Board-wide Policies
- Forum rules
- Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting. Users consistently posting to the wrong forum may be given a warning (see policing below).
- Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming (is allowed but limited) or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
- Members are asked to not act as back seat moderators. If members note an issue which contravenes something in this policy document they are welcome to bring it to the attention of one of the moderators. Only do this if a moderator team member has not replied within 6 hours. Members who consistenly act as moderators may be warned.
- Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
- Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc. or re-printing material without permision will receive a warning and their post will be removed.
- Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline () image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to may be removed.
- Members should post in a way which is consistent with normal writing. That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.
- Members should use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; Jump!, I'm stuck!, I've got an error!, etc. Examples of good titles include; I found a new jump on Urban!, etc.
- Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. Users posting spam will be warned and their post removed.
- The moderators reserve the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to administrators and not users.
- The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revokation of private messaging.
- Signatures and Avatars
- Signatures may contain up to five lines (one line being that displayed on a browser opened to 800px width) of text (of small or normal size) and/or one image, valid combinations include; a single image of no more than 100px high, 468px wide. Signatures containing an image this large may also include one line of small size text. Signatures containing an image of 30px high may include up to three lines of small size text or two lines of normal size text. Images of 15px height or less may allow up to three lines of normal size text or four lines of small size text.
- Text sizes should be between 9 and 12 (small and normal). Text in signatures is subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, warez, emoticons, etc.
- Links are permitted in signatures. Such links may be made to non-AQ2World material, commercial ventures, etc. Links are included within the text limits above. Links to offensive sites may be subject to removal.
- Users are permitted to link to one of their own avatars (subject to previous points on misuse of bandwidth). The user defined avatars are to be no larger than 90 pixels square, contain no image which attempts to portray the user as having an official status here (e.g. mimiking ranks or copying avatars of team members) and have a consistently high availability (i.e. links to images on slow servers or those prone to failure may be removed).
- Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, etc.
- Signatures and avatars that don't follow our restrictions will be will be removed.
- Users abusing these rules will be warned. Users abusing the avatar rules may lose their avatar privileges.
- Policing
- AQ2World operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences in a three month period. If the need arises for a fourth warning a temporary ban will be put in place of between 1 to 7 days.
- Arguing with moderators after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place as above.
- Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account of evade an email ban. Circumvention includes posting as an anonymous user.
- An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact team members personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.
- Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While AQ2World may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurence.
- Questions
- If you have any questions regarding the rules, you can contact any of the administrators. Our IRC channel is #aq2world on Quakenet. These rules are subject to change at any time. Any major changes made will be reported in the Announcements section.
- Every registered user is expected to know all the rules; not knowing them is no valid excuse for not following them.
- When the choice needs to be made, the spirit of the rules has precedence over the letters. When reason demands it, exceptions to the rules can be made.
