An Industry Contributor is an industry member who helps to support AudioCircle financially. In return, Industry Contributors receive support from AudioCircle by the provision of space and bandwidth to help them promote their products or services.
Industry Contributors receive a number of business-related benefits, according to the level and type of contribution. These benefits include:
- Increased personal message (PM) storage
- A dedicated forum aka "circle"
- Listing as a commercial supporter
- Front-page exposure
- Advertising placed on community circles
- Ability to contract for custom development
To be an Industry Contributor, you must be a legitimate participant in the audio industry. You must have products or services related to audio and hifi. You must have a website listing those products and services. You must not have a record of causing problems on other audio forums.
NOTICE As of 2019, becoming an Industry Contributor is by invitation only. You may be invited by the Site Owner no less than three months after you start your introductory thread. If you are introduced and recommended by a long-standing Sponsor with no record of causing administrative issues, the Site Owner may waive the three-month waiting period.
If you accept, prepare the information below in your response:
- Your full name, business name and Paypal email address
- Circle tagline/slogan and your website address
- Level 3 only: As above plus a 160x90-pixel PNG image (any image that is not PNG format will not be accepted)
Your introductory thread will be moved to your new circle and you will also be asked to create a sticky Welcome/Guidelines thread.
If you decline, your introductory thread may be locked. If so, you will not be able to promote your products/services anywhere on this site.
Note also that:
You may not be invited to become an Industry Contributor. If we feel it is a good fit, we will ask you. You can continue to use your introductory thread until we say otherwise.
If at any time you have engaged in unprofessional conduct or caused problems for the site, your introductory thread will be locked and and you will not be able to promote your products/services anywhere on this site. If you continue to do so, your account will be restricted or closed.
Limits
You can run your thread in Industry Introductions until we say otherwise. We will say otherwise either by inviting you to become an Industry Contributor, or by locking your thread. If your thread is locked, you will no longer be permitted to engage in commercial activity anywhere on this site, with the sole exception of participation as an employee or dealer in a Sponsor-level (or higher) circle.
Contraindications
You will not be invited to become an Industry Contributor in the event of any the following: you have not kept your introductory thread active; you have been insulting or threatening in any way to any member of this site; you have posted defamatory or untrue remarks about AudioCircle or its operators on this site or anywhere else; you have contravened any site rules or guidelines; you have become argumentative with site members; you have ignored or refused to follow a request from Site Admin or the Site Owner; you have engaged in any activity that provides doubt in the eyes of Site Admin and the Site Owner that you will be a productive contributing member of this site; there is any doubt that you are conducting a legitimate audio business with high product and ethical standards and acceptable delivery times.
Final say
The Site Owner reserves the right to refuse any request to be an Industry Contributor or to cancel, restrict or close any Industry Contributor account at any time.
Following are the available contribution levels. Subscriptions are aligned with the calendar year and are invoiced six-monthly. All Industry Contributors must be legitimate members of the audio industry.
- Level 0 ("Hardship Support")
- This level is provided as a temporary solution for current sponsors if they need financial relief in times of hardship. There is no charge for six months, to be requested and renewed six-monthly.
- Level 1 ("Advertiser")
- Not available.
- Level 2 ("Supporter")
- This level provides you with your own circle listed in Industry Circles and front-page exposure. This level is intended to single-person businesses that engage in direct sales, and specifically disallows other industry members from commercial activity in your circle. The subscription fee is $300 per year.
- Level 3 ("Sponsor")
- This level provides you with your own circle listed in Industry Circles, front-page exposure, and a rotating side-banner on community circles. You can add two sub-forums to your circle if desired. This is the standard level recommended for small to medium audio businesses. The subscription fee is $500 per year.
While your contribution is appreciated, please remember that the site is a shared resource. You are (only) one of many contributors, and your contribution does not entitle you to run around the rules or initiate any kind of action with site-wide implications. In particular, we do not ban or restrict members at your request, and requests for thread or post removal outside of your circle will be considered only if the content clearly violates site-wide posting guidelines. You are not entitled to make demands of other Facilitators, of Admins, or of the Site Owner.
You are not allowed to have more than one account, or to deploy a "shared" account. Each person associated with your business must create and use their own account. See Account Usage.
Please never use the phrase "I pay for my circle therefore..." You do not pay for your circle, you sponsor this site. If you are not happy with what you receive in return for your sponsorship, then you can discontinue doing so and the Site Owner will decide what to do with your circle in the best interests of the site and the community.
In the unfortunate circumstance that one of your customers runs amok outside of your circle, they may be subject to site-wide restrictions at the sole discretion of Site Admin.
You are expected to conform to the same principles as all other members, described in Posting Guidelines, as well as those described in Professional Conduct. You are required to follow the procedure in Moderating a Thread in the event such becomes necessary.
Special note: please don't engage in:
- STARTING THREADs WITH ALL CAPS TITLES. This is generally considered a cheap attention-getting tactic, and you will either be asked to stop it or the threads will be changed for you.
- Constantly bumping threads for no good reason. Same as above. Let the discussion be "organic" is the most productive way to go.
Here are some specific things that are not allowed:
- Religion and politics - these topics are strongly polarizing and little positive benefit is likely to come of it.
- Posts or threads specifically intended to create controversy or pit members against each other.
- Defamatory or disparaging remarks made about anyone.
- Insulting or "calling out" anyone.
- Disparaging remarks made about any audio product or its or manufacturer. (Verifiable facts of a technical nature are not considered disparaging. A measurement, or an analysis of a circuit, for example. However, any "interpretation" or "embellishment" with your opinion may be in violation of this rule.)
You and any of your employees and associates that use this site are expected to maintain Professional Conduct at all times. You should view your relationship with AudioCircle as a collaborative one, and we are only able to keep our rates very low as long as every Industry Contributor works with us this way. You and your employees and associates are therefore expected to maintain good relations with the Site Owner and Site Admin, and faiure to do so may result in closing of your contributor account and/or restriction or termination of your posting privileges.
Please also note that even though you are an Industry Contributor, you are not allowed to promote your products (or those of your associates or friends) in non-commercial areas of the site. In non-commercial areas, you must limit your responses to technical information in response to specific queries, and for all other information, move the discussion to your circle or industry-sponsored thread.
You are permitted to have an avatar that is or incorporates your business logo. However, please make it primarily graphical (not textual) and don't make it look blatantly like an advertisement. (Remember that your avatar appears anywhere that you post, including in non-commercial areas.) Avatars that are deemed to be site-wide advertising may be removed.