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SimGames.net Hosting Agreement

Thank you for your interest in SimGames.net's Free Web Hosting. Before your hosting services can be activated, you must agree to the terms set below. These terms were last revised on March 20, 2009.

It has come to our attention that a number of sites are linking to SimGames.net as an unlimited free host. These sites do not make it adequately clear that SimGames.net is for English gaming web sites only. If you are not here applying for hosting for an English gaming web site, your application will be discarded (as you have obviously not read this page), and you will receive no reply. Please do not apply for hosting unless you have read this entire page and understand the terms.

What You Get

SimGames.net has three classifications of hosting, subdomain hosting and two levels of domain hosting. Each "plan" is advertising-supported and free, however domain hosting requires that you first acquire the domain name through a registrar. The Level 2 domain hosting is not available immediately upon signup unless your site already meets the establishment requirements. Users with established web sites may request an upgrade to Level 2 to begin offering hosting services to other people.

An established site is defined as a web site that is updated at least 2-3 times per week over the course of a month with new information and demonstrable content. A site which merely posts news every few days about the site or has an active forum is not considered established. The site must regularly add content of the type appropriate for its topic. For example, a The Sims site should be continuing to add new downloadable content, screenshots, or articles. A gaming network might be expected to regularly post new reviews and previews of games. Sites for gaming clans are unlikely to be allowed to upgrade to Domain Level 2 unless they can justify the need to be able to offer hosting services to other people. The idea behind this policy is to force sites to prove that they are dedicated to providing quality gaming content for their visitors, and that they are not merely trying to gain access to SimGames.net so that they can run a "hosting network" or use the site for personal projects and free hosting for friends.

Prerequisites for Hosting

Sites that apply for hosting with SimGames.net must meet the following conditions at the time of their application:

• Your site must be related to gaming. Acceptable topics include simulation, strategy, role-playing, first-person shooter, consoles, game reviews and news. (Example titles: The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, SimCity, Spore, Tycoon Series, StarCraft 2, etc.)
• In order to assess your site's eligibility, we require websites to be launched and navigable before being considered for the SimGames.net Hosting program.
• Your site should have a professional layout and unique or innovative content, that makes it stand out above the rest. The more interesting your site seems to be, the more likely it is that it will be accepted.
• You must be willing to display advertising banners on every page of your site, in accordance with the advertising guidelines. You may view these guidelines here. Some advertising formats include pop up advertising.
• You should be prepared to keep your site updated. If possible, we prefer to see updates at least once per week.
• Your site must be primarily in English.
• You may provide game-related downloads on your sites. These must be user created downloads only. Officially released downloads, such as patches, may not be mirrored on SimGames.net unless you have obtained special permission from the person or organization responsible for the files.
• Your site must not host any copyrighted, illegal, or offensive media files, including, but not limited to, movies, music (MP3, OGG, WMA, etc.), full software downloads (warez), hacking tools, and pornographic materials.

Terms and Conditions of Hosting

Sites that are hosted by SimGames.net are expected to abide by all the terms and conditions set forth below. Under rare conditions, certain exceptions may be made for individual sites with special concerns.

