Small Animal Community / Forum Rules and Announcements / Announcements

Join in on our Grand Opening Celebration

critters-moderator — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:24:29 GMT

The editors of Critters USA and Ferrets magazine are proud to announce the launch of SmallAnimalChannel.com and FerretsMagazine.com. The websites offer "critter" enthusiasts attractive and captivating sources for expert ferret and small animal information.

The SmallAnimalChannel and FerretsMagazine.com Grand Opening celebration runs from April 15 to 21, 2008, and offers thousands of dollars in prizes for users to win.

The Grand Opening celebration is really exciting and packed full of great prizes for your small pets. Users will have a chance to win a 48" Pet Hutch from Doctors Foster and Smith, and critter specific prize packs from other SmallAnimalChannel Grand Opening sponsors Kaytee and SuperPet, 8 in 1, FerretDepot.com, ZuPreem, SlippyPad and SlippyMat, Ferretonin, Green Pets and Mazuri. There are many more prizes to be won.

Come back every day for another chance to win!

Join in and win prizes during our Grand Opening Celebration, click here.

- Critters Moderator

Ferrets Magazine is moving next week!

critters-moderator — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:22:46 GMT

Hello Ferret Community Member:

I wanted to let you know that we will be moving to the new Ferrets Magazine website and SmallAnimalChannel website on Monday and Tuesday (March 31st and April 1st).

So you if you try to visit, the boards will either be down or it will have a completely different look.

Your usernames and logins will still work on the Critters Forum (the new message board). There will also be added topic lists for other small animal species (including rabbits, chinchillas, guinea pigs and hamsters.)

You will also be able use your login information to create a profile for your ferrets in SmallAnimalChannel.com's Club Critter.

Once the message board has been moved over, you'll have to update your favorites links to the Ferrets Magazine website and the new message board.

If you have any questions please send me an email at smanimaleditor@bowtieinc.com.

We hope that you will enjoy the new look and fun features on www.FerretsMagazine.com and www.SmallAnimalChannel.com.

Critters Moderator

Ferrets Magazine is Going Online!

critters-moderator — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:15:03 GMT

The March/April 2008 issue of Ferrets will soon reach subscribers. It is the final print issue of Ferrets. We're transitioning the magazine to online beginning in April when we launch www.SmallAnimalChannel.com. The new Ferrets magazine will be located at www.FerretsMagazine.com, and it will be free. We're still going to be an information resource about ferrets, only in a different format.

Our plan is to offer new articles and columns every month, weekly news updates, polls, contests and more. It will be more interactive and readers will get more frequent updates than with our bimonthly print issue -- and we'll be saving trees by going digital.

Subscribers will soon receive a letter/postcard from our Consumer Marketing Department that will detail what choices they have concerning the balance of their subscription.

Our annual ferret magazine, Ferrets USA, will continue to be printed and new issues are available in stores every November.

Please note that the current look at SmallAnimalChannel.com and FerretsMagazine.com will all change in April. For an idea of how it will look, please visit our other BowTie websites: www.DogChannel.com, www.CatChannel.com, www.ReptileChannel.com, www.BirdChannel.com, www.HorseChannel.com.

- Critters Moderator

Private Messages are back

critters-moderator — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:20:16 GMT

The Private Message feature on the message board has been enabled.

Please read over the rules for PM's (which can be found in the Message Board Rules located on the top navigational bar)

9. Abusing private messaging and message board
The message and private messaging system are for you to exchange advice, learn and have fun. Using the private messaging system and message board as a means of mass communication for solicitation is strictly prohibited. Report abuse to the Moderator by forwarding the private communication. We must have proof to stop future abuse.

This entails using the message board and private messaging system to recruit people for a community or cause. Deliberately using the board for this purpose calls for a warning. If this offense is repeated after being warned, the member will be banned.

Please send me a PM if you have any questions about the PM functionality.

- Critters Moderator

DO NOT POST YOUR SIG IN YOUR MESSAGE TO BYPASS THE RULE!

Suprafa — Wed, 24 May 2006 15:24:14 GMT

Bypassing the signature rule by posting your old signature in your actuall messages is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

THE SIG RULE'S GOAL IS TO REMOVE HUGE IMAGES AND HUGE AMOUNTS OF TEXT TO MAKE PEOPLE ON SLOWER CONNECTIONS HAVE AN EASIER TIME WITH LOADING, AS WELL AS FOR COMMON COURTESY - NOBODY WANTS TO HAVE TO KEEP SCROLLING PAST TONS OF IMAGES AND TEXT. IT IS PLAIN RUDE.

From now on, if you post your signature in your message to bypass the 500x200 sig rule, we will warn you once, then ban you.

