Complete Rule Guide

[XenLár]

Complete Rule Guide

Please remember that for a forum to run smoothly and efficiently with a pleasant mood that people need to follow simple and common sense rules when conducting themselves on the forum. Everyone should read the Registration and Global Rules below while anyone planning on posting in the specified boards below should read their equivalent rules. These rules are also posted in the appropriate boards in case you wish to find them again.


- - Registration and Global Rules

- - Graphics Board Rules

- - Writing and Literature Board Rules

- - Traditional Art Board Rules

- - Photography Board Rules

- - Affiliation and Advertising Rules

- - Staff Rules


If any Section Moderators edit their board rules please PM an administrator so that these rules can also be changed to match and be kept up to date.

If anyone has a rule suggestion that they would like included in the rule guide through their experience on this or other forums then please send a message to an administrator explaining the rule and why you think it should be included in our rule guide and it may be added.


Breaking the Rules

Breaking the forum rules have consequences. Depending on the extent of rules broken and how disrupting these rule breaks have been to the community the staff member dealing with the event shall use their judgement in warnings or pass the matter up to an administrator who may in fact ban the member in question. Generally, however, the routine is that it is one warning for one rule break, most of the time. This is, however, of course life and things are not always that simple. Rest assured though that anyone breaking rules shall be looked into greatly. If it is a small offense an unofficial warning may be given instead of an official one in the hope that the member ceases their behaviour before it gets out of hand.

Of course we would much rather not ban or warn anybody. We're nice people y'all and we'd like to get on ^^ So everyone play nice ne?

[XenLár]

Registration and Global Rules

• When joining please know that this is an active forum and that, though it's impossible to tie your hands to the keyboard, being inactive on the site may cause problems for those expecting more activity. Such as those you're talking to or hanging out with. You don't have to be an insane member who spends every waking moment here - not even our administrators do that, but it would be nice to be able to recognise your face when you're around.

• Please activate your account through the activation code that is sent to you via email. It doesn't take two seconds and it verifies that you are, in fact, human. If everyone does this then we hope to have the maximum number of real people and the fewest number of robots on here.

• No offensive language is to be used in your username. Have a little self-respect people. Who wants to be called something of the four lettered variety? Any usernames found to be widely offensive (not just to one person, but generally considered rude by a majority of people) will be warned to change their display name. Any who do not follow this warning will have their display names altered without warning by a member of staff.

• No flamming. This is rude or insulting remarks made when no provocation is made. Insults made under provocation are also against the rules and staff members will not allow such language to go unnoticed. Let's just all be friendly and nice to each other yeah? It's a better way to spend the time in the long term.

• No spamming. This is not an advertising board and you are not a spam-bot. Stop wasting your time and start talking to us lovely people, ne? For those of you who seriously want to advertise something, do it in your private member journals. If you want to advertise an actual website, we have an advertising board available for your use.

• No double-posting. The edit button beckons, people. Please use it. If you have something that you're adding later then simply put - "EDIT: message here." in your post. A lot of the time double posting doesn't matter but having this rule in place stops people from taking advantage of it and posting pointless message after pointless message. If the thread is your own journal or a thread about something you have done that is going to be mostly you writing then double-posting is allowed. If you have a query on when and where it is or is not appropriate, simply message a member of staff and they will advise you.

• No harassment or stalking of other members. No-one likes to feel singled out or victimised in real life and they don't like it in the cyber world either, so no constant PMs or following around the boards. Let's all play nicely children.

• No posting videos or music that are set to automatic play. This is just damn annoying. Especially if they are of the rude kind. Luckily our hosting site does not have sound ads on their forums so we're free from that. Just please don't replace them with irritating clips or catchphrases set to yell at us as soon as we load the page.

• You are welcome to customise your posts, as we encourage and love originality and creativity on this forum, but please do not use unreadable fonts or colours designed to give the reader a headache. Bright neon yellow in edwardian script is not going to make you any friends on here, I can assure you. If you really want to go for it then don't be surprised if people ignore anything you say. It will probably be because they can't be bothered to decipher your migraine-inducing scrawl.

• We have a few size restrictions when it comes to signatures and avatars as we like to keep our screens un-stretched and our images in the correct proportioning. Therefore restrictions for signature images are 600px(wide) by 300px(high). Avatar image restrictions are 120px(wide) by 170px(high).

