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make sure to read and understand all of the forum rules
before joining and becoming a member.... it'll make
everyone's lives a lot happier and your stay a lot nicer. as
the forum member count increases, it becomes more important
that people follow the rules to ensure the board stays as
smooth as possible. we don't like banning people, but we will if we feel it is necessary.
let's start off with some basics. these apply to almost
every message board, forum, and mailing list on the
'net, so there shouldn't be any profound shocks here.
1) Language
don't swear or use offensive terms. There are plenty of words that we already know we are not supposed to call different groups of people, so don't use them here. don't make up clever ways to circumvent the obscenity filters, either. It doesn't impress anyone worth impressing. At the very least, your posts will get deleted. At the very most, you'll get banned. There's plenty of trash talk out there in the world already, we don't need anyone bringing it in here. the same applies to your sigs, avatars, and any posted images. it should go without saying, but just to make sure it's understood, we will indeed say it. any swearing, obscenity, or offensive terms in word or picture, are a direct violation of the forum rules.
2) Respect
don't disrespect the administrators, the mods, the free
rangers, or other members of the boards. The admins and
webmasters of this site put a lot of time, energy and money
into pokemon zeo and this forum, and coming in and being a
jerk is no way to reward them. the mods and free rangers
spend a lot of time and hard work here as well. A bad
attitude will earn you zero respect, and if deemed
warranted, will get you removed from the board--a lot sooner than later, nowadays. It takes
effort from everyone to keep an online community growing and
in good shape. If someone doesn't want to contribute
something positive, this probably isn't the board for
them, and we'll speed them on their way so they can find a board that suits them better.
superior attitudes, rudeness, and general nastiness to others are permitted and occasionally encouraged on many boards, but they are not so here. falling under the cateogory of 'respect others' is respect their requests. quite freqently, in the gallery, fanfic and card posting sections, people will post their work and request that it not be critiqued. people have the right to do this. receiving peer critiques is an excellent way to improve one's work, but authors of a work have the right to post something, and not have it critiqued. posts like this are best dealt with the 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all' approach. people who repeatedly ignore, disregard or argue with such requests will risk being banned from that particular forum, if not from the entire board. your right to express your opinion, if your opinion happens to be criticism of the work involved, is superceded by the creator's request to not have criticism posted. that's the way it will work.
3) Courtesy
be civil and courteous to one another. If you find that
you have a difference of opinion with someone, do not insult
them or belittle their opinions. You are free to disagree,
but not to berate. In the long run you'll be happier if you
end up making friends here, and not starting fights. Flaming
will not be tolerated. It's permitted on some boards, but
not here. don't do it. I don't care how long you've been a member, you do not have the right to attack or insult others. I particularly do not want to see 'n00b' baiting. Everyone was new once, and any problems with new forum members' behavior will be dealt with by mods, admins, or free rangers. members who routinely deride or insult other members, be they new or not, risk being banned.
4) Posting Links
don't post links to porn, warez, bigotry, or sites that
feature them. by the same token, don't post IMAGES or text of same! same as bad language and disrespectful
behaviour, your posts will get deleted and you may get
banned. There are all ages of people who post here, and
everyone will need to respect that. There are plenty of forums to be 'mature' (and I use the term loosely) at, so go and do it there instead. And remember--there is a
lady present! ;)
5) SPAM!
Don't spam…..for the love of sanity, don't spam.
What is spamming? Posting topics that have no real value,
making empty replies to other posts, basically just filling
up the boards with messages that really don't add anything.
Make sure that before you post a message, you have a POINT
to make. Look to see if you are posting in the correct forum
for any given topic. Try and put some thought and effort
into what you say, and you will find people will be much
more interested in reading it.
6) Advertising
Advertise your sites and forums in your sig, and not by
posting about them. in the past we have allowed posts about
new sites or forums opening, but in order to make this rule
easier to understand, please do not make posts announcing
new sites or forums, urging people to visit them, or so
forth.
