Support Forum Rules (SFR) for Circuit

Version 2.0 as of August 2016

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1. Welcome to the Circuit Support Forum!

These Support Forum Rules (SFR) for Circuit describe the rules that govern your use of the forum. We also want to give you some tips on how to use the forum most effectively.

Please remember that all content posted to the forum must also comply with the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

2. Posting requests: sections, duplicates and how to find the right place

The Circuit Support Forum is split into sections. Please choose the most suitable section for your new topic. For example, if you have a question about a specific functionality of Circuit, then we suggest visiting the section for that functionality first, if there is one.

You should post your topic in only one section. Unify reserves the right to close or delete multiple posts.

Many of the questions about Circuit that you have may have been posted before, sometimes quite often. Before starting a new thread, please first try searching the forum for an answer.

Do not post your request in someone else’s topic unless you are having the exact same problem as the original poster. In general, you should start your own topic.

3. Selecting the right topic

Try to use an appropriate title for your new topic. For example, if Circuit returns an error message, putting that error message in the topic is a good idea. “ERROR” or “URGENT HELP NEEDED!” is not a good title.

4. Include as much technical information as possible

In order to help us and other forum users to help you fast and efficiently, please describe the problem in as much detail as you can, preferably step by step. Submit as many details as possible, e.g. what went wrong, what you have done before, your hardware/software environment, your browser, plug-ins, etc. If you get an error message, copy it in your post – word for word. Do not try to summarise – sometimes one word or number can be important. If you did something before you came across a problem, write down exactly what you did, step by step.

You can and should post screenshots to illustrate your issues. Unify encourages the use of website links instead of posting the actual screenshot images. Carefully consider what you post, as screenshots might show information that you do not want to share with every other Circuit User on the forum.

5. Include as little personal information as possible

Screenshots of Circuit, or log files generated by Circuit, may contain a lot of information, some of which may be personal and/or confidential. To avoid creating problems for you, your organization and anyone who is trying to help you, please consider carefully what you want to post. If in doubt, do always edit the content before posting it, e.g. blur parts of the screenshot etc.. Do not post any passwords or personal information!

Remember, the forum is open to any Circuit User across all customers, companies and countries. The forum may be read, searched and copied, by anyone. Anything you put in a forum topic is public. Anything you make available through a link may be reviewed by other forum users.

You should also review anything you put in your post for sensitive or confidential information about other people or your organization. Please do not post personal data about anyone else, including fellow Circuit Users. If possible, remove personal data from any messages, screenshots or other data posted to the forum by deleting or garbling it prior to posting. Please remember that files you post may contain metadata.

You post any data to the forum at your own risk. Unify is not liable for any abuse of information that you posted to the forum.

If you need individual support and/or do not want to share any information, please contact Unify or your Unify Partner. Depending on your Service Package or for additional remuneration, other forms of support may be available where information is not openly visible on the forum.

6. Posting links

If your question relates to a specific site or page that is accessible to any Circuit User, or if you use external services to store content such as image hosts for screenshots, you may use a link in your post to that external content. However, the Circuit Support Forum is not a link portal. Excessive linking might be moderated, as might signatures or links with no associated question. Be also aware, that in general links will not get removed any time later. You are responsible for any link you use in your post, and if you no longer want the linked content to be available, you should remove the content from that service. In fact, it might be a good idea to remove such content e.g. screenshots later once your question has been resolved.

7. Posting large excerpts of log files or screen shots

When you post a large excerpt of a log file, or a huge screenshot, it often makes the thread difficult to read. And, it makes it difficult to find the relevant bit of information. Instead, we ask you to please paste your file on an external service and submit it as a link in your post.

As for what constitutes a “large excerpt”, it’s difficult to say. Please use your best judgement. Anything above 100 lines of log file is most probably too long. Do always consider that your fellow Circuit Users provide support to you for free, and that it is usually much easier to read a log file from an external source than a block of lines inside a forum entry.

8. Deletion or editing of posts

While it is not our general policy to edit or delete forum posts unless they are spam, harassing, illegal, or outright abuse, we reserve the right to delete topics or posts that we, in our sole discretion, deem to be off-topic or detrimental to the forum.

When a post is made and people contribute answers to an issue, then the post becomes part of the forum and is a resource for other Circuit Users to benefit from. Deleting posts removes this added value. However, moderators might decide to remove sensitive information that has been included in posts accidentally. Of course, your best course of action is to not publish anything that you wouldn’t want to be public in the first place.

