Community Guidelines

Pad4Pad Community is an online community in which members can ask and answer questions or publish blog posts and comments on a wide range of topics about real estate, home swapping, home buying and home selling process. People can also create profiles and share facts, opinions and personal experiences to help others. Pad4Pad is not a publisher of content supplied by third parties and users of the Site. Accordingly, Pad4Pad has no more editorial control over such content than does a public library, bookstore, or newsstand. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including information providers and users, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not Pad4Pad. In many instances, the content available through this site represents the opinions and judgments of the respective information providers or users. Pad4Pad does not endorse, and is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the site by any third party. These guidelines are to help in making the community a safe and useful place for local real estate information. Your use of Pad4Pad Community is subject to these Community Guidelines and the Pad4Pad User Agreement.

What to do

• FILL OUT A COMPLETE Pad4Pad PROFILE
  Let the community know who you are (swapper, buyer, seller, agent or just looking) and what you are interested in. Upload a photo and link to your blog or other sites that you find interesting. A full and rich profile will lend more credibility to your questions and answers and it's just fun to do.
• SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE
  Sharing your knowledge, opinions and experience is a way to make positive contribution to the community and establish relationships with your peers or home buyers and sellers.
• BE CONSIDERATE
  The community is made up of many types of people, with different backgrounds, knowledge and beliefs; please be considerate of others and do not attack other community members. Be respectful at all times.
• USE THE CORRECT FORMAT
  In the Question and Answer section, any question should be posted in the form of a question; do not post answers unless you are attempting to answer a question or provide further clarification on your question. As this section is devoted to asking and answering questions, postings must be phrased in question and answer format or they may be deleted. In the Blogs section, please keep postings in the blog format. Because this is not a micro-blogging community, your blog posts should be complete articles (with a beginning, middle and an end). Remember that you have the power to remove or edit a blog post or comment at any time. Pad4Pad reserves the right to remove blog posts that don't follow this format.
• SHARE YOUR SOURCES
  The Web is a great resource for information, so when you use online sources, share where you found your information. We provided a place for links on the answer form and encourage you to use it.
• MODERATE YOUR CONTENT
  Please help us keep the content in the community on-topic and relevant. When asking, answering or browsing, if you see content that is off-topic, not relevant or just plain spam, please click on the ‘Flag’ link and tell us about it.
• BE CAUTIOUS
  Do not share your personal, private information such as social security number with any member. If you wish to engage in real life business relationship with any Pad4Pad member, we highly recommend that you do some research and meet this member in person before you take any action.
• CONTRIBUTE SAFELY
  Your answers and your blog posts in some cases are intended to provide advice and guidance to people who ask questions and not to force your opinion. Be considerate of other opinions and never present your answers or comments as a guaranteed successful course of action

What NOT to do

• YOU MAY NOT POST CONTENT OR LINKS ADVERTISING HOUSE SWAPS
  The Blog and Question/Answer section should not be used to advertise properties for sale or swap. We reserve the right to remove any such related content from the site.
• YOU MAY NOT POST CONTENT OR LINKS TO CONTENT:
  
  • To exploit, solicit or harm minors.
  • That are violent, racist, incendiary, or otherwise objectionable.
    
  • That are abusive, threatening, harassing, defamatory, libelous, fraudulent, invasive of another's privacy, or belligerent against any individual or groups of individuals for any reason.
    
  • That violate federal, state or local law, including but not limited to Federal (applicable to everyone and all jurisdictions), State or local Fair Housing Laws. Federal, State and local Fair Housing Laws prohibit any discrimination in the provision of housing based upon race, color, national origin, creed, religion, physical or mental handicap, ancestry, age, marital status and familial status. Posting of questions or answers that may be in violation of Fair Housing Laws is prohibited. This also includes any posting that victimizes, harasses, degrades or intimidates any individual or group of individuals on the basis of the above.
    
  • That contain profane, obscene, vulgar or sexually explicit language.
    
