tool for us to collect feedback and keep up with issues that are important to the community. Being intentionally disruptive, derailing threads, creating threads meant to act as ‘votes’ or petitions instead of discussion points and creating posts or threads intended to cause unrest in the forums are not behaviors conducive to this goal. This includes, but is not limited to, bumping threads and posting memetic images or phrases that add nothing to the discussion.

Respecting the forum environment.

Gaines & Gaines Staff

The most frequent staff members you will see posting on the forums are the attorneys and/or designated moderators. We enforce the Code of Conduct and respond to threads and posts, whether it is to address an issue or simply having fun.

If you don’t see us responding, it isn’t because we are ignoring you. Sometimes we don’t have a good answer, or we are looking for an answer or we cannot comment on the issue at the time.

We also have other work we have to do that isn’t on the forums so if you don’t see us around, we are working on something else for you!

Impersonating a Gaines & Gaines Member/Employee

Working for Gaines & Gaines is cool. Passing yourself off as a Gaines & Gaines Employee is not. If you want to work for Gaines & Gaines, you are welcome to apply as we are always looking to recruit and hire the best.

Circumventing a Suspension / Ban

To maintain the environment of the forums, it’s absolutely necessary that the moderators can do their jobs effectively. To facilitate this, any discussion of disciplinary action or moderation is not allowed, and circumventing suspensions by posting on another account or having another user post on your behalf is also not allowed. This includes posting any chat logs or email correspondence between a moderator, administrator, or any employee/member of Gaines & Gaines.

In addition, abusing the report feature makes it more difficult for moderators to maintain the environment of the forums and as such will result in disciplinary action.

Creating Duplicate Threads

Forums can be a great platform for open discussions, and we want all the people interested in a topic to be able to engage with it in a meaningful way. One way to facilitate this is to use the search feature before creating a new thread. You can imagine what would happen to the forums if everyone created their own thread for every popular topic.

If all comments about a particular issue are in one place, it makes it much easier for us to collate and act on any feedback. Creating multiple threads on the same topic does not make it more likely that your post will be seen, it does make it more likely you will irritate and confuse your fellow forum users. If a user creates multiple threads with the intention of drawing attention away from other threads, disciplinary action will be taken.

This general rule also applies to abuse of formatting options, or any other manner of attempt to artificially draw attention to any post.

Illegal Activities

The Gaines & Gaines Forums are not a place for discussing illegal activity, and you may not violate any local, state, national or international laws or regulations. We recommend you don’t violate these laws anywhere at all, ever.

Advertising

The Gaines & Gaines Forums are not to be used for advertising non beneficial, related businesses, organizations, or websites.

The Gaines & Gaines Forums are a private message forum administered by us. The Firm reserves the right to edit or remove any message board post or other content at will without notice for any reason. Posting privileges are provided as a courtesy that can be rescinded at any time, at our sole discretion. By using the forums, you agree that Gaines & Gaines has a royalty-free, worldwide license to your posted text, graphics or other content for its business purposes.

You must have an active Member account to post on the Gaines & Gaines Forums. If you are banned from the Forum, you will not be able to post on the forums. You are responsible for adhering to the forum code of conduct. If your forum posting privileges are suspended or banned, your Member account will be reviewed and may be subject to further action. Gaines & Gaines reserves the right to suspend your access to these forums at any time for reasons that include, but are not limited to, your failure to abide by this Code of Conduct.

Gaines & Gaines, and its Community Team reserve the right to evaluate each incident on a case by case basis and have full discretion when addressing any behavior that they determine is inappropriate. Any finalized decision may be based on the offending posters full history on the forum, as applicable. Should you wish to discuss any disciplinary measures against your account or report a violation, you can email: info@gaineslawyers.com.

The Gaines & Gaines Forums should always be treated as environments where everyone can feel comfortable. This Code of Conduct is intended to be a set of guidelines that help create and maintain those environments, not a definitive list of every eventuality we may need to take action on.

If you’re unsure how these guidelines affect you, please email any questions to: info@gaineslawyers.com.