One necessary evil of any organized community is the forum rules.
First off - if you are a new member we would like to say congratulations!! You have made a great start!! We are very pleased to have you here and hope that you enjoy being here as much as we all do. We would like to ask each member to read through the forum rules before posting. We take them very seriously here and ask that each member respects them. We would like to keep this site a fun and clean place where we can all come together and discuss our passions of mushrooms and the great outdoors without having the worry of being flamed upon or offended in any way.
Thank you for reviewing the forum rules. Now go and have fun!!

While debating and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts.

Although the administrators and moderators of these forums will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off these forums, it is impossible for us to review all messages.

We at Northerncountrymorels.com cannot be held responsible for any content in these forums but will do our best to remove such offensive content as soon as possible.

This is a family oriented site and its main focus is Morel Mushrooms And Mushroom Hunting. The talk or mention of Hallucinogenic (Magic) Mushrooms is prohibited.

There is a required minimum post limit of 10 posts in order to gain access to certain areas. As you can see we are not here to stop you from getting ito any of threse placed but we hope that we will let all the seriouse enthusiats in. So basically it isn't as bad as it sounds. All you need to do is to post 10 times in any of the other 16 forums and bada-boom-bada-bing! You have total viewing and posting access to all forums. Note: This does not mean to post meaningless and one or two worded posts just to get your 10 posts. I would just like to ask every new member here to contribute to the board in return for such useful information provided by this site and its members. The reason for these rules is simple. We at Northerncountrymorels.com have created this site to help out the serious Morel Hunter. To provide a gathering place to share and to discuss our passions for the hunt. Whether it is mushroom hunting or wild game hunting or fishing. This website is geared towards the outdoors person in mind. People come here to gain knowledge and look for information. In order to provide such information and to make this an enjoyable place to come too, a Community for your enjoyment and pleasure, we encourage your participation by posting. Whether it is just a simple question or to share something. These posts are all the necessary tools for a great community. If you think about it, if everyone just visited the board and never posted or just posted meaningless replies and such we would not have the wealth of information that we have today.

Posting nonsense and meaningless one or two worded posts just to get your 10 posts is not tolerated. We would just like to ask every new member here to contribute to the board in return for such useful information and support of a totally free service provided by this site and its members.

Whether it is Mushroom Hunting, Wild Game Hunting or Fishing, we all know how secretive and sensitive these areas are to Hunters. Here at NCM we are no different. While it may not be a special spot to you, it may be someone else"s honey hole. Please refrain from posting specific spots anywhere on this site. County and State would be plenty enough information and in many cases County is not even needed. We are all here to help each other become better hunters and to give an ideal if they are up in your area. We are however, not here to just hand out hunting spots. That is up to you. After all looking is the fun part and makes it so much more rewarding when you discover your own spots.

*Do not ask about current finds in your area.

*Posts like these have been cluttering the forums for years. If you are curious about if mushrooms are growing in your area, get out there and look! You can get a real good idea if mushrooms in your area are fruiting. We are here to help out and provide helpful material to get you on the path but we are not here to do your homework.

*Do not give specific areas where mushrooms have been found. Refrain from naming street names, Business names, government buildings, shopping centers, pasturelands, when specific directions are given to a location, or any place with an address. Naming a County and or State is fine and will provide enough info for any hunter to get an idea if mushrooms are being found in their area.

*Widely known areas such as Mesick, Boyne and Manistee Forest are ok as long as specifics are left out.

*Do not ask if the weather is right for finding mushrooms or when a good time would be to head out. There are hundreds of these types of posts all over this board even after we pruned well over a couple hundred this past summer. A general rule to follow is if the weather temperatures have been right and if it has rained in the past 1-10 days then you should be out there looking. The answers to all these questions are right here on the board.

Contacting The Administrators or Moderators asking questions about Morels is strictly not allowed. All questions are to be asked in the forums. After all this is what the Forums are for. I can just about gaurantee you that the question you seek has already been answered probably more than once. Responding to a private message only benifits one person while posting in the forums will help many. The above also applies to everything else that is already discussed on the board.

The staff is busy enough with keeping the forums running smooth that we do not have the time to answer hundreds of private messages. Besides, you will get a much faster response by posting in the forums. There are hundreds of active members here on the boardto assist you.

Members contacting staff members privately as described above will be warned as necessary.

Each member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed.

We reserve the right to remove offensive posts without notice.

You cannot post advertisements or notices for contests, except for moderator approval and in the designated forum section.

Members are asked to not act as "back seat moderators". If you notice an issue that may be against forum policy, please use the Report Post Feature located on every post, and a Staff member will address the issue. Members who consistently "act" as moderators may be warned.

Members should remember this is a family oriented site and this board is aimed at a general audience. We also do not allow posts that are sexual in nature or violate Northerncountrymorels.com community standards. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.

Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc. or re-printing material without permission will receive a warning and their post will be removed.

The Staff team shall be the sole arbitrator of what does and what does not violate community standards. This rule shall be upheld strictly. Northerncountrymorels.com is a family oriented site.