9. Getting an account and deleting accounts

Each Circuit User account is automatically linked to a forum account i.e. every Circuit User can become a user of the Circuit Support Forum. While the Circuit User account and the User Content may be deleted once the underlying subscription expired, the content posted to the Circuit Support Forum account is, in general, not deleted. If you don’t want to use the forums anymore, log off and don’t return.

10. Upgrade to get paid support

The Circuit Support Forum is open to all Circuit Users, including those with a a Free Trial account. While some support is provided by Unify, most support comes from fellow Circuit Users who act as forum volunteers, provide free support and sometimes spend considerable time in helping others – including you and your problem.

If a problem is too complicated, these Circuit Users may advise you to seek professional support from Unify. Please don’t take this as a rude gesture. The main reason for this is that you may require more support than the Circuit forum with its volunteers can provide.

Please remember that paid support includes support options which allow for private, 1:1 sharing of information between you and Unify.

11. No support for third party commercial products

Circuit is a product from Unify, and the Circuit Support Forum is only for Circuit. If your problem relates to a commercial third party software or service other than those Unify uses to provide Circuit to you, and you need support for that, please go to their official support channel, e.g. browser problems. In some cases, we may explicitly direct you to these locations. The vendors are responsible for supporting their commercial products.

Similarly, we ask that, between you and fellow Circuit Users, you do not demand payment, solicit work, or take the conversation to a private location when providing support to each other. The point of the forum is that Circuit Users help each other, not solicit business for themselves. We reserve the right to block any Circuit User who abuses the forum for this purpose.

12. Forbidden content

All content of the forum must comply with the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

Do NOT post content that is not suitable for a general audience or for viewing whilst at work. Please also consider that the Circuit Support Forum may be visited by people from many different countries or cultures or business environments. Content that may be perfectly acceptable for you or in your country or for your employer may not be so in another country or culture or business environment. Please also limit your posts to Circuit related matters.

If you spot information that you consider to be not suitable, please inform us, e.g. through your Customer Contact, giving a short description of the reasons why you think a particular post or link is not suitable.

We reserve the right to edit or completely remove any post or link that contains content that we, in our sole discretion, determine to be not suitable for a general audience.

For further details, please see the AUP.

13. Moderation of postings

All content posted to the forum must comply with the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Occasionally, the content of a topic has to be moderated. This might mean anything from light editing of some posts to complete removal of topics and deactivation of Circuit Users.

The following are likely candidates for moderation:

• Posting personal data: An Circuit User should not post their email addresses, ask others to post their email or solicit contacting people off of the forum.
• Passwords or other sensitive information: You should never post, or ask for, passwords or other sensitive information that should not be public to the entire community of all Circuit Users.
• Apply the basic rules of netiquette: Please do not harass or abuse people. Do not send them emails calling them names. Do not stalk them. Be polite and friendly.
• Spamming and other junk. Spam and affiliate links, duplicate posts, offensive posts, posts without content, flames, and references to adult content will be removed. We reserve the right to use automated filtering systems to facilitate this.
• Posting in all caps, excessive use of exclamation marks, and similar is considered shouting and is rude.

Please note that this list is not exhaustive. Every post is judged on its own merits.

If you should repeatedly fail to comply with these rules, your Circuit User account and forum account may be disabled. Your Customer Contact will be informed about the ban and the reasons for it. There is not one specific behaviour or content to point at for this and Unify will decide upon this at itssole discretion, but, basically, if you start lashing out, calling people names, making accusations, emailing people nasty messages, or challenging the authority of the moderators, you may end up banned. The rule of thumb is: “don’t act like a bad person” and “basic netiquette applies”.

14. Changes to the Support Forum Rules

We may occasionally update these SFR to reflect customer feedback, changes in Circuit, and updates to Applicable Laws. Prior to making such changes effective, we will notify you and your organization in advance through the Customer Contact and the Circuit Tenancy Administrator by posting a notice on the Circuit login page. We will provide a link under which you can review the updated statement. Depending on your or your organization’s settings, we may instead, or in addition, send a notification email, and/or post a message inside Circuit. These notification(s) will be made independent of, and do not intend to limit, any notification procedure agreed with your organization in the Agreement.

We encourage you to periodically review this SFR. Unless required or permitted by Applicable Law, such changes only apply to forum content posted from the date the change becomes effective.