I have been made aware that some of our members regularly post links to content on their own websites. This is against our forum rules - it always has been. Unfortunately this policy hasn't been very well policed, so we haven't really communicated this very well to our members, but I'm posting this now to make it clear what our policy is and to let you know that we will be enforcing it from now on. If it is worth discussing on ZooChat, discuss it here, don't direct people to your own site. This is not about whether you make money from your website or not - the policy applies equally to links to any type of website. The only exception I would generally make to this rule is for senior zoo staff linking to their zoo websites for the purpose of sharing important news (eg minutes of meetings or statements from management). Linking to third party websites is fine - but just to be perfectly clear - creating sock puppet accounts for the purposes of linking to your site (or colluding with others to cross-promote websites) is grounds for instant banning of all parties involved. There is a spot in your profile details which allows you to link to your website (see "Home Page URL" - you are more than welcome to use this. Nobody who has been posting links to their own website up until this point will be punished (unless it also breaks other rules as well), although I might contact a few people directly to remind them of our expectations. However, from now on this rule will be strictly enforced. Also, just to be clear, posting links to surveys or any other tool for performing market research in any capacity is also not permitted, regardless of the purpose. This includes research for both commercial and academic reasons - it is not permitted without prior approval from myself.
