Code of Conduct

Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines

Thank you for being part of our community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. 

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. To preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules. Questions should be directed to our member services department via the Contact Us link on this site.

The Rules

  • Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there’s no such thing as a silly question.
  • Please keep messages short and to the point. Strive for brevity. Be factual. Evidence-based content is preferred to conjecture.
  • Avoid repetition. Avoid posting discussions that are unnecessarily redundant or that add no new information to an ongoing debate. If you’ve made your point once in the last 30 days, don’t make it again.
  • Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."
  • All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
  • Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
  • When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
  • Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. Please do not post commercial or marketing messages. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.  It is allowable to post job openings and Requests for Proposals/Qualifications.
  • Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.

 

Discussion Group Etiquette

    • State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
    • Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals, not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to Sender" link in every message.
    • Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings.

Penalty Box

We have rules here. Violate them at your own risk. If you violate a rule, APBP will take the following steps:

1st offense: APBP sends you a private warning.

2nd offense: APBP places your Community subscription on moderation which means each message you post must be approved by APBP’s Secretary of the Board of Directors and/or Executive Director. Moderation continues for 30 days.

3rd offense: APBP withdraws your membership privilege to post to the Community for 90 days, and may make such withdrawal permanent.


The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) to enable them to share and exchange their personal views on topics and issues of importance to the pedestrian and bicycle communities.  All comments that appear are solely those of the individual, and do not reflect APBP positions or policies.  APBP is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by APBP or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall APBP be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any (a) defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials, (b) statements that are bigoted, hateful or racially or sexually offensive, (c) material that advocates illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them, (d) material that contains vulgar, obscene or indecent language or images, (e) advertising or other commercial solicitations, or (f) opinions of fictitious or third parties. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants APBP and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of APBP we will take all appropriate action.

APBP reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.


Privacy Policy

Any personal information you provide to us including and similar to your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.

With Whom Do We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site:

Our Service Providers
We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf.

Business Transfers
Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy.

Government and Legal Disclosures
We may disclose the personal information we collect through this Site, when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or a court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements that govern your use of this Site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, or others.

External Sites
We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.

Cookies
A "cookie" is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognize you each time you visit this site (personalization, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as news-feeds.

Remember The Risks Whenever You Use The Internet
While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.  For any other information please contact us using the Contact Us page.