Post by Blackavar on Mar 19, 2019 7:53:35 GMT
The guidelines below are by no means the be all and end all of your conduct on the boards. Use your common sense please! More information may be added to the list of rules as situations arise.
1. Flaming and Trolling: Be respectful of each other - no flaming and trolling. A definition of flaming is where users are either insulting or abusive in their attitudes towards other users and this will not be tolerated. Trolling can include members deliberately post topics to cause offense to other members, bashing the forum itself, the admins and moderators (without constructive criticism). Repeated and consistent flaming and trolling will result in users being banned.
2. Spamming is not allowed - Spamming can include anything from repeatedly upping threads when there's no relevant new information, repeatedly leaving the same message on different forums and just generally posting off-site links and threads which have nothing to do with the subject of the forum. Common sense will be applied to the former - i.e. if someone has a link to an image hosting site that will help someone out, or if they come across a new WD/AOFW site etc then that's OK. Just don't post links to your site and then leave, etc. Links to commercial sites which are irreverent to the board will be removed. Consistent spamming will lead to being banned from the site. The playing of word games can also be considered to be spam, as these neither promote discussion (which is the main goal of a forum, is it not?) nor do they really contribute anything to the site.
3. When introducing yourself in the welcome forum please don't just write "Hi, I'm new here" and leave it at that. Make the post meaningful such as telling the community why you are here, how you came across the site, what your interests are, etc. We want discussion.
4. There are likely to be children visiting the site, so please keep discussions civil and no swearing. Content of an adult nature etc is NOT allowed on the board.
5. Do not belittle users when asking for help on something, be sensible and point them in the right direction. We were all new once.
6. The use of derogatory terms to describe groups of people based on gender, race, religion, nationality, disability etc is not allowed on the forums. It does not create a nice environment to be in.
7. Respect the beliefs and opinions of other users, even if they are contrary to your own. It's OK to discuss things, but refrain from doing so in a way that could be considered to be bullying or harassment. Remember, if you can't be civil about a certain subject, then don't reply to it.
1. Do not make posts all in capitals as it may cause misunderstandings to other users and is the internet equivalent of shouting.
2. Do not change the colour or size forum's default font of your posts unless it is meant to be an heading or link of some kind. Really tiny or large fonts, clashing colours, etc makes your posts hard to read and also gets tiresome to other users after a while. This also applies to signatures.
3. Try to use proper grammar and spelling in your posts - this doesn't mean that it is expected that posts to are to be perfect every time, but really bad spelling and grammar makes posts difficult to read. Text speak (that used in mobile/cellular phone text messaging and chat rooms) should be avoided. Internet abbreviations such as LOL and technical abbreviations can cause confusion among users because they will either not know what they mean or the abbreviation can have multiple meanings and are best avoided.
4. It is common for people to use posting templates on proboards forums to express their creativity, however, from experience, I find that they usually make posts very difficult to read and follow. Members who use mobile devices and tablets may not be able to use these fully if the templates contain hovers and other embellishments. Due to this, they are not allowed on the board.
1. There are no restrictions on what an avatar may be as long as it contains no nudity, profanity or artwork/photography where the creator does not want you to use it. It is recommended that avatars made from the work of artists (unless the art was created by you) that credit is given to them and if possible, a link to their website in your user profile.
2. Signature images should be no larger than 500 pixels in length and 200 pixels in height. Other than size, the same rules that apply to avatars apply to signatures.
3. Flashing/animated avatars and signatures are not allowed. They generally don't look good and can cause loading and navigation of the forum to slow down. They also present problems to people who suffer from epilepsy.
4. Long signatures are not allowed on the forum - users and visitors get tired of having to scroll down through a lot of posts when reading threads and if most of the individual post space is taken up by signatures rather than post content it makes the problem worse. It can also slow down the loading and general navigation of the forum. A lot of users also use netbooks and this means that screen sizes are really small. What may look great on your supermassive PC monitor may not look so great on a netbook screen. Users with overly large signatures will be asked to make them smaller.
1. Content that would be rated above PG-13 in a film or TV series is not allowed on proboards in general, and proboards operate a very strict policy of deleting forums that break these rules. As a result, stories which contain explicit scenes of a sexual nature, swearing and graphic violence are not allowed on the forums. Members posting stories that go above this rating will be asked to edit the story to tone it down.
2. Stories containing incest, or graphic descriptions of child and domestic abuse will be deleted.
3. Stories that contain LGBT content are very difficult to rate in terms of content and are likely to be a violation of proboards terms of service, so as a result, any stories that contain these elements are not allowed on the board.
4. Repeated violations regarding adult content in fan fiction or refusal to edit a story when requested will result in a member being banned.
