Charter and Terms of Use - AquaPortail
ToS - General Terms of Use and Charter of Good Conduct for AquaPortail - The Rules...
The entire AquaPortail.com website, including all texts and images, is protected under copyright law as defined by French legislation. Any use of excerpts of text or images that exceeds the legal right of brief quotation may be subject to a claim for financial compensation.
See in particular our privacy policy regarding data (cookies) collected by our partners and how to manage cookies.
AquaPortail.com participates in and complies with all Specifications and Policies of the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework. AquaPortail.com uses a Consent Management Platform.
See also our disclaimer regarding "medical advice" (medicinal plants in particular).
1 - Use of the Forums
All forums, with the exception of the "Papote" (Off-Topic Chat) forum, are dedicated exclusively to discussions about aquarium keeping, or topics directly or indirectly related to the "aquatic world" in general.
The "Papote" forum is intended for general discussions of any kind, in compliance with these rules. It also allows new members to introduce themselves: there is no obligation to do so, but a brief introduction is always welcome.
2 - Website Registration
Registration is free of charge and open to everyone. It grants access to advanced features across all modules (sections) of the website. By registering, you agree to these Terms of Use.
In exceptional cases, the team reserves the right to cancel a user's registration without justification. In the event of an unvalidated registration and repeated unvalidated attempts, AquaPortail reserves the right to file a legal complaint against the identified perpetrator for what will be considered an attempt at spamming or hacking.
Other websites operate under the aquarium portal and are directly linked to it, such as a website dedicated to aquatic animals.
3 - Prohibitions on the Portal
Any discussion of a political, sexual, or obscene nature, or containing racist, defamatory, threatening, vulgar remarks, or content contrary to the law and public decency, is strictly prohibited.
The author and any users who participated in or contributed to continuing such remarks face immediate and permanent banning from the website without further warning. Their Internet Service Provider will be notified. The IP address of every participant is recorded to help enforce these terms.
"SMS-style" text speak, heavily abbreviated writing, or "ALL CAPS" posts are strictly forbidden. Proper spelling and punctuation are required. Authors of posts containing "SMS-style" text speak, excessive abbreviations, or "ALL CAPS" face sanctions up to and including a ban. Posts written in "SMS" shorthand or "ALL CAPS" will be deleted so as not to clutter the forum.
Respect for authorship and copyright is mandatory. You are prohibited from copying and pasting texts, excerpts of texts, images, parts of images, or any other content that does not belong to you onto the forums without the author's permission. Likewise, all discussions, debates, articles, etc. published on the site are the property of AquaPortail or their respective authors and may not be copied elsewhere without authorization; for example, the unauthorized copying of a species profile from the AquaBdd Species Guide is billed at an annual rate per year of use on another website. Please contact us for any request to use a copy of the data available on AquaPortail.
You are encouraged to create direct links to an AquaPortail page rather than copying its content illegally.
The illegal copying, without prior authorization, of any image, photograph, or document bearing the AquaPortail logo or ownership mark may be subject to invoicing. Where an image includes a "dofollow" backlink pointing directly to the page where the image originates, the invoiced amount will be reduced.
4 - Liability on the Forums
Messages posted on the forums express solely the opinions of their respective authors, and under no circumstances the opinions of other site members, the site management team, moderators, or administrators. Consequently, they cannot be held liable for the statements contained in messages posted on the site.
5 - Data Storage
All information provided and submitted by forum users is stored in a database. However, this information is never disclosed to any third party or company without the user's consent. The administrators, moderators, and site management team cannot be held liable if a hacking attempt results in unauthorized access to this data. For the proper technical operation of aquaportail.com, timestamped "aquaportail" cookies containing no personal information are used solely to improve user experience and convenience.
Your email address is used solely to confirm your registration details and password (as well as to send you a new password if you forget yours).
6 - Cookies
This website uses cookies to store information on your computer. A cookie is a small text file that may be saved in a dedicated area of the storage system (hard drive, flash memory, etc.) on your device (computer, tablet, smartphone, etc.) when visiting an online service through your web browser. The cookie is sent by a website's server to your browser. Each cookie is assigned an anonymous identifier allowing its issuer to recognize the device on which it is stored for the duration of that cookie's validity or storage period (from 24 hours to 12 months, depending on the cookie). A cookie does not identify an individual's computer personally.
To learn more about targeted advertising, cookies, and your opt-out rights, you can visit: "https://www.youronlinechoices.com/".
