Community rules and/or guidelines

Caiman · Apr 23, 2011

I couldn't see any recent topics on rules/guidelines so I thought I'd start a new one.

I've been trawling through some old, saved content from my days running a relatively busy community (2004-2008) and have dug out some bits and pieces. We had a rather extensive 'guide' for our members to the feautures available on our website and the rules and guidelines they were expected to abide by, which I'll detail below. Perhaps these will be useful to some of you out there!

Personally I tried to take a rather informal/lighthearted approach while still ensuring we were clear on expected behaviours so first our overall 'Guidelines' document. Below this are then further, expanded explanations we also had pages for.

These are the guidelines by which the site is governed. You can find clearer explanations of some rules in our Reference Manual, but it's always a good idea to familiarise yourself with these guidelines anyway. Any updates made to these guidelines will be highlighted in this thread.

When you're finished reading, you can return to the Reference Manual by clicking here.

Forum Policies

But I didn’t know the rules! It is your responsibility to be aware of the guidelines. We reserve the right to change and update our existing policies at any time, and will notify the community when this occurs.

So I’ve got this thread idea… Members are expected to start a valid discussion when creating a new thread. A quality thread involves asking a question or offering your opinion on a given subject, stating your own position, providing a foundation for discussion and inviting others to do the same. An outstanding thread will do these things, as well as provide evidence for the poster’s viewpoint and offer multiple angles of analysis. When posting a new topic, use a title which accurately describes the content of your message, and always ensure that there is not already an active thread discussing that topic.

I hate that guy and everything that he stands for. How can I let him know? Forum members should post in a respectful manner towards other community members. Flaming, defined as launching a personal attack or using discriminatory speech towards another forum member or group, and trolling, posting unfounded or unsupported comments, or causing a disturbance, potential or otherwise, by attacking specific groups, are not tolerated on this forum.

We also insist upon courtesy. Treat your fellow posters as intelligent, thinking individuals – because, of course, they are. If you’re going to post with an attitude, then please don’t post. There’s no need to talk down to your fellow posters, to lecture or patronize them, or to treat their opinions as inferior. All of these contribute to souring the posting environment, and we won’t have it.

Personal attacks are severely discouraged on STOnet. Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, against individuals or groups, will not be tolerated and warrants an immediate response. Keep your disagreements with other posters strictly to the ideas they present, and not to the posters themselves. Attacks on a poster’s motivations or credentials will be interpreted as a personal attack.

So a guy walks into a bar… Though we are a mature community, members should remember that our forum entertains a general audience. Discussion of unethical, distasteful and/or illegal internet practices including but not limited to file sharing and pornography is prohibited. Additionally, the posting of obscene, pornographic or other inappropriate materials is not tolerated.

Due to vast differences of opinions within our international community of members, discussions of a sexual, politically or religiously sensitive nature should be avoided in the Star Trek Online-related forums. These topics generally degenerate very quickly into off topic debates and will be closed down as soon as a staff member encounters them. Such conversations, conducted respectfully, are acceptable in the Off Topic forums.

Where am I? When creating a new thread, please ensure that you are posting in the relevant forum by reading the forum descriptions first.

One of these things is not like the other. When responding to a thread, it is important that you stay on topic! If you haven't got anything relevant to add to a thread, please do not post in it. Off topic replies, person-to-person conversations, non-contributive replies (“I agree!”, “QFT!”, “1st/2nd/3rd”), double-posting, excessive imagery, excessive linking, and unnecessary threads are all treated as spam, and will be removed.

Stand up and be heard! Kinda... Users should take the time to ensure that their posts consist of good spelling, grammar, and normal writing. Please avoid excessive smilies, formatted and colored text, excessive punctuation or capitalization, and unnecessarily long blocks of quoted text. It’s always better to take a moment to use a spellchecker or to double check what you have written before posting. Genuine language barriers will be more than respected, so long as an honest effort is made to be clear.

Devs are people too! STOnet is proud to provide a platform for community members to speak with Perpetual Entertainment staff and to provide input on the game. It's important to remember, however, that developers are no different than our other community members; they're to be treated with the same courtesy and respect afforded regular posters. Expressing your disagreement or discontent with a decision taken by Perpetual is more than fine, but attacks on the integrity, competence, or general character of Perpetual reflects directly on the developers who post here, and may be treated as personal attacks or trolling.

