Boat Planet isn’t just a website. It’s a community. Part of that distinction is due to the manner in which our users interact with one another. In order for Boat Planet to be your best resource for all that floats, we need to outline exactly what’s permissible, what’s prohibited, and what to do if you’re unsure.
We share a common passion. Passionate people might disagree, but our community is built on a foundation that every Boat Planet user is to be treated with respect. It is with that simple principle we created the following guidelines.
Being a decent human includes not using curse words, inappropriate sexual language, or threats of violence. Likewise, there are no trolls allowed at Boat Planet and any post appearing trollish will trigger swift removal. We're all boaters and we wave at each other on the water without even knowing who the other person is. Let's make that behavior the standard of discourse on this website. Healthy debates are ok, but please be respectful. It’s not only a core tenant of our community guidelines, it’s also ensured by our terms of service.
We’re here to make it easy for boaters to find reputable service providers. This isn’t an opportunity to promote your lifestyle blog or to poach other businesses’ customers. While we encourage Pros to provide links to their Boat Planet profiles within comments, URLs that take users off the website will be evaluated on a case by case basis. If you own a marine business and want to reach our audience, the best thing to do is create a profile of your own. Like in any community, we encourage users to give more than they take. Additionally, if you’re a bot programmed to spam text on message boards, your posts will be removed and your account will be deleted.
We take user privacy security so seriously, that all users must agree to our privacy policy before they create a profile. In turn, we ask that you don’t post any sensitive personal information that isn’t yours. This includes photos featuring people that aren’t you or any content containing information that isn’t yours.
Apply to your Boat Planet content the same rules of writing essays in school—don’t try to pass off someone else’s work as your own. Give credit where credit is due and if you don’t have permission to use it, don’t use it.
The internet is a big place. If for some reason you want to talk about something other than our boating communities (though we can’t imagine why), we guarantee there is a place for that—just not on Boat Planet. A good rule of thumb to use when posting is if it has the word boat in it, it's probably okay. Beyond that, we advocate for using common sense. The community managers withhold the right to remove any off-topic posts without notice. Customer submitted reviews should be limited to the business they’re reviewing and users aren’t permitted to hijack the comment section on a project or blog post to discuss unrelated topics.
Our community managers are dedicated to eradicating any activity that violates these guidelines. Pros have the ability to flag comments on their business, but all Boat Planet users are encouraged to report any violations to the community managers.