READ BEFORE YOU POST - Forum Rules

[ShotgunWilly]

So, I just wanted to put all of the big rules into one announcement thread.

There's really only 3 big forum-wide rules that you need to worry about. There are others, but they vary by board and are generally noted in the board's description.

1) This is the most important to me: be respectful to others. Flame wars, excessive trolling, or anything along those lines will very likely end in at least a temporary ban for all parties involved. The degree of punishment depends on the degree of involvement.

2) No explicit material. To say it simply, no explicit sex or anything approaching that in whatever you post. This is a proboards rule and we could all get in trouble for one person doing violating this.

3) No RtB fics or anything else that violates copyright law (e.g. outright copying song lyrics). Same reasoning as above. Excerpts are fine, but as a general rule of thumb, I'd say that copying more than a couple of lines at any one time is too much.

Don't get me wrong, we (the admins) are not going to be trawling through every post looking for this stuff, but if it's reported to us or we do happen to see it, we will take action depending on the severity of the violation. No exceptions.

Thanks for your cooperation! I hate to sound harsh and I don't believe that anybody who's here currently would break these rules, but it's always good to have these things set out beforehand just in case anybody gets any ideas.

[ShotgunWilly]

I hope that we don't need it very often if at all, but Kitty and I have put together a warning system for rule-breakers.

A first offence, if it's accidental (or really minor), will result in a verbal warning. No real action comes of this except that we take note of it. This warning can either be posted in the thread or sent to the offender in a PM.

A 2nd offence, or a blatant first offence, results in the offender's warning level being raised to 20%. This is just another warning, but someone who receives one should know he/she is on thin ice.

The next (3rd or 2nd) offence results in warning being raised to 40%, accompanied by a 24 hour ban.

4th or 3rd offence results in warning being raised to 60% accompanied by a 72 hour ban.

5th or 4th offence results in warning being raised to 80% accompanied by a 1 week ban.

6th or 5th offence results in 100% warning, and a permanent ban. No appeals, no exceptions.

However, warns are not necessarily permanent. A user can appeal to the admins to have his/her warn level lowered a level or more if he/she has posted a number of times within a reasonable amount of time like, say, a month, and has not had a single violation in that time. Even a verbal warn, however, is enough to reset the clock, so to speak. These appeals can be given to one of the admins via private message who will decide whether to accept or reject the appeal. Whether an appeal is accepted or rejected, the clock will restart.

In essence, if you have a 40% warning level, you can appeal once and possibly get it lowered to 20%. If your appeal is approved, then your warning is lowered to 20% and you have to have to wait another month before appealing to have the remaining 20% removed. If you appeal is rejected, you will remain at 40% and can appeal again in another month or so.

Of course, we, the admins, still reserve the right to decide punishments on a case-by-case basis if we think it's necessary (such as an instant permanent ban for spammers or harsher punishments for unrepentant, consistent rule-breakers, though chances are they'd be banned soon enough on their own), but this will be the the general form of punishment for this forum.

Regards,
SGW