Guidelines

Welcome to Illinois Marching Online!


The following guidelines/rules apply to all parts of the IMO Boards:

Posting Rules

By registering and making posts on the Illinois Marching Online Forums, you agree to abide by the Forum Rules of Use. Further you agree that any messages and their complete contents, become the sole and exclusive property of the operators of the Illinois Marching Online. We have the sole and exclusive rights to modify, delete, or make any use whatsoever both in the Forums and in any other location and medium, of all content posted to these Forums.

-You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of the Illinois Marching Online with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s).
-You agree, through your use of the Forums, that you will not post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, libelous, inaccurate, rude, racist, disrespectful, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, threatening, obscene, profane, pornographic, racially or ethnically offensive, invasive of a person's privacy, or which otherwise violates any law.
-All material on this board must be appropriate for people of all ages, races, genders, etc. Absolute Political Correctness is not necessary, but please be considerate of others different from yourself. Discussion of politics, religion, etc. should be limited to that which is relevant to the marching band activity, and that is carried out in a rational manner.
-Please do not discuss transfer of illegal (aka copyright-breaking) file transfers on this board. Such files are protected by law, and downloading them prevents their artist (likely Bands and Drum Corps, in this case) from receiving what is due them. Videos from local competitions are allowed; however, ask an administrator before posting. Even better, send the video file to one of the admins so they can put it on the video server for others to see.
-You will not impersonate any person or entity, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity. Falsifying your identity with numerous postings under different names not permitted and can be cause for deletion of your postings regardless of the content.
-You will not upload or attach files that contain software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy of publicity) unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents.
-You will not upload or attach files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another's computer.

-Though we encourage members to engage in healthy debates, we do not condone personal attacks on members. Ideas can be disputed or challenged, but attacks on a personal level are unacceptable and if they are brought to the attention of the staff, will be dealt with accordingly. Ideas can be attacked, but individuals cannot.
-You will not attempt to access any protected sections of the sites or Forums, nor make use of any hacks, cracks, bug exploits, etc. to bypass or modify the features of the Forum software at Illinois Marching Online.

-You will, if asked by a Forums leader, cease posting any content, and/or links to content, deemed offensive, objectionable, or in poor taste by a Forum leader.
-You will not collect, record, or otherwise use any other users' email addresses or other personal information for any purpose other than those pertaining to participation in the Forums.

-Spamming the forums with advertisements not related to marching band/drum corps/fine arts is not permitted, and will result in an immediate suspension/removal of your account. This also goes for your member profile as well. You have been warned.

Punishments for breaking these rules are as follows:

-First offense: Warning from an admin via PM.
-Second offense: Suspension of account for one week.
-Third offense: Suspension of account for one month.
-Fourth offense: Permanent suspension of account.


However, the administrators of Illinois Marching Online exercise free will to dole out punishments beyond the punishments listed above if we deem the rule breaking to be more serious.

In most cases the operators of Illinois Marching Online do not choose to review the messages prior to being posted, and is not responsible for the content of any of these messages. We reserve the right to make any modification we deem necessary or desirable to any message posted to the Forums, or delete any post as we seem fit. Forum leaders such as Administrators and Moderators are entrusted with the ability and responsibility of removing objectionable posts. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy goes for member profile information as well. Please remember that while we do attempt to monitor the posted messages as closely as possible through the efforts of our staff, it is impossible to monitor content on an up-to-the-minute basis with such a large community. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information presented, and we will attempt to filter any information deemed to be posted deliberately to mislead any group or individual. Additionally, the messages express the views of the author, not necessarily the views of the ILMarching Admins or Moderators. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify a moderator of this forum immediately.
The Moderator(s) and Administrator(s), are authorized to take any steps necessary to enforce these rules. The Moderator(s) and Administrator(s) have a broad mandate to enforce these rules, and will err on the side of caution. If you want to post something, but are not sure that it is ok, that might be a sign that it isn't. But if you think it might still be ok, PM a moderator or administrator to ask.

The Illinois Marching Online staff reserves the right to alter these guidelines at any time, without advance notice.
If you do not agree to be bound by these conditions of use, you should not use Illinois Marching Online Forums. The conditions are subject to revision. Any issues you have with these guidelines must be addressed with an admin via email or Private message. Should you consider any future amendments made to these conditions of use to be unacceptable, you can cancel your account with us at any time.


Decisions of the board Administrator(s) are final.

Updated 8/2024.


Before participating, it is important to keep in mind that the use of the ILMarching.com Community is a privilege, not a right. As a privately owned entity, the moderation team at ILMarching.com reserves the right to revoke that privilege at his or her discretion from any individual at any time without notice. Please remember that we can not have a rule for everything, and because of unique situations or a few people who may abuse our forums or cause other problems (even if it is such a situation not listed in the rules), the ILmarching.com moderation team reserves the right to react to these issues in any way necessary to remedy the issue and to minimize any negative impact within our Community.