[XenLár]

Graphics Board Rules

• One thread per person. Please feel free to create your own personal thread that you can update with your graphics. Posting them all individually would just get them lost on the board so name your thread something specific to you and keep them all there ^^.

• Respect people and their work with constructive criticism and a nice tone. We don't just want tutors and instructors on graphic design- we want to make friends too! Your opinion is more than welcome but lets all be friendly about it and get to know each other at the same time.

• Please bare in mind different graphic manipulation softwares when giving advice. Remember that certain tools or effects you suggest may not be applicable to the person you're talking to. It can be very annoying when someone who uses Photoshop keeps insisting a GIMP-user use a certain tool that they don't have. We advise everyone to put what kind of software they use in the opening of their threads, or when they post new images so that others can take this into consideration.

• Links can be posted for linking to larger images that would stretch the page but please do not simply link us your deviantart or photobucket account. We want to see your work and it will be easier to critique if it was there in plain site on the boards- please use the image tags or URL to a direct image. If your image is particularly large we encourage you to put it as a URL link, or to resize it before placing it on the boards. Upon finding an image that stretches their page members of staff will remove your IMG tags in order to reduce it to a URL.

• No stealing of anyone else's work. This is a given people. GFXers talk and recognise stuff. You'd be surprised what we can recognise in terms of image stocks, effects, brushes and fonts when we've been staring at it for hours on end. Don't try to steal. You won't get away with it. And it's more fun to make something of your own and be proud of it.

• No excessively pornographic images or graphics that will offend others. Our hosting site warns us if we have anything we shouldn't, so anything pornographic will be removed without warning.

• If you ask for critique please accept that critique as the opinion of the person who gave it. Just because they criticised your work does not make them wrong or right. It's an opinion. Let's all play nice now okay?

[XenLár]

Writing and Literature Board Rules

• We request that you place warnings at the start of your writing if it contains anything that may offend any members on the forum. You are welcome to post your work so long as those who may dislike it have been adequately notified and warned off of seeing it. We know that different genres include different kinds of materials but they can be of differing detail so feel free to be creative. Just give us plenty of pre-warning of what to expect.

• Having said this, extreme pornographic writing or disgusting content shall be deleted and, should the situation need it, the member warned. We all like a little of the naughty stuff but lets keep it at least unnauseating, people. If you're into that kinda stuff then read it in your own time or post it elsewhere. We don't want to see it. Any member who finds content on the forum that they do not think should be viewable to the general public of the site is encouraged to contact a member of staff.

• No stealing anyone's ideas or writing. We can search the site for repeated wordings or stolen ideas so don't think that you can get away with it. Writing is a skill and labour drawn from the heart. Lets not break anyone's by stealing it from them.

• If you are writing a fanfiction please place a disclaimer in your post that you do not own anything concerning the original anime/manga. Give full credits to whomever they're supposed to be held by. Lets not be involved in any court trials ne?

• Any criticism of people's work is to be constructive only. Please look at their messages for any notes requesting "nice" or "harsh" criticisms so you don't go destroying anyone's hopes and dreams, okay? Cater to the kind of criticism they are looking for. Newbie writers will not be looking for the kind of criticism you would give a professional.

• One thread per project. If you have a novel or a set of poetry that you want to put on the board then feel free to post them in different threads. But please don't flood the board with different chapters all over the place- keep them together. Also, if you have a website or blog that has your story on then feel free to set up a thread linking to that blog and simply update the thread every time you upload something to the external website.

[XenLár]

Traditional Art Board Rules

• One thread per person. Rather than posting all of your art pieces randomly on the board, it would be a good idea to keep them all together in one place. Start a thread of your own, with your own unique title and keep all your work together there so that it doesn't get lost.

• We realise that this is probably the area of the forum where big images are almost a necessity so please be careful with your posting. Either post an image that has been shrunk to fit the page, or post the URL of an image that will give us the full size. Quick Note: If you post your image as an attachment, we can see a small preview of your work in your post.

• Be careful with your quoting. In this board, there are likely to be a lot of big images. So be careful what you are repeating when you quote someone's post or comments. We don't need to see the same large image repeated a billion times in the same page. If you want to quote the whole message then simply remove the image tags from the original poster's message and their image will appear in much smaller and space-economical URL.