Masters of the dark arts need not apply. STOnet enforces a 30-day necromancy policy; that is to say, after 30 days, a thread should be considered dead and thus unsuitable for new replies. Members are free after that point to start new threads on the same subject. If a thread is necromanced, the post which reactivated it will in most cases be deleted and the thread closed, though moderators are authorized to use their discretion.

Cloning is bad. Users must NOT create duplicate accounts on this forum for any purposes without prior authorization from the staff. Any unauthorized duplicate account will be permanently banned.

That’s a nice website, but… While we welcome you to use the 'website' profile field and your signature to link to your websites, we request that you do not post threads explicitly advertising them. You may post links in a thread when it is necessary, if you are linking to an article or sourcing some material which is relevant. Advertising in posts is not tolerated on STOnet.’

In this house we observe intellectual property laws! You must not take possession of or utilize copyrighted materials on this forum without permission from the copyright holder. If you are posting a partial article from any other site, then you must credit the source, link to the article and name the site it came from. The same applies for the use of images you have been given permission to post.

I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it. The Guidelines only cover a basic catalogue of common violations. Rarely, situations occur that do not expressly violate the terms of the Guidelines, but severely undercut the spirit of the Guidelines and of STOnet. In these instances, we will act to stem such behavior under appropriate clauses of the Guidelines. The member in question will have the relevant interpretation explained, and moderation will occur through the normal system. We expect this discretion will rarely be required.

Policing

At StarTrek-Online.net we operate a semi-automatic infraction based moderation system. Should a guideline be broken the community member will be sent a warning message and a number of points added to his or her profile which contribute towards a set total. Should 30 points or more be accumulated in any one period it will result in a temporary ban for a maximum of 30 days. You can read more about our infraction system and what offenses carry what point weight by clicking HERE.

Do not argue with staff members about their actions in public. If you feel that you have been unfairly treated by a member of our staff then you are free to contact a member of the administration with your complaint which will be reviewed by other team members and revoked if the decision sides with you. If the staff supports the warning, you will be informed by a member of the staff other than the individual with which you disagreed. This decision will be considered final. Persistently arguing with staff members in public will result in an infraction.

There are exceptions to our flexible infractions system. STOnet staff reserves the right to temporarily or permanently ban any member at any time, for any reason the staff deems necessary. Persistent ignorance of moderator warnings and infractions is one way to incur such a response.

At the discretion of the site staff, and only out of necessity, all private messages sent and received may be subject at any time to review as part of any investigation into a particular user. If this occurs, the staff will notify any such user of the investigation, and that their private messages have been or will be reviewed as a result.

Whilst attempting to enforce the above regulations, STOnet staff may make use of various methods to occasionally perform checks on our users; these include, but are not limited to, IP traces and Private Message investigation.

Avatars and Signatures

The maximum allowable dimensions for avatars are 120x75 pixels and must not exceed 29.3kb. Signatures may contain a single image which does not exceed the dimensions of 500x100px and the weight of 95kb, or multiple images which collectively do not exceed the same limit. You may choose avatars, animated avatar, or signatures from our various galleries, upload your own or link to one that is hosted offsite. You may also include up to 5 lines of normal sized text in your signature, which are equally subject to Forum Guidelines.

Avatars, animated avatars, attached images and signatures which violate our Guidelines will be removed and subject to warning or infraction.

You may use your signature to link to your website. However, signatures which explicitly advertise or recruit in any way will be removed and subject to warning or infraction. You are allowed a maximum of five links in your signature.

Then the further 'expanded' guidelines of certain specifics of the above;

Creating a new thread
We have a policy when it comes to creating threads and like to grab the opportunity to put a spotlight on that policy and explain why we have it in place.

We ask the poster to not simply state the subject they want to discuss when starting a thread but to really start a discussion. Depending on what sort of thread the poster wants to start this can encompass the poster giving and supporting his own opinion, in case he wishes to discuss a certain feature, or giving possible solutions to a problem the poster wishes to talk about. The poster has to start a discussion himself and not leave that to someone else.

