<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>Read the rules. Understand the rules. Follow the rules.</span>
The following rules should be used as general guidelines to determine acceptable forum content. Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse for not following the rules. You are also expected to follow basic net-etiquette when posting in the forums. If you feel you've been wronged or misrepresented, you're welcome to contact me by forum private message or e-mail. The Site Discussion forum is intended for constructive criticism about general forum and site management/development, or soliciting assistance with site usage, and is NOT for addressing complaints specific to an individual (such as those regarding ban or warn status) or tirades against the moderation team over personal issues.
If you...
- are unsure about something, ask a moderator or administrator.
- refuse to follow the rules, don't post.
- break the rules, you will be warned (for minor offenses) or banned (for serious offenses or multiple warns).
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>The Rules</span>
1. No Illegal Content
Do not post files, instructions for, or links to information explaining how to...
a. bypass copyright protection. This includes Tank Protection flags.
b. obtain copyrighted material that was not permitted by their copyright owners for redistribution at the specified location. This includes, but is not limited to, pirated software, music, or other media, including modern commercial game emulation.
Discussing the implications, ethics and other theoretical aspects of these subjects is acceptable, but promoting, advocating or providing specific details is not.
Because the physical server resides in the United States, the legality of its contents will be determined by U.S. law.
2. No Pornography, Nudity, and Strongly Sexually Suggestive Material
In general, refrain from posting pictures, renderings, drawings, cartoons, stick figures or specifically descriptive text in a manner that would be rated M (Mature) or in the ESRB rating system or R (Restricted) or above in the MPAA rating system for sexual subject matter. This includes, but is not limited to, nudity in screenshots illustrating Dungeon Siege nude skin mods and overly revealing lingerie skins, such as those with thongs or crotchless panties.
Posting written material or inline images containing the above is unacceptable. Links to gratuitous examples of the above is prohibited. It is sometimes reasonable to link to an external resource that contains borderline material because of it's redeeming attributes, but first warn people about what they might see.
I realize that this blanket statement covers a lot of material that is widely considered beautiful, tasteful art or even historical works of some repute, but there are plenty of websites dedicated to discussing that kind of stuff, and this is not one of them.
3. No Harassment or Hate Messages
Do not use these forums or this site in any way (including, but not limited to the email form, private messaging or download comments section) to harass, threaten, post falsities or "opinions" with malicious or defamatory intent about or to another poster for any reason at these forums.
4. No Advertising(*) Unrelated to Dungeon Siege, Spamming or Scamming
Do not use these forums to post or send via PM or email form the following: commercials, pyramid and other MLM schemes, referral programs and money scams. This includes web games that encourage you to post referral links for game points. Just "passing through" the forums to post a commercial is unacceptable. Avoid promoting a website unrelated to Dungeon Siege in your first post as it makes it difficult to tell if you intend to stick around or not.
(*)Registered forum members may include (within reason) links to material unrelated to Dungeon Siege in their signature/profile as long as it does not violate any other rule or guideline. Links unrelated to Dungeon Siege that are provided for informational purposes (e.g., answering a question or conversation in the Off Topic forum), will not be considered advertising.
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>General Guidelines</span>
1. Respect Your Forum Moderators and Fellow Users
Remember to treat other forum posters with respect, even if you don't agree with their points of view. For example, don't call someone "stupid" for taking an opposing point of view or jeer at someone's difficulty with communicating their points.
Forum Administrators and Moderators work hard and spend a lot of time to keep this place clean and helpful for the Dungeon Siege community. This means that sometimes we have to make tough decisions, act harshly, strictly interpret the rules and thusly, gain notoriety rather than popularity. Respect our decisions about site and forum matters, even if you don't agree with them.
You may (politely) attempt to convince a moderator to change his/her mind or appeal to another moderator via private correspondence, but posting complaints or rants about such decisions in your profile, signature, new thread, reply or other public medium is plainly disrespectful, and will not be tolerated.
2. Policing the Forums
If someone is breaking a rule in a way that annoys you or makes you feel uncomfortable, feel free to tell them in a non-aggravating/non-threatening manner that they should not be doing that, or better yet, use the Report button at the top of each post to discreetly notify the moderators. However, do not go through the forums looking for people who you feel are breaking rules so you can tell them off. If someone is being a nuisance on the board, and a moderator is aware of the situation, consider backing off. Goading and provoking troublemakers takes control of the situation away from the moderator and makes their role more difficult.
3. Signature Restrictions
As a courtesy to other forum visitors, please keep your signature to a reasonable size. To be more specific about what we consider "reasonable", the following are concrete limits, which will be enforced:
- max dimensions for all image(s) in a signature combined: 400 px by 100 px
- max signature height, including all images and text: 125 px
- max filesize for all signature images combined: 75 kB
- no flashing animations ("flashing" is when there is a significant color or content change occurs between adjacent frames that switch faster than once every 1.5 seconds)
4. Constructive Criticism is OK. Bashing and Flaming is NOT OK.
Do not use these forums to post calumnious (i.e. false and defamatory) statements about Dungeon Siege related matters, including this site. To qualify as criticism, a post must contain a explanation or cogent reason to support your opinion.
5. Cross Posting
Do not post the same new thread in multiple subforums. Pick one forum and post your thread there. If a moderator feels that you posted it in the wrong place, it will be moved to the proper forum. If you think you accidentally posted in the wrong forum, you may repost in the desired forum and notify a moderator to delete the original, or simply ask a moderator to move the original thread to the desired forum.
6. Post Count Pumping
Also commonly known as "post whoring", post count pumping is the act of posting messages with no content, and with the specific intent to increase your account's total post count. Continued attempts to spam the forums in this manner or disregarding moderators' cautions against doing so will result in post count reductions in addition to or in place of warnings, suspensions or bannings.
7. Provocative Subject Matter
It's not against the rules to talk about controversial topics, but if you deliberately attempt to precipitate a flame war or otherwise breed bad will by goading people on, you may be warned or banned for doing so.
8. Promoting Other Dungeon Siege Related Websites
You may use the forums to propagate knowledge of and from other Dungeon Siege-related events, organizations, and websites as long as you do not:
a. abuse any forum features (including but not limited to PM and email form) to spam forum visitors with the link
b. misrepresent the contents of the site so as to trick people into visiting
When possible, direct the interested parties to the specific location within the remote site that will answer their question(s). Sending a person to the front page of a site with no further guidance on finding what they wanted is often confusing, frustrating, and may be construed as advertising.
9. Foul Language
The existing word filters are quite flawed and need some adjustments, but the intent should be clear enough: abusive or excessively profane language is not welcome here.
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>Service Agreement</span>
You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless this forum and its agents with respect to any claim based upon any post you may make. We also reserve the right to reveal whatever information we know about you in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by yourself.
Although messages posted are not the responsibility of this forum and we are not responsible for the content or accuracy of any of these messages, we reserve the right to delete any message at our discretion. If you do find any posts are objectionable then please use the Report button at the top of the post.
By participating in discussions or otherwise actively using the forum features, you meet the above criteria and agree to abide by all of the aforementioned rules and policies.
