Unlike other online communities and forums, we encourage merchants, service providers or store owners to post their specials on OzBargain. The reason is simple – if it is a good bargain, we want to know about it! However, there are a few points that a merchant might wish to consider.

OzBargain's rules as well as the Store Representative Code of Conduct apply to all employees of a company or related people that fall under a rep tag.

Tagging of representatives is a free feature provided as a way of providing transparency and clarity to deals. Having a representative tag in no way represents an endorsement of that company or person by OzBargain or the moderators.

Examples of those who will be tagged as a representative:

• Any employee or contractor for the company.
• Designer of the company's website
• Working as a marketer for this company (SEO).
• Designing/making/producing the product being sold.
• Related to someone mentioned above (friend, family).

If you have any relation to the company and do not want to be tagged as a rep then do not comment, post or vote on deals that you have an association with.

To make the affiliation between deals and posters more transparent, OzBargain requires all store representatives to declare themselves as a store rep. When submitting a deal or posting a comment, please choose the I am a Store Representative checkbox.

By posting as a rep you receive:

• A REP icon next to your username on your deals and on the Who's Online page.
• The ability to edit your Store Profile page.

Please ensure your profile information is accurate, up to date, includes the business you are representing.

• Make sure your email address is current, so that members and moderators are able to contact you.
• Make sure your location field is accurate.
  • If you are a non-Australian user, please put in your country of residence in the *location* field. Do not claim that you are from Australia (or elsewhere) and deliberately deceive other members. This WILL result in a ban on your account.

Currently there are some limits on how frequent a store representative can post on OzBargain. Representatives can check to see when they can post next by checking their store page. The store page can be accessed by going to http://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/samplestore.com.au where samplestore.com.au is your store's URL.

• Maximum 1 deal per 24 hours
• Maximum 2 deals per 7 days is the norm, however…

• If the vote average across the recent rep deals is 0 or below, the domain is temporarily banned until the vote average is corrected over time.
• If the vote average across the recent rep deals is between 0 and 3, the domain is temporarily banned for 2 weeks from the last post.
• If the vote average across the recent rep deals is between 3 and 8, it is reduced to maximum 1 deal per week.
• If the two most recent rep deals made the front page, the limit is increased to 3 deals per week.

Notes:

• Posting limit is calculated using a rolling window down to the precision of seconds. So for example if a rep posted at 4:45PM yesterday, he/she will not be able to post again until 4:45PM today (assuming 1 per 24 hours limit apply).
• Recent deals currently include deals from the past 30 days.
• Vote average is calculated by taking the sum of positive votes - negative votes for each deal post, divided by the number of recent deals.

Zero — there are no costs to participate on OzBargain for all users whether a representative or a normal user.

All members are expected to conduct themselves in line with the commenting guidelines. Store representatives should follow those guidelines in addition to conducting themselves professionally at all times.

Anyone that posts on OzBargain as a rep, is considered to be representing their company, and must conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times. Reps just like other users should take notice of the deal posting guidelines.

While it's fine to let people know about your deal, please do not ask people to vote for your deal.

Representatives are free to participate in threads about competing companies as long as they don't

• vote on the deal
• link to products on their website
• negatively comment about the competitors company.

Representatives are strongly discouraged from unsolicited private message communication to users for any reason, especially for commercial advertising which is explicitly forbidden.

Users may contact representatives for assistance with issues on request such as providing an order number which can be followed up.

If you feel that an Representative or staff member is behaving fraudulently or inappropriately, please contact a moderator with information regarding the incident(s).

OzBargain has implemented a zero tolerance policy for vexatious threats made against OzBargain or its moderators.

OzBargain is more than willing to consider and respond to reasoned, polite requests regarding the removal of posts and/or threads that are:

• In contravention of the Community Guidelines (including Terms of Use, Deal Posting Guidelines and Commenting Guidelines)
• Obviously and verifiably inappropriate.

Any such request should be made via Talk with a mod (TWAM) (a discreet discussion area).

Where OzBargain is of the reasonable view that a request/demand is vexatious, it reserves the right to take any or all of the following actions:

• Publicising the legal threats (and associated correspondence) and who has made them, including, but not limited to, any or all of the following actions:
• Penalty boxing of any and all accounts associated with the person or business making such threats;
• Banning the store from any further posts , thereby rendering them read-only, on either a temporary or permanent basis;
• If a legal threat is received in a form of a cease and desist letter, then the legal document will be posted on Chilling Effects and a forum post made.

*This document is a work in progress with help from Whirlpool).