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The rules below are what we've come up with, they are in a draft state and we are willing to discuss various parts of them. We think they are mostly just common sense and what happens here anyway so they shouldn't cause too much of a change, but please post your thoughts.

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Board-wide Policies

1. Forum rules

1. 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).
2. Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
3. Members should remember this board is a primarily QB place and people worldwide visit because of QB/programming. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
4. 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.
5. Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. Anything posted excessively or of a commercial nature will be removed and a warning be given.
6. Although this board will tolerate debate on almost any topic, any debate that is about a "sensitive" topic (think religion, race etc), or any debate that users turn into a "sensitive" debate, will be locked and the offenders warned. If you want to debate a sensitive topic, find somewhere else. The moderators only will decide whether a topic is "sensitive", and their decision is final.
7. 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 the moderators and not users.
8. Members should note this board is maintained on a voluntary basis. No admin receives payment of any kind for time spent here. Users should therefore not post demanding anything, holding the admin accountable for problems with the board etc.


2. Signatures

1. 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. You may include images in your signature, but no more than three, and no larger than 40 pixels high.
2. Links are permitted in signatures. Links are included within the text and image limits above. Links to offensive sites may be subject to removal.
3. Users abusing these rules will be warned.

3. Avatars

1. Users are permitted to upload an avatar or to link to one of their own. User defined avatars are to be no larger than 90 pixels square, contain no animation, may not exceed 15KB in filesize and have a consistently high availability (i.e. links to images on slow servers or those prone to failure may be removed).
2. Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, etc.
3. Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges.


4. Policing

1. QBasicnews 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.
2. 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.
3. Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact another admin with reasons for why they think they've been unfairly treated. If they feel you were treated badly they remove a warning. If you feel their decision is also unfair you may contact another admin, primarily wildcard. His decision is final.
4. 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.
5. An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact moderators personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.
6. Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While we may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurence.
You should make a note about when to use PMs and when to use forums posts. for instance,

"Hey, jim, i need that bas file, it got deleted."

is not really worth a forum post. neither are personal feuds between one or two people. I've done that once and awhile, and I dont notice its stupid until later, so it'd be good to keep in the rules.

And, while this one's excessive, perhaps a 50% proliferation limit on leetspeak? Smile

...


...

yeah, i know, i'm a monster Tongue
nice rules.


Quote:is not really worth a forum post. neither are personal feuds between one or two people. I've done that once and awhile, and I dont notice its stupid until later, so it'd be good to keep in the rules.
a personal feud with one person involved... uh. wouldn't that be yourself?
Looks good to me...

Is there a way to disable changing the font size and color? (maybe allow smaller font sizes in signatures though) That would solve the problem of hard-to-read posts.
Plasma: We're not going to disable bbCode, but we know exactly what you refer to. Check rule 4 of the general forum rules.

toonski: That's a good one about using PMs for "Private messaging" Tongue. I think we'll make it that personal posts will be locked, but it won't constitute a warning, that would be harsh Wink

Posts that I don't understand will be deleted by me, does that work for leetspeak? :lol:

Oh, and posts like this:

Quote::rotfl:

Will be deleted from now on, unless you append some worthy praise/comment/question on the end. They're boring and take up space.
Are admins able to examine the contents of PM posts between users? A user who is being abused via PM should be able to contact an admin to have the abusive user dealt with. IMHO, PM abuse should be treated more seriously than abuse through the main forums because it is more personal.

Quote: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.
You should also post a message to the relevant abuse@isp address and have their isp deal with them.

Otherwise, looks good.
As far as users are aware admin can't view PM's, but I know a way around that if things get really desperate. Abuse by PM should be quoted on to an admin, and only if the accused appeals will we look at their PMs to find the truth.

As for the ISP, that's good also.
Sounds like good rules. Everyone can have a bad day or say something they didn't really mean but that won't be a problem since the moderators gives a warning before a member get banned...so that's really fair rules in my opinion.
Quote:6. Although this board will tolerate debate on almost any topic, any debate that is about a "sensitive" topic (think religion, race etc)...

I think race discussion shouldn't even need to be highlighted
as a sensitive topic...

Also on that point, it might be good to add politics...

Good rules!
...and yet i can freshly recall at least two threads that ended in racial discrimination.
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