Guidelines
The TIJ Forums are provided as a free service so home inspection professionals can share ideas and get answers to their questions about business and technical topics. Please use them in this spirit and follow these guidelines:
The Inspector's Journal is a professional home inspection business related website. Please keep messages reasonably short, on topic, and respectful of other forum users. A valid email address must be included with each message. Advertising and other inappropriate messages are subject to removal at the sole discretion of TIJ management.
What is Appropriate?
We welcome vigorous debate and constructive criticism, but reserve the right to remove postings that, in our opinion, fail to meet basic standards of decorum, are libelous in nature, or contain advertising or similar commercial messages.
Decorum: Personal attacks, obscenities, or other malicious language such as racial or ethnic slurs have no place on TIJ. Such messages do little to illuminate a given topic, and usually have the opposite effect. Participants should post and respond to others professionally and courteously. If two or more participants disagree about a given topic and can't reach agreement, so be it. Their dispute should not become a battle of wills that results in endless repetitive posts and debate along the same vein wherein neither will concede the other's point. Professionals should know when to agree to disagree and drop it at that. When the Editor or a Moderator sees that a thread is leaning toward contentiousness of this nature, the Editor or Moderators will remove the offending posts and may suspend those involved or bar them from participation on the boards.
Libel or Slander: We do not allow posts that may damage the reputation of a person, product, or organization with false information. Posts that expose a person, product, or organization to public hatred, shame, disgrace, or ridicule are potentially libelous. Before clicking on the 'post message' button, we ask that users read their posts over and ask themselves whether they would say the same thing if they were present in a room full of other inspectors, as opposed to posting on an internet forum where they are safely behind their keyboards. If the answer is "No" than the post probably is not appropriate and should be rewritten so that it is.
Re-posting To-From TIJ: All initial posts and subsequent responses from participants are copyrighted material of the person that posted the content. Content from this web site may not be copied to another site or displayed in a frame unless written permission has been received from the Editor, The Inspector's Journal. Likewise, participants are warned that copyrighted material that is re-posted to TIJ's Forums is considered pirated and is subject to deletion by the Editor.
Advertising: The purpose of the TIJ Forums is to provide answers, not an advertising venue. Companies participating in a Forum discussion should provide specific answers to posted questions. TIJ suggests that businesses include an appropriately crafted signature in order to identify their company. Signatures should be limited to 4-6 lines, and may contain information that identifies the type of business you're in and email address. Advertisers wishing to promote their businesses or wares on TIJ or in TIJ's newsletter should contact us to discuss options and cost. Details can be found on our contacts page.
Organizational Announcements: TIJ will include information about coming events for professional home inspection organizations free of charge on the events calendar that is prominently displayed on TIJ's home page and at the bottom of the forums pages. However, these announcements will contain only the time, date, location, point of contact and phone numbers pertaining to such events - not a detailed description. Any organizations wishing to actively and more prominently promote such events on TIJ or in TIJ's newsletter are entitled to purchase advertising space on TIJ and should contact us to discuss options and cost. Details can be found on our contacts page.
The staff at The Inspector's Journal assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, content, or outcome of any posting transmitted at TIJ's message boards. Participants should undertake the use of tools, materials and methods discussed at TIJ's Message Boards after considerate evaluation, and at their own risk.
Link Guidelines: Links posted at TIJ's Forums should point to locations that provide supporting information for the topic being discussed in the current message thread. The purpose of TIJ's Forums is to provide answers, not an advertising venue. An included link that directs visitors to an area with inappropriate content will be removed. TIJ reserves the right to delete any messages with links it deems inappropriate.