Since its founding, this forum has been host to a great group of members who are enthusiastic about their PMC-Eight System and want to help each other the best way possible and share their experiences. It continues to this day to be one of the best ways to learn about your PMC-Eight system. I have tried to take a "hands-off" approach to moderating this forum and it has worked out pretty well up to this point. As more members join, I have found that it is time now to be more explicit about the expectations for conducting oneself on this forum.

As a manufacturer's forum, we have a few specific requirements that may or may not be applicable at other forums you may be on that are not vendor specific. This is not meant to stifle communications or an attempt to "white-wash" problems that show up from time to time with our equipment. We value everyone's opinion and want and need to identify issues as they occur, but we want it to occur in a civil environment that talks about issues and facts, not opinions that are not based in fact.

It is in this context that I release the first version of our TERMS OF SERVICE.
UPDATED 2019-06-27 - ADDED Rule Number 2 to the list
UPDATED 2020-02-04 - CHANGED Rule Number 8
UPDATED 2020-09-19 - CHANGED Rule Number 8

Explore Scientific PMC-Eight Forum TERMS OF SERVICE

1. Explore Scientific established the PMC-Eight System  Groups.io community to allow PMC-Eight users to have a dedicated location to foster exchange of ideas and processes. This must be a welcoming community.

2. Please make use of the sub groups: SYSHELP, MOUNTS, DEV, and IEXOS100BEGINNER. If you wish to help the beginners who are new to equatorial GOTO mounts and the PMC-Eight system, please join the SYSHELP and/or IEXOS100BEGINNER sub groups. Your help is very much appreciated.

3. Moderators will not allow posts that are uncivil, rude, belittling or discourteous. Explore Scientific understands that customers can have negative experiences and that discussing those experiences are part of the community’s learning process.

4. Remain rational and calm. Do no bring anger or frustration to any discussion.

5. When posting, state the facts and circumstances. Do not use terms that are derogatory to community members or vendors.

6. Share your concerns, but do not turn to this forum to vent. If you have reached that point, please contact Explore Scientific Customer Service by email at service @ explorescientific.com, by phone at 866-252-3811, or through the Customer Service Portal at https://explorescientific.supportsync.com/.

7. Registering to use this site under a false name or for false pretenses is prohibited. Please include a name when setting up your account, not just your email. It helps to identify who we are speaking to and promotes a friendlier atmosphere and helps us to address and treat each other as we do in the real world.

8. Discussion of any topic not related to the PMC-Eight system and ancillary systems (computer configuration, imaging/autoguiding and telescope usage) is prohibited. Posts should be discussions about the PMC-Eight mount performance and usage and items related to the experience of using the PMC-Eight system. There will always be posts about other topics such as image processing, or other vendor software configuration and/or equipment, That shall not to be the primary focus of the thread or posts, and any such posts will be evaluated and locked/removed if necessary. If the thread starts to veer into areas that are not germane to the purpose of this forum the thread may be locked. It would be very rare that a thread would be deleted, although individual posts may be deleted.

The PMC-Eight Application Subgroup is available to members to discuss all manner of third-party equipment, software, and other materials needed for our customers to have the best experience using the PMC-Eight system with these third-party products. The discussion SHALL NOT BE LIMITED TO describing the how and why of the setup, configuration, and any other requirements needed to properly get the third-party product to work effectively with the PMC-Eight system.
In the PMC-Eight Application Subgroup, the members are invited and encouraged to discuss the integration of all the various third-party tools as necessary to get the best performance and experience using these products.

The only restriction is that members are not to either bash, or promote any specific manufacturer or product over any other manufacturer or product.  All that is required to keep from having a message or thread locked or deleted is to just state the facts about any circumstance or feature of the product and how you have configured or set it up.

These discussions do not need to be connected to the PMC-Eight directly or indirectly, rather this is a subgroup for all PMC-Eight owners and users to exchange ideas and information concerning how to setup and use all the various applications we employ.  

9. Explore Scientific reserves the right to edit, modify or delete any post that Explore Scientific deems a violation of these rules.

10. If you have a questions or complaint about a specific post, notify a moderator.

11. Explore Scientific reserves the right to modify these terms of service without notice.

(updated?) terms of reference