The management reserves the right to make judgment calls. We can't write a rule for everything. If we see nonsense on the forum we will take care of it and let you know why. This is the "no nonsense" rule.

1. No content that is considered racist, sexist, obscene, objectionable, or otherwise offensive content will be tolerated. All such posts or content will be deleted without notice. This includes avatars and photos uploaded in the Bananas.org photo gallery. This could result in the loss of your membership. Arguably objectionable topics, should you find the desire to post them, should at the bare minimum have a descriptive title to warn anyone sensitive to said topic if its arguably acceptable content. Objectionable content includes user profiles and signatures consisting of religious quotes and religiously suggestive topics. There are other forums more appropriate for these topics, please refrain from those things here.

2. You will not violate a person's privacy by publishing information, against someone's will, that is private and personal.

3. Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. We take politeness very seriously. You are welcome to challenge others points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully.

4. Please create threads in the proper forum. Before posting any thread, visit the Bananas.org homepage and find the most appropriate forum to post your thread. Also, before posting in the forum, click to enter the forum and look for a sticky thread with more forum-specific rules.

5. Please only post one thread per topic, and update that thread as needed. For example, if you post a banana blooming progress thread, please post all subsequent pictures into that same thread you perhaps started a few weeks ago. It is ok to post subsequent posts in the same thread as new posts (you do not need to "edit" your recent post, you may post new posts on the same thread). You may easily locate your threads - in your user control panel, there's a list of your subscribed threads.

6. Complete your sales! If a member posts "sold" or PM's that he/she will buy your banana plants or whatever it was that your selling or trading, please attempt to complete the sale in a timely manner. This goes for both parties, please make yourself available to complete the sale as soon as possible. In addition, your word is your bond. If you agree to a deal, you shouldn't back out - even if you receive a higher offer (sellers) or if you think you offered too much (buyers). Do the right thing and the right thing will eventually return to you.

7. Trader feedback is permanent. It may only be removed by the person who left it, and by contacting admin via PM to ensure it's the member. You may also ask admin to review feedback you feel was left in error, or contains attacks, etc.

8. Promoting other gardening or banana related forums (or any forum that resembles the structure and/or content of Bananas.org) in your posts, signatures, or in any way on the forum is not permitted. An occasional link to a related thread thats on topic of a current discussion is allowed.

9. Users may disagree with the decisions or actions of the moderators and/or administrators - however, disagreements, criticism, and the like, are not to be aired within the forums. Please feel free to PM the person directly rather than air your dirty laundry in public.

10. Any abuse towards our staff and/or management will result in suspension of your account.

11. You may not have more than one account. The only instance where accounts may be shared is by members in the same household, for example, a husband and wife may share the same account. Accounts may not be sold or transferred.

12. The buying, selling, or trading of signatures is prohibited. Either for real money, plant material, BananaBucks, or anything else for that matter. If another member or any company approaches you to use your signature to promote their products or company, you must decline. Advertisements and off-site links, in moderation, are allowed on the forums, but the blatant use of signatures to promote any company you are not a regular employee of is not allowed. Affiliate links are also not allowed. We retain the right to make judgment calls here, for example, weather underground banners are allowed... there will always be exceptions to the rule, but that is left to the administration team and moderation team to decide upon. Images in signatures may not exceed 468 pixels wide. You may only have a maximum of two images in your signature. You may only have two links in your signature. Videos in signatures are not allowed.

13. Bananas.org does not get involved in user issues with other members or issues they have with companies. All opinions and posts made by our members do not reflect those of the forum ownership. Bananas.org is a discussion forum where members have the right to free speech. Please resolve plant sales disputes off the board. Remember that Bananas.org may only get involved in user issues with plant sales to a limited degree.

14. You may not use, reproduce or distribute any forum discussions, content from the banana wiki, or other posted content anywhere other than on Bananas.org. The exception is that you may share photos hosted on Bananas.org on other websites, each photo will give you the code to share the photo elsewhere.

15. Username changes are handled in a certain way to protect the integrity of our membership base. We typically do not encourage or allow username changes. Please send a message to the administration team if you are in need to change your username.

16. Reporting posts. The proper way to report a post that you feel is in breach of the sitewide rules and/or the specific forum's sticky rules is to click this image that corresponds with the post: . Your report is confidential and is only seen by the moderation and administration team. This process is designed to ensure your privacy. The member who you report will not know of your report nor the identity of the person(s) who reported it. Reporting a post creates a special thread in a special area of the forum only seen by the moderators and admins, and also sends out a notice. We're a community and if you catch something before a moderator does, please help the community by placing a report, it only takes a moment to click the image. Thanks for your help!

17. No charity, fundraising, "woe is me", or any other form of persuasive posts. This includes Multi-level marketing (MLM). Too many scams. You may have a well known charity in your signature, that's it. Threads designed to persuade members to provide sympathetic consideration will be archived from view or deleted and infraction points or bans will be issued.