Attention all Members of XMTS Please Read

[Panache]

A Message to all our members

X Marks the Scot continues to grow and thrive. The reason for this is all the fine people who make up our membership and make this place fun and informative. With so many new members we thought it would be a good idea to clarify a few things that have come up recently.

About Advertising Here

The reason XMTS functions is that we have sponsors that pay for the licensing of our forum software and the costs of hosting the site. If you enjoy our forum you should thank each and every one of our advertisers because without them there would be no X Marks the Scot.com. They support us and for this they have the privilege of directly advertising their goods and services here.

We realize that we are lucky to have so many skilled artists and craftspeople in the ranks of our membership and have tried to find the best balance we could between recognizing these talented individuals and respecting our sponsors. .

If you are thinking about advertising on XMTS here are some General Guidelines (though please review the forum rules thoroughly before proceeding)

If you are a paying sponsor then you have the right to directly advertise on XMTS

If you are not a paying sponsor you are welcome to show off the things you have made for your own use and enjoyment in the appropriate forum and put in your signature line a note, or link to a photo or website promoting your business.

Members are welcome to review products but the Moderating Team reserves the right to remove posts that we determine are simply de facto advertising.

The For Sale Forum and Swap Forums are for individuals to sell or trade items that they no longer use.

These policies do require a certain amount of restraint. There are many members here who have started small side businesses and had them prosper with positive word of mouth from those of our membership “in the know“ (for example cavscout’s belts, and sporrans from turpin, Freelander Sporrano, and A_Hay to name just a few). Highlandtide never wanted our site to become one big marketplace with everybody selling something to everyone else. If you have a question concerning what is or isn’t appropriate please contact one of the Moderators.

About Other Kilt Forums

There are a variety of kilt forums to be found on the internet. Many of the members and staff here belong to several different ones and enjoy the different perspectives they offer. There is a policy here on XMTS that we do not allow the promotion of competing sites by mention, links, or images. This is for a variety of reasons including:

Respect for our sponsors
Respect to the owner of this site
Respect to the staff that run this site
Respect for our policies regarding links to sites that are not family friendly

And most important

Respect for this Community

When all we signed up to join XMTS we had to agree to abide by the rules of this community. Every Community has rules, but more important than the letter of those rules is their spirit. Here on XMTS everything is out in the open for all to read. We members have to stand by what we write no matter who reads it or where. When people participate here we ask that they participate as true members of this wonderful online community. If you are here to promote another site, then you aren’t really being a true member of X Marks the Scot. There are people on the internet that join forums for the sole purpose to promote and advertise other places, steal content, recruit members, and just disrupt things.

There is a word for these people

They are called Trolls.

As moderators we do our best to protect the forum from them, but we are bound to treat all our members with courtesy and respect and apply the rules fairly, so this can sometimes be a challenge. It is also to be understood that no antagonism, hostility, or mean spiritedness towards other online kilt forums will be tolerated here.

Here on X Marks the Scot we say what we mean and mean what we say, we have rules and we follow them.

If you have a problem or question about XMTS then write to one of the Moderators. We will try our best to explain or resolve the issue. As has been noted above this is an open forum and we deal with issues openly.


Regarding the Off Topic Section

We realize that X Marks the Scot has grown and become a lot more than just about kilts and we have tried to address this with our new Athletics, Musician, and Dancer forums. The Off Topic forum is meant for fun or interesting items that do not relate to Kilts or other aspects of Celtic culture. As of late there have been a number of threads dedicated to pages and pages of “Forum Games”. Threads that have little to do with anything other than wasting time and bandwidth. The Off Topic Forum is meant to be a small diversion, not a major component of our site. The staff ask that people show restraint when posting there. If, as a member, you find that most of what you write is in the Off Topic forum maybe it is time to rethink why you are here on X Marks the Scot.

We would like to thank all the great people here. We are, first and foremost, members and we wouldn’t be here if this wasn’t such a great group of people.

Sincerely

Jamie, Bradley, Todd, Glen, Colin, Nelson, and David

[Colin]

I have cleaned out the other posts in this thread. As Panache mentioned all three of the items addressed in this announcement have been recent issues with the moderating staff here at Xmarks. This is a general announcement for everyone and is not directed at any one person or person(s) other than those that we have already discussed the matters with privately as they arose or have removed from the background as spammers. These are not new policies or rules, this was simply a reminder as the issues seem to be popping up more frequently as of late.

If you have any questions regarding this or want any kind of clarification, please feel free to PM myself or one of the other moderators. I would be happy to discuss it.