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Farming & Forestry Charter (Updated 12-12-21): **READ BEFORE POSTING**

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  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    This forum should have a reasonably relaxed atmosphere where people can feel they can add positively to threads. If any poster takes it upon themselves to go over the line and harass, bully, ridicule, threaten or otherwise act in an uncivil manner towards members, moderators, or named individuals they will be subject to immediate warning/infraction/temporary or permanent ban.

    Trolling the Farming & Forestry forum will not be tolerated from any quarter. Neither shall anyone who creates excessive unnecessary work for the moderators.


    Reporting Posts

    If you find that another poster is not being civil to you, or to other members, then report the post giving as much relevant detail as possible and let the moderators consider what if any action is to be taken.

    To report a post, go to the post in question and click on the flag icon/button at the bottom.

    image.png
    This gives you the opportunity to give your reason and brings the post to the attention of the forum moderators who can then decide whether it is actionable.


    Reporting Private Messages

    Abusive PM's are taken very seriously by admin and can result in a ban from the site.

    First make contact with an admin. You can do this through the forum mods if you do not know how to do so:

    @blue5000 , @Albert Johnson , @Genghis Cant , @greysides , @K.G.

    They will ask you to add them to the conversation (it's an option on the bottom of the page). They will then be able to see the entire conversation from the beginning and can take action appropriately.

    At the moment, this has to be done on a mobile as the option is not available on the desktop version.

    In either of the above situations, do NOT take it upon yourself to flame, abuse, follow, threaten or otherwise harass any of the other posters involved, this will result in action being taken against yourself as well as others and is self defeating as well as being a waste of time. This is not an exhaustive list of uncivil behaviour and the moderators retain the right to decide what is or is not an issue to take action over, looking for loopholes, attempting to be "clever" will not get you off the hook here.


    Defamation & Free Speech

    You do not have the right to free speech. This is a privately owned website which publishes your opinions. Those opinions from time to time may have to be edited or removed in order to protect the site and its owners.

    Having said that, genuine posts are all welcome here - regardless of whether they are positive or negative, or of whether they are about goods or services provided by commercial companies, or about clubs or associations. We believe this is a genuinely good way for those who provide an excellent service to be recognised as such; and that it is one of the best ways for others to find out what they could be doing better.

    However, please take note of this - the posts must be genuine. We do not allow people to 'get the boot in' or to use boards.ie as an anonymous platform to unjustly defame others. We never have and we're not interested in starting now.

    The rule we use on this is very simple:
    • If you're posting the facts about your experience and they're negative, there's nothing wrong with that.
    • If you're posting your opinion of the person or people involved, you're in a grey area.
    • If you're just having a bitching session or trying to get the boot in, well, your post is getting edited or deleted at the bare minimum.

    If people stick to the facts without embellishment there is much less chance that we wil be asked to remove it or that they would be potentially be in any trouble themselves than if they come on all guns blazing about a "shower of cowboy scammers trying to rob me blind".

    So, in other words, it's generally okay if people stick to the facts without embellishment and discuss direct experiences, e.g. "I visited Mart XYZ on Monday, and I wasn't happy with the way they treated an animal that I was looking at while I was there", or "I was at Mart XYZ and I thought that they really weren't up to scratch compared to the mart back home for <insert reasons here>", that's fine. However if a poster comes on all guns blazing about a "shower of cowboy scammers trying to rob me blind", then we have a problem, and the thread/post will edited or deleted.
    Post edited by greysides on


  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Illegal stuff is illegal. It's Boards.ie policy not to discuss illegality and it's definitely not welcome here. Members have been banned over this previously, seriously, save yourself the hassle and leave it out. Farming especially has a very public image and discussion of illegal practices, cruelty, or other activities damaging to the activities discussed in this forum does none of its members any good and is prohibited.

    Members looking for information on, ways to, or advocating the falsifying of records or other illegal or morally dubious practices will be banned.

    Illegal actions also include the poisoning, shooting, trapping or other interference with any protected species in this state. With particular reference to threads on Eagles, these tend to veer wildly out of control and fill up with vitriol and ill advised posts, therefore the subject is not to be discussed on this forum at all. At time of writing the Nature & Birdwatching have a thread on the subject and discussion would be more suitable there, while following that forums guidelines and moderator directions.