When you visit the AquaPortail website, we may place various cookies on your device, including advertising cookies (targeted and contextual advertising: AdSense, DoubleClick, Fabster, etc.) and editorial cookies (identifying your member status on the site to grant certain privileges),
You can configure your browser at any time to express and modify your cookie preferences, particularly regarding analytics cookies. You can set your browser to block certain cookies. If you decline our cookies and those of our partners, your visit to AquaPortail will no longer be counted in our traffic analytics tools, but you will no longer be able to benefit from several features required to browse certain areas of our site. You may nevertheless object to the storage of cookies by following the instructions below:
- On Internet Explorer:
- Go to Tools > Internet Options.
- Click the Privacy tab.
- Click the Advanced button and check "Override automatic cookie handling".
- On Firefox:
- At the top of the Firefox window, click the Firefox button (Tools menu on Windows XP), then select Options.
- Select the Privacy panel.
- Set Retention rules: Use custom settings for history.
- Uncheck Accept cookies from sites.
- On Chrome:
- Click the wrench/menu icon located in the browser toolbar.
- Select Settings.
- Click Show advanced settings.
- In the "Privacy" section, click the Content settings button.
- In the "Cookies" section, you can block third-party cookies and site data.
- On Safari:
- Go to Settings > Preferences.
- Click the Privacy tab.
- In the "Block cookies" area, select "Always".
- On Opera:
- Go to Settings > Preferences.
- Click the Advanced tab.
- In the "Cookies" section, select "Never accept cookies".
6bis - Privacy Policy for Data (Cookies) Collected by Our Partners
Third-party vendors, including Google, serve ads on websites across the Internet. Third-party vendors, including Google, use stored cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website.
Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. Data collection and storage may be refused at any time with immediate effect. You can opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page here: google.com/ads/preferences/
You can also disable cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser. However, doing so may prevent you from using certain (or even many...) features of this website (notably "member" status).
6ter - Moderation
The website has established a moderation team. Administrators, moderators, and community hosts hold moderation privileges. This group is referred to hereafter as the "moderation team."
The moderation team reserves the right to edit, lock, or delete any post that does not meet the criteria outlined above. The moderation team will move any post placed in the wrong section. The moderation team is not required to justify its actions unless it deems it necessary. The moderation team acts with collective solidarity in its decisions.
The moderation team reserves the right to issue one or more warnings to users, or to temporarily or permanently ban users who fail to comply with the website's Terms of Use and these rules, or who clearly disrupt the proper functioning of the site by any means whatsoever.
The moderation team retains a copy of all messages posted on the forums by users. No message is permanently erased before a (statutory) period of 60 days. Because moderation is performed "a posteriori" (after publication), it may take place up to several months after a post is published, with no time limit.
The moderation team will file a legal complaint and make users' IP addresses available to law enforcement authorities in accordance with applicable French law.
7 - Advertising
The site management team tolerates non-commercial advertising, provided it is reported in advance to the moderation team via private message or email. The notification message must state the purpose of the advertisement, the image or text to be displayed, and the destination link. The moderation team reserves the right to reject advertisements that do not comply with these rules. The moderation team may specify the format, size, or other parameters for any advertisement a user wishes to display. Any advertisement not reported in advance will be deleted.
Any request to post surveys or polls of any kind must receive prior approval from the moderation team before publication: after 50 survey requests posted on the forum, there has never been (as of June 2012) a single follow-up with results! Consumer-style market research surveys are strictly prohibited: commercial advertisers pay for this type of service.
The moderation team reserves the right to delete the account of any user who posts meaningless messages solely for advertising purposes (spam or flood), thereby disrupting the proper functioning of the forum.
Certain profile details (specifically, the user's "signature" and personal website URL) are only displayed publicly once a member has made more than 5 contributions/posts/submissions in the forums.
For any commercial advertising, you must contact the site administrators in advance. Job offers in the aquarium industry are welcome.
8 - Personal Data
In accordance with the law, you have the right to access your personal data. You may freely modify it as often as you wish. You may also request the deletion of your account by email or private message to the moderation team.
9 - Contacting the Team
A contact form is available on the website. You may also contact a team member directly via private message (PM), or by email if they have chosen to make their address public. However, excessive or inappropriate use of this feature should be avoided.
The moderation team reserves the right to respond or decline to respond to requests seeking justification for its actions.
10 - Modification and Enforcement of These Rules
These rules take effect as soon as a user enters the website. The team reserves the right to amend them at any time. Amendments made to these rules may apply retroactively or not, at the team's discretion, which will specify accordingly.
