Rules and Posting Guidelines (Updated: 5/3/09)

RSForums Official Rules and Posting Guidelines

Rules

General Posting Etiquette/Rules
Spam:
• To indiscriminately post unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages.
• Examples of spam are people posting immature things.
• As much as you like someone’s post, don’t make a post saying something like: “Nice post.”

Back-seat modding:
• Back-seat modding is acting like a moderator excessively.
• Helping a user out and telling them they did something wrong in a reasonable fashion is one thing, acting like a moderator, and constantly trying to make yourself look like one is another. You know the difference, use discretion.
• Always use the Report Post function before you post in correction, or send a private message to the author of the post in question.

Gravedigging:
• Any thread which is 14 or more days old, without any posting, is considered dead. If someone posts in a thread that is 10 or more days old, it is considered gravedigging.
• Generally scripts/ guides are exempt from gravedigging, as people may still have questions about them. Also, topics that are still relevant/ have not been resolved are also exempt.
• If a thread is stickied, it can be posted in as long as it is still stickied. If you post in a sticky thread, it is not gravedigging.
• If you still have a question about the thread, you can PM the question to the person who you want to ask, instead of posting in the dead thread.


List Of Forbidden Things
• No WareZ
• No Porn
• No Viruses
• No linking to inappropriate websites
• No shock-site links
• No Advertising at all (This includes in Signatures) - This includes referral links!


Signature Rules
General Signature Rules

• Any Signature that breaks any of the following rules will be removed, and the user punished accordingly.

• Maximum Total allotted Signature Size (MTASS) is 600x400. This includes all text, images, and blank space.
  EXAMPLE OF THIS SIZE:
  
• Signatures should be appropriate
  - No porn, nudity, or hentai.
• Do not steal signatures
  - Only use things that other people have made IF they give you permission!
  - This will result in a ban!

Username Images

• Must be 200x30 pixels; no bigger and no smaller.
• Must contain your full username and also have no other words. However images may be added in with it.
• Must coordinate with your username color. (Admin is red, global is blue, donors are white,etc.)
• Must not contain any offensive material.
• Your username may not impersonate any other member of RSF, especially staff.
• Username Images can only be changed once a month, or if your status on the forums change. (i.e sectional moderator promoted to global, etc.)

Any username image that violates any of these rules will be removed and your username image rights will be taken away. If you lose your Username image rights you will not be able to gain them back ever.

Name Changes

To receive a name change you must give head to WD.


The Infraction System
Here at RSF, we have a "warning/infraction system mod". Moderators can give users warnings or infractions if a user breaks a rule.
Warnings - These are to serve as a reminder of the rules, these cannot get you banned, and are worth "0 points".
Infractions - These are serious. These CAN get you banned, and are worth anywhere from "1 Point" to "4 points" each.
If you have a question on why you received a warning or infraction please PM the Staff Member responsible for giving out the warning or infraction. Do not post a thread asking about it. This will get you more infractions, etc.


The "point" system
Warnings and infractions expire 10 days after they are received. If you have "4 active points" at any time; it will result in a two (2) week temporary ban, no questions asked. If you have "8 active points" at any time; it will result in a one (1) month temporary ban. However, say you get 3 infractions, and three weeks later, you get 3 more, this will not result in a ban, as the old infractions will be expired. Serious infractions will never expire/will take longer to expire. More than 1 point per infraction can be give at the moderator's discretion.


Last updated on: July 5th, 2009
Updated by: World Domination

Addendum 1: You may be outright banned at anytime at the discretion of a moderator and you may not contest this. Also, most of these rules do not really apply but we are too lazy to change them; figure it out for yourselves.

Updated.

[Stephen]

Updated again, fixed grammatical/spelling erros and added the No Racism rule.

Updated, added username image rules.