Posted by daemon on December 21, 2004 at 00:00:00:

Welcome to the Group Build forum on AudioRoundTable.com! This is a forum dedicated to group efforts, be they amplifiers, loudspeakers or whatever. If you feel inclined to make one of your audio projects available to others, this is the place to do it. If you are particularly proud of one of your hobby designs, please consider doing this. It is exciting to see one of your pet projects become popular, and to know that hundreds of people around the world are pleased by it.

A few reminders should probably be made. First, remember that information posted here is placed into the public domain. By posting here, you are providing implied license to others to use the information you've provided. Don't post a set of plans if you don't want them to be copied. That might seem obvious to some, but it probably merits mention anyway.

Second, do not post anything that isn't yours or already in the public domain. If you're not sure that you have the rights to post a schematic or design, please find out first. It would be very disappointing for several people to start in on a project and then find out that we don't have the rights to display it. Obviously, any copyright violations resulting from posts made here will result in the offending posts being deleted, and possible further repercussions from the copyright owner. When in doubt, double check first. Feel free to write webmaster@AudioRoundTable.com if you are unsure.

Finally, the rules prohibiting commercial self-promotion are not suspended in this forum. Naturally, if you are one of the key players in a group project and it becomes popular, you will gain a certain amount of attention. That's exciting and fun, and you deserve it. But this is not the place to launch a commercial venture and start selling kits. That's what sponsored forums are for.

One of the advantages to group builds is the potential for group buys, which reduce costs. We encourage that here, and we will help facilitate it when possible. If, for example, a project becomes popular enough to warrant a group buy, the webmaster or moderator of this forum will either make enquiries or appoint someone to do it. It is likely that the persons most involved with each particular project will be involved. But out of courtesy to the other participants and to the sponsors of AudioRoundTable.com, this is not to be turned into a commercial venture. It might be a good idea to make a disclosure of costs and the expediters and vendors involved. The idea is that cost savings be passed onto the group, and not turned into profits for an individual member.

Again, that does not preclude a person from announcing their project here, finding it to be successful, and then starting their own sponsored forum to sell kits and to support people building them. That would be an attractive situation for everyone. But if that were to occur, it should be realized that the original public domain plans might still be used for DIY homebrew efforts. And kit sales should be limited to sponsored forums rather than being promoted here in the Group Build forum.

I think most of these things are pretty self-explanitory and understandable, but I also think that it is probably a good time to remind everyone of the rules of engagement here.

Enjoy!

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