1. THIS IS OUR HOUSE
You are our guests. We will make all attempts to treat everyone with due respect and to accommodate everyone's wishes as far as reasonably possible. But, this is a private site. We are not a "for profit" enterprise. We are not funded by any governments. This means we run the site the way we see fit. We are not obligated to observe anyone's notions of "free speech" or even "fairness." We try of course, and that's why we're consistently considered one of the best gaming sites on the web, and you are always free to give us suggestions (Website Feedback Forum). But, we have our limits. If we don't like you, we simply ban you. You've been warned.
2. THOU SHALL OBSERVE FORUM ETIQUETTE
Common sense, people, common sense. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (And if you happen to be into masochism, then you're at the wrong site, anyway.)
This doesn't mean you can't get verbally medieval on someone's ass every once in a while. We don't run the place like a monastery. But, flames are generally discouraged and we expect people to have a damn good reason for resorting to harsh language in the forums. Generic trolling will get you banned. If you must flame, be smart or creative about it, and make sure the flame was warranted to begin with. Generally, you'll never go wrong by being nice, polite and mature. All just common sense, people.
* Tasteless jokes at the expense of someone's race, gender, or sexual orientation are not acceptable. Nobody likes to be called a name.
* Do not post in ALL CAPS. It sounds like you are screaming.
* Post your topics in the appropriate forum.
* Don't be an attention whore and give away the results of games, sporting events, movie endings, etc. in the title of the thread/post. Also, if you're going to reveal stuff in the body of your post, then be decent enough to use the + Show Spoiler + spoiler code.
* Don't be a drama queen martyr. You do not need to preemptively declare "I'm going to be banned for this..." or "ban me, I don't care." Our Moderators ban for good reasons. If they read someone acting like a martyr, they'll simply treat it as a request to be banned.
* Before you create a new thread, make sure to use the search function to make sure there isn't already a thread about the topic.
* Only bump old threads if you have something new and significant to add to them.
* Use the search function. It's better than Google and it works because whatever questions you may have, chances are we've already discussed it before ad-nauseam. Did a search already and you still don't know? Ask politely!
3. THOU SHALL THINK BEFORE POSTING
Please, think before you chime in with your opinion on a given post or series of posts. There will usually be some history behind a given exchange in our forums, so take the time to observe what might really be going on and put the conversation into context before you decide who's "right" and who's "wrong." Above all, take into account who is posting - context is everything. Chirping in with your grossly uninformed opinions will only make you look dumb and irritate the heck out of the people who do know what's going on.
Remember, there's a reason why we do things around here. Our Moderators are not power hungry, unreasonable people with agendas against specific users. If they ban someone, there was probably a very good reason for it. If you believe a certain ban was a mistake, you can contact a Mod through PM or in our IRC channel, but please be respectful about it. Do not take things into your own hands by posting "Ban?" or telling users they will be banned. You PM Moderators to let them know about specific posts or threads, but let them handle it after that.
Finally, do not post for the sake of posting. While it is sometimes acceptable to support another person's view point, doing so by adding "+1", or quoting while adding nothing at all, is not an appropriate post.
4. THOU SHALL CONTRIBUTE TO THE SITE
Contribute to the site. Everyone should pitch in. Some people contribute by being helpful when someone posts a question. Some people contribute by writing interesting posts that stimulate discussion or by uploading relevant and useful facts and information. Some people contribute by posting news from the gaming world. Others contribute by providing resources allowing us all to enjoy this game. Still others contribute by simply making everyone laugh. Contribution can take many forms and there's no single prescribed way to go about it. But, like good micro, we know it when we see it. Many contributors will have stars or special icons by their name. It's not a license to do anything they want, but good contributors will always get favorable treatment.
For you this means, when you create a new thread, make sure to include content worth discussing in it. A link or youtube video is not enough. An opening post should set the tone for discussion by being thoughtful and well constructed. We will not hesitate to close threads that don't have enough OP content.
Posting mainly in off-topic sections such as the spam and general forum is considered a serious lack on contribution.
PS:Contribution can be very simple things such as giving ideas or critic sprites, and not necessarily patchmaking.
5. THOU SHALL NOT SPAM
Spam our site and you die. Advertise pyramid schemes (it's been tried before) and you die. Post/link/request illegal stuff (CD keys, warez, serialz, copyrighted materials, actual threats of bodily harm, etc.) and you die. We'd rather ban you than receive a cease and desist letter from some lawyer or anal retentive parents' organization.