If you do have a question about STO that you want answered, instead of starting a discussion thread about it you can instead start a thread in our General Questions subforum, which you can read about here.

Currently a lot of threads die an early death or turn into yes-no debates with no real discussion going on. We are proud of the great discussions we have going on here and would find it a shame if a lot of nice subjects never really get off the ground because the threads that brought them up weren't properly started.

So please take some time when creating a thread. Creating a thread requires some work, more then creating a post, but if done well it can generate a great discussion to be proud of!

What is SPAM and why can't I post it?
SPAM stands for Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages. SPAM is banned on this forum as per our Forum Guidelines and will be deleted at the first instance it is encountered or reported, while persistant spamming may result in a ban of your account. We consider the following types of post spam:

Off Topic replies
If you post a message that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject/content of a thread, it will be considered spam.

Person-to-Person conversation
Adding messages to a thread with personal messages directed between members is also spamming, unless they directly involve the subject at hand.

Non-Contributive replies
If you haven't got anything to contribute to a thread other than 'lol' or other irrelevant material, then don't post. 'Me too'/'I agree'/Post count+1 and other short messages such as this will be considered as spam. Repeatingly posting unsupported statements in discussions will also be considered spamming.

Replying to old threads
Threads that have not been replied to in for a month are considered 'dead' and should not be resurrected. You are of course allowed to create thread to start a new discussion on the subject. View our explanation of necromancy for more details.

Creating unnecessary threads
Before creating a new thread please check whether a current thread covering your topic already exists. Please do not create duplicate threads, one thread about a topic is enough. You can read our notes on creating new threads here.

Double posting/Bumping
You should not bump your own threads that haven't been replied to or reply with two consecutive posts in the same thread. Please use the edit function if you want to add something to a thread that noone has posted in since you did.

Excessive linking to other sites
While we allow you to post a link to another site, please make sure you only do so when it is relevant to the topic. With the exception of the Guild Forum, which is governed by its own set of additional rules, creating new threads and linking to personal sites is forbidden.

Remember, you can use the private message function or off topic forums for more personal discussion, or the reputation feature to give kudos to a poster if you have nothing else to add to the thread.

Necromancy, STONet and You!
We'd like to spend a few moments to discuss our policy on necromancy. Let's begin by answering the most important question:

What is necromancy?
Necromancy, in Internet terminology, is the act of posting in a thread in which the most recent post is older than a certain period of time, as determined by the Administrators of a given forum. How long a time period is that at STONet? We'll get to that one in a moment.

Why do we have such a policy?
Primarily, it helps in our efforts to keep the board as uncluttered as we possibly can. As well, many old topics on the board might be dealing with issues in the game that are no longer relevant, or have since been substantially changed. In that same vein, many older discussions largely consist of posts made by members whose posting habits have changed.

When Is A Thread Considered to Have Been Necromanced?
Under most circumstances, a thread is held to be necromanced if the most recent post is dated one month prior or longer. For example, if the most recent post was made on April 1st, then a post made beyond May 1st is more than likely to be considered necromanced.

In these situations, the poster will be notified of the violation, the thread in question will be locked and moved to our repository, known as "The Airlock".

With this in mind, it's worth mentioning that we're not soulless minions of orthodoxy here at STONet. Moderators and Administrators can, when they see fit, exercise their discretion when reviewing necromanced threads. We know that all of our members put their best effort and thought into their posts, and we're not interested in sending your opinions to the proverbial graveyard on a technicality. We will attempt to bring the situation to the best resolution possible for all involved. Also note that this guideline is less likely to be enforced in the ST:O Polls and Holodeck forums, as single threads are expected to take replies for extended periods of time.

If you wish to discuss a topic that is long past the cutoff date, feel free to create a new thread; posters are encouraged to link to the original thread in that new posting.

To recap: threads in which the most recent post is one month old or more, do not post in that thread. Look for a more recent ongoing discussion, or start a new one in the appropriate forum. Failing to follow through with this policy will result in that thread being closed. The rule is relaxed in the STO Polls and Holodeck/Off Topic sections, but is still subject to moderator discretion.