    Metal Detecting Permission

    Every so often a thread pops up on boards where a user is requesting land access to engage in metal detecting. Metal detecting in Ireland, for the purposes of finding archaeological objects without the required license and ministerial consent is illegal, therefore threads requesting land access for this purpose will be closed, and repeat offenders may be infracted.

    For more information, the relevant legislation, together with the laws in an easy to read form are available here.



    It should be remembered that the Department of Agriculture, Gardaí, members of various NGO's, charities, etc, read and take note of these forums.

    A good rule of thumb for posting on internet forums is that you should not post anything that you would be unhappy seeing on the front page of a newspaper alongside your real name, address etc. Internet users, despite having "usernames", are not anonymous!
    Post edited by greysides on


  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    The Farming & Forestry forum is not the place for ads. If you wish to advertise an item 'for sale' or 'wanted', then please use Adverts.ie or similar.

    You may not link to adverts in your posts on this forum, whether they are yours or others, regardless of their site of origin (adverts.ie, donedeal, ebay, etc). There are two exceptions to this:
    1. The External Adverts Links thread allows for the posting of members 'Wanted' or 'For Sale' ads on external sites. Please read the rules in the first post before contributing to the thread.
    2. Linking to 'for sale' machinery/stock/etc. for discussion purposes only is also permitted.

    Unsolicited advertising/promotion by anyone, including 'new' posters, will be regarded as SPAM and dealt with as such.

    The name of your business should not be part of your avatar/username as that will cause a forum-ban and referral to higher authority (admin).

    A simple link (one line or so) to your business in your signature is allowed.



    Surveys, Market Research, and other data/information gathering methods are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

    If you wish to engage with the members of the Farming & Forestry forum in any such endeavour, you must first contact the forum moderators:

    @blue5000 , @Albert Johnson , @Genghis Cant , @greysides , @K.G.

    You will have to explain your intentions in order to satisfy the moderators that your activity is of interest, and potentially of benefit, to the forum and the farming community in general.

    The final decision with any aspect of the above rests with the moderators and is not up for debate.
    Post edited by greysides on


  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Personal information is just that, personal, so keep it to PM. This includes your own or any other private individual's name, postal addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses etc. This forum is openly and freely available to any member of the public, some of whom may have ulterior motives for acquiring such personal information. This is here for your safety and the safety of others.


  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Spammers will be banned from the forum and their posts deleted. At Admin level, they will be site-banned.

    Generally speaking, the site software and the Admins do an excellent job of keeping spammers from flooding the place with their content, but if you come across spam here (or anywhere else on boards.ie), the procedure is as follows:
    1. Report the post by clicking on the image.png icon at the bottom of the post, and the forum mods will be notified and will take action.

    2. You can also post a link to the post (or the poster's Profile) to the Spammer Notification Thread in the Feedback forum. This will bring the spammer to the attention of the Admins, who will then take action.


    Please do NOT reply to spam!

    Satisfying as it may be to post a witty retort or tell them to eff off, this does nothing but add to the problem.
    The vast majority of spam is generated by 'bots', software programs that run automated tasks over the Internet. As such, they don't read replies to their posts, don't read their PMs, and they most certainly won't appreciate your scathing wit or feel upset by your outrage.

    They DO however, keep track of clicks on their links or page impressions of their images and other content. This is how they 'earn' their money, by selling your 'interest' to their advertisers. Replying to them (if they've started a new thread) or quoting them (if they've posted in an existing thread) only confirms to them that they're getting 'hits' and that it's worth their while to continue or increase their efforts here.

    In short: Don't retort, post REPORT!

    (For more detailed explanation from admin, read here).
    Post edited by greysides on


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  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Posts looking for advice for sick animals have been a source of concern to boards.ie for some years. The problem is that veterinary diagnosis is a learnt, professional skill so it is just not possible, or safe, to remotely diagnose an animal through an internet forum. Welfare concerns demand that animals are treated quickly and effectively. Even the best-intended lay-advice may not be sufficient and may delay seeking proper assistance. Additionally lay-advice may lead to inappropriate drug use, which increases the onset of drug-resistant strains of bacteria.

