The photo family

Members' Information Page

Thanks for joining the Group and we hope you will enjoy being a member. This page contains information on how to get the best out of being a Group Member and gives details of how the MSN Group works (it can be a bit temperamental at times).

On joining the Group it would be nice if you could make yourself known to the rest of the members by posting a message on the Message Board.
Make sure that you have made the right choices in the way you receive emails about postings on the Group. If you find you are receiving every message into your inbox and this irritates you then you need to change your email settings (top right) to receive a Daily Digest of activity or something more manageable like this - there are a couple of options.
In order to use some facilities on this MSN Group you will need to allow a module to download which goes into your Temp files. Firstly, a File upload module to allow you to post pictures and share files and, secondly, a chat module to allow you to chat in our Chatroom. Whenever you clear out your temporary internet files these modules have to be allowed to download again before you can start uploading pictures or using chat.
Post up a Members Profile for yourself so that the other members can get to know you. Only basic details are required but it gives people an idea of what other things you may have in common.
Post up a picture of yourself so we can all get to know each other by sight too.
Members may post up an album for themselves and add as many pictures as they like in the album. Also, members may contribute to the many Group albums, e.g., Stained Glass Windows, Colours of Nature, My Home Town, Pubs and many more. These Group albums should be obvious by their very nature but, if you aren't sure, just ask.
Make sure you actively post messages replying to other people's requests for advice if you can help them out and, alternatively, If you need any advice or information then post a message!
There are currently seven message boards on the Group, General, Ideas, Camera Reviews, For Sale/Wanted, Have a Question? Tell a Joke and Games. Choose the correct board to post your messages. This text will be amended if any more Message Boards are added.
The "What's New" Page displays the last 4 new messages, the last 4 New Members and the last 4 new pictures. Don't forget to check your email updates of what other messages, pictures etc., have been posted or else you may miss some of them. You can also check the Message Boards yourself and work back and check if there are any messages that you would like to reply to that you haven't seen. If 20 messages are posted in a day you could easily miss 16 of them if you don't check back.
All new members that join immediately have "Member" status. Members will find that they can only post on certain pages and other pages may be restricted. New members are kept as "Members" but may, in due course, be invited to become Assistant Managers to help out on the Group if their activity merits such a promotion.
There aren't many rules on this Group but we should be grateful if you would adhere to a few basic matters. Please do not treat any other member in a disrespectful manner or harass any other member. Any member of the Group that is found (after investigation) to have done so will be liable to be banned instantly.
Please remember that this Group is bound by MSN Guidelines and, whilst you may add all sorts of content to this Group, anything that is considered unsuitable, in that it might be offensive, pornographic, may infringe Copyright or may upset other Group members, will be removed by a Manager immediately. Postings of this nature may also result in the instant ban of the member concerned.
The Management do reserve the right to ban any Member without due and prior notice should circumstances necessitate this.
You may link to any other relevant website on this Group provided it falls within the guidelines of the point made above.
In order to keep the Group active we would ask that all members please try to post at least one item per month.
You may use the email system within the Group to contact other Group Members but, when doing so, please remember to always be polite. The email addresses are put there in trust and, therefore, must not be given out to non-members without the express permission of the email addressee.
Competitions are held monthly and we would ask that if you enter any of the competitions could you please vote as well. From January 2005, if you enter pictures in any of the competition and any of them are voted in the top three in any of the competitions, but you have not bothered to vote, your picture will be disqualified. If you are going to be away you can always email a proxy vote to a Manager or Assistant Manager on the pictures that have been posted so far.
To enter the monthly themed competition you must post up one picture that is relevant to the theme chosen that month and that picture must be your own work. Any member that enters more than the one picture allowed by these rules will be notified by email and asked to decide which one they wish to remain in the competition. They must then remove the excess pictures before the competition closes or else the Managers will withdraw them all from the competition when seven days after the email was sent has elapsed. Images that have been manipulated must not be entered in the monthly themed competition.
Any picture that was not taken by you must not be posted up and, if a member does post up a picture that is not their work, this will be construed as cheating and will result in an instant ban. Obviously, any picture that is pornographic or offensive or breaches Copyright cannot be entered either and such a posting will result in an instant ban for the member concerned.
Each member is allowed to vote for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd pictures of their choice on the voting page provided. Members must not vote for their own picture.
The winner will be the member with the most votes cast and will be allowed to choose the theme for the same month in next year's competition.
The top three pictures will remain available for the month after the declaration of the results.
In the event of a tie for first place, the Manager and Assistant Managers will confer and decide who is the overall winner but will probably decide to exhibit the pictures for half the month for each winner.
If a member has any complaint whatsoever about a picture entered in any of the monthly competitions then they should address their complaint BEFORE the voting commences or, if possible, as soon as the picture is posted up. If a picture is not complained about prior to voting and that picture does get the most votes then, at the discretion of the Management and dependant upon the nature of the complaint, it may be deemed to have won that competition. Obviously, if it does come to light that the photograph posted is wholly not the work of the member who posted it then it may still result in a ban or other action against such member by the Management. This decision will be solely a Management one. It would also be appreciated if any members who have a complaint could please email the Management about such matters rather than posting a message on the board as, this way, the complaint can be dealt with in a fair manner and will not put across a bad impression on the Message Boards to any potential members who might be viewing the postings on our Group.
There are now more competitions and a separate page will be posted up to deal with the rules for each of these competitions and when the competitions start, finish and when voting starts etc.
If you have any problems whatsoever using the Group then please contact the Managers and we will do whatever we can to help you resolve any problems. You can contact us at the following email addresses Gordi, Suzi, Nathy or Trev, or you can post a message on the General Message Board for us. If we can do anything to help then we will.
We hope you will agree that the Group doesn't have many rules or regulations and the ones that are in place are just basic matters. The idea of the Group is to have as much fun as possible and to chat, post messages, share information etc.

We look forward to reading your postings and chatting with you soon.

Gordi, Suzi, Nathy & Trev

Updated 9th November 2006