The moderating team reserve the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to Staff Members and not users.

Advertising, spamming and trolling is not allowed. This includes using the forum email and Private message system to spam other members.

While these rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused in any way.

If you see a post with any offensive content, please immediately report the post so that a staff member can remove it. Some of our viewer ship comes from Children, so please keep this in mind while posting.

Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. {See spamming specific rules}

No double posting. This means not to post twice in a row in the same thread with-in a matter of minutes. If you must add something within a few minutes of your post, please use the "Edit" feature to edit your post rather than posting a second reply right after it. This tends to clutter the forums and disrupts the flow of the thread. (Give the post at least 6 hours before you post again if there is no response to your post.

Do not post any messages anywhere on this site that are primarily for the promotion or advertising of any website, email address, business, MLM (Multi Level Marketing or pyramid schemes), or any other entities or services from which the member will receive any financial or pecuniary gain.

Promoting one's own site or forum is not allowed on Northern Country Morels, this includes self promotion, advertising and advertising related posts, notices for contests and show off posts and topics. Users may not promote their site through their posts, Such posts are considered spam and may lead to a warning.

Any external URL contained in automatically generated sections of posts such as signatures, and avatars is prohibited. A subtle link in your signature is ok

Posting links to external websites is permitted so long as it is beneficial to our members.

Exceptions to this rule are Admin or Moderator Staff approval.

Obscene/ Vulgar/ Racist/ Sexually Explicit/ Graven/ Offensive or Illegal Posts/ Links and Images are prohibited on Northerncountrymorels.com Forums.

Do not use any artifice or method to bypass or avoid the profanity filter.

Usernames that imitate a Team Member i.e. Moderator ect will result in immediate account removal. The same goes for any offensive username that violates any of the forum rules.

Do not flame other members or groups of members. Flaming includes, but is not limited to: Ridiculing/ insulting/ or demeaning another member or group of members.

Don't bait other members. (Baiting) is an attempt to anger another member.

Do not harass or abuse other members in threads, private messages, signatures, avatars or profiles.

Do not violate the privacy of other members by posting identifiable personal information about them; e.g. full names/ addresses/ email addresses or telephone numbers.

Do not repost the contents of private messages or emails without the prior permission of the sender.

Do not post your own personally identifiable information such as address, email address, or telephone number in the open forums.

Please keep signature images relatively small, so that forum pages may load quickly
Signature images are limited to a combined size of 12kb and no larger than 468px wide and 60px high..

Please keep text sizes between 9 and 12 (small and normal).

Text and images in signatures is subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, warez, emoticons, etc.

Subtle self-promotion is allowed in your signature such as a link to your web site as long as it doesn't violate any of the content rules..

Users abusing these rules will be warned and or have Signature Privileges removed at Northern Country Morels Staff discretion.

Users are permitted to utilize a gallery avatar or link to one of their own, or upload an avatar.

User defined avatars may contain mild animation. i.e. Not flashy.

Avatars must NOT contain an image that attempts to portray the user as having an official status here (e.g. mimicking ranks or copying avatars of Team members)

Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, and so forth. Avatars may NOT contain any of the following: Obscene, Racist, Sexually Explicit, Graven / Graphic, Offensive, or Illegal. i.e. Not family friendly.

Users abusing any Avatar rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges.

If a member breaches a Forum Rule, the member will be issued an Alert via a PM by a Moderator or Administrator. This is not counted towards the official warning total of a member.

If the member continues to breach the SAME Forum Rule, an official Warning will be issued by an Admin or Moderator.

Arguing with Staff Members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place..

Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact the relevant staff member.

If warned by a moderator you should contact the Moderator team leader or Administrator. If they feel you were treated badly they will review the Situation and remove a warning.

If you feel the Moderator Team Leader decision is also unfair you may contact the Administrators: primarily. The Administrator's decision is final.

If there is need to promote peace and enforce a short time-out period, a 30-minute to 24-hour suspension may be mandated at staff discretion. This is not counted towards the official warning total of a member.

If there is obvious trolling/ posting of abuse or offensive images/ offensive username/ avatar/ email address. An immediate emergency ban is mandated. This can be performed by any Moderator or Team Member.

Official warnings can be given out by any Northern Country Morels team member. The Team member automatically sends a PM to the member to let the member know and a post is automatically made in the Staff Forums so that other staff can discuss the decision.

Forum-specific suspensions for short period may be issued against a member at the Team Members discretion if there is a need to promote peace in a certain forum or topic.
This is not counted towards the official warning total of a member. Any breach of this may lead to unofficial or official warnings.

Forum Suspentions are not counted towards the official warning total of a member. Any breach of this may lead to unofficial or official warnings

Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent.
Circumvention includes re registering under a non banned username/ changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban/ registering a new email account to evade an email ban. Circumvention also includes posting as an anonymous user.

Permanently banned members may be unbanned after 3 months. -Admins only-

Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While Northerncountrymorels.com may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurrence. While debating and discussion is fine: we will not tolerate rudeness/ insulting posts/ personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts.

Warnings will expire after 90 days.