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Author Topic: Rules and Regulations of the Forum  (Read 11870 times)

Mim

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Rules and Regulations of the Forum
« on: May 20, 2013, 04:49:49 PM »

General Forum Rules

0. Decisions of the forum moderators are believed to be sound and reasonable by default and they are not to be challenged in public at all. Any appeals are to be brought to one of the admins in discreet. Failure to do so will result in temporary ban from these forums. Decisions of the forum administration team, however, are final and are not a subject to any kind of appeal. Challenging those leads to immediate permaban.

1.   Do not spam or self-promote in the forums

These forums define spam as unsolicited advertisement for goods, services and/or other web sites or posts with little, no or completely unrelated content.

Do not spam the forums with links to your site or product, or try to self-promote your website, business or forums etc. Doing so is a waste of time.

Your account will be banned permanently and your posts will be deleted.

Spamming also includes sending private messages to a large number of different users.

Do not post "Free " threads

Posting pyramid scams (such as free iPods, LCDs etc.) is forbidden. All such posts/signatures will be edited or deleted. Any new users posting scams will be banned permanently; contributing users will either be warned or temporarily banned.
2.   Do not cross post questions

Please refrain from posting the same question in several forums. There is normally one forum which is most suitable in which to post your question.

If you're not sure where to post, ask a moderator first.
3.   Do not post copyright-infringing material

Do not upload, attach, or otherwise post any copyrighted material which you are not free to redistribute (subject to the licensing terms of the

specific item). If you have a question about having permission to post or attach a specific item, please ask a moderator.

We do not condone nor accept posts pertaining to illegal activities such as hacking, cracking, warez, or spam.

Any posts or threads found in violation of this rule will be edited or deleted, and the poster warned or possibly banned; at the moderation team's discretion.

4.   Do not post "offensive" posts, links or images

Do not post anything which is offensive, hateful, racist, sexist, discriminatory, obscene, vulgar or in violation of local or international laws.

5.   Do PM Admins asking for help

Send a private message to any of the Admins or Moderators if you need help and you can’t find the answer on the forum.

6.   If you're not sure of anything, see above. Please ask first.

7.   Remain respectful of other users, moderators and administrators at all times
All posts should be professional and courteous. You have every right to disagree with your fellow community members and explain your perspective.

However, you are not free to attack, degrade, insult, or otherwise belittle them or the quality of this community. It does not matter what title or power you hold in these forums, you are expected to obey this rule. Doing otherwise will get your account banned temporarily, or permanently if the situation becomes severe enough (this will be left to the discretion of the moderation team).

For example, phrases such as "shut up, idiot," are indicative of problematic posts and should be reported. Suggested alternatives include "I disagree with what you said for the following reasons..." Please remember to stay mature and thoughtful at all times.

8. Do NOT at any time discuss politics, religion or social issues that can cause anger and or abuse either way. You will be warned only once if this rule is broken.

9. In relation to general attendance. If you are away for more than 5 days, please post in the LOA thread. For our role players, if you are absent for more than ten days without posting and without notifying us of your reasons for being absent, your characters will be NPC'd out of the game. You will not be penalised if you have given us sufficient notice.

9a. The only acceptable instances we can pass over is illness. If you are completely caught off guard, such as hospitalisation etc, or indeed for passionate family reasons, you will not be penalised.
________________________________________

General Forum Questions
1.   Am I allowed more than one account at Lost Worlds

No, there is no reason why you should have more than one account at Lost Worlds forums. If you are banned from the forums, please do not create a new account. By creating a new account, you are making the banning/warning system pointless. Your new accounts will be permanently banned.
If you continue to create new accounts after you have been banned, your IP address may well be blocked from the forums. If you then start to register using different IP addresses, we reserve the right to take legal action against you. Using proxy servers will not get you anywhere.

