MindZinger Community Rules

The following Community Rules allow everyone to enjoy and benefit from their experience using MindZinger. By using the MindZinger site you agree to be bound by the rules of this service. The forum and message boards associated with MindZinger also have additional guidelines which govern your use, so be sure to review them in addition to these Rules.

Member Qualifications

MindZinger is designed for individuals 13 years of age or older.
As a Member you will uphold these Rules, and are responsible for all activities and content you post.

Dos and Don'ts

Help Students Learn

MindZinger is a resource to help students with academic and school-related questions. MindZinger's goal is that students will learn from each other and from tutors and not simply "outsource" their homework. Unfortunately, any good resource can be abused so students that appear to simply want to cheat by having others actually complete their homework should be reported to MindZinger under the "report abuse" icon next to each question. In some ways, there can be a fine line between "getting help" and "cheating." MindZinger's philosophy is that our website and our users can help students to the same degree and in the same circumstances that a paid tutor can help students. (For example, if a student has 20 math questions to complete for homework and is struggling with one or two of them, is it fine to get help with those problems? Most tutors--and MindZinger--clearly believe this student can and should get help. If this students requests help with 10 questions, this is clearly not ok).

In addition, as a free resource, MindZinger helps level the playing field so that rich students don't always have an advantage over others who can't afford a tutor. Overall, the use of MindZinger calls for the same level of discernment and maturity that students must exercise when they use other resources on the internet or simply ask a friend, tutor or parent for help. The goal is to learn and genuine learning definitely can be facilitated by others--such as those in the MindZinger community.

Respect the community

MindZinger is a publicly accessible community. Treat other community members with the same respect as if you were to meet them in person. Do not post any content that:

is intended to harm or exploit minors (anyone under 18 years old) in any way.
is designed to solicit or collect personally identifiable information of any minor (anyone under 18 years old), including, but not limited to: name, e-mail address, home address, phone number, or the name of their school.
invades anyone's privacy by attempting to harvest, collect, store, or publish private or personally identifiable information, such as passwords, account information, credit card numbers, addresses, or other contact information without their foreknowledge and willing consent.
is intended to threaten, stalk, defame, defraud, degrade, victimize, or intimidate an individual or group of individuals for any reason; including on the basis of age, gender, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, race, or religion; or to incite or encourage anyone else to do so.
glorifies anorexia, bulimia, or the loss of weight to levels that are clearly unhealthy.
incites, advocates, or expresses obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, hatred, bigotry, racism, or gratuitous violence.
provides or creates links to external sites that violate these Rules.

Respect the law

Do not post content that is illegal or that promotes the violation of any applicable laws. Do not post content that violates the rights of any third party, including copyrights or other intellectual property rights.

Respect the MindZinger format

MindZinger is intended to be a place for people to ask questions, share answers, find penpals and find information. Content that does not fulfill this purpose is not allowed and may be removed. Use of the site's features and functionality for other purposes is prohibited.

Questions should be questions. Content entered on the question asking page should be worded as a question. Each question should have the possibility of an answer.
Answers should be answers. Content entered on the question answering page should be an honest attempt to provide information to the question asker.
Postings must contain something of substance. For example, the question "wazzup?" with an answer of "not much" has no value to the community and may be removed. Spamming the site with repeated identical postings also has no value to the community and will be removed.
MindZinger is an English-only site. Content that is not understandable by English language speakers will be removed.
Tags should reflect the content of the question. Questions that appear to have been intentionally mistagged may be corrected or removed.
The Report Abuse button should only be used for violations of these Rules. For content that does not violate these Rules.
No chats or discussions.
No personal ads are allowed.
No selling. Questions and answers may not be posted for commercial advertising or marketing purposes.

Communicate clearly

To increase your chances of receiving an answer to your question or a Recommendation for your answer, write your content clearly in English. Content that is not understandable may be removed. Community members must understand your content in order to act on it, so you should refrain from using shorthand that many users may not know. Note also that the use of all capital letters in your postings may be perceived as shouting and should be avoided.

Earn your ranking and reputation

Attempts to manipulate the recommendation system by violating any of the provisions of these Rules, including collusion with other members on voting or use of multiple profiles by the same person, will result in termination of your account and loss of any Questions in that account.

Don't pretend to be someone you're not

Do not attempt to impersonate any other person through any means.
Do not misrepresent the source of anything you post.
Use of multiple accounts to boost ranking or obtain extra votes is prohibited. Asking questions with one profile and answering them with another is expressly prohibited.
Use of the same profile by more than one person is also prohibited.
Do not misrepresent your age if you are under the age of 18.

Don't post anything that could damage property

Do not post content that could harm or disrupt another user's computer or would allow others to illegally access software or bypass security on Web sites, or servers, including but not limited to spamming.
Do not post content that could interfere with the operation of MindZinger in any way.

Rights and Responsibilities

If you see content that violates these Rules, please report it for review.

We encourage our users to not share information that others could use to harm you, and for parents to be aware of and help exercise control over content posted by and activities of their children to keep them safe online. MindZinger is not responsible for the content or activities in any user-created content. The decision to view or engage all content is yours and we advise you to use your judgment. You are responsible for anything you say or post and for protecting your own computer system. While MindZinger does not own the content on the MindZinger website, when you post you grant MindZinger the right to reuse the content in any way. Other users may also copy, modify, or distribute the content you post. MindZinger is not obligated to send users a warning before deleting any content. MindZinger is not responsible for loss of, access to, or deletion of any materials posted on the MindZinger website. MindZinger reserves the right to amend or change these Rules at any time without notice, and encourages you to periodically review these guidelines to ensure you are in compliance.

Violations

You will not upload, post, transmit, transfer, disseminate, distribute, or facilitate distribution of any content, including text, images, sound, data, information, or software, that violates these Rules. Violations of these Rules or the MindZinger Terms of Use may result in the termination of access to MindZinger or deletion of content without notice.

Termination and Cancellation

MindZinger reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to review and remove user-created services and content at will and without notice, and delete messages or ban participants that are deemed objectionable. We appreciate that you've chosen to use MindZinger and thank your for abiding by these Rules.