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General rules

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Post by The Biffster Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:13 am

Site Rules and Regulations


Messages posted on the board
1. Before you post: A search should be done to see if your questions have not been already posted. You can use the search function by using the search link at the top of each page..
2. Frequently Asked Questions: You have a FAQ section where you can find answers for general questions about forum management. This is also located at the top of each page called Help or simply use this link Help/FAQ
3. Searching the Forum: You should also take a look at our tutorial list to make sure what you are about to ask hasn't already been covered. These is a list of tutorials in each sub forum, for example Aquarium Related Problems a sub-forum called diseases which contains tutorials such as Fin Rot and Popeye. If you have any further questions over and above what has been explained please create a new topic in the correct section (positioning topics in the incorrect section will be moved by Moderators/Admin).
4. Topic titles: When you post your question or your problem, you must use a title related to your problem/question. Words such as "Urgent", "SOS", "Question", "Problem", "Hurry" are not tolerated. Capitals should also be avoided.
Why do we ask you to use explicit titles in your topics?
It's because the forum's search engine bases it's search results on keywords found in topic titles. As when you do a search, do you use "help", "urgent", "problem", "SOS" or "question" as keywords to look for topics about your problem/question? Certainly not! So this is why it is important to use titles related to your problem/question. Doing this makes the searches much easier for visitors who use the search engine to get an answer to their question.
5. Description of you problem/question: When you ask a question, try to be clear and accurate about what you want to say. Don't hesitate to describe your problem. The more info you give, the better we can answer you. Screenshots can also help depending on the problem. If you don't know how to take a screenshot you should read the through the information on the How do you do..... forum located in Welcome to the Forum section.
6. Language on this forum: When you write in English, SMS (cell phone) style message, L3375P34K (leetspeak) and deliberate mistakes must be avoided. Non-English people, as well as English people, must be able to understand what you have writen. Therefore please use care with the English you use, even if your English is not very good. (We respect that non English literate people will want to use this forum and therefore please do your best, we will moderate your text to the best of our abilities and please ask the Moderators and Admin for help if you need it. You can find us through the following link - Administators
7. Colors, CAPITALS and [size=30]Size[/size]: When you write your message, please don't abuse capitals (CAPITALS resembles shouting), colors and bold. Re-sizing your text is also a bad idea. Overly large text resembles screaming. Colors and Bold text can be used for titles or section headers. Please do not use them in any other case, this is reserved for Moderators and Admin Staff.
8. Flood and off-topic: Flood must be avoided. One-word posts such like "lol", "rofl" or a single smiley must be avoided. You must also avoid to post the same topic twice, it will not be faster for you to get a response. As long as you topic is not in the second page of the support section, it is useless to bump it. The minimum delay between two bumps is 24 hours, according to this board's default timezone (UTC - 7). If you make a mistake or you want to make any modifications to one of your posts, please use the edit button at the top-right of the post, to avoid double-posting.
9. Advertising for your forum: Spamming is not tolerated, even by PM. If you post about a problem, give the address of your forum only if it's really necessary to understand it. Or better yet : Put your forum address in your profile, so we will just have to click on the "Forum" button to check your forum.
10. Copying and Stealing: Copying and stealing other members works such as graphics (Theme, Images) and or codes (CSS, Templates) is not allowed. If you are found to steal or copy others work you will be given a serious warning or have your account suspended.
11. Other advertising: It is also forbidden to post advertising for money-related stuff, many of our members are under 18.
12. Registered Tutorials: Posting tutorials that make a user register in order to view the tutorial is not allowed. Off site tutorials that are view able for guest are allowed. If found that you posted a tutorial that makes a user register you will receive a reminder for the first time, second time you will get a warning and the third time your account will be suspended.
12a. Tutorials: In addition to the rule of posting tutorials that must be seen by guest, you must watch how much you post to off site tutorials. As a note if the staff member feels that your posts have links to other sites in all your post or most of your post, you will be reminded to reduce the linking to tutorials on other sites or your own site. This is up to the staff member decision of whether this is an issue on advertising your forum to get members to register or view the forum.
13. Helping Users: If you know the answer to a question that a user asked and don't want to share it with other in your post, please refrain from posting, it doesn't help anyone of the board. This forum is a support forum to help users with questions or problems they are experiancing. If you continue to post, you know answer or something similar to this line, but don't provide the answer you will be given a warning reminder, if you continue a abuse notice will be issued and any futher action of the same nature will result in you account being suspended.

