Skip to main content.

About This Site

Contact the Webmaster

Hiring a Dancer?

Belly Dance

Search

Google
Web Philly Raqs

Support Philly Raqs

Buy Philly Raqs Stuff

Philly Raqs store on CafePress Coming Soon!

Join the Mailing List

Enter your name and email address below:
Name:
Email:
Subscribe  Unsubscribe 

Conditions and Terms

I am pretty accommodating and nice, if I do say so myself. But I have encountered a few situations which require me to lay down a few rules to Philly Raqs. They aren't *too* painful.

Copyright - text/images
Personal Disclaimers
Endorsements
Updates to this site
General guidelines for submitting listings
Instructor Page
Event Page
Swap Page
Copyright and copying text or images
This website is copyright ©2006 and may not be duplicated without my permission. What does this mean? Let me be clear here - it means that all images and text are my property and cannot be duplicated without my permission. Please give contributors to this website credit when credit is due. If you read about something cool on my news page, for example, do not repeat this news as your own. Please mention your source. I am flattered and whoever wrote something on my site may be flattered, but you are still taking credit for someone else's work.

Personal Disclaimers
  • I am not an expert in belly dancing or middle eastern dance. Obsessed, perhaps, but not an authority on belly dancing.
  • I am not an expert in Philadelphia-area belly dancing. I may not know about an event that is going on, if no one tells me. I may not know about an instructor, but this is not a snub - I just may have never met him or her. Let me know about an event or instructor or business or belly dancing aliens or whatever and as long as they are in the right geographic region, I'll add them to this site.
  • This website is done by one person. There is no team of crack Philly Raqs web designers, copy editors, proofreaders, ace reporters, or spies. (Contact me if you would like to become any one of these.) It's just little ole me, my awesome HP computer that I have modified to near death, and my web host, Surpass.

    • Endorsements

  • I do not endorse any dancer, event, instructor, or restaurant, or any other distributor of goods or services, and only list their contact information. I love you all. People occasionally email me to refer them to instructors, professionals for gigs, etc. When this happens, I forward the request to those on my mailing list, or to relevant listservs like Philly Bellies or Belly Dance in SJ.
  • I do not endorse vendors, except where noted, and only list their contact information. I have not necessarily purchased or used the services of anyone listed on this website. I cannot guarantee the quality or legitimacy of any vendor, restaurant, instructor, etc.

    • Updates to this site

  • Postings/updates to this site are done at my discretion I determine where, if and when information submitted to me will be posted. I also reserve the right to edit the information sent to me as I see fit before posting it to the website. You can suggest how you would like your information to appear, and I encourage that.
  • Postings/updates to this site are done on a regular basis, not instantly. I update this site regularly - usually twice a month - occasionally weekly, occasionally monthly. I have a life outside of Philly Raqs. (See the "one person rule" above.)I cannot immediately update the site within the hour of you emailing me about your event. Please submit events and news to me as soon as possible, because if you do not email me your event until a week beforehand, it may not make it onto the site and even if it does, the number of people who will see it is drastically reduced. I am happy to let you know when I will next update the site, but I will not post your information before my next scheduled update. NO EXCEPTIONS, don't even bother to ask.

    • General guidelines for submitting listings to this website:

  • This website is for belly dance information in the following rough geographic parameters: Philadelphia, "Greater Philadelphia" (Philadelphia suburbs), South Jersey, maybe Central Jersey (convince me), Delaware, and Pennsylvania east of Harrisburg. If you send me information on something that occurs outside of this geographic area, I will not post it. I will be happy to direct you to other regional belly dance sites that are more appropriate. I reserve the right to occasionally break my own rules and post something that may be on the border of these geographic areas, but I will not post Shebaba's House of Camel in Nowhere Near Here, North Dakota no matter what. Don't ask me.
  • SENTENCES IN CAPITALS are discouraged ( but I don't always have the time to remove them).
  • Flowery language will be edited - like "The fantastic and amazing Shebaba who mesmerizes all with her extreme skill at the sacred dances will again present the best hafla on the East Coast and serve succulent lascivious deliciouso buffet items the likes of which no mortals have yet tasted" will be changed to "Shebaba will present her 3rd annual hafla which includes a buffet dinner." Flower it up on your website, my website is just the facts, ma'am.

    • Instructor Page:

  • I do not list specific days and times for classes on the Instructor pages. There are just too many instructors. Also, class days and times change too often for me to keep this information current.
  • I do not endorse any instructor and I have not necessarily met or used the services of any instructor listed on this website. I cannot guarantee or verify their contact or class information.

    Event Page:

  • Please submit event information to me as early as possible. I update this site every few weeks, and if there is a change to your event (change of time, location, date, venue, cancellation, etc), the change will be made during my next update. (See "Updates to this site" above)
  • Please verify with the sponsor or organizer or venue of an event before attending. Details may have changed.
  • Please include the name of an event, cost, time, location, and contact information when submitting an event. Please see the general guidelines above, and please note that I reserve the right to edit event information sent to me.

    Swap Page:

  • No commercial notices.
  • I reserve the right to edit your post as I see fit, based on clarity and space. Please, no gratuitous adjectives, adverbs or CAPITALIZATIONS.
  • All items must have a value - a cost, or indicate if you are willing to barter.
  • No changes to your listing after posting.
  • Pre-owned costumes or accessories or items only.
  • Middle Eastern Dance related goods only, please.
  • Use good judgement: keep it clean and keep it concise: self-serving adjectives will be cut.
  • Items stay up 90 days. After that I may take them down without notice. However, you can submit them again to be relisted.
  • Tell me if/when ALL your goods are sold or your request has been filled; No changes unless your whole notice is coming down.
  • MAXIMUM 3 PICTURES POSTED. I'm posting pix "as sent" so if the photo looks gigantic, or dark or unattractive, that is how it will appear on Philly Raqs.
  • NO referrals or links to other websites. Send me pix or let me take pix from your site--no "visit my site to see..."

    Please remember as you use the Swap Pages that I am simply providing a place for people to offer or request merchandise or services. Philly Raqs and Amrazhi Couture do not in any way warrant or assume responsibity for the goods or services described on the pages or the reliability of buyers, sellers or swappers.

    (Heavily borrowed from Stella's BDNY Swap disclaimers.)

    To post on this page please go to the SWAP THIS page. I will post your notices on a regular basis. Please see the "not immediately" rule above. It will stay up for at least 90 days. Pictures help to sell your stuff.

    ******************************************************************************************************************

    How can I get away with all this? I pay the web hosting fees and domain name fees out of my own pocket and use my little free time away from my husband, my dancing, and my knitting and devote it to this site. I provide a service that exposes dancers, instructors, businesses, and event sponsors to thousands - THOUSANDS - of potential customers each month. For free. Cause I'm nice like that, except when I get all cranky with the rules.

    (If you would like to help support Philly Raqs, please make a donation by clicking on the "make a donation" button on the main page.)

    top