Forum Rules

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hallsofvallhalla
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Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:29 pm

Forum Rules

Post by hallsofvallhalla »

After some discussion we have decided to add some forums rules. Now before you shake your fists in rage and pummel curses our way, understand why we have decided to do this and what they really mean.

First off this is just a moderation set list and not a official code of conduct that we will analyze every post against. We need something set in stone so if a some random a-hole comes on here acting stupid we can warn then potentially ban them without seeming like power hungry maniacs. I have always lived by the "its my forums so I will ban you if I need to" but as these forums grow I need to move away from that. Word spreads on things like that and people who get banned are always vengeful.

I know everyone here is mature enough to understand why we are posting these and these new rules will not change our current day to day posts.

1. Be polite at all times to other posters. You can disagree, but do so maturely.
2. No topics involving religion or politics will be allowed. These topics always spiral into divisive arguments , and there are many other forums on the net designed just for these types of discussions.
3. No insults or personal attacks on other users, ever, for any reason.
4. No spam. Signing up just to make spam posts is the fastest way to get banned and your posts deleted.
5. No posting about illegal activity, including software piracy, drug use, robbery, etc.
6. No link posting or advertising that takes you to a website that may contain a link to download an MMORPG server emulator (aka "private server") and no project postings using such emulators. While this is a gray area of the law, we must choose to protect our community from potential legal retribution.
7. A disagreement should be backed up with facts. No one should be posting "Atari is awful and a waste of money! You should have bought Colecovision!" This is a fast way to start a flame war in most cases.
8. Profanity should be kept at a PG-13 level. If it would be bleeped out on network television, you probably shouldn't say it.
9. Please do not post your personal phone number or address, nor the personal info of someone else. This is an obvious safety issue. And on this topic, while it is not a rule, you should probably "code" your email address if you are posting it (such as "greendude12438 at gmail dhot comm"). This will prevent email harvesters from obtaining your email and sending you thousands of spam messages a day.
10. New threads should be started in the forum which they are most appropriate.
11. Do not spam "bumps" to your thread. Threads do not fall off the front page very quickly, and people do check new threads. If you have not gotten a response, it may be that no one who has checked it yet has an answer. Be patient.
12. Do not respond to threads that are old (aka "necro posting"). This typically means over a month or so. This causes other posters to respond to old posts as if they were new, wasting the poster's time. If you want to start up a discussion about an old thread, make a new thread and link to the old one for other posters to reference. The exception to this rule is project threads, in which case it is common for the owner of the thread to come back at later times to post updates about their project.
13. No pornographic images are ever to be posted, and no links leading to pornographic images should be posted (this includes a non-pornographic website with pornographic ads).
14. Any non-pornographic links that could still be seen as inappropriate for someone to view at work or school (for example, including profanity, violence, etc.) should be clearly marked "Not Safe For Work/School".
15. All Recruitment forum threads should only have encouraging comments, or constructive criticism. If a poster wants to be an "idea man" and is looking for a team of 50 highly-skilled programmers and modelers to make his/her vision for free, he/she does not need you to tell him he is wrong. They will figure it out on their own when no one signs-up for their team, at which time they will set more realistic goals.
16. Please mark all posts with many images (5+ is a good measure, but just use common sense since image file size can vary wildly) with a Dial-up and/or Mobile warning. This shows courtesy to those who may have slow connections or could be on metered bandwidth.
17. No posts offering to sell products, merchandise or services that are not game development related. There are far too many scams out there to ask our users to blindly send money to someone online.
18. These rules can change with or without notice to you. Please check back frequently as these rules may have changed or updated.
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