7) Sig regulations!
This forum is set up to allow personal pics and images in sigs. It's fun to express yourself with them, but in order to keep the boards from getting cluttered by a lot of images and text, sig sizes are regulated. Personal photos have a maxium size of 150x150, which is really pretty big, and sig files may contain any combination of links, image, and text(all of which must comply with the anti-swearing, obscenity, and off-limits linking mentioned in the rules above) within the following guidelines....there is a size limit of 150 pixels high by 500 pixels wide, for the image contained in your sig. there is a character limit of 255 for your entire sig, including html. if you want more than one image in your sig, they must add up to 150 high by 500 wide. the rules on the sigs are very clear. if you want the priviledge of having a sig, then make sure yours complies. warnings on oversized or otherwise unacceptable sigs may be given, but we assume people read the rules on the forums at which they post. don't put up a sig that breaks any of the sig regulations, and wait to be told to correct it. you may not get a warning.
8) don't revive old
topics!
topics up until the second page of a forum may be
regarded as fair game. in some of the less visited forums, a
second page topic might be a month old....it's probably
rather pointless to revive it at that point. you've all been
graced with brains and discretion, use them :) but up until
the second page is allowable. the sole exceptions are serial
fanfics (you may continute to post CHAPTERS or
installments...not just idle 'i'm working on it!' to keep
bumping your topic, or contests. participants in contests
may post an ENTRY in a contest topic. we would ask that
contests be limited in length to two weeks.
and while we're on the subject....don't 'bump' your topics.
bumping means to post a meaningless message in a thread to
keep it on the first two pages. if a topic isn't getting
replies, let it go. if you bump it, it may get
deleted.
9) pay attention to
sticky topics!!
everynow and then and admin or mod will deem it
necessary to make an announcement at the top of a given
forum. generally we will make these topics sticky to ensure
people see them. please read these and treat them as if they
were posted here. generally sticky topics are made because
people are ignoring one or more of the rules posted here.
ignoring posts made by mods and admins in sticky topics is
the same as ignoring the rules posted here. it's a good idea
to pay attention when one of us is asking you to do or not
do something. people who ignore these incur the same
penalties as ignoring rules on this page.
10. plagiarism
also known as taking work that someone else did and
saying that you did it. everyone who posts at the forums
puts a lot of work into what they do, whether it be cards,
art, blanks, or even text or ideas. plagiarism is when you
take anything that someone else has made and say that you
made it... whether it be on the same forum or a different
one. plagiarism on any level will not be tolerated.
likewise, if you run a website and take information posted
on these forums to post on your site, credit the author of
the original post.
11) rankings
the only ranks we have now are the forum members, the
free rangers, the mods, and the admins. a few people have
special titles, granted as a show of thanks or respect. post
counts and date joined info is available for people to see,
who care about that sort of thing.
free rangers are there to assist new forum members with
getting used to the rules, meeting people, answering
question and other duties of that nature. mods moderate, and
admins admin. you can recognize a free ranger by the baton
image under their name, the board owners by 5 colored stars
under their name,an admin by 4 colored stars, and a mod by 3
colored stars. free rangers will have the title 'free
ranger', and mods have the title 'zeo honor guard.' the
owners and admins have individual titles.
do not fake rank. do not give yourself a user name or an avatar that is an image reserved for a forum rank. you will lose your avatar if you do.
it may seem like a long list of rules, but most of them are
basic netiquette. other forums do things differently, and if
the kind of behaviour expected of you here doesn't really
appeal to you, there are probably other forums where you
will find an enviroment more to your liking. while you are
here, you will be expected to follow the rules for this
forum, and not argue that 'at such and so forum, members are
allowed to do this and that.' online forums are private and
not public property, and if you register and participate in
one you should take the responsibility to act accordingly.
thanks!
got all that? great! then lets...
enter
the forums
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