    We also have to recognise that there are now legal rules governing the sale and use of animal remedies. It brings Irish farming into disrepute for these rules to be openly flouted, or for illegal activities/remedies to be suggested.

    For these reasons a change is being made to the charter. We recognise that animals are not human and that there are economic aspects of treating animals that do not exist with humans. We recognise that there needs to be a forum for the discussion of animal health issues. Consequently the changes, detailed below, may be subject to change in an effort to find a workable compromise.

    Animal Welfare:

    It is the duty of people involved with animals in farming to properly treat and look after the animals under their care. Mention of procedures/actions/treatments that show a lack of respect for animal welfare will not be tolerated.

    Offering Diagnosis:

    A competent diagnosis can only be made by a vet and should not be attempted over the internet. It is permissible to recount similar cases and the diagnosis, especially if they had veterinary involvement. Readers will have to be aware of the dangers inherent in making a decision from such advices. Similarly, once an animal has been examined and treated by a vet, there is nothing to be gained by remote second-guessing.

    Offering Treatment:

    Discussion of over-the-counter medicines is fine. For the more day-to-day conditions treatments can be discussed, but specific (POM) antibiotics should not be prescribed. Mentioning previous similar experiences, particularly where veterinary help was sought, or suggesting supportive therapy or preventative methods is fine. For serious or uncertain conditions, suggesting a treatment is not allowed and will be subject to infraction.

    Traditional Treatments:

    Conventional medicines must undergo licensing and prove their safety and efficacy. A lot of treatments animals were given in the past are no longer needed, as better treatments of a higher standard are available. Safe ancillary treatments that compliment, or are part of, conventional therapy are allowed to be discussed. Treatments such as poultices, iodine, bread soda, glycerine and similar are safe for mention.

    Specifically prohibited from discussion/suggestion as treatments are:

    Waste/burnt oil, Creosote, Turpentine, White Spirits, Jeyes Fluid, Domestos. (this list will be amended in future)

    Posts recommending such home remedies (or similar) will be removed, and repeat offenders may be infracted.



    Hopefully, the result of all this will be to allow the more common ailments to be discussed as before, while preventing attempts at remote diagnosis of the more involved cases and stop the speculative medicinal suggestions.

    The discussion of previous experiences is allowed unless it falls prey to other exceptions (i.e. questionable medicinal use).


    For more information on animal welfare, the current legislation can be found in the following links:



    In summary:
    • No complicated diagnosis and No speculative prescribing.
    • If you wouldn't say it to a Department Veterinary Inspector or write it down in your Veterinary Remedies Record, don't post it here.
    Post edited by greysides on


  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    If you are querying machinery/animals/property etc - and posting a link to something that you would like people's opinion on - please post a reasonable description of what you are linking to - people will be far more likely to be helpful when its not a guessing game.

    PLEASE put a meaningful title on your thread; you'll be far more likely to get useful and informative replies, and it saves the mods from having to do it!

    The editing, splitting, and removal of posts/content is entirely at the discretion of the moderators of this forum, should those posts or content breach this forums charter or this sites T&C's or guidelines.

    Threads which veer off topic may be split into two separate threads.


  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Images are obviously a useful tool when discussing farming related issues. However, please keep images to a reasonable size - 800 pixels on the longest side.

    Images can be 'drag and dropped', or 'copy and pasted' into Comment boxes.
    Post edited by greysides on


  • Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Please take some time to familiarise yourself with the following:

    (Dec 2021: Please note that due to the site migration some of the above links do not currently work.)

    As a final note, when you signed up to this forum you agreed to abide by it's terms and conditions etc. You should familiarise yourself with those T&C's, general site guidelines, etc. and understand them so as not to run into potential problems down the line.

    Above all, enjoy the Farming & Forestry forum. Its members are what makes the forum either good or bad. Good content, reliable information, other peoples experiences are valuable to us all and help enhance each members enjoyment of the forum.

    PM (Private Message) the forum moderators :

    @blue5000 , @Albert Johnson , @Genghis Cant , @greysides , @K.G.


    Thank you to all our members and happy posting!
    Post edited by greysides on


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