• Subdomain and Level 1 Domain plan members may not host other sites. Before a member may request an upgrade to Level 2 hosting, he or she must demonstrate that they have built a complete, active fan web site. Level 2 Domain plan members may host sites but will be held responsible for ensuring that these sites follow the same terms and conditions as their own site. Failure to do so may result in the lost of the ability to offer hosting on a permanent basis.
• Sites must always display ad banner code on every page. This includes portals, splash pages, and most other types of pages. If you utilize small popup windows to display images or files, you may omit banners from these pages. Level 2 members that host sites, must ensure that all all hosted sites display advertising banners as well. Failure to do so may result in the loss of hosting priviledges. You may view details banner guidelines here.
• Members must continue to maintain active sites in the area of their content choice or an acceptable different content choice. Sites that change their primary focus to a topic unrelated to gaming will be considered for account termination, unless an agreement to the contrary already exists. If you plan to change your site's focus and are unsure whether the topic is acceptable, please contact the hosting manager and he'll be happy to let you know.
• Members may sell items in online stores, such as software or t-shirts, however no site may ever charge visitors for access to any portion or section of a site or resell server resources in any way. Sites found doing this will be subject to immediate suspension.
• Member sites may not run any software on SimGames.net that produces a constant draw on the CPU, such as server software or chat bots.
• Member sites may not adversely affect the overall performance of the server. If a site severely exceeds normal bandwidth, disk space, or general server usage, the site will be considered abusive and will be suspended.
• Your site must never host any copyrighted, illegal, or offensive media files, including, but not limited to, movies, music (MP3, OGG, WMA, etc.), full software downloads (warez), hacking tools, and pornographic materials.
• Your use of any scripts or software on SimGames.net must comply with all licensing agreements and terms provided by the script's publisher. If the policies or limitations of a particular product or script conflict with those of SimGames.net, the software may not be used on our servers.
• Members may not use SimGames.net hosting as a portal or fileserver for another site, located on another server, or as personal storage space for private use. Content posted on SimGames.net hosting is expected to be provided for the public use of fellow gaming fans.
• In addition to these terms, you are bound by all official terms set by our parent company, Steadfast Networks. Please familiarize yourself with these terms as well.
• SimGames.net makes no warranty of uptime, reliability or security of your data. We vow to do our best to maintain a reliable and secure server, but we request that you back up your site regularly for your own benefit. You may contact the hosting manager for a current compressed archive containing the files from your site.
• This Agreement is governed by the laws of Illinois, and United States.

Consequences of Violations

Failure to comply with the terms and conditions may jeopardize your hosting account.

For most minor violations, such as missing advertising banners, the member will be issued a warning, by email or instant message. The user will be given two weeks to correct the issue, unless circumstances prevent this. If no action is taken by the member in this time, the site will be suspended until the issue can be resolved.

If SimGames.net is contacted by a script or software publisher alleging the unlicensed or illegal use of scripts or software the member will be notified and given five days to either remove the software or produce proof of a valid license to the software. If no action is taken after five days, SimGames.net administrators reserve the right to manually remove the software from the server.

Any indication that a Level 2 domain site has changed its focus from gaming to hosting will result in a warning, followed by eventual reduction to the Level 1 plan. Any indication the any member site's focus has changed to a topic outside those allowed by SimGames.net will result in a warning, followed by eventual account termination.

In the case of repeated disregard for guidelines by sites hosted by a SimGames.net member, the member will be given no fewer than two warnings. If the member disregards the warnings, Level 2 domain plan access will be revoked and all content related to the member's hosted sites will be removed.

Repeat offenders of any guidelines will be dealt increasingly harsh consequences, up to and including eventual account termination.

For more severe issues, such as the uploading of small amounts of illegal content, the issue will be manually corrected by the server administrator and the site will be issued a warning. If the member intentionally violates the given term again, the site will be permanently deleted.

If a site is found to be using excessive bandwidth or causing interference with normal server operations, the site will be immediately suspended, and the member will be issued a notice. We will make our best efforts to work out these issues to avoid having to permanently revoke hosting from the member.

In the case of excessive disk usage that causes immediate adverse effects to the server, the member's site will be immediately deleted.

Apply For Hosting Now!

If you believe your site meets our guidelines and complies with the terms and conditions for hosting with SimGames.net, please contact our hosting manager, by clicking the link below. If possible, have a site preview ready for review, as we'll look more favorably on sites with a well-designed preview, than sites with no preview.

You will be taken to an application site to fill out information regarding your site. This application site does NOT automatically create a hosting account for you. It merely is a tool for evaluating your candidacy with us at SimGames.net. Applications that meet our criteria are created by us, AFTER we've determined your eligibility. Due to the services we offer, we require mandatory evaluations of all candidates. Just because you fill out an application does not automatically guarantee you will be accepted by our network.

Important Note: Due to our guidelines and the volume of email received, applications that request hosting without providing any details will be ignored. Be sure to include a description of your site and/or screenshots, samples, or links to your existing site for reference. We want to know what your site is about, what you plan to offer, and why you need us to host you.

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