• Do not steal other people's work. Sounds simple enough but when someone spends hours on a piece of work, they'll recognise it, or part of it, anywhere so don't even try - you'll get caught every time. Spend your time working on something that you can call your own and be proud of.

• If you have taken anyone else's work into consideration with your piece, such as a fanfic painting then please quote them and place your own disclaimer in the thread/post. A) it stops us from being involved in any court trials and B) it's nice to give consideration and reference to anyone who may have created part of the work for you.

[XenLár]

Photography Board Rules

• Create your own album. Don't post your work all over the board - create and name an album all your own and keep your work there. Then we know who has taken what and we can notice certain styles ^^. If you want to group certain styles of photography together than use your first post as a showcase of your stuff like in the GFX boards. You can put different shoots/styles under different headings. Or put all pictures of one shoot in a single post. Each post a different shoot. Please don't post multiple threads.

• We request that you place warnings at the start of your photography album if it contains anything that may offend any members on the forum. You are welcome to post your work so long as those who may dislike it have been adequately notified and warned off of seeing it. If your work may be considered offensive posting it as a URL instead of an image may be wise.

• Having said this, extreme pornographic images or disgusting content shall be deleted and, should the situation need it, the member warned. We do not tolerate illicit or morally wrong material, and neither does our hosting server.

• On the subject of tasteful nude portraits. I'm all for this if you want to get experimental. However, please remember that this is an all ages forum. When I say tasteful nudes I mean certain areas covered but skin on show. Nothing extreme. Also, if Proboards decide that what you have posted breaks their terms and conditions your image will have to be removed. Sorry.

• No stealing anyone's photography and claiming it as your own. It's not hard to find the original sources my friends so please just be honest - we know where and how to look for the truth.

• If you are posting an image that features images from an anime/manga (such as a poster or a t-shirt) please place a disclaimer in your post that you do not own anything concerning the original anime/manga. Lets not be involved in any court trials ne?

• Any criticism of people's work is to be constructive only. Please look at their messages for any notes requesting "nice" or "harsh" criticisms so you don't go destroying anyone's hopes and dreams, okay? Remember their level of skill, where they are in the learning curve and what kind of equipment they're using.

[XenLár]

Affiliation and Advertising Rules

• We do not affiliate with any sites promoting offensive material or illegal actions. This is non-negotiable.

• If you wish to affiliate with us or post an advertisement, please post in the Plugging Board. Click the title of the board for the link. Please follow further instructions there.

• If you wish to advertise this forum on another site then please use the information in our Connecting thread. This thread holds links to other information threads that may be useful.

[XenLár]

Staff Rules

There are a lot of forums out there where staff members think they're Gods and shit on the little guys. This is not one of them. Therefore we're putting this set of rules into the general thread so that everyone else can read it. If anyone thinks a staff member is breaking one of these rules then please contact an administrator.


• Everyone, including staff members, is accountable to the rules above.

• A staff member's status is not a bargaining chip or get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to warnings. A staff member should be punished in the same way as anyone else on the forum is.

• A member's version of events will not be given any less validity than a staff member's as this is an online forum and posts can be checked. No-one's word of mouth will be taken as gospel truth, be they staff member or otherwise.

• Staff members are not to be arrogant and throw their status around. The staff of the forum are here for the ease of the members not the other way around.

• When enforcing rules, staff members should not be prejudiced or bias toward any member, whether positively or negatively.

• A staff member should be willing to solve a small matter via the rules of the forum but also able to pass a larger problem on to a higher member of staff.

• If you have a problem with a staff member do not report it to a staff member of the same rank. Aim higher. If it is a Moderator, speak to their direct Section Moderator. If you're having a problem with the Section Moderator then speak to an Administrator. We don't bite. Promise.

• Staff members are not to speak of private content discussed in the staff board, on the main forum. We are not hiding great deals of information from members- this is simply to protect against private or wrong information being spread on the forum. Anything that is truthful and effects the forum shall be published in the information board.


Having said this I would like the entire board to understand that staff are picked with care and experience. It may be the case that the staff member is sided with by the administrators simply because we believe them to be right, not just because they are staff. Their staff positions are given because they are usually right. They are not usually right because they are staff.