Rules

Hello. If this is your first time here, and you're reading up on our policies, the staff here welcome you to our humble little home. If you follow these rules and guidelines mostly written by Darkjedi and Darkwing, then you should do ok here.
(Dark Jedi and Darkwing are from the old Unofficial forum)

The Basics:
Each member is to be treated fairly and respectably. This is very important as this is a place for everybody here, and if they are not made to feel welcome, then you WILL NOT be welcome (yes that's a threat)

On that same note, there will be no:
Racism
Sexism
Bigotry
Libel
Discrimination
Hurtful Insulting
Bullying
Flaming
The punishment for any of these will be severe (see punishment)


Posting Guidelines:
Posting must follow the rules posted above (no racism, bigotry etc)
Language - Minor swearing will be tolerated, but not excessive use of it.
Minor swearing include - Damn, wii, poop(minor use only)
Under no circumstances will swearing such as: Goddamn, Jesus Christ etc be tolerated. You may not be religious, but I am, so not using these language choices shouldn't effect you
Harsh Swearing will not be tolerated at all.
Insulting/Bantering - Insulting will only be allowed if in a jesting manner. The user it is directed to must also understand that it is jesting and not a direct insult. This is simply a matter of textual intonation. Do not insult somebody in a negative manner and then come back and say "oh, I was only joking" when the Admin or Mod come after you for insulting a member.

Media Section

Videos:
Videos will be tolerated if they would be rated G, PG or at most 14A (see Canadian Rating System)
With regards to 14A movies, there are some worse than others, and this is what needs to be identified before you post the vid:
Is the gore - if so how much (minor gore will be tolerated though heavily discouraged)
Language - how much swearing is in the vid. If there is a fair amount of swearing and profuse language choices, then think wisely before posting
Sex/Nudity - 14A can have nudity, but will not be tolerated here on the forum - this is not a porn site, there are better places for that stuff

If you plan to post a vid that would be rated 14A, then IT MUST SAY SO IN THE TITLE OF THE POST.
If you think that the vid may not be entirely appropriate, then have an admin screen it before hand - it is better safe then sorry because once the vid is posted, it is your responsibility

Music:
Any genre will be tolerated here but there are still guidelines to follow:
Language - How much swearing is in the song. If there is a profuse amount, then don't post it
Lyrical Choices - Some songs sound really cool, but their lyrics and intent aren't. Be wise with what you post. It is understandable that most music seems to not have all that clean intentions, so this is a more lenient rule, but if I or another admin find that the song is purely evil at heart, then punishment will ensue (see Punishment)
The same with the vids, once you post something, it is your responsibility, don't make a foolish decision that could jeopardize your stay here

Literature - This will follow the same as posting guidelines

Images:
Images should not be depicting gore or sex or nudity. As stated before, this is not a porno website, so don't do it here at all.
Language should follow same guidelines as the rest of the forum. If the pic has harsh language, then use graphic editing software to edit out the language (GIMP is a free program that will allow you to do this)

Hacking Attempts:

1. Phishing pages

Don't EVER link one of these to this forum!

2. Cookie Stealers

Same as the phishing pages, just don't do it.

3. Code Exploits

Just to let you know, I can see all of the intrusion attempts in the admin logfiles, so don't get

to thinking you can screw around without someone noticing.

If I catch anyone doing any harmful thing to the forum or it's members through any unlawful

method, it's a permaban.

General Stuff:
Spam:
The Basics

Wikipedia defines spam as when a user posts something which is
off-topic or doesn’t have anything to do with the current subject.

In a general sense, a post that doesn’t contribute to the thread whatsoever is
considered spam.

Another form of forum spamming is where a person repeatedly posts about a certain subject in a
manner that is unwanted by (and possibly annoying to) the general population of the forum.

Lastly, when a person posts messages solely for the purpose of increasing his or her ranking on the forum.

But that's just the the beginning! This gets much more complex!

Smiley spam

Posts that contain something like this:

Spoiler:

Are not to be tolerated.

One word posts (A.K.A "One Worders")

Example:

Quote :

Captain Jarhead Wrote: LOL

Yes, "LOL" is considered one word around here.

Simple posts like this are spam, because they do not contribute to the thread in any significant way.

All they do, is add to the post count of the user that posted the "one worder".

