Updated 1st February 2008.

Thanks for using the Forums.

We want to make our policy concerning outside links on the Forums a little clearer so as to avoid any misunderstandings.

There is an increasingly large amount of traffic visiting SnowJapan and these Forums. This means that a link (and even mention of website domain names) placed here to an outside website can be a valuable thing for the website that is linked to. For that reason there are often cases of people registering here and proceeding to try and post links in an effort to simply gain more traffic to their - or their friends/colleagues/company - websites. Often this is their first and only post, never to be seen again once they have posted their link.

The Forums also get a lot of attention from people around the world wanting to post junk spam advertising for things totally not related to Japan or winter sports.

In an effort to prevent these forums from becoming over-run with unsolicited advertising and junk and at the same time be fair to the people and companies who already support SnowJapan - as well as to ourselves - we have guidelines regarding linking to outside websites.

As you may have noticed, these forums are 'advertising free' - we don't even accept paid advertising.
Here is our basic policy on the subject. We try to be as consistent as possible, though there may be times when we are more or less strict on any of the below issues.

We have been running this site and Forums for quite a few years now and there are well-thought out reasons for our policies and the way that we run things. Sometimes they may be difficult to understand or seem trivial. However, we are not going to devote time to explain things in detail to everyone online and in public. We just ask that if you post on these Forums then you accept our guidelines.

We don't take too well to people trying to take advantage of the Forums by bending out policies. So if you just can't accept that, please just do not post here.

Thank you for your co-operation.

LINKS THAT ARE ALWAYS OK:

1
Links to any page on the SnowJapan site ( http://www.snowjapan.com )

2
Links to any page on the SnowJapanForums ( http://www.snowjapanforums.com )

3
Links to any page on the SnowJapan.tv site ( http://www.snowjapan.tv )

4
Sometimes a link to an outside non-commercial information source that is relevant, of interest and expands on the topic being discussed might be accepted -- as long as it doesn't come across as being promotional in nature and/or is not in one of any of the caterogies below. Whether any particular link (or mention of website addresses) is allowed or not is entirely up to the moderators of this Forum and is not up for discussion.

LINKS THAT ARE NOT GENERALLY OK:

1
Anything that comes across as promotional - whether blatently intentional or not. Please do not try to promote your or any other business on here, however well-intentioned. If a company has information on pages within SnowJapan, you can post that link.

2
Links to commercial websites.

3
Things of the nature "I stayed at this lodge www. great-hotel-website .com and it was really really the best place ever, take a look at this site" are generally not allowed.

4
Links of this kind - "Look at my blog for photos and reports", complete with blog link or URL mention or "Look at these Forums/this blog", with a link to another online Forum/blog. These Forums are not a link directory for other blogs and Forums.

5
Posts that exist purely to promote a link or website name - ie. a post created with a link and almost no other content.

6
There are some websites that we simply do not want links to on SnowJapan - for any number of reasons. We're not going to be posting a list or explaining this, but if such links appear they will be removed without notice.

7
Links to inappropriate sites (porn, etc).

8
Commercial messages in Private Messages are strictly not allowed. Do not use the Private Message system for promotional or sales messages. Sending multiple Private Messages with commercial messages will result in an instant ban and a deletion of your account. If you find someone sending you such a message, please let us know at editor@snowjapan.com.


A FEW GENERAL COMMENTS:
There may be times when we make decisions that you might not agree with and perhaps you cannot understand why we do not wish for there to be a link on SnowJapan to a certain page or website. Everyone is of entitled to their own opinion, including us, and it is up to us to decide what stays on our website, what constitutes a promotion or advertisement etc.

While we wish to encourage people to join in and post on the Forums, if you simply cannot accept our policies then please just refrain from posting here.

DO NOT:
If we delete a link (or post), we do it for one of the reasons outlined in this thread. Please do not either repost the link that we have deleted or come back to us with comments about it or our policies in general online. We will not devote time to dealing with explaining each and every one of our policies in public. If in doubt, please re-read this thread and our Guidelines thread, or send us an email.

Bottom line - it's our call!

More information on general policy can be found here:
http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/postlist/Board/12/page/1

Thanks and we all hope you have a great season!

Updated 1st February 08