Hello everyone, and welcome to the Zelda Gamers forum! As you should have guessed by now, this is the thread where the general rules for the forum are laid out for you to read and make sure you follow. After all, we do not wish for anyone to be banished for something trivial or otherwise silly.
Rule #1: General Etiquette
Make sure when you are replying to a thread that you follow these general ideas. This applies to all posts made.
- What you are posting has not already been stated. Redundancy is very annoying to discover in a topic. However, this only applies to threads that are not asking a question that warrants your opinion or something similar. It would not be fair to lock a thread simply because, somehow, 50 people said they like M&M's over Skittles, for example.
- It is on-topic. Please do not create another conversation that was stemmed off from the thread but is wholly irrelevant. For example:
Person A: *makes thread saying pancakes are awesome* Person B: What do you like about them? Person A: The syrup and butter. Person B: My dog sometimes eats butter off the floor, lol... Person A: Oh, what kind of dog do you have? (this is where it is getting off-topic) Person B: Irish terrier. We've had him for 5 years now... what about you?
The thread is about pancakes, not dogs! I hope you see my point here.
Unfortunately, the tolerance level of off-topic...ness varies greatly among people, so don't be surprised if someone scolds you for straying from the discussion even if your post was valid. Humor is quite commonplace here, and you'll often see ramblings of another kind in a thread where it's irrelevant but funny enough to keep the thread from becoming stale. In the end, moderators have ruling judgment, not regular members.
- Please search before making a new topic. On a personal level, I much prefer posting in an old thread with a relevant reply rather than taking up more space with a new thread which was already done before.
Rule #2: General Attitude and Content in Replying; Flaming, Spamming, and Vulgarity
There is a swear censor on the forum for most words at/above the level of a person who sleeps around. Damn, ass, hell, and some of the other (if any) lower-tier words can be obviously be seen here. This doesn't mean you are allowed to freely use them whenever you wish, though. Please try to keep swearing to a minimum, unless of course you are truly upset about something. However, we will not tolerate any personal attacks or anything mentioned below. This list includes, but is not limited to:
- Anything racially or ethnically derogatory.
- Threats of violence, death, home/street/IP addresses, or sexual abuse.
- Libelous, defamatory, and otherwise rude or continuously harassing posts with the intention of ruining someone's reputation or otherwise degrading them in any way, shape, or form. People excluded from this are your sadistic manager/supervisor/boss, the ex-boyfriend/girlfriend from hell, your dominatrix who goes too far, the Apple company, Bill Gates, George Bush, Fidel Castro, and Satan (if you think he exists, that is). More can be added if necessary.
- Illegal activities such as drug abuse; lewd, violent, or pornographic images, and warez/cracks/serials/keygens.
Referring to illegal activities is one thing. Going into detail is another.
Spamming is nonsensical mumbo-jumbo, not a lengthy enough response to be a good post, or anything else that conflicts with Rule #1. Please, for your sake, don't do it.
Please post *NSFW* tags on a thread which is not safe for viewing at work or school.
Also, please do not post in all capital letters LIKE THIS. THIS IS NOT COOL AND DOES NOT GIVE YOU ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR BAD... THINGS. Emphasizing a few words in a post, particularly in the Debate section, is okay.
If you are in doubt as to whether or not an image is appropriate for the forum, PM a moderator first. Also use your common sense. Anything else deemed inappropriate by Moderators will be dealt with.
Rule #3: Double/Triple etc. Posting
If you are making a reply to a thread, make sure that the post is not directly underneath one of your own. Put bluntly, it is distracting. If it was honestly an accident, please say so when you edit your post accordingly.
If you need to reply to a thread but one of your messages was the last post, then you are only allowed to double post if it's more than 2 days old.
Rule #4: Hierarchy
Regular members may offer input as to a moderating decision or otherwise suggest what to be done with someone's disobedience with the rules, but in the end, a staff member's word is the final one. Please do not argue with them. You may obviously disagree with what was done, but Moderating decisions can only be overruled by another staff member higher in authority than the person in question, and if it's Dave, then you're... well, screwed.
You can, however, report posts if they break any of the rules listed here. It is located above someone's post in the upper right hand corner.
Rule #5: Reputation
When someone makes a good post that you feel changes your opinion of them, you can use the reputation system. It can be either positive or negative. Click on the scales in the upper right hand corner of someone's post and either add some or take some away. I unfortunately do not know the exact specifications of how the reputation points work, so if someone can tell me, I will add it into this section for clarification.
Please do not request reputation for a post, because it is considered begging. If people wish to give it to you, they will. This applies to both negative and positive reputation.
Reputation is anonymous and is given freely. You either accept this fact or leave the forums. Do not whine about receiving negative reputation. Grievances (formal expression of a complaint), on the other hand, are acceptable.
Do not create rep circles. "You +rep me and I'll +rep you back", et cetera.
Administrators can see who gives reputation, but they are obliged to remain objective. They will only intervene if you abuse the anonymity, such as posting anything in Rule #2 that is unsatisfactory. The reputation system is both a blessing and a curse, so let's try to keep it as a blessing, shall we?
Rule #6: Accounts
You are to have one and only one account on the forums. There are no exceptions to this rule. This is especially true if you have been banned and you create another account to get around the ban. Don't do it, please. If you have lost the password for your account, then you can use our lost password system using the e-mail used to sign up for the account.
Rule #7: Drama
Please do not bring up arguments from your IM conversations, PMs on here, or any other debates you've had on other forums unless you are asking for advice on what to do to rectify the situation. It causes confusion and hatred that is unwanted. Simply posting it and claiming they're an idiot isn't doing anything except manifesting your ignorance.
Rule #8: Spelling and Grammar
Make sure your posts are clean and legible. They should be easy to read, utilize proper capitalization, use periods and commas in the correct places, and other conventions of the English language for a professional appearance. Obviously, this rule is rather loose, and we will not force anything upon you if you make some mistakes every so often. It is human nature to do so, and not all of us are perfectionists.
However, if your post is illegible, then you will be called out on it. A few shorthand phrases like "atm" and "tbh" are okay, but we don't want to have to read "r u goin 2 the mal 2nit??" or "u r rong, my frend sayd he wasnt ther sunday!!!". We are educated people here. The amount of time you save from omitting a few letters is hardly worth the illegibility that follows. The only justification for shorthand are these things: (and you should say so if these apply to you)
- You have suffered a broken hand/wrist/something else that prevents you from typing efficiently.
- You are on a device which supports internet browsing capabilities but does not have a good input method. The Wii is the good example of this, but cell phones without a qwerty keyboard apply as well. What you're doing on here using your cell phone is a mystery to me...
Rule #9: Advertising
If you wish to post a link to something you want people to look at, or even blatantly whoring out a site/forum/game/etc, please make sure you don't just do it and leave. We want members to get to know other members first and establish themselves for a while before becoming a link monger.
There have been some conflicts recently regarding members who are advertising something that they themselves are creating or is a work in progress which they are giving updates for. If any arguments become unruly, the aggressor will be dealt with.
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These rules are not set in stone, and there may be situations that arise where there may not actually be a rule specifically against the activity, but it has been deemed not beneficiary to the forums by a staff member. They will take action wherever they see fit.
I realize this is a lot of reading, but these rules are not meant to be strict. We wish everyone to enjoy their stay at Zelda Gamers, no matter how long it is, and through following these rules, we can achieve this. :)
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