Forum Rules

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MEMBER GUIDELINES
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HCK has been designed to be used on an adult, but polite platform. We realize this platform covers a broad spectrum of people and personalities and we want to accommodate all of them within reasonable social limits. To that end, we ask that you take the time, before using the site, to read and consider the following guidelines.

Posting Guidelines:

Please ask yourself these questions before posting:

• Is your post critical of others and argumentative, or does it offer constructive criticism and an alternative method?
  
• Is your post more suited for just your close friends, or would it be acceptable at a large dining table with friends, casual acquaintances and within earshot of others?
  
• Does your post offer value to the current topic and/or thread, other members & guests, or is it redundant and/or self serving?

Please refrain from posting political, religious and/or hate related content. Posts of this nature will be immediately removed by our moderators. Continuous abuse of this policy will be grounds for permanently banning the offending member.

General Guidelines:

• Spam Policy: Please be advised that HCK has a ZERO tolerance spam policy. Any member posts, emails and/or pm's considered by the staff to be solely for the purpose of promoting outside products, services and/or websites without the express permission of the Administrator, shall be considered spam. Posts of this type will be immediately deleted, and the offending member warned. Continued abuse of this policy shall result in the member being permanently banned from HCK.
  
• Personal Chat Policy: HCK was specifically created to be a cooking discussion forum. We respectfully request that our members remain on topic and not use the forum as a personal chat site. While we do not want to discourage members from interacting with each other, we feel strongly that topic guidelines are important so the forum retains it's primary focus. HCK has specific off topic area's where idle chat is allowed and encouraged. These in addition to our Private Messaging Service and Email Service give members many options to interact in public or private chat sessions.
  
• Language Policy: While this site was created to be a forum for adults, HCK does have a language filter. We are by no means prudes, nor do we want to impose overly strict restrictions on our members regarding adult language. We also realize that adult language is useful in some situations and part of almost everyone's day to day vocabulary. All we ask on this subject is that our members use some restraint when posting on the site...And not use offensive language to berate, intimidate and/or harass other members. However, please be advised that there ARE certain words that will be filtered. Examples include the f--- word and any combination thereof. Additionally, some words used to describe human body parts will be disabled. We will try and be as fair as possible regarding this policy while maintaining an enjoyable overall experience for all our members.
  
• Photo Upload Policy: Please keep your photos in good taste. HCK will immediately delete photos of an explicit or offensive nature. These include photos that have nudity, sexual, hate and/or race related content.
  
• Member Age Policy: HCK strictly adheres to U.S. COPPA, ("Children's Online Privacy Protection Act"). For that reason you must be 13 or older to register. For more information on COPPA please click here.

We welcome you to feel free to become part of our online family. In doing so, please help keep HCK an enjoyable experience for everyone by adhering to the above guidelines.

Thank you for your consideration.

The HCK Team