2.   What happens if I break a rule?

If you break a rule, then you will either be warned or banned. A ban of your user account may either be temporary or permanent. If you are given an official warning, using the built-in warning system, a further warning within the next 30 days will result in a temporary ban which will last 7 days. If you are not given an official warning, a user note may be added to your account and the incident may be logged for future reference.
While a ban will normally involve only a ban of your user account, in extreme circumstances, it is possible to block your IP address from the forums.

The administrators and moderators also have the right to edit, delete, move or close and thread or post as they see necessary, without prior warning.

3.   What happens if I see a thread/post which has broken a rule?

Please report the thread/post to the moderators using the red triangle "Report Bad Post" link, which appears in the top right-hand corner of every post. This report will be sent to all moderators of that particular forum, who will respond to the incident as quickly as possible.

4.   Where can I find out who is in charge?

5.   The Home page displays all the moderators and administrators of the forum.
When in doubt, ask a moderator about the topic of your thread or post. They will be able to tell you if it violates the rules or not. If your thread or post is removed and you do not receive an email or PM about it, then ask a moderator why it was removed. Do not re-post your thread or start another one complaining about your thread being removed.
________________________________________

Signature and Avatar Guidelines

One of the perks of continued membership is having a custom signature for your posts. The contents of your sig must be acceptable for our community, and shall not contain any profanity, vulgarity, or insults/disparaging comments to our community or its members. In addition, comments and/or links that represent direct competition are not allowed. You will have the ability to include a signature in your post and upload an avatar to your profile. Keep your signature and avatar in good taste, the contents of your signature must be acceptable for the community: no vulgarity, lewd men/women, profanity or insults to other community members.
•   Your Avatar should not exceed 150*150 pixels and 45kbs
•   Your Signature should be no larger than 650*170 pixels
•   Role Play signatures WILL not exceed 320*120 pixels
        General photo uploads via sites such as Photobucket should not exceed 800*800 pixels. If so, please place it under a spolier.
•   Animation should be kept to a minimum and both your signature and avatar shouldn't be too distracting.
•   Keep the size of any images in your signature below 50KB. If you don't want to use an image in your signature, you can have up to six lines of text (with a maximum font size of 2).
•   Do not include spam, harassing links or affiliate links in your signature.

However, we will not object to you posting links to either your personal websites or other commercial projects which you support. This is a privilege which you are allowed as a contributing user.

Comments and/or links that represent direct competition are not allowed.

Any signature violating these rules will be considered spam. The signature will be deleted and the offending member will be addressed by our moderators.
________________________________________

Reputation Rules

Reputation should be used to reward users for informative and insightful posts. It should not be used to reward jokes, and pointless trolling.

If you see that someone has been repped multiple times in one post, think hard about repping them again. Go find another user to reward. There are

many contributing users to the forum who still have a low reputation.
________________________________________

Registration Agreement

Registration to this forum is free! By using our forums (this includes but is not limited to signing up as a member or even browsing our forums without signing up) you agree to the following:

The owner, administrators, and moderators of Lost Worlds Forums will not be held liable for any objectionable messages posted on this forum, ownership and liability lie with the original poster of the message in question. It is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and NOT Lost Worlds and neither the owners of Lost Worlds Forums, nor Simple Machines Forums will be held responsible for the content of any message, regardless of what the message says or implies or any posts replying to said message.

You warrant that by registering for our forums, or simply just browsing our forums, you will indemnify Lost Worlds from any and all legal liability both civil, criminal, or otherwise. You
warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.

The owners of Lost Worlds Forums reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason but are not compelled to do so unless they deem it to be necessary.
________________________________________

Specific Forum Rules

The rules and guidelines found in this document cover all forum categories within this site. In addition, some of the forums may have additional rules and guidelines that apply specifically. Before posting in any forum, check for any sticky posts containing additional rules.
________________________________________

General Posting Guidelines


We figured this was necessary because a lot of people come in and post threads without thinking, and without realizing that there is no possible way they could get help because of the way they posted the question. Here are some general guidelines.

USE SEARCH FIRST!

There is a pretty good chance that unless you have some
really odd or unique problem that it has been addressed on this
forum before (or even hundreds of times before for some issues).

