Rules and Guidelines

A really long block of text that all users must read upon arrival to the forum otherwise known as

THE RULES & GUIDELINES

Episode 1:
General Posting

Posting should generally be pretty straightforward, it is mostly just using some common sense. Users are at all times to treat other users with respect and dignity. This completely eliminates the use of flaming other users or insulting them or anything relating to them.

Users are to maintain these basic rules at all times else be banned immediately:
No insulting (joking is OK as long as it is understood as being joking)
No bigotry
No Racism
No Sexism
No hateful language/imagery
No disrespect
No slander/liable
No Plagiarism
No vulgar language
Any breaking of these means perma-ban. No exceptions.


Users are also not to spam (spamming will be gone through in detail later on). Everything posted on the forum is to be kept clean and for anyone to be able to read. This means none of that foolish teenage gutter talk. Users are to try to maintain some level of maturity at all times and to not act like children!

Episode 2:
The Punishment System

For the most part, the punishment system is based on a three strike principal.

The first strike is a simple warning usually through PM by and Admin or Mod.

The Second Strike is a warning by an Admin plus a temporary ban determined by the Administrators depending on the crime.

The third strike is perma-ban. This means PERMANENT!!!! Once perma-banned, there is no going back. I get very annoyed when I start getting a lot of e-mails saying “I’m sorry mr sir, I really didn’t mean it, honest I didn’t”. I’m liable to pick something hard up and throw it at you.

Now you may be wondering what kinds of things qualify as each level of punishment, because it doesn’t always have to follow the three strike system. Depending on what is done, you might jump to strike two, in some cases even strike three. This is usually determined by the staff and then ultimately by me. I make the final decision with regards to the fate of users, so feel free to bribe me (I’m kidding, bribing will most likely get you a worse punishment)

Episode 3:
Spam (Not the meat)

Spam qualifies as any post that contributes absolutely nothing to a topic, and can be as short as one word, or as long as a billion smileys.
There are several different types of spam. The usuals are one word posts such as:

Lol, yep, yo, ROFL, etc

It contributes absolutely nothing to the topic at hand and just makes people annoyed. Spam like that will probably only grant a locking of the topic and depending on the frequency of use by the member, could get a strike one (if first offense that is).

Another common type of spam is smiley spam. This is where a users simply posts smileys in a post and nothing else. This is not tolerated. It is a waste of everyone’s time to look at and again just makes people angry. The use of smileys should be for only backing up your point, emotion etc. If there are more then five smileys in a post, we will probably begin to ask the question of was that really necessary.

The third common type of spam is writing stuff in a post but not actually saying anything relating to the topic at all. This could include advertising for no reason, or just talking about something completely different with no cause or foreseeable reason why.

Spam attacks.

Don’t do them. You will die.

Episode 4
Necroing

M policy on necroing is different then most forums. I don’t really have a timeline for how old a topic should be to post in or not post in. If you post in a topic that has been dead for several months, you’d better have a pretty darned good thing to say that must be climactic in content to have been worthy of bringing the topic back from the dead. The older the topic, the more climactic your post will need to be. The best way to avoid this is to simply not post in topics that have been dead for a few weeks. Most people confuse my necroing policy as it isn’t really much of one. It’s basically just it had better be important or very informative. Necroing and Spam can sometimes go hand in hand where a topic is necroed but if the content is worthy of our attention, could be considered spam as well.

Episode 5:
The Media

Users are allowed to post a variety of things on the forum, including pictures, videos, music etc. But these follow some rules as well.

Videos:
Videos must follow the Nova Scotian rating system (which will be posted in another thread). All videos must not exceeded a 14A rating, and if the video is 14A, must be screened by an Admin or myself.

Videos are not to contain excessive vulgar language, gore, or any nudity. If that is posted, you will be perma-banned. I have no tolerance for that sort of thing.

Pictures basically follow the same rules as videos, no nudity, gore etc. Now to be clear, when I say no gore, I don’t mean no blood or anything is allowed, but if someone’s intestines are falling out in the picture, then we have an issue.

Music must be appropriate enough for younger age groups to listen to. This means avoiding songs with vulgar language or explicit imagery via the lyrics. If posting a music video, you must combine the rules of video with the rules of music.

Episode 6:
Signatures and Avatars

Forumotion has at least one useful tool, and that being it resizes avatars. Something it doesn’t have is the resizing of signatures. We want to avoid sigs that stretch the page anymore then it normally would be. Generally don’t go much larger in total then 550x200 px in size. Sigs and Avvies should follow the images rules.

Dansoft Sigs
These are a big no no. For those of you who don’t know what they are, they are sigs that post your IP address and location. These sigs really mess the forum up and are not permitted at all here.

Episode 7:
The Chatbox

The chatbox is there for the use of the users to use at their will whenever they want. However, for the most part, that Chat follows the same rules as the forum, with the exception of spam and necroing really.

Epilogue:
And if your eyeballs aren’t bleeding yet (and even if they are, check out the RPG rules in the RP section. They’re at least as long as these rules are!