11 - "Bonus Pater Familias" Site Management Clause
The website team reserves the right to manage the site as it sees fit in all situations not explicitly covered by these rules. The team manages the site under the "bonus pater familias" (prudent administrator) standard. This principle entails exercising prudence, diligence, and care. The site will be managed in the best interest of the website and the majority of its users.
16 - Articles, News, and AquaBdd Species Profiles
Members are invited to enrich AquaPortail's editorial content through articles, news items, and species description profiles in the AquaBdd guide once they have been registered on the site for more than 2 months (subject to additional conditions). Submissions must be original and wholly owned by the contributing author. By registering, the author agrees to the publication of their writings without the right of retraction: any published article (or equivalent content) will remain published, and the author may not request its removal. The author thereby contractually agrees to grant online distribution rights to AquaPortail. Copyright continues to apply, and AquaPortail undertakes not to resell the content of an individual article for commercial purposes. Should AquaPortail change management, all content will be transferred as a whole without individual claims applying (under the legal framework of a collective work).
17 - Links
Posting links to other websites (external links) is permitted across all sections of the site. On the forum, sharing external links is even encouraged, as the very essence of the Internet is the exchange of knowledge between websites and their users.
However, the following links are strictly prohibited on AquaPortail:
1) to paid/paywalled websites;
2) to websites requiring registration in order to read content;
3) to websites of a political, sexual, or obscene nature, or containing racist, defamatory, threatening, vulgar remarks, or content contrary to the law and public decency;
4) to websites containing excessive advertising or pop-ups;
5) to websites whose graphic content could shock children or sensitive individuals;
6) to websites encouraging piracy or fraud;
7) to commercial websites for explicit promotional purposes without prior authorization from AquaPortail's administrators. Sharing a link to a "good deal" or a resource relevant to a discussion topic is, of course, always welcome!
Indirect links (via a third-party site, image, video, etc.) to such websites are also prohibited.
The AquaPortail team reserves the right to remove any links that violate this charter, or any other link if deemed necessary, and to sanction users who posted them.
In cases 3) and 6), the AquaPortail team may file a legal complaint and make users' IP addresses available to law enforcement authorities in accordance with applicable French law.
Users posting one or more messages with no substantive content solely for promotional purposes (either directly or to display their signature) face sanctions under Article 7 of this charter.
We also remind users that they must respect copyright and cite their source(s) when posting documents or excerpts on the forum. Each user remains solely responsible for what they publish on the site.
Aquaportail.com authorizes hyperlinks pointing to its pages, subject to the following conditions:
- Do not use deep framing/embedding techniques—that is, pages from www.aquaportail.com must not be embedded inside the pages of another website, but must open in a separate browser window or tab.
- The source linking directly to the referenced content via hyperlink must be clearly credited.
The information used may only be utilized for personal or educational purposes; any commercial or advertising use (any website displaying an ad banner is deemed a commercial website!) is prohibited.
Under no circumstances does this authorization apply to websites publishing racist, pornographic, xenophobic, or controversial material, or content that could generally offend the sensibilities of the wider public.
18 - Regarding Medicinal Plants and Phytotherapy (and Related Topics)
The information displayed is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice!
The information provided on AquaPortail is general in nature and published strictly for informational purposes. Under no circumstances can it replace the advice of a licensed physician (legally authorized to practice medicine) or, where applicable, other healthcare professionals (dentists, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, veterinarians, physiotherapists, etc.).
Nothing on AquaPortail or any of AquaPortail's projects may be construed as an attempt to offer medical advice or otherwise engage in the practice of medicine.
Terms of Use created by Gixi, in agreement with the AquaPortail team, on 02/11/2007 (latest updates - Articles 12, 13, and 14: 11/16/2007; - Article 15: 02/29/2008; - Articles 16–17: 10/08/2008; - Article 18: 03/02/2011; - Article 16ter: 05/10/2018, GDPR compliance and medicinal plants)..
Directly Affiliated Aquarium Websites
Here are our partners, aquarium professionals or otherwise—in short, friends and trusted websites: our curated directory of aquatic-related links.
- Reef Aquarium, for marine and reef aquarists. Special pages on hermit crabs, sea urchins, starfish, and sea cucumbers.
- Aquarium Aquatic Plants on Aquaportail.be. Essential guides on aquatic plants, including species resistant to herbivorous fish such as goldfish.
- The AquaPortail Aquarium Blog invites you to read short articles and quick synthesis summaries on portal events and discussion topics.