Also, any post that contains only emoticons would fall under this category.

I might note that sometimes one worders are appropiate.

Example:

Quote :

Some Newb Wrote: Can I be an admin?

Quote :

Darkwing Wrote: No.

But, those occasions are rare. If you are unsure weather your post falls under the category of spam, you are free to ask any of the staff members if your post is indeed spam, or not. This means making it clear what you want to post in a PM.

Topic Tangents

These are okay sometimes.

Always try your best to keep the length of such alterations of topic to a minimum.

When you go off topic, it's not only annoying, and sometime degrading to the person who created

the thread, but it also usually results in a sudden end of discussion. (Due to a lock)


But in conclusion, please refrain from spamming!


A Few Other Things We Shall Do Without


Dansoft signatures

Yes, they're the cute little pics of the little dude holding up your IP address.

Don't post them, they cause glitches.

Oversized Signatures

When you link your avatar to a remote site, make sure it's not oversized. Please resize it first.

This doesn't only help prevent code glitches, but it also prevents thread pages from becoming eyes sores. (If you've never seen what I'm talking about, that's a good thing.)
Signatures should be not too much larger than 550px by 200px, this includes having multiple sigs, their combined height shouldn't be much larger than 200px

Punishment System:
The punishment system here is simple and also fair. Each case may not strictly fall into the categories mentioned here, and each incident will be evaluated accordingly

We use a three strike system which is:
First Strike: Warning by a Moderator or Admin (Admin must be notified of the warning if a moderator is doing the warning)
Second Strike: Depending on the offence will range between a 2 day ban and a seven day ban with another warning by an Admin
Third Strike: Indefinite ban (AKA Perma Ban)

Categories of Punishment:
First Strike offences may include: Swearing, Insulting Users, Ignoring Staff, Spam, Flaming
Second Offences may include: Repeated incidents of First Strike Offences, Flaming Staff, Excessive Spamming, Posting of inappropriate content (ex: Media sections)
Third Strike offences may include: Repeated incidents of First and Second Strike offences, Bigotry, Racism, Sexism etc, Extreme Spamming, Excessive Flaming, Unwillingness to follow the other guidelines, Posting Nudity, Extreme Gore, Major and Excessive Language (Swearing)

As stated before, this may not be an entirely strictly followed system, it depends on the circumstances and the incidents occurring.

Staff:
The moderators are here for a reason. If topics are being locked by the moderator, then I will respect their decisions as much as possible, and you should too. If a user decides to flame staff for locking their topic, then they will most likely automatically go to Strike two or three, depending on the severity of the flame. Respect the staff and their decisions and do not take it personally. I you are however having an issue with a staff member, then PM me privately. Any open attempt to flame or bring up an issue with staff will be seen as attention seeking and will not be tolerated.

If you are having an issue with another user, then contact myself or another Admin and it will be dealt with and evaluated privately.

Policy on Necroing:
Necroes are fine only if they bring up a new and relevant point to the topic. Most necroes however do not usually bring up new and relevant points, so it is simpler to avoid necroing. There is also a certain point to which a necro no matter how relevant will be tolerated. Anything older than a month will be heavily discouraged, anything after two months will have a staff member talking to you privately.

Account Usage:
Right now anybody over 12 is free to join this forum. However, double accounts will not be tolerated, if staff gets wind of a user having a double, then the double account will be deleted and the main account banned.
Users are allowed to have hidden status, but staff however is not unless for a good reason as defined by myself. The same applies for staff having double accounts.

Remember that anything you post or say is our responsibility, and you are held to what you post, so post with discretion and use your common sense. Don't do something foolish and risk having yourself banned.

Finally, enjoy yourself here, we tend to be fairly likeable and we enjoy the fact that most of the guidelines here are usually followed and that the forum is clean and open for use by anyone.

Any questions or comments about the rules and guidelines, then PM myself or another Admin and we'll try and set things straight.

Forum Relationships
Forum relationships will not be permitted on this forum. For those that do not know what forum relationships is, it is essentially flirting, dating etc on the internet. This isn't a dating/relationship forum so this will be prohibited. If you do it with members via e-mail or whatever, that is not my concern and up to you to conduct yourselves in whatever manner you want. Forum relationships on this forum will follow the three-strike system.