Sportsman’s Paradise Online Comment & Chat Rules

Sportsman’s Paradise Online (SPO) is a nature and wildlife educational website and community. Our comment threads are provided so people can enjoy wildlife, share observations, ask questions, and have friendly conversations with others who share an interest in nature.

Commenting on Sportsman’s Paradise Online is a privilege, not a right. By participating in the comment threads, you agree to follow the rules below.

Moderation

SPO moderators may remove comments and temporarily or permanently restrict, block, or ban users who violate these rules, disrupt the community, abuse site features, harass others, or otherwise interfere with the purpose of the website. Moderators have final discretion when determining whether content or behavior is appropriate for the community.

Comments posted in the comment threads reflect the views of the individual who posted them and are not necessarily written, approved, or endorsed by Sportsman’s Paradise Online unless clearly identified as an official SPO statement.

SPO also uses automated community moderation. When a comment receives flags from multiple unique users, the system may automatically remove the comment. Users who repeatedly receive flags from different members may also be automatically restricted or banned.

The flagging system is intended for comments that violate these rules. Do not use it because you disagree with someone. Users who repeatedly submit false, retaliatory, or abusive flags may have their commenting privileges restricted or removed.

Community Rules

  • Be respectful and polite. Personal attacks, insults, harassment, bullying, threatening behavior, trolling, baiting, or deliberately provoking other members are not allowed.
  • Keep conversations appropriate for a nature and wildlife community. Whenever possible, discussions should remain related to wildlife, nature, the camera being watched, or the subject of the page.
  • Respect the diversity of the community. People of many different backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints visit Sportsman’s Paradise Online.
  • Divisive, inflammatory, or highly controversial topics are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, politics, elections, political parties or political figures, religion or religious debates, conspiracy theories, gun-control debates, sexually explicit topics, and controversial social or identity-based debates involving subjects such as race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.
  • No profanity, vulgarity, sexually explicit content, graphic comments, or other inappropriate material.
  • No soliciting, advertising, or self-promotion. Do not promote personal websites, businesses, books, products, services, vacation packages, supplements, fundraising campaigns, affiliate links, or similar material without permission from SPO.
  • Do not spam the comment threads. This includes repeatedly posting the same message, excessive links, repeated emoticons or emojis, meaningless strings of characters, or other content that interferes with the conversation.
  • Do not post in ALL CAPS. Excessive use of capital letters is difficult to read and is commonly interpreted as yelling.
  • Do not use multiple identities to deceive others or manipulate the community. This includes using additional accounts or identities to evade moderation, manipulate flags, create false support for your comments, or impersonate another person.
  • Protect your privacy and the privacy of others. Do not post sensitive personal information such as home addresses, telephone numbers, private email addresses, financial information, passwords, or other information that could put you or another person at risk.
  • You must be at least 13 years old to comment. By posting a comment, you are representing that you are at least 13 years of age.
  • Do not argue with or engage people who are violating the rules. Flag the inappropriate comment and allow the moderators or moderation system to handle it.

Camera Owners & Website Links

If you own or operate a camera featured on Sportsman’s Paradise Online, please do not promote your website in the comment threads. Instead, contact us and request that your website link be added to the page where your camera feed appears. Any website submitted for inclusion must be directly related to the camera or wildlife feed displayed on that page and is subject to SPO approval.

Remember: Comments Are Public

Sportsman’s Paradise Online is a public website. Comments may be read by anyone. Think carefully before sharing information about yourself or others and never post information that should remain private.

Please remember that people of many different backgrounds, beliefs, and viewpoints visit this site. You do not need to agree with everyone, but you are expected to treat others respectfully and help keep the conversation welcoming and centered on our shared interest in nature and wildlife.

These rules are not intended to cover every possible situation. Sportsman’s Paradise Online reserves the right to moderate content or behavior that we believe is harmful, disruptive, inappropriate, or inconsistent with the purpose of the community, even when a specific behavior is not listed above.

These rules may be updated at any time. It is each user’s responsibility to review and follow the current rules when participating in Sportsman’s Paradise Online comment threads.