Also, PLEASE DO NOT PUT BACK YOUR SIG THE WAY IT WAS IF IT CHANGES - WE EDITED IT BECAUSE IT WAS TOO BIG.

Also, personal photos bigger than 320x240 will be removed as well.

Guidelines of Participation

Suprafa — Wed, 24 May 2006 15:21:32 GMT

Welcome to Our Community!

If you’re looking for the best spot on the internet to talk about pets, you’ve come to the right place! The Animal Network offers a fun, safe and supportive environment where pet-lovers can connect, make friends, share stories and exchange advice.

A core value of the Animal Network community is that everyone is welcome. We encourage you to further this goal by jumping in to help others get involved through conversation and encouragement.

Another core value of the Animal Network community is to make the world a better place for animals, one member at a time. How can we do that? By realizing it is courageous to ask for help. With every question asked and every member who responds with a spirit of kindness and compassion, there is one more pet in the world that will benefit from the advice shared.

When participating in our community, there are a few simple rules we ask each member to follow:

1. Communicate in a friendly and respectful manner.
It’s ok to share your opinions and to disagree, we simply ask that you do so without attacking another member in the process.

If you feel you have been personally attacked in our community, don’t respond with an attack of your own. Instead, email the Flock Moderator to alert her to the problem.

2. Keep it clean.
Profanity and obscenities will not be tolerated. This includes masked profanity where letters are substituted with special characters.

3. Don’t instigate arguments.
Content intended to inflame or disrupt the community is not allowed. This includes harassment of fellow members, links to inappropriate content, racial, ethnic, religious, or other slurs as well as any name-calling.

4. No solicitations.
No unsolicited or unauthorized advertising. This includes promotion of items for personal financial gain, as well as promotion of an item or issue for the purpose of mass communication. Further, mass posting or ‘spamming’ the message boards is not allowed.

5. Don’t share personally identifiable information.
To protect your privacy and to ensure your online safety, we ask that you do not post personally identifiable information. This includes phone numbers, address, instant messaging screen names (AOL, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, etc) or web address leading to such information. Further, we ask that you do not share someone else’s personally identifiable information.

6. Don’t post copyrighted material.
We ask that you do not post any copyrighted or trademarked material unless you have the express written consent of the owner to do so. The Animal Network is not responsible for any posts that infringe on copyright laws. If a copyright has been broken, you may be held legally responsible.

7. Respect our Community Team
The Animal Network community team includes employees and volunteers who do their best to maintain the integrity and standards of our community areas. Should a problem arise on a message board, we ask that you assist the community team by paying attention to their posts and following any directions they may provide.

These rules are here for your protection. They ensure we maintain a fun, safe and supportive environment where members can talk about the animals they adore. Members who continually break these rules are subject to account suspension and are no longer eligible for participation in our community.

Now that you know the rules, we invite you to join in our community and look forward to your participation. Welcome!

Thank you - AnimalNetwork.com Forum Administrator

New Signature Rule

Suprafa — Wed, 24 May 2006 15:15:15 GMT

Signatures are now being moderated. Your signature must now comply with these rules:
1. Your signature is not to exceed 500pixels by 200pixels. If you don't know what the heck that means...

If all the contents of your signature do not fit into that red box space, your sig is too big. The lone exception is TEXT. Text may go further right than the edge of the box because it wraps naturally. However, ALL IMAGES MUST FIT IN THIS AREA. You may have as many images in this area, but they can't exceed the boundaries, and no one image can exceed any boundary.

2. Your total signature images must be less than 100K in size. If you have no clue what that means, try reading this. You can always right click your image and choose "Properties" to see what your file size is. This means you may have to start gettin rid of animated images, as they are big in file size.

3. Posting personal information in your signature is not allowed. This is your age, IM name, e-mail, full name, your location/address and your phone number. Posting anyone else's personal information in your signature is also not allowed.

4. Linking to other sites is allowed so long as the site is not an offensive, illegal, or inappropriate site. Linking to auctions, sales pages or online shops is forbidden.

Failure to comply with these rules will result in the editing of your signature by the staff. These rules will begin being enforced MAY 1st, 2006. Starting then, we will edit sigs violating the rules.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Underage Users

Suprafa — Wed, 24 May 2006 15:14:09 GMT

If you signed up before last week, you probably have not seen the COPPA notification on this message board unless you saw it below all of the normal forums.
As of today, registration requires you to select your age to verify you are not under the age limit. Those who wish to register who are underage must submit a COPPA request, which is now in the registration area when you sign up.

If you signed up and are found to be underage, you will have your ACCOUNT AND IP ADDRESS IMMEDIATELY BANNED until you can provide a COPPA form. This is not to be mean, this is the law and our policy.

Thank you for your understanding.

You may find the form here.