Important Forum Rules

TrueDarkFusion · 12-01-2007

General Rules

No spamming. For "A Closer Look" at Spam, Click Here.
No double posting. For "A Closer Look" at Double Posting, Click Here.
No necrobumping. For "A Closer Look" at Necrobumping, Click Here.
Behave respectfully towards other members. This precludes:
1. Insulting language
2. Flaming
3. Harrassment
4. Unconstructive criticism
5. Explicitly rating or reviewing a map without downloading it
6. Trolling and other disruptive behaviour
NO racism, sexism, abuse of power or discrimination of any kind is tolerated. This includes use of derogatory terms towards sexuality, race, gender, etc.
Do NOT post or link to pirated property, software, or other files. Illegal activities are not tolerated here.
Do NOT post or link to offensive content. This includes malicious or pornographic images or information.
Do NOT advertise any third party product or post links to advertisements of such ads.
Do NOT flood the boards.

Map Posting Rules

Threads must include at least one picture OR video that clearly demonstrates the map.
All pictures must be embedded.
Download links must lead to a posted map on the bungie forums, NOT your fileshare.
You must include at least a brief description of the map.
Thread titles must consist of the map name ONLY - no other symbols, comments or irregular formatting.

Failure to post your map correctly will result in a topic lock after 1 hour in the absence of a fix.

Signature Rules

Must abide by all forum rules.
Must be 500 x 200 pixels or less.
Must not have more than either:
1. 2 quotes and 1 line of text
2. 1 quote and 3 lines of text
3. 10 lines of text alone

Avatar Rules

Must abide by all forum rules.
May not impersonate other members.

By posting on these forums you agree to the rules above and realize that you are and will be held responsible for your actions.

The Infraction System

The Infraction System is, in essence, an automatic ban hammer. Moderators award infractions to those pesky spammers and the irritable flamers to keep the forum running smoothly. Infractions have an associated number of infraction points and last for a certain amount of time depending on the severity of the offence. After this time period expires, so do the infraction points.

There are different infractions for different forum offences. New members who are awarded an infraction for the first time will usually receive a warning. This doesn't confer any infraction points and serves as a reminder of the forum rules for the future. After this point, regular infractions will be given out, which can start to build up if the user's forum behaviour doesn't improve.

If a user continues to accrue infraction points faster than they expire, their forum access will become more and more restricted.

Points	User Rank
3	Warned
4	Warned II
5	Warned III
6	Banned

Example 1: A user currently has 4 infraction points, has been placed in the Warned II rank, and thus subjected to various forum restictions that limit their use of the site. They will remain warned until their infraction points expire and drop below 3, gaining back more of their forum privileges as each point is lost.

Example 2: A user currently has 6 infraction points, and has been automatically placed in the Banned rank. They will remain banned until at least one of their infraction points expires.

Many infractions Extend. For example, if you receive an infraction for Spam, the infraction points would last 5 days. However, receive another spam infraction within that time, and another 5 days is added to the original infraction. In short, if a user does not learn their lesson, the points remain.

Permanent infractions are handed out to problem members who repeatedly ignore the forum rules, and those who commit a serious offence. As the name sugests, these never expire.

Members may dispute permanent infractions via a PM to the moderator who administered it. If you find yourself in this situation, make absolutely sure the infraction was unjust - the overwhelmingly vast majority will be upheld. In the rarest of circumstances permanent infractions may be reversed if the participant has displayed a genuine and prolonged change in behavior. Falsifying a change in demeanor with the intent of having a permanent infraction reversed will simply result in a second infraction.

Advertisements:
Posting and/or linking to your maps, fileshare or other personal content in other's threads.
- Forum Rules: 1, 4.6
Bad Thread Title:
Thread titles should give sufficient information for busy readers to clearly identify the subject matter and decide beforehand whether it is worth their time to view its content.
- Map Posting Rules: 5

Necro Post(s):
Bumping a topic that has been inactive for a considerable period of time without good reason.- Forum Rules: 3

MapDB: Spam Review:
Posting a review or ratings on another members map thread without sufficient justification.
- Forum Rules: 4.4, 4.5

Proxy Account(s):
Creation of duplicate accounts, usually for the purposes of (but not limited to) ban evasion or topic bumping.
- Forum Rules: 4.3, 4.6, 9

Illegality (Phishing/Warez/Piracy):
Illegal activity is never acceptable, but in some cases - such as in ignorance - a warning and thread clean may occur. This is at the discretion of the Forge Hub staff and is an extremely rare occurance.
- Forum Rules: 6, 8, 9

Warned Ranks:
Once a user receives 3 infraction points, their usergroup changes to Warned I and they have restricted privileges - such as not being able to use color and size tags, create or vote in polls, send PMs to more than 2 members at a time, etc etc. Users remain in this usergroup until their points expire. Additional points further restrict forum privileges by placing members into the usergroups Warned II or, eventually, Warned III.

Banned Rank:
Once a user receives 6 infraction points, they are automatically banned until their points expire. Banned users are unable to view or interact with the forums. Attempting to circumvent a ban usually leads to more thorough and prolonged methods of exclusion.

Spam, A Closer Look

Spam is a serious issue here on our forums, something that is relatively disappointing. As we all know, the map section gets a lot of those "nice intarloking 5/5" comments. Some newer members seem to post such things regardless of warnings. Here are a few examples of comments that would be considered spam:

"Nice interlocking, will que for dl right away!"

