[Palomine]

Frequently Asked Questions & other useful factiods:

What rules did I agree to when I registered? These are the BEA Owner's rules and they apply to everyone: http://forum.bearchive.com/index.php?action=rules Please read and abide by these policies since they're necessary for the continued health of this site and the community that depends on it. The rules are updated from time to time (notices about this are put in the pinned "New Revisions to the Forum Rules" thread in the General Forum) so please review any changes since they apply without exception to all users as of their inception date.

If you want to change your email address or password you must submit a request to [email protected] since tighter security measures were implemented after the big hacker attacks last year. If customercare doesn't respond immediately, please be patient and if necessary, follow up with them politely.

Forum accounts can't be closed or deleted so please don't ask. These are free accounts provided to users once they've agreed to the Rules during registration. If you don't want to use your account anymore, simply stop using it... with the passage of time and subsequent activity, threads you posted in will eventually recede into the dim mists of history.

User email addresses that have been set to 'hidden' ARE NOT displayed to other users ...only YOU can see your own hidden email address.

The Chat room sometimes locks up or kicks users out for no reason ...though it's been better lately, the Chat is still a bit flaky. Some users find accessing it with a different browser helps.

The Search tool often misses obvious results ...yes, we know about this and it's been reported to admins but we don't expect this to be 'fixed' anytime soon. In the meanwhile, if you manually dig up a hard-to-find-via-Search thread and want to make it easier for the next user to find, please feel free to PM a moderator with a link to it (and an explanation of the search keywords that should but didn't help find it) and we'll edit the subject/title to help make it easier to find next time. Some users prefer to use Google to search inside the forum.

Why are some image attachments missing? All images posted between January 31, 2008 and June 1, 2009 (and a few earlier ones) were lost due to human error during a system backup/restore and can't be recovered. If you can see ANY image attachments (those images located on the BEA Forum server, not those hosted externally which vanish all the time) from before January '08 and/or after June '09 then you can see the same attachments as everyone else. If you can't see any attachments at all, PM a mod and we'll try resetting your account. If you're feeling full of community spirit and would like to re-upload some of the missing images, please feel free to do so within the '1-1-1 rule' posting limit.

Posts, image attachments and gallery uploads WILL NEVER be removed due to poster's remorse or ANY other reason so please don't ask. This is a private organization, parts of which are open to the public, who are able to view those parts as guests. Please exercise common sense and THINK before you post/attach/link/upload. All users have 24 hours during which they can edit or delete what they've just posted... after that, it's permanent and considered community property. Any attempts to get post(s) removed via subterfuge (disguising poster's remorse as something else) will result in the fraudulent user being banned and the post(s) will remain.

Why do images you attached or linked look smaller than they did before you attached them? The forum software displays scaled-down thumbnails of attached and linked images to speed up the loading of image-heavy pages. You can display your image at full size by doing one of the following…
For PC: right-click the thumbnail image, then choose Open In New Tab.
For Mac: right-click or control-click the thumbnail image, then choose Open Image In New Window.
For both: try dragging the thumbnail image to the New Tab button in your browser's tab bar.

We will NOT take a username from one user and give it to another even if the 'donor' user hasn't posted in a long time. This would be unfair for a variety of very obvious reasons, so please don't ask.

Threads and posts don't belong to you ...when you start a thread or make a post, other users are free to reply as they see fit, even if that takes the thread somewhere other than you had intended: these are public conversations, not any one user's exclusive monologue. Further, per the BEA Owner's instructions, threads may sometimes be moved to a more appropriate section, or combined with other threads at the discretion of the moderators in order to keep the forum organized and topics from being fragmented.

Requests to remove an image due to copyright concerns must be made by the copyright holder themselves. Due to the fact that anyone can claim anything (including ownership of content, their purported identity, etc...) requests to delete material based on suspected copyright infringement will only be considered when the request is made by the copyright holder themselves or their authorized legal representative, and accompanied by real-world identification and contact info so the claim can be verified. Anonymous, third-party and fraudulent claims cannot be verified, thus they will not be considered so don't bother making them. Also, images without copyright notices on them are presumed to be in the public domain unless proven otherwise.

Getting technical support or help with paysite membership issues: BEA admins and paysite customer service reps do not routinely read this forum, so posting a question/problem here is of little use if you need to reach them. Better to use this page for paysite members: http://membershiphelp.com/ and/or you can email [email protected] or "PM Customer Care" using the tab at the top of every page. Forum mods have nothing to do with the paysites and cannot help with account issues there.

Unsure if a picture is safe to post? Ask us. If you're not sure an image originated from a non-prohibited source, or you're not sure the model was (and appeared to be) over 18 when she was photographed, you may submit the photo to the moderators by PM for pre-approval. Once a photo has been pre-approved, you will never receive a rule violation for posting it, even if it is later found to be prohibited content.

ID Request posts must include an image attachment. Since we cleaned the ID Request forum of over 1,700 'broken' (and thus unsolveable) threads in 2012, all ID Request posts from that point are are required to have an image file ATTACHED to the post (uploaded on our server). You can still also include an external link, but in order to 'future proof' requests from external links that break, change or are deleted, users MUST use the attach feature.

Finally, please don't try to play one moderator against another. We're not your parents... so please don't treat us as if we were. A request asked of any mod is being asked of all mods: we consider all significant issues as a group and work from precedent and the Owner's policies, even though a single mod may be the point of contact for any particular issue.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation in these matters... the rules and recent security changes are necessary to protect the site and the privacy of all who participate here. -Palomine  

[Palomine]

Record of updates to the BEA Forum FAQ:

June 11, 2012: Bumping this thread to highlight a small edit in the first section that states that users are responsible for being aware of publicized updates to the rules as they occur.

July 7, 2012: Bumping this thread to highlight the addition of a paragraph about the process of pre-approving photos before posting them.

December 18, 2013: The rule change that took place in July, 2012 (re: ID Request posts must include an attached image) was incorporated into the FAQ.