Use the forum's search feature first to see if there are already some good threads on the subject. It's easy to search - just click the "Search" button at the top right of the page.


Don't use stupid topic names

Post a descriptive topic name! Give a short summary of your problem IN THE SUBJECT. Don't use attention getting subjects. They don't get attention.

They repel attention and annoy people.

Here's a great list of topic subjects YOU SHOULD NOT POST

1) Help me
2) Hello
3) You must know the answer
4) Please help this female newbie
5) Something wrong
6) Come on guys!
7) This one for you
8) Just wondering
9) This is too complicated for me
10) possible?
11) Very urgent
12) I have a question
13) Stupid question
14) Newbie needs help
15) pulling my hair out
16) this is driving me nuts
« Last Edit: August 13, 2018, 10:00:21 AM by Ellen_Ripley »
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Life is a dream — of pain and woe.
A dream from which — we pray to wake.
A dream from which — we wake and go

Mim

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Re: Rules and Regulations of the Forum
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2016, 03:03:20 PM »

Rules in fine print

1) ANY DECISIONS MADE BY A FORUM STAFF MEMBER IS FINAL.  The only way a moderator's or administrator's decision or ruling on a subject can be overturned is by me, and that call won't be made very often.  Ergo, even though I'm the primary owner, I trust the rest of the team to make sound judgments when moderating a dispute or enforcing the rules.  Don't come to me directly; go talk it over in private with a staff member first.  If you disagree with a moderator's decision, contact one of the administrators IN PRIVATE (Vagabond Serpent) and state your case.  He or she will then contact the moderator who made the call and get his or her side of the story first, then make a ruling.

2) DO NOT INSULT A FORUM STAFF MEMBER. Even if it's in private.  Just don't.  Not only is it bad 'Netiquette, it's plain uncalled for.  If you have a beef with a moderator, let one of the administrators know in private. Blatant vulgarity, obscene comments directed at any staff member on this site, be it in post or PM, will see you banned without question.

If you have a complaint about an staff member, drop me a PM.  But it better be something more substantial than "I don't like so-and-so" otherwise I'll ignore it.  Repeated trivial complaints will result in an automatic seven-day ban.

3) DO NOT BOTHER THE STAFF UNECESSARILY

4) DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HACK ANOTHER USER ACCOUNT.   This will result in an automatic permanent IP address ban, and the issuing ISP will be notified accordingly.

5) DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EVADE A BAN ON YOUR ACCOUNT / IP ADDRESS.  If you've been permanently banned from these forums and pop back in again under a pseudonym (false identity) and/or another IP address and start causing trouble, DON'T.  Attempting to evade a permanent ban will be treated as "computer fraud", and will be handled accordingly in conjunction with all international, federal, and/or state laws.

6) When you are sent a Private Message by either a moderator or Administrator; please answer it in a timely fashion. Ignoring staff members for whatever reason is a/ bad etiquette and b/ downright rude.

Failure to reply could see your account locked out. A week if you've been logged in, will be granted.

7) All registrants must use a valid username and email address, which will be checked against anti-spam databases. If your information is listed as a confirmed spam account, you will automatically be denied access to these forums.

What exactly is a "valid" username?

Anything that doesn't look like a series of random letters/numbers, gibberish, or practically screams "forum spammer".   Ergo, it has to be both readable AND we have to be able to enunciate it within reason.  But even a legible username can still be associated with an email address that's been blacklisted in anti-spam databases. If there's a match, you don't get in.  Period.

8) Under NO circumstances are multiple accounts or simultaneous logins to be used.  Even if it's under a different username or email address. This includes Proxy Servers, there is no need for it and to us smells of suspicion

This does not apply to administration

« Last Edit: November 16, 2019, 10:24:19 AM by Mim »
Logged

Life is a dream — that knows no shade.
Life is a dream — of pain and woe.
A dream from which — we pray to wake.
A dream from which — we wake and go
 

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