Promising to download does not make your post acceptable.

"5/5, the merging in this map looks phenomenal!"

Using big words does not mean that your post isn't spam.

"Thanks for the comment!"

Even though you might want to show your appreciation towards members posting on your map, that does not mean it's okay to bump your map by spamming.

Specifically in the map forums, feedback on maps that:

Is composed of a single sentence
Includes a rating without reasonable justification
Shows no evidence of knowledge of the map in question other than that which can easily be seen from a glance at the pictures

Will be deleted immediately by the moderators. Infractions will also be awarded for spam at their discretion under these same rules.

Anything that could be deemed spam will get you in trouble. Try to put some meaning into your posts. Not only will you refrain from getting in any trouble, but you will have provided an exceptional post for the creator of the thread to work with and possibly improve on. Lastly, it will it give you a bit more respect from the community. Our members appreciate detailed responses about different things that could be done to improve the thread - whether it be a video montage, a map thread, a topic in general chat, in the debate forums - anything where members of the community are involved. Share your thoughts!

Double Posting, A Closer Look

Double posting is posting back to back, with no reply from another member in between. To prevent possible trouble from doing this, simply edit your original post instead. If you catch you've already double posted, you can delete your double via:

Edit > Go Advanced > Deletion Options

Necroposting/Necrobumping, A Closer Look

What is necroposting? Posting in a thread which was previously inactive. These threads are usually dead for a reason, and most people have already read them. Bringing them back to the top of the boards pushes down other, more active threads. The time limit after which this is classified as a necropost varies from forum to forum.

Halo Forge Maps Forums:
Approx. 3 weeks.
Featured Halo Maps:

No time limit.

Announcements:

No time limit.

Halo Forge Discussion:

Approx. 4 weeks. As once a forge discussion has taken place, there is no reason for it to continue, there are places such as "The Forge Tutorial Master Index" which will provide all the facts of forge for you.

Halo Screenshots:
Approx. 3 weeks. A picture is worth a thousand words. New pictures come out every day, but old threads can still be viewed - and that's enough, after time.

Customer Service:
No time limit. Resolved threads in customer service are locked, preventing necroposting.

General Chat:
This varies from thread to thread. If, say, a thread were to be on "The next president, Who's it going to be?" and the thread dies down for about a month, then is revived saying something like "Well, I told you so." Then you will easily have earned yourself an infraction. Though, if it is a discussion on something that is on-going; and can further be discussed; and/or would be better to revive the thread, then start a new one, by all means, revive the thread...Just bear in mind, you could be reprimanded by other members for necroposting.

Videos:
This also varies from thread to thread. Say someone posted a rick roll. By necroposting in that video thread, you would earn yourself an infraction. As it is a redundant video. Now, you may be asking "What is considered redundant?" This should be easy for each of you to pick out. Something like a video on machinima making/forge guides though, would be more then acceptable to necrobump 6 weeks later, as long as your post is not of spam.

Graphics & Arts:
Approx. 3 weeks. As time passes, even the creator of works (after having improved) doesn't want the thread to be bumped. Some people may be proud, but for the most part, they would get upset that someone revived an old photoshop/gimp picture.

G&A - Shops:
No time limit.
Off Topic:
Even though it's off topic, doesn't mean you can't get in trouble for necroposting. Try to think it through before posting in an old topic. Is it a true offtopic thread (Meaning it has nothing to do with anything related to the site)? If so, don't post.

Debates:
Slightly more lenience is provided here, as debates are intended to be an ongoing discussion. Eventually they slide off the first page, so if you're bringing up a valid point that would make for a more interesting discussion, there's no effective time limit. Posts of little consequence would, however, be classified as necroposts.

Introductions:
2 weeks. The introductions forum is for new members to say hello to the community. So, bringing up an old introduction thread is not acceptable, as it pushes newer introductions down the page and can leave some members with a meagre welcome.

All in all, necrobumping isn't a cut and dry thing. If you feel your post is almost necro-bumping, then you'd better make sure it's a good post - it will make you less susceptible to infractions/reprimand from the community.
Just think it through prior to hitting the "Submit Reply" button.

Help Us, Help You

The Forge Hub moderators do their best to keep track of and deal with posts that break the site rules. However, they are largely reliant on you, the members, to find these posts. The post reporting function allows every member to quickly and easily send word to the moderators that a post is not up to standards. In this way, the community effectively polices itself, which is a democratic and progressive method of keeping rogue members operating within the rules, and to have problem users dealt with as quickly as possible.

As you browse the forums, any post you view as being problematic can be reported in just a few moments.

Step 1

Under each user's name, you will find a few images, one of which is the "Report Post" icon. It looks as follows:

Click this image.

Step 2

Briefly explain your reason for reporting the post.

Please bear in mind when filing out a report that we don't necessarily have the time to read an epic novel. We have to move on and address the rest of the reports in reasonable time, so leave quick, clear comments such as:

Cross-Advertising. Delete/Infract.

Necro Post. Delete/Infract.

Double Post. Delete/Infract.

Spam Post. Warning.

etc.

The examples above show two things, really quickly and briefly. One, they show what the user you are reporting did. Two, they show what you think we should do with the post. The post isn't guaranteed to be dealt with exactly as you suggest, but it will be kept in mind when the report is addressed.

When you submit a report, the moderators receive a new thread in the reported posts section which follows this format