Official MYSTcommunity Rules and Guidelines, a must-read for all Ages.... Options

[Jerle]

Shorah and Welcome to MYSTcommunity Forums!

Please take the time to read the following rules for posting, avatar and signature guidelines. There aren't too many (and we're not ogres, we realize people make mistakes) but they will be strictly adhered to in order to maintain a family oriented, spam-free (or as little as possible) board. We are, after all, a MYST-games fan board.


Rule for posting:

• No spamming the forums
  • Nonsense polls - polls such as asking for sock color and useless bits of info.
  • Threads that are nonsense like "Word Associations" and such.
  • IM types of posts - ie - "Hi" "how are you?" "fine!". If you need to talk to someone, send them a PM (private message)
  • Multiple posts one after another. Occasionally it's fine to have a double post but it's preferable to edit the original post if possible.
  • Inserting an irrelevant comment to a thread for the purpose of interruption.
  Fun topics are fine for the Blah Place but spam is not allowed anywhere on the board. The Blah Place is also a bit more lenient with topics that aren't too serious and going off-topic is normal/expected in this forum only. Spam is still not tolerated, however. See more in the FAQ thread in this forum.
  
  Please take the time to put some thought into your posts. Failure to comply with this by posting any of the above will result in a public warning.

• No swearing anywhere.
  • Use of inappropriate language is not permitted. Please also be aware that this is an international board. What may not offend you may be offensive to someone else.
  • Using asterisks and other random characters to cover implied swearing is not allowed either.
    
    If you're unsure if a word is going to be considered a swear, use an alternative word to be safe or PM a moderator, team member or admin. to check. One shouldn't need to swear to get their point across to members. Failure to comply with this will result in a public warning.

• No posting of illegal or illicit material/files.
  • Posting any of the following will result in an immediate ban with no warning:
    • Pornography - links or images
    • Requests for or promoting warez or links to such material
    • Asking for or posting CD keys
    • Threads or links to illegal activities
    • Threads or links to sites promoting violence against others
    • Threads, posts or links here or elsewhere on how to hack web sites including, but not limited to, MYSTcommunity and other Myst-related boards.
    • Threads or links posting private material in PMs, private forums or other private communications on the public forums WITHOUT the permission of the parties concerned
    • Posting personal information about people (phone #s, addresses, pictures, real names, etc.) WITHOUT the permission of that member. (If the person in question steps forward and says that it was ok, then the member will be reinstated)

• No Trolling.
  • Combined or excessive use of the above in a deliberate attack on the forum will result in immediate banishment. Trolling includes, but is not limited to: unwarranted spam, vulgarity, flaming, yelling, deliberate attacks on specific members and groups or use of harmful programs and viruses in an attempt to cease forum technical functions. Most trolls simply want attention and the MYSTcommunity staff will not tolerate such behavior. It is also the duty of other members to ignore trolls and report them to one of the moderators and/or administrators.

• No Flaming
  • Flaming consists of being unreasonably disagreeable or hostile in a reply to a post, especially with regards to an opinion or situation that you don’t agree with. If you have an issue with any post, rather than attacking other members or making a scene, it's your duty to inform a moderator or admin privately for review. Members who flame others will be warned.

• Signature and Avatar Guidelines
  • Avatars - must be 64 X 64 pixels and no larger than 50kb. Must be in gif, jpg or png format. NO flash avatars, please.
  • Signatures - please keep the lines of text to a minimum. Graphics in signatures must comply to the following restrictions:
    • Images in a signature should not have a total height of over 100 pixels.
    • Images in a signature should not have a total width of over 500 pixels.
    • The total area of images should not exceed 400 pixels x 100 pixels.
    • The total size of images should not exceed 40 KBytes.
    Please see more on this in your control panel under "edit signature" (click on My Controls at the top of any page). The rules for signatures are clear and are for the benefit of all who read the forums, many of whom are dial up users. Please do not have the following tags in your signature: mod, quote, list or code. If these tags are currently there, we ask that you remove them.

• The Warning System
  • Moderators and Administrators will use the moderator tag to warn members if they are in violation of the above rules. This is an example of the tag:
    
    Moderator Note

    Warning #1. Please stop flaming. ~ Jerle

    
    
    If you see that in a post of yours, you have been warned for the behavior exhibited in that post. If you get three warnings, your account will either be banned or suspended, depending on the incident and circumstances. Each incident will be decided individually and judgements will be decided by the administrators. We realize that there are times when members may react strongly to a given topic and also that mistakes are made in judgement (ie - posting a link to a site without thoroughly looking at it only to realize that page 3 has porn on it, just as an example). Honest mistakes are easily forgiven. It happens. As already stated, each incident will be reviewed individually. HOPEFULLY by following the rules that are laid out here, this warning system will not be used very often.
    
    One caveat: Any NON-moderator caught using the mod tag will have their account suspended for an undetermined amount of time. Repeating violation of this will result in being banned.

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• List of things we ask you NOT to put in posts:
  ~ These are not against the rules, they're just.... old and rather tiresome to see.
  • "notaoneliner", "what one liner?", "oneliner ANYTHING". You can HAVE a one line post, as long as it's not all the time. (ie - your last 20 posts consisting of "yup" "me too" "cool" and the like. THEN it's spam)
  • Woodchuck as an option in a poll
  • Popularity of members polls
  • Using moderators or admins in polls for options (unless there's a good reason to do so. Please ASK first)
  • Those annoying "YOU ARE BROADCASTING THIS IP!!!!1" signature banners. Yes, most people here realize that you really DON'T see the IP of the user, it's just so old and tired.

Please check this thread again once in a while for additions or revisions. Such edits will be noted below. Have fun!!

~ MYSTcommunity Forums Staff ~ March 2004