General Conduct on the Forum
1. Flaming and Trolling: Be respectful of each other - no flaming and trolling. A definition of flaming is where users are either insulting or abusive in their attitudes towards other users and this will not be tolerated. Trolling can include members deliberately post topics to cause offense to other members, bashing the forum itself, the admins and moderators (without constructive criticism). Repeated and consistent flaming and trolling will result in users being banned.
2. Spamming is not allowed - Spamming can include anything from repeatedly upping threads when there's no relevant new information, repeatedly leaving the same message on different forums and just generally posting off-site links and threads which have nothing to do with the subject of the forum. Common sense will be applied to the former - i.e. if someone has a link to an image hosting site that will help someone out, or if they come across a new WD/AOFW site etc then that's OK. Just don't post links to your site and then leave, etc. Links to commercial sites which are irreverent to the board will be removed. Consistent spamming will lead to being banned from the site. The playing of word games can also be considered to be spam, as these neither promote discussion (which is the main goal of a forum, is it not?) nor do they really contribute anything to the site.
3. When introducing yourself in the welcome forum please don't just write "Hi, I'm new here" and leave it at that. Make the post meaningful such as telling the community why you are here, how you came across the site, what your interests are, etc. We want discussion.
4. There are likely to be children visiting the site, so please keep discussions civil and no swearing. Content of an adult nature etc is NOT allowed on the board.
5. Do not belittle users when asking for help on something, be sensible and point them in the right direction. We were all new once.
6. The use of derogatory terms to describe groups of people based on gender, race, religion, nationality, disability etc is not allowed on the forums. It does not create a nice environment to be in.
7. Respect the beliefs and opinions of other users, even if they are contrary to your own. It's OK to discuss things, but refrain from doing so in a way that could be considered to be bullying or harassment. Remember, if you can't be civil about a certain subject, then don't reply to it.
Posting Formats
1. Do not make posts all in capitals as it may cause misunderstandings to other users and is the internet equivalent of shouting.
2. Do not change the colour or size forum's default font of your posts unless it is meant to be an heading or link of some kind. Really tiny or large fonts, clashing colours, etc makes your posts hard to read and also gets tiresome to other users after a while. This also applies to signatures.
3. Try to use proper grammar and spelling in your posts - this doesn't mean that it is expected that posts to are to be perfect every time, but really bad spelling and grammar makes posts difficult to read. Text speak (that used in mobile/cellular phone text messaging and chat rooms) should be avoided. Internet abbreviations such as LOL and technical abbreviations can cause confusion among users because they will either not know what they mean or the abbreviation can have multiple meanings and are best avoided.
4. It is common for people to use posting templates on proboards forums to express their creativity, however, from experience, I find that they usually make posts very difficult to read and follow. Members who use mobile devices and tablets may not be able to use these fully if the templates contain hovers and other embellishments. Due to this, they are not allowed on the board.
Graphics and Signature Sizes
1. There are no restrictions on what an avatar may be as long as it contains no nudity, profanity or artwork/photography where the creator does not want you to use it. It is recommended that avatars made from the work of artists (unless the art was created by you) that credit is given to them and if possible, a link to their website in your user profile.
2. Signature images should be no larger than 500 pixels in length and 200 pixels in height. Other than size, the same rules that apply to avatars apply to signatures.
3. Flashing/animated avatars and signatures are not allowed. They generally don't look good and can cause loading and navigation of the forum to slow down. They also present problems to people who suffer from epilepsy.
4. Long signatures are not allowed on the forum - users and visitors get tired of having to scroll down through a lot of posts when reading threads and if most of the individual post space is taken up by signatures rather than post content it makes the problem worse. It can also slow down the loading and general navigation of the forum. A lot of users also use netbooks and this means that screen sizes are really small. What may look great on your supermassive PC monitor may not look so great on a netbook screen. Users with overly large signatures will be asked to make them smaller.
Adult Content in Fan Fiction
1. Content that would be rated above PG-13 in a film or TV series is not allowed on proboards in general, and proboards operate a very strict policy of deleting forums that break these rules. As a result, stories which contain explicit scenes of a sexual nature, swearing and graphic violence are not allowed on the forums. Members posting stories that go above this rating will be asked to edit the story to tone it down.
2. Stories containing incest, or graphic descriptions of child and domestic abuse will be deleted.
3. Stories that contain LGBT content are very difficult to rate in terms of content and are likely to be a violation of proboards terms of service, so as a result, any stories that contain these elements are not allowed on the board.
4. Repeated violations regarding adult content in fan fiction or refusal to edit a story when requested will result in a member being banned.