As always, if you have questions or comments about a moderator action, please refrain from discussing that action in public. Contact the moderator privately, using our Private Message system.

Infractions
We have introduced a flexible reprimand system on StarTrek-Online.net which should make it easier for both moderators to deal with problems and for users to understand why moderator action might have been taken against them.

The 'Infractions' system allows moderators to contact and/or reprimand a user who contravenes our forum guidelines in a post and give them points that contribute to a set total. Should you though recieve in excess of 30 infraction points at any one time, you will automatically be temporarily banned from the website for a minimum of 7 days, (this varies depending on what type of infractions you have and how long it takes for them to expire) so try to avoid getting them. Details of infractions in place are listed below (note, we may add additional definitions at anytime).

Infractions in place:

Necromancy – 2 points – expires after 14 days
Inappropriate language – 2 points – expires after 7 days
Flaming – 5 points – expires after 28 days
Trolling – 5 points – expires after 28 days
Spammed forum – 5 points – expires after 28 days
Spammed shoutbox – 2 points – expires after 7 days
Spammed shoutbox with inappropriate language – 5 points – expires after 14 days
Spammed advertisements - 10 points - expires after 28 days
Discussing Warez - 10 points - expires after 28 days

Infraction points are mostly temporary and will automatically expire as shown above. In turn, an infraction can be made to permanently remain on your profile at moderator discretion depending on the severity of the contravention committed, meaning that the amount of points you need to receive before being temporarily banned decreases. There is also an option for staff to give custom infraction notices should a guidelines contravening circumstance arise which isn't directly covered in the list above. Finally, at moderator discretion you might recieve an infraction notice that acts only as a warning, contributing 0 points to your total, again depending on the severity or intention of the infraction commited.

When an infraction is given, the user against whom the action was taken will recieve an automated private message containing details of the infraction committed and a note from the moderator giving it. Please bear in mind that the moderators of this site are well aware of our guidelines and that if you receive an infraction notice, it is final. Behind the scenes, all staff are able to easily keep track of infractions given. Your infractions and their expiry dates will also be listed in your control panel and on your profile (though this information is private and viewable only by the user with the infractions and staff).

For more details on the guidelines that these infractions relate to, please see our Forum Guidelines.

Disputes and Complaints
At times on STOnet, like on any forum community, there may be occasions where you disagree with an action a member of staff has taken, or have a complaint about either something on the site or another member. In these circumstances you can contact a member of staff, identified by their blue names. Staff will always treat your complaint seriously and investigate each situation carefully. A list of staff members is located here.

If you wish to report a specific post which you think is breaking the rules or you have some other complaint about that post, it can be easier and quicker for you to use the report post button to make us aware of the situation. You can read more on reporting posts here.

If your dispute is with regards to an action a member of staff has taken, whether that be a notice you've received through the infraction system or something else, it is usually best to pm that staff member to try and resolve the situation with them first. That member of staff will explain the situation to you and hopefully most issues can be resolved between yourself and that member of staff. If you still feel something is being dealt with poorly, you can instead contact another member of staff, who will attempt to find out what's going on and resolve the situation for you.

Reputation Explained
What is reputation?
Reputation is a way of showing how respected and valuable a member's posts are. The more green boxes displayed, the higher that users reputation is. By default all users start with one green box.

Reputation is not decided by the site, but instead by its members. It is only affected by the number of members who give reputation to each individual member, and not by length of membership or post count. So, want to approve of someone's post but don't have anything more to add to the thread? Then nudge them a reputation comment!

How do I give reputation?
To give reputation to a user, you need to click on the reputation icon in the post that you are giving reputation about. The icon is the one that that has a tick and a cross on it.

Once you have done this, you can add a comment to explain to the receiving user why they are receiving reputation from you.

Can reputation be negative?
No, due to past abuse of the system users can now only leave positive reputation. The system is meant for constructive feedback to a user's post and idea, not subtly trying to attack someone you don't like.

How do I view my reputation?
If you enter your user control panel (userCP), at the bottom of the first page that appears will be your reputation details. This will include your actual reputation score (in points), and details of the most recent reputation given, including links to the posts concerned. If you click the title of each reputation score, it will take you to the post that you received the reputation for.

