TERMS OF USAGE, LEGAL DISCLAIMERS AND SITE RULES

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Ghost hunting is a potentially hazardous activity due to numerous environmental variables. Outdoor ghost hunts typically take place in dark areas such as cemeteries and old buildings which may contain unseen hazards that pose risk of bodily harm, damage to property or even death. We do not recommend anyone venture into an unfamiliar area without first surveying potential hazards during daylight hours.

Neither Ghost Hounds members, site subscribers, site moderators or founder and director Patrick Burns assume any liability for any bodily injury, loss of life, or loss / damage to personal or private property resulting either directly or indirectly from information found on this site.
Furthermore, we assume no liability for the actions of people that choose to trespass on private property. We strongly oppose anyone being on private property without the expressed consent of the property owner or its legally appointed agent.

Your use of this site constitutes you agree to the above and assume full legal and moral responsibility for your own actions.

BASIC SITE RULES

Site users affirm that they are at least 18 years of age or have the expressed consent of a parent or legal guardian to participate on this site
Site users are limited to one and ONLY ONE username and profile on this site. ;;All and I mean *ALL* activity on this site is logged and monitored. If the site moderators observe anyone logging in from more than one account per internet connection, the offending accounts will be suspended until the issue is resolved with the site administrator
Private messages are "private" in that they are not publicly viewable by general users of the site. HOWEVER they are the property of Ghost Hounds and are subject to review by site administrators. If its something you truely would like to keep private, you should not discuss it on this site.
Advertisements for ANY commercial product or service are prohibited without express written consent of the site administrators
As this is a ghost hunting network, please TRY to keep your posts and replies about ghosts and paranormail investigations - not UFO's, Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster, ESP etc... Its understood that discussions will stray to mention these and other paranormal topics from time to time, but try not to dwell on them too long. :)
Discussions about the occult (Magick, wicca, ouija, tarot, dousing, etc...) are espressly forbidden here and WILL be deleted.
Do not post URLs or advertisements for any commercial site or endeavour here. If you wish to advertise on our site, contact the site admin for pricing info.
Internet addresses (I.P.'s) are logged. Don?t think you are ?anonymous? here by any means ? even with that shiny new Yahoo! or MSN Hotmail profile you just set up! =).
Personal attacks and name calling are not tolerated, will be deleted and repeated violations will result in a ban from this site.
Flirting and sexual innuendos or references do not have any place in our discussions and are prohibited from the forums, shoutbox and chat channel. Save them for private discussions please.
Discussions of locations posted "no trespassing" are expressly forbidden on this site in all areas - public forums, private messages, shoutbox, chat, etc. Your account will be terminated, your IP address blocked.
DO NOT post inflammatory remarks or 'gossip' about ANYONE or any GROUPS on this site, - it will get your account banned. Again, IPs are logged. We will cooperate fully with anyone who is the target of possible libel / slander; turning over all pertinent server logs to their legal counsel and law enforcement. This same rule of conduct applies to investigations, meetings and other functions - do not verbalize inflammatory remarks about other persons affiliated with this group; either in person or private.
Violations of the above are grounds for immediate termination of a users account on the web site, and banning said user from participating in any Ghost Hounds related functions.
You may place a link to your groups website in your signature settings for our site, however we require you to add a PROMINENT link (not just one of many links on a LINKS page) back to Ghost Hounds - preferably a banner link someplace on your website...

You may copy the above banner - link it to http://ghosthounds.com/ please. :)

ORGANIZATION OF INVESTIGATION TEAMS

We encourage subscribers to our site to organize their own investigation teams. However we request that you refrain from posting details - specifically exact dates and times of investigations - in our forums. This restriction is merely safety precaution. Since these forums are publicly viewable by anyone, we have no control over who might show up. If you wish to organize such an outing, please post only a general description of the location and time you have in mind, and ask interested parties to private message or email you for the specifics. For example, the following posting is acceptable-

"Hey everyone, we are considering doing an investigation at (X LOCATION) sometime next week. Anyone interested, please private message me on the site, or email me."

The following is an unacceptable invitation in our public forums?

"We are going to check out (X LOCATION) this Friday night. ;; Anyone interested, please meet us at (Y LOCATION) at 9:00 PM"

Please be advised that these "cattle call" type invites posted on our site with date and time details prior to the event are subject to have specifics removed from said posts by site moderators.

On a purely advisory note, most of us have discovered that small groups of 6 or fewer participants work best on investigations. ;; More than a half dozen or so people and it becomes all but impossible to do any type of serious research. ;; In larger groups, it gets difficult to keep tabs on who is talking while others are attempting to record EVP, who has wandered off from the rest of the group, etc? ;; Not to mention numerous camera flashes going off at the same time can be extremely distracting. If you are serious about doing serious research, "less is more" ;; Always.

We also advise you to only work with individuals whom you have personally had the opportunity to meet with in a non-investigative setting FIRST. ;;Our monthly meetings are a great opportunity to meet people face-to-face in a relaxed environment where you can network with others.

Since Ghost Hounds assumes no liability for the actions of others, it is prudent to know your fellow investigators first!

POLICY REGARDING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ON THIS SITE

By uploading footage and posting messages to this website, you affirm that you are the rightful copyright owner of said intellectual property (photos, audio and/or video recordings, message board posts, etc), here forth referred to as ?footage?, and that you are at least 18 years of age, or the legal guardian or parent of footage author.
Furthermore?

You grant Ghost Hounds and its director Patrick Burns a non-exclusive, open-ended license to feature your footage on this website and in future publications, productions and broadcasts. You also grant us permission to share said footage with 3'rd parties for possible use in publications, television and / or radio broadcasts.
It is important that you identify yourself as the author at the time you upload footage to receive credit for your work on this site and our future original productions and publications. In the case of 3'rd party publications and broadcasts, every attempt will be made to request that authors be identified by name, but this is ultimately the decision of the producers and is beyond our control.
While authors retain copyrights to all footage, no monetary compensation is either expressed or implied for the right to feature your footage.
As we have no control over who views or downloads footage from this site, neither Ghost Hounds subscribers, moderators nor director Patrick Burns will be held liable for infringement resulting from unauthorized use of footage shared on this site. Therefore it is highly recommended that you brand all uploaded footage with some type of 'watermark' or other means to identify yourself as the copyright owner.

Proceeding with upload procedures constitutes agreement to the above rules and conditions.

Our policy on 'harvesting' of subscriber names / email addresses / IM profiles, etc...

SPAMMERS are the plague of the Internet, and we will not tolerate "harvesting" of our subscriber lists for any use - that includes sending out emails or posts inviting people to join your group. If you wish to announce your group on the Ghost Hounds message boards you must seek permission from a moderator - no exceptions. Our forums have been the target of such clandestine membership recruitment campaigns in the past. Not only is this practice tacky, but it underscores a general lack of creativity and ambition on ones part to do the hard work and spend the time building their own group on its own merits. We are not rolling into your forums trying to steal your members, are we now? Then don't do it here! Yes - building a community online is a time-consuming, labor intensive task. We have worked very hard over the last several years to get Ghost Hounds the credibility and respect it deserves. I suggest you do the same if you truly care about your group and its cause.

Please note that these rules are general guidelines and not the final word. They are subject to change at any time for any reason. We expect you to use common sense when participating on our site and using the information contained herein. ;; Activity that at the sole discression of the moderators violate any of these rules may result in suspention of the offending accounts. Continued violations of these rules will get the offending account terminated and banned.