Okay, here goes.


BANS:

I don't mean the japanese Van (who's name is Ban). I mean the bans you can get for breaching the rules below.

We have two main types of ban. A Time-Ban, where your posting abilites are removed for a number of hours (for example, 24) and a BAN. The former is just a cooling-off period, to give you a little time to think. they are timed by the person who issues the time-ban, and expire automatically when that time is up.

A proper ban is what we'll do if your a total moron. You'll know when your banned proper like. Moderators have the power to ban under certain circumstances and admins under ALL, but only admins have the power to REMOVE such a ban.


WARNING SYSTEM:

We will work on a "three-and-a-bit strike" system that operates like this:

1: your first large breach of the rules will give you your first warning, and possibly your posting rights will be removed for several hours based on the rules below if it's a serious enough breach.
2: if you persist breaking the rules, you will get another warning. if the breach is severe, you may be given a ban of up to 72 hours (exception is rule 9 - this will earn you 94 hours ban, or 4 days). a "cooling off" period, if you will.
3: any further serious breach of the rules in the near future will earn you a ban of no less than than 14 days.
4: When you return from your third warning you have a final chance to prove yourself before being banned for an indefinate period of time.

there is an exception to the system - anybody who makes a directed effort to destroy the forums will earn themselves a permenant ban. No exceptions!

you will notice, when logged in, a bar to the left of your posts reading "Warn:" it also shows a percentage and a bar to give visual reference. If you click the percentage, you may be able to see the reasons why you have been granted a warning and who exactly warned you. Only you and the moderators/admins can see these warnings and reasons. Learn from them.

RULES:

1 - All users must be registered to post. Unregistered users can browse the forums.

2 - All users will be allowed to reply to or create new topics once per minute only. there is no basic punishment because it is an automatic lock-out during that minute. If you use any method to cheat this in a damaging fashion, you will be credited with a 24 hour ban.

3 - no flooding (posting lots of topics or replies pointlessly to "flood" an area). you'll lose your posting rights for 24 hours if you do this in excess.

4 - no spamming (posting new topics when it's not required, posting that is primarily off-topic).. in general, no garbage if you can help it, unless it's in the cheese zone. Excessive spamming will earn you a ban of no more than 72 hours at the banning moderators discretion.

5 - no trolling or personal attacks and polls about who likes/hates certain board members are also unacceptable. RPing using zoid ranks is fine, though, but only in the cheeze zone. 24 hour ban for popularity polls, up to 72 hours for trolling or personal attacks, at the banners discretion.

6 - mild swearing (i.e, CRAP) is tolerated... anything generally considered extreme is automatically blocked out by a filter. stompy and myself have the power to add words and word variations/combinations to the filter. in general, if your words are filtered out often, your going to earn yourself a warning. Excessive swearing (most notably, a lot of it in one post) will earn you a good 24 hours minimum to 48 hours maximum ban.

7 - if you create a topic that is primarily on-topic but becomes off-topic but stll with some useful content, it's not considered a breach of the rules... conversation is a good thing and we encourage it. going off topic into nothing but pointless garbage in large amounts, however, can result in a small ban of no more than 15 hours. If you have something stupid to add, add it along with some REAL conversation. :)

8 - no stretching. stretching is when you have a LONG string of text with no spaces. if you want to, say, go AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAARGH!!!!!.. do it with some spaces like above so it doesn't stretch things. i'm not going to be picky on this, but i don't like having to edit posts because people can't use the spacebar, so please, use your head... and the spacebar. If you do this in excess, yes, 24 hour ban. You knew it was 24 hours... Aren't you clever!

9 - Posting about ROMS, Warez, Pirating and other such illegal activities will not be tolerated. Any such topics will be closed without notice. If you post asking for assistance in getting a serial number, crack or copyright bypassing material (such as key generators) for any software, you'll earn yourself a 48 hour ban. no exceptions.

10 - Do not revive older topics. Anything on the second page/more than 30 days old should not be replied too unless the matter is important or you can see it's of the same content as a new post you wanted to make. If you "rez" a whole mess of topics, yes, it's a 24 hour ban!.. surprise.

All bans are given as "time from banning", not from when you made the post. If you post asking for a serial number for, say, Doom3, on the 12/11/04 at 4:00PM, your ban will not end on the 14th at 4PM. Your ban will last 48 hours from when it started. If you were time-banned on the 12/11/04 at 11PM for a post you made at 4PM, your ban will end on the 14th at 11PM.