Why are there different colored blocks in my reputation history, and what do they mean?
You will see three different colored boxes in your recently received reputation. A green box means that positive reputation has been given, a red box means that negative reputation has been given, and a grey box means that either positive or negative reputation has been given but it did not affect your overall score. This normally happens with new users as they generally do not have permission to affect others reputation until they have satisfied conditions set by the administrator.

When will my reputation clicks start affecting others?
You need to have met all of the following conditions before your reputation clicks will affect other reputation scores.

Number of posts: 25
Your reputation score: 10

What is reputation power?
Reputation power is the amount that you can affect other peoples reputation. Your reputation power is affected by the length of time you have been registered on the site, your post count, and the amount of reputation you have.

On this site your reputation power is calculated by the following method:

For every 365 days registered, your reputation power is increased by 2.
For every 500 posts, your reputation power is increased by 1.
For every 500 reputation points, your reputation power is increased by 1.

How much reputation can I give out?
The amount of reputation you can give out every 24 hours is defined by the site administrators.

On this site the reputation settings are as follows:

Number of reputation clicks per day: 10
Number of users you need to give reputation to before giving to the same user again: 10

Is there a way of hiding my reputation score from others?
Everyone is privy to the same rules on this site. Therefore, all reputations are displayed, whether good or bad.

Mikey · Apr 23, 2011

Here is mine.

http://offtopichut.com/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules

Welcome to Off Topic Hut

Ideology / Rules

Off Topic Hut (OTH) operates on a "use common sense" basis. Basically, if you would not do it on most forums, don't do it here. Don't spam, don't advertise, nothing "not safe for work" (except in the correct boards in The Red Zone), treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. If you troll, expect to be treated with little to no respect or compassion (Depending on what mood we're in) If you spam, you're out. If you have a web site and would like to advertise, you are welcome to in your signature.

Off Topic Hut runs under the law and jurisdiction of the United Kingdom (where its owner and founder is based), so anything posted on Off Topic Hut which breaks the law in this territory is prohibited.

Privacy Policy

During our registration process, we will collect certain privileged information, such as your email address, IP address among other things. We will never share any of this information with anyone outside of our privileged staff members, who have signed a Non Disclosure Agreement. If someone (who is not you) wants access to your information, to obtain it they will need a court order from the courts of the United Kingdom, which we will comply to.

Banned users and Spammers are exempt from this, and subject to having their details shared, they lose any privacy privileges they had on OTH. In particular, if you are a spammer, or deemed as one, your email address and IP Address can be used in a spam prevention programme, and submitted to the necessary parties.

Submitted Content

All content which is posted to Off Topic Hut becomes a part of Off Topic Hut, and can not be removed. It remains your own intellectual property as a singular object, but property of Off Topic hut as a whole and in context. A post is your property, and remains so, but once it is added to a topic, it becomes the joint property of you, and Off Topic Hut (as a whole). If the Off Topic Hut site is sold, no payment will be given to members for their freely added posts, but the post remains yours to post wherever you wish. Topics cannot be copied from Off Topic Hut to any other website in their entirety without the prior written permission of Off Topic Hut

If you are confused by any part of this, please do not hesitate to contact the staff

Shawn Gossman · Feb 5, 2012

Here are mine

[classified] - Official Rules and Guidelines

Welcome to [classified] a free online message forum community of Forum Administrators, Forum Moderators, Webmasters, Developers and Friends who discuss forum creation, management, promotion and revenue earning with one and other. This forum was created for having discussions about running message forums. This forum is open to all people who are 13 years of age or older. Please note that different diversities, ages, cultures, races and forum niche owners on this forum and understand that everyone is welcome here. Your main competition may be members of this forum, those you have banned may be members of this forum -- we expect everyone to show respect to their fellow members or ignore them if they do not wish to interact with them.

To ensure that everyone can have a positive experience on this forum, we have created the following Official Rules and Guidelines policy. By registering on this forum, you agree to abide by these guidelines at all times. Please note that most of our forum is open to guests and that anything you submit can be seen by everyone on the internet.