Behavior on the forum
1. Behaviour on the Forum: Defamatory, racist, hateful, pornographic, illegal or insulting content must be avoided on this forum. You must respect the fact that people may have a different opinion than you. If you are in conflict with another member, please use PMs for that, this forum is not an arena!
2. Patients on the Forum: Please, be patient. It's useless to bump up your topic every 2 minutes (see the point "Flood and Off-topic"). Every member of this forum has a private life besides Forumotion, so they can't always respond immediately.
3. Staff Members: You must respect the moderators and administrators. They all work voluntarily on this forum and they are human, not machines!
4. Private Messaging: If you received advertising, pornographic content or insults by PM, you must send the whole message and a screenshot of that message to a moderator via PM. Posting it in a topic is useless and will only cause conflicts between you and the one who sent you the PM. We also ask you to have the respect not to do this as this is abuse and is not acceptable, any forum user who is responsible for this will have their account suspended.
5. Terms of Service: If you find a Forumotion forum that doesn't respect the Terms of Service, use the Litigation tool to report it instead of creating a topic. This way you will avoid undeliberate advertising and possible conflicts with the creator of that forum.
6. Moderation: Do not moderate other members. Moderating is reserved for staff members only.


Avatar and Profile
1. Avatar dimensions: Your avatar's width must not exceed 150 pixels and it's height must not exceed 200 pixels. These limits are here to avoid scrolling for people who have a low screen resolution. You must also respect the limit of storage space which is set at 300 KB. There are still people who have a low-speed connection, and big pictures take time to load for them
2. Avatar Advertising: Your avatar is not an advertising banner, so avatars with your forum URL or links to any other sites must be avoided
3. Avatar Content: Sexually oriented, gore and any other type avatars that are considered to be inappropriate must be avoided
4. Your Profile: When you register an account with us, it is because you wish to become a member of our family. Therefore we request you to complete your profile, this way we can refer to you as a person not as a username. Remember Your "Language", "Location" and "Hobbies" fields are not an advertising space, so links (to your forum or other sites) must be avoided.

One Final Message
Anyone caught abusing these rules and regulations will be given a three strike warning.

1st warning - will consist of a polite message explaing the rule you have broken and a link which will redirect you to these rules and regulations so that you know where not to go wrong in the future.
2nd warning - is classed as a deliberate act to abuse these rules and you will be informed that if such an event was to occur again your account will be suspended.
3rd Warning - is you notice period, you have broken the rules on too many occasions and this will not be tolerated as you are showing us and the forum disrespect. You will be given a 72hour notice period before your account is suspended. The reason for the 72hour notice is 1st of all, give you an opportunity to reflect on what has happened and message the Moderator panel to explain and address the issue (this could be accepted and you remain on 2 warnings, this would only be accepted if it is a general accident. 2nd is to give you chance to read the notice message before you account is suspended. Any further abuse in this 72hour notice period will result in your account been suspended early.

Accounts can be re-instated by admins or Moderators upon receiving a request from the member, this will then be discussed by the board and a decision will be made and you will be informed of the decision. If you are accepted back onto the forum you are on probationary period for 3months with one warning, after this period you will return to normal user warning procedures.


Last edited by The Biffster on Thu Feb 07, 2013 11:19 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : removed rule 14 regarding the selling thread as it was found to be obsolete)
The Biffster
The Biffster
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Admin

Posts : 320
Join date : 2012-10-24

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