Overland Bound Code of Conduct

The Overland Bound Forums and online community gathering points are a virtual rendezvous for adventure seekers who like to learn, share and engage in conversations about overlanding. We aim to create a community that shares information freely and helps each other out.

Here is how you help us create and maintain this positive environment both here on the site, and in the wild, wild west of Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

Overland Bound Code of Conduct Overview

Code of Conduct – Bullet Points:

• We are happy to have you here! We look forward to your contributions to the Overland Bound community and overland conversation.

• Be civilized. Don’t be a jerk. Don’t engage trolls. We’ll remove posts and comments intended to bring the conversation down with overt negativity, off-topic ranting, and language meant to target a group or individual. • Want to let us know about something you like or don’t like? We listen to all feedback, both positive and negative. We appreciate the input. There’s a contact form at the end of this page to communicate directly with our community team.

• Help the moderators and be courteous to them. It’s a small crew of folks who have been around these parts for a long time and they work to keep the energy and culture positively focused on overlanding. We work with our moderators to foster a supportive and collaborative environment for sharing information and planning adventure. If your comment or forum thread does not contribute to this desired end result, our team will take action. Moderators reserve the right to remove anything deemed inappropriate or in violation of the code of conduct.

Here’s what you need to know about comments and posts that will be removed and possibly get you banned:

• Spam: Zero tolerance. It will be deleted regardless if it’s human or spam bot. Self-promotion and blatantly advertising relevant or non-relevant products across multiple threads are included in this definition. Promoting your company and its products/events, personal brand, YouTube channel, or other projects across multiple Overland Bound groups/threads will be considered spam. (And by all means, please share your adventures with your group! But please do not share across 5 groups and 7 forum threads asking everyone to subscribe to your YouTube channel etc.)

• Overland Related Personal YouTube, Blogs, Social Media Accounts etc: Posts are permissible as long as they don’t solicit likes, shares, subscriptions, and they do not promote groups outside Overland Bound. (See guidelines on advertising below.) 

• Advertising: The Overland Bound Forums and official Overland Bound groups in any social network (such as Facebook) are advertisement free. Membership to Overland Bound does not grant promotional access to other members for marketing or sales purposes. We take this very seriously. This includes but is not limited to linking, sending traffic through, using a watermark with your business name on photos, or giving a call to action for any service or business you are affiliated with. This also includes consistently recommending your friends business. If you are asked to stop, please stop. 

• Personal attacks: Personal attacks and insults are unnecessary. If a conversation starts to turn into name calling with inflammatory language, our moderators will step in and end the conversation.

• Commenting on someone’s physical appearance or using hate speech: Keep it focused on the conversation at hand. If you go anywhere near personal attacks or hate speech, we will remove your post. See previous rule.

• Racism, sexism, and other discrimination: Making negative and broad generalizations about entire classes of people won’t work here. Posts will be removed and users will be banned for repeat occurrences.

• Trolling: This is one word that describes all sorts of poor online behavior, and we’ll immediately take steps to eliminate trolls from the conversation. If you are banned for trolling, we encourage you to self-reflect on what is really upsetting you, because it’s probably not overlanding or online forums.

• NSFW content: The forums and private groups are PG. We reserve the right to remove content deemed unacceptable. Harsh language, porn, gore, etc are a no go.

• Doxxing: Revealing someone’s personal information will get you booted quickly. It’s deplorable. • Illegal activities: No links to illegal gear, weapons, drugs, or sites that promote illegal activity. No posting of events or activities that blatantly and willfully encourage or facilitate the destruction of public, or trespassing of private lands.

• Multiple accounts and throwaway emails: We are interested in supporting people who are here to discuss, learn and share about overlanding. Only one account per user, and no burner emails. Accounts created to impersonate or mock another person will be banned. If you see any of the above activity on our site, REPORT the post. Don’t reply or engage, just hit the report button at the bottom of their post. Our team will jump in and take action.

User name and profile picture guidelines: No profanity, harsh or hate language. Any form of ‘Overland Bound’ that are not employees of Overland Bound are not allowed. Company logos and company names are not allowed. 

Communications outside the Overland Bound platform, forums and official social media groups: Overland Bound Inc does not monitor and is not responsible for members utilizing communication platforms (such as Whatsapp) outside of the Overland Bound One app, forums and official Overland Bound private groups (such as Facebook).

Code of Conduct: Why All the Rules?

You’re free to say whatever you like and act however you like, but we ask that while in our network, the conversation stays focused on overlanding. The Overland Bound forums and private Facebook groups are like virtual meeting spots for planning trips, asking questions, and contributing positively to the community. We are made up of folks from all walks of life and skill levels in regards to overlanding. We expect our members, friends and guests to show up and be courteous.

We will protect this virtual meeting point from negativity, trolling, and conversations that detract from the overlanding conversation. This is not to say you can’t disagree with Overland Bound, our code of conduct, or others on the site. We listen to everyone, including our harshest critics. We ask that the discussion and debate be civilized, that it stays solution oriented, and that it does not dissolve into a flamewar. 

Moderation, Moderators and Your Account

I have a question about an action taken by a moderator.

We are happy to discuss with you privately. You can submit your request in the form below and we’ll have someone from our community team jump in to help sort it out. How do I help the moderators? Overland Bound moderators work to ensure the best interests of the community and the conversation are maintained. You can help them by flagging inappropriate comments or threads, and if you receive a warning from a moderator for a violation of our Code of Online Conduct, we ask that you make the appropriate changes.

How can I become a moderator?

Moderators are folks who have been around the Overland Bound forums for awhile and have consistently contributed to the community and culture. We don’t have a forum vetting process for mods, but if you’re interested, we encourage you to be active, answer questions, report with good reason, and help newcomers settle in. The world can always use more helpful and nice people. 

Please reach out via our contact form with questions, feedback about our code of conduct, and feature requests. We hope you enjoy your time here, maybe learn a thing or two and meet some down to earth folks.

Don’t forget to leave it better than you found it, and as always, Outfit & Explore.

The Overland Bound Team