Admin Forum v. Promotion Forum

Please understand that [classified] is an Administrator Forum or Admin Forum. We are not here to provide you a forum solely for advertising. This forum is not considered an advertising or promotion forum. This forum is for reasonable discussions about forum owners, management, promotion and related topics. However, we have several areas where you can advertise your forum, get reviews and more. Disclaimer: If your sole intentions on joining this forum is to advertise your forum or website, please consider not joining. If you would like to discuss forum management and related topics while advertising your forum in appropriate sections, then you are the perfect member for this forum.

Our Mission

Our Mission at [classified] is to...

Provide accurate information and debate for forum administrators and other interested parties.

Educate forum owners and administrators about forum management and marketing.

Assist new forum owners and administrators with the creation and management of their forums.

Provide a safe haven for discussing and debating the various forum software on the internet.

To help define and help assist the growth of forum ownership and forum administration.

To help break free from the "no competition allowed" principles that are isolating the forum world/

Lastly and most importantly, to help forum owners and those who are in the forum industry.

General usage of [classified]

This section describes your general usage of [classified] . By using [classified] , you may control notifications that are sent to you via-email by the forum, however, you understand that Another Admin Forum may contact you by email for various important updates, planned downtime, merging announcements and related. However we will attempt to decrease the number of email notifications we send to our members as an act of courtesy. The rules may be below but like many forums on the internet, our rules are basic common sense and include being polite to others, acting responsible and mature, not spamming the forum or advertising where you shouldn't advertise and abiding by the law. You may only have ONE ACCOUNT and you may NOT share your account or password with other member, staff or non-members of this forum. We do not delete accounts or posts upon request and by using this forum, you agree to this rule. However, if you wish to leave, we will change the name of your account to something random that we have chosen. If you decide to come back, you will need to contact us before hand so that we can approve your new account or enable you to use your old account. If you constantly leave and come back, you will be banned for life.

Failure to abide by this Official Forums Rules and Guidelines policy may result in disciplinary action. That may include unofficial PM/verbal warnings, official PM/verbal warnings, locking of topics, restriction of access to certain areas, post moderation, temporary suspensions and bans and permanent bans. Please note that we will aggressively combat spammers by contacting their ISP, Hosting, Domain Service, etc. in an attempt to get their account or internet service terminated. We have legal officials that work with the network that owns this forum and will seek their assistance if needed. We are 0% tolerance on illegal activity on our forum and reserve the right to share user information with law enforcement official if criminal or infringement activity has been committed on this forum.

This forum is a child community of [classified] . [classified] and this forum is owned and operated by [classified] who is the active President and CEO of the network. This forum is operated and hosted within the United States of America and will abide by all US laws, codes and acts regarding websites and internet use and ownership. If you attempt to take us to court, by using this site, you agree to use the court services of Williamson County Court in the State of Illinois to the fullest extent of the law.

General Forums Rules and Guidelines

The following rules and guidelines apply to all categories, boards, child boards and features on [classified] . Please note that some sections may have additional rules and guideline that need to be read and MUST be followed at all times by all members, staff and guests.

You must respect other members. You may not show disrespect to another member because they are new, competition against you or do not agree with your beliefs. We ask that you ignore those who you do not wish to interact with.

You must use English at all times on this forum. This is an English speaking forum and all areas and sections require English speaking content. Please use proper English and attempt to decrease the amount of slang and "text talk" used.

Unless specifically allowed, posting in discussions with the intent to advertise is not allowed. We ask that you provide quality content in your discussions and stay away from one liner messages. In some cases, a one liner message may be appropriate and we understand that.

We ask that you do not create duplicate posts or cross-post. Please post a topic only once and do not repeatedly bump it. It is a rule that you may only bump a topic 24 hours after your initial thread creation time or recent reply time. Please use the search feature before making a new topic. You are permitted to post in extremely old topics if you can contribute quality content to them.

Do not post on behalf of a banned member anywhere on our forum. Do not have public discussions a banned member on our forum. We do no disclose the reasons for banning a member to other members so please do not ask.

