Fitness Charter - READ THIS BEFORE POSTING. NO MEDICAL ADVICE ALLOWED.

Jak

First and Foremost the forum is subject to the boards.ie Guidelines

Please get your facts straight
A general rule that we all should try to live by, but invariably do not. However in this forum misinformation could have fairly tangible consequences. We will all make mistakes and we will all disagree with some things as the best approach, however if you post truly idiotic or dangerous advice it will be removed. In debates try to back your points with existing literature if available. Do not post unfounded allegations or state potential links if you cannot defend them.

No lies
People are prone to exaggeration and we won't split hairs over most things, but we will not tolerate people posting extreme lies as it makes the board look pathetic. We have some quite serious athletes on boards and comparative training discussions are very valuable, but if people post crap about running a 3 minute mile, or benching 300kg it will be edited or left for ridicule at our discretion. We would like people to be honest on this board and do remember that we do all meet up on occasion.

Don't Argue with the Mods
Often times as Mods we call people out on something in public. This is to show people what is and is not acceptable. Far more often we deal with things in private via PM. On the occasions when you are called out in public please do not argue with a moderator in a thread, it drags the thread off-topic. If you have an issue with a moderator's action then please invoke the Dispute Resolution Procedure (DRP)

No Questions about Treatment of Injuries/ Requesting Medical Advice
As a whole boards.ie does not allow medical discussion and Fitness will be no different. Do not post threads about injuries or when you think you might be injured looking for advice. If you are injured go to a qualified medical professional for help, not the internet. Injuries can be incredibly difficult to diagnose, even when the person you are seeking help from is in the same room as you.

The only time we will allow the discussion of any injuries and how to overcome them is when the OP CLEARLY states in their first post that they have been to a professional, received advice and treatment and are looking for help with a rehab/prehab exercise.

No Steroid Pushing
General discussion about steroids is fine but absolutely no pushing, advise on how to use, information on where to buy or detail on how to use them will be tolerated.

No txt Spk k
Text speak is not to be used in posts as it can make them hard to understand for some people. However well known acronyms are ok, as these can be looked up pretty quickly on the web.

Be Nice - It Won't Kill You
No flaming, trolling, spamming or personal abuse of any kind.
No sleazing or "pics or gtfo" posts.
Treat your fellow posters with courtesy and respect. It's fine to disagree with a post strongly, but be polite about it. We all make mistakes. There's no need to call people or their posts names. Calling something "ghey" (or its equivalents) is not acceptable and will be considered abusive.
We are aware that a lot of people know each other in real life and that can create an atmosphere of familiarity but keep the in-jokes to a minimum. When you call someone you know in RL a name it might look hilarious to you but may come across as abusive or hostile to other members and we will Moderate appropriately.
This forum does not belong to any one poster/ group of posters. It's not your personal playground, you are subject to the same rules as everyone else.

How to ask for advice
Use a descriptive thread title.
Provide information - age, height, current weight, eating habits, goals, training history etc. The more info you give, the easier it is to tailor advise for your needs.

Stay on topic
Threads often run their course and stray off into wild waffle territory - this is ok, once the subject/ questions of the OP has been addressed. Until then, keep your posts relevant.

Advertising for Seminar/ Workshops/ Fitness Events in the Forum
There appears to be ever increasing traffic in the forum regarding advertising for various fitness-related events. In order to prevent the forum from being over-run with adverts we would ask that any users who wish to advertise an event (either for their own business or on behalf of someone else) first contacts a Fitness Moderator (or preferably all Fitness Mods in the event that one isn't around - we do have lives. Sometimes) to request permission. If the event is deemed suitable for the forum the Moderator will post a thread regarding the event. A contact email should be included so that all inquiries can be directed to the event host.

There will be a 50 post minimum for any users who wish to advertise events.

Please note that the decision regarding suitability of an event for the forum is at the Fitness Moderators' discretion and all decisions are final.

If an event is advertised without the user having first contacted a Moderator the thread will be deleted.

If you are a business owner please note that having a discrete link to your business in your signature is allowed, but constant references to your business in posts will be considered spamming and your posts will be edited/ deleted as necessary and your account may incur a ban.


Video Posting Guidelines
For a while now there has been a practice on the fitness forum of some folks posting videos to demonstrate an exercise/routine to a poster in response to a post. While this is most welcome and we appreciate the time and effort taken by some to create and post these videos, there are however some conditions which must be adhered to.

• Videos are for the benefit of the posters. They are not a means to promote a business
  
• There is to be no OTT advertising of a business/service/product in either the visual or narrative of the video
  
• Videos meant as instructional aids should show correct form of the exercise(s) covered
  
• Videos should be posted using
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
  tags and not links to the business site of the person providing the video. This strays into advertising on the forum, which is not allowed. A thread can be provided for videos to be uploaded to and videos can then be linked to from this thread if necessary.
  
• Absolutely NO videos covering injury rehab allowed, as this would breach the overall site posting rules as well as the Forum Charter
  
• Please remember that quite a number of folks browse the forums on mobile devices, so please only use videos where appropriate and please refrain from posting multiple videos in threads, as this can seriously affect the browsing experience on mobile devices.
  
• Where possible please remove the video when quoting posts which include a video, as again needlessly including the video can have an adverse effect on mobile users.
  
• Videos which breach any of these guidelines will be removed from the forum/post at the Moderator discretion and the moderators opinion regarding the suitability of a video for the forum will be absolute.

No posting referral codes
No posting personal referral links for Myprotein, BulkPowders or anything else where you stand to make a profit. Same goes for using shortening URLs such as bit.ly. Posting general, non-personal discount codes for websites is perfectly fine.