We have a spam section, but you have to respect the other guidelines in order to be eligible to use it.
5a. THOU SHALL NOT SPAM (redux)
Asking for or providing copyrighted material is a bannable offense. We will not provide you or anyone else with an illegal copy of FFT or any other game.
About time we get rules! Err I mean "guidelines"
Finally, rules!
Also:
+1
yay
Is there a way to make these like one of the Terms & Conditions many sites have (new people would have to check a box saying they accept these terms before joining)?
and who reads those killbones?
is there ANY way to make it so people actually see these? I doubt most of FFH notices when there's a new topic in News, seeing as how often there is one
So Zodiac bans Jon for saying "thank g0d"
Then later in the same day creates the guidelines with the main point of the second section quoting the bible...
wat?
not to start a religious debate here as well, but none of the ideas used in the OP originated in the bible
also Zodiac once kicked someone for being intolerant of Muslims while keeping the God kick rule on chat, hypocrisy much?
Quote from: "Voldemort"not to start a religious debate here as well, but none of the quotes used in the OP originated in the bible
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
as we told you in chat, the golden rule isn't religious
the idea of "eye for an eye" predates the bible, or any other religious text
Quote from: "Samuraiblackbelt"also Zodiac once kicked someone for being intolerant of Muslims while keeping the St. Ajora kick rule on chat, hypocrisy much?
That rule is uniform intolerance of invoking certain series of words or phrases, not intolerance against actual beliefs without instigation, and is also less intolerance and more "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
I think the Godkick rule is dumb personally, but what you just spoke of isn't hypocrisy because its very apples to oranges. Zodiac isn't randomly persecuting people for believing thing that (seem/are/is/was/were/maybe/possibly/aren't/choose verb of choice here) irrational, just saying "shut the fuck up about it already."
heh, the rules I asked for close to 2 years ago have now appeared.
Muslims are people, not deities. They're not all terrorists, only Talibans are. From what I've heard, they're actually more open than xtians. I hate religion, not the people. You have to understand why I hate it.
Theist religions causes war. Extremists find reasons to exterminate other people based on stupid beliefs.
They also prevent progress. Nearly everyone can't keep their faith when completing an higher education degree, as they understand the world better. It prevents progress because it makes people happy with their shitty lives, not contributing to a better world. It makes them think natural disasters are not caused by nature (strongly enhanced by climate changes) and that they're actually done by g[s:1ivinqgn][/s:1ivinqgn]od, which always kills way more innocent than guilty people.
another religious debate is pointless, this topic is about the ffh rules
the point wasn't to start a religious debate, it was just to point out how stupid godkick and st ajora word filters are, why shouldn't we be allowed to even refer to something, even if it doesn't exist? we can say Odin and Allah and stuff like that all we want, we can't even say god in a context that doesn't even refer to the xtian god.
oh shits, a tos
Alright, as there seemed and still seems to be misunderstanding about the contribution part, let me explain it clearly:
You don't need to create a patch to contribute to FFH. If you critic sprites or give ideas that's just fine!
Last thing of Guideline #4
"PS:Contribution can be very simple things such as giving ideas or critic sprites, and not necessarily patchmaking."
Lol, what do you mean misunderstanding Zodiac?
It's crystal clear in that quote already.
Unless people didn't read your post all the way thoroughly I guess that would cause it.
But anyways, quote tags disabled?
I just added that.
Also I could never find the reason why BBCodes/smilies are disabled by default on the News forum. You just have to bother unchecking the boxes that disable them.
For myself, I'm glad that "contributing" is loosely defined. I've always been concerned that, because I am not a hacker, that I have no place here. Hopefully my game-play advice for 1.3 and my loose involvement with Arena is enough to be considered a contribution.
Regardless, that is a very well constructed "TOS." Nicely done.
"This is our house. You don't like it, get the fuck out!"
as soon as philsov posted "TOS" I wanted to put a protoss.png but I can't in this forum
saaad face!
hey we can use BBC again!
also, I'm still curious how we're gonna make people actually see this
Post it as a sticky at the top of each section. (Read before posting)
Could work if people took the time to actually read those.
It doesn't matter if people have read it or not. The Zodiac has posted it, thus it is.
Quote from: "Melancthon"It doesn't matter if people have read it or not. The Zodiac has posted it, thus it is.
It wouldn't hurt to have people read it.
I'm sure some don't bother to read the news.
Quote from: "Samuraiblackbelt"hey we can use BBC again!
We can use Black Buster Critic?
Well anyway nice rules Zodiac.