Do not attempt to bypass our profanity filter. We do not welcome heavy use of profanity on our forum because using it shows lack of intelligence. Do not attempt to bypass filter systems that are blocking URLs from our forum. If you have blocked a forum URL, chances are the forum has done something really bad to our forum.

Adult-rated material, content, links, media and words are not allowed on our forum. This includes crude/adult jokes, pornography of any kind, sexual content/media of any kind, extreme violence and anything that could harm a minor. Please note that we allow users age 13 and over to be a part of our forum.

You will have to make 5 posts in order to post a link, PM members or have signature access on our forum. This is done to prevent spam. If you make posts that are one liners or bad quality content in order to post links and have a signature link, chances are your account will be seen as a spammer and banned for life.

Illegal activity committed on our forum is strictly forbidden. This includes copyright violations and infringement, trademark/trade secret infringement, illegal intrusion (illegal hacking), transmitting content that could harm another person's computer or internet service, posting warez or passwords, posting content of another without direct permission and a link back to the original source, posting full news articles without direct permission or a link back to the original source and anything that could harm a minor. Please note that the promotion of criminal activity is also forbidden including illegal drug and gang promotion.

If you forum violates any of our rules, you are not allowed to link it anywhere on our forum.

Unless requested, we ask that you do not debate our rules or staff actions in public. Instead please send our staff a PM to discuss it in private to avoid any forum drama.

Do not abuse other members. This includes any form of harassment, sexual misconduct and harassment, stalking, flaming, trolling, constant negative attitudes, threatening, racism/hate and abusing others because they are new to something.

We ask that you try to remain on topic at all times. If you have an idea for another topic, please create a new one.

Feature Guidelines

The following rules and guidelines are specific to signatures, profiles, services and other features we have besides our main forum. However, these rules and guidelines may also reflect our main forum rules and guidelines.

URLs and Email Addresses are not allowed in user names, display names and custom user titles. However, your forum name may be used in your user name or display name without the TLD or link being a part of it. For example "MyForum.com" would not be allowed but "MyForum" would be allowed.

Profile fields that do not ask for a URL may not include a URL. If a profile like this exists, chances are staff members will assume it is a spammer and ban the account for life.

Profile Avatars may not violate our rules. They also may not include URLs on any kind. You may use your forum logo as long as the URL is not included.

Your signature may have up to 5 links. We encourage you to only add links to forums or websites that are related to forums. Commercial links and advertising not related to a forum may be seen as spam and your account could be banned for life.

You may use of to font size 3 (pixels) on your signature. You may have up to 2 images as long as they do not break the forum in any way, have heavy animation or are flash content.

You may have up to 6 smilies in your signature.

You may not sell signature space or otherwise link to other sites who have paid you to add their link to your signature.

Referral and affiliate links may be added as long as they are in relation to forums or forum services.

We reserve the right to modify your profile, signature and account features at any time.

Premium/Charter/Special Membership

Special membership does not allow you to violate our rules and guidelines.

We do not give refunds. We only accept paypal payments which must be in USD. If you refund through paypal, you will be banned for life.

Information within hidden boards are not to be shared in public forum or outside of our forum.

We may refuse special membership to members at any time.

Privacy Statement

We care about your privacy on [classified] . We ask that you review our full Privacy Policy Statement to learn more about your privacy and how we collect and use your information on this forum. Please note that we do not have the ability to read PMs and we do not plan to have such a feature as we see PMs as private information. However, a person can report a PM if in violation and then we will be able to review it for violation.

Contact Us Anytime

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[classified]
Policy Information

Last Updated on November 15, 2011 by Shawn Gossman.
Change Log: Complete restructure of the Official Rules and Guidelines policy.

Biker · Feb 6, 2012

The Rules

Global Affairs is a success because of the diversity of the membership and their opinions. This forum allows for discussion of controversial topics in an adult manner. Because of the nature of the topics discussed, and in keeping the posts civil and on topic, the following guidelines apply:

1. Be considerate of your fellow posters.

2. When quoting news articles, please give the appropriate source credit. Do not quote the entire article unless you have permission from the author/publisher. Quoting about 10% of the article should be safe. Paraphrasing an article, giving credit to the author/publisher, is also allowed.