  • That glorify self-harm, suicide, anorexia, bulimia, or any other practice that is clearly unhealthy or harmful.
    
  • For commercial or advertising purposes, including classified ads.
    
  • To vent your frustrations, rant, make statements, or otherwise violate the question and answer format.
    
  • To post personal ads or your own or others' personal information.
    
  • That violate the Pad4Pad Community Guidelines or the Pad4Pad User Agreement in any manner.
    
  • That are copyrighted. Examples include a company logo.
    
  • In fields that aren't intended for that content. Example: Putting an address in a name field.
    
  • That are disparaging of any firm, person, company or brokerage business plan, brokerage concepts or pricing of services.
    
  • That discuss the pricing of brokerage services of any real estate brokerage firm.
    
  • That impersonate any business, person or entity.
    
  • That contain viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment or venue.
    
  • That include or link to photos or videos that contain nudity, violence or any other images that are not suitable for a real estate community.
    
• DON'T SPAM OR USE PAD4PAD FOR COMMERCIAL POSTINGS OR ACTIVITY
  The Pad4Pad Community purpose is to share knowledge and exchange opinions. You may not post URLs or content for the sole purpose of soliciting business or directing commercial activity to a non-Pad4Pad site. The URLs or content must be relevant and pertain to the question at hand.
• DO NOT VIOLATE THE LAW
  The Pad4Pad Community is a place where consumers and real estate professionals can exchange information. Many consumers are not aware of Fair Housing regulations that Real Estate professionals must adhere to. Therefore it is upon the Real Estate professionals using Pad4Pad to ensure that they do not violate any Fair Housing rules or regulations. Pad4Pad is not responsible for any law violations, however in case such incident comes to our attention we maintain the right to remove such content at any time.
• NO REPEAT POSTINGS
  You may not post similar or identical postings. This also applies if you are including the same commercial URL on all of your postings for the purpose of directing commercial activity to a non-Pad4Pad site. Multiple identical or similar postings, even if legitimate, may be considered spam.
• USE THE REPORTING TOOL CAREFULLY
  You may not use the ‘Flag’ link for purposes other than reporting a violation of the Pad4Pad Community Guidelines or the Pad4Pad User Agreement. You may not report abuse for posts that you personally disagree with, or by people you personally dislike.
• NO HACKING
  You may not promote or redirect traffic to third-party sites, or post links to sites that force the download of a virus, programs, or other content, in any way interfere or disrupt the Pad4Pad Coummunity service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations connected to Pad4Pad.
• NO TRADING OF PRIVATE INFORMATION
  You may not upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content or initiate communications which include information that you do not have the right to disclose or make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as insider information, passwords or proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements).
• DON’T COMMIT FRAUD
  You may not falsely state, impersonate, or otherwise misrepresent your identity, including but not limited to the use of a pseudonym, or misrepresenting your current or previous positions and qualifications, or your affiliations with a person or entity, past or present.
• RESPECT COPYRIGHT
  You may not post content that that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material. Pad4Pad does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any Pad4Pad Community content.
• RESPECT THE PAD4PAD COMMUNITY
  Every member is entitled to share his or her opinion on the Pad4Pad Community. Do not insult other members because you strongly disagree with their views or for any other reason. Do not engage in hateful discussions, venting or ranting or use inappropriate language. We respect everyone's right to free speech but do not tolerate stalking, threats, harassment or inappropriate self promotion.
• Response to Violations of the Pad4Pad Community Guidelines
  Pad4Pad does not edit the content of profiles, questions, answers, or comments in Pad4Pad Community. However, we reserve the right to remove content that we determine, at our sole discretion, to be inappropriate and/or in violation of the Pad4Pad Community Guidelines or the Pad4Pad User Agreement. Depending on the level of offense, you may risk deactivation of your Pad4Pad account and consequently everything associated with it. If you are unsure whether your content is appropriate or consistent with these policies, please do not post it in Pad4Pad Community.

We reserve the right to modify these guidelines at any time without notification.