3. Global Affairs is not a wire news service. When posting a link to an article, take the time to also post a thought process or premise to get the discussion going. This forum is for discussion and interaction, not a hot link to a news room.

4. Insulting or flaming other members will not be tolerated. Posting personal attacks on members will result in a moderator or administrator contacting the poster for an immediate edit. If the poster is on line, and the edit has not been accomplished within 5 minutes, the offending post will be moved. If the poster is off line, the post will be moved immediately and a PM sent giving the poster the opportunity to edit the post. Failure to edit the post on request will result in the post being removed permanently. Continued flaming and insults will result in a site ban. Do not add to the flames and use the report post function if necessary. Attack the premise, not the poster.

5. Hit and run tactics and "trolling" will result in being banned from the site. Global Affairs is for discussion, not a soap box.

6. Are you are unhappy in life, love to make others miserable, constantly pick on other members? Is Schadenfreude your middle name? Too sensitive to own up to mistakes made, well, perhaps we can show you the door?

7. Any complaint of harassment via PM will be investigated. If the allegations are true, the offending member will be placed on a temporary ban. Any subsequent harassment will result in a permanent site ban.

8. Members found to have, or even strongly suspected of having, dual accounts will be informed of such, and invited to delete one account of their own volition within 24 hours. If they do not do so, both accounts will be deleted by an administrator. Such members are more than welcome to then register a new account, and will be invited to do so via email before their accounts are deleted. While it may seem harsh to delete both accounts it is almost never possible to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a user is doubling up, so when moderators and administrators suspect that such a situation has arisen there is rarely any other option but to delete both accounts after first giving the suspected member an opportunity to remedy the situation. Having dual accounts goes against everything the community stands for. We are here as individuals, representing ourselves as both teachers and learners, friends and sometimes nemeses participating in a discussion forum of mutual respect and inherent trust that its members are as much themselves as they say they are, and no more.

9. Private Messages (PM's) are exactly that: private. No portion of any PM exchange between members may be publicly posted unless the other involved member(s) have given explicit permission to do so. Be prepared to provide proof of that permission upon request. Failure to adhere to this guideline will result in a site ban, which may be temporary or permanent depending on the severity and/or frequency of the violation.

10. Spamming and advertising are strictly forbidden, this includes linking sites in your signature that aren't personal in nature. Members engaging in these activities will be summarily banned. It is, however, permissible to link to other discussion boards or commercial sites, or to make reference to commercial products, in ways that are relevant to the discussion, including posting your support for a product/company. If in doubt, please contact one of the staff members for clarification.

11. Profanity and sexually suggestive pictures/language are for the adult forums. Public (non-adult) forums can be viewed by members of all ages. We don't get crazy about an occasional expletive, but if your posts are profane, crass, nasty, you are subject to moderation.

12. If you want to leave the forum, and post something to state that you are leaving this forum please be aware that your account will be banned. This includes PMs or emails to any staff member. Stating you are leaving is canceling your membership.

13. The purpose of the Arcade is to provide enjoyment for the users here at Global Affairs. It is NOT enjoyable to see outrageously high scores that are unobtainable through normal play of the game. This prevents users who play the games as they should be played from enjoying them. Cheating in the Arcade will result in ALL scores being reset and the offending member banned from the Arcade. Permanently.

14. People running bots of any kind, mods, extensions, or any form of a script on their browsers that slows down our server are abusing the resources of the server. Whether intentional or not, the end result will be the same resulting in a permanent ban from this site.

15. At Global Affairs, posts are rarely deleted, unless there are legal issues surrounding the post. We encourage search engines to crawl the site, and any information you, the user, may post could end up being listed in many of the search engines on the Internet.

Rule 4 has some leeway, especially for those who are suspected of being off their "meds" and post outrageous stuff.

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Community rules and/or guidelines

Caiman Moonlight Shadow

Mikey Mikeylicious

Shawn Gossman Well-Known Member

Biker Junior Member

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Community rules and/or guidelines

Caiman Moonlight Shadow

Mikey Mikeylicious

Shawn Gossman Well-Known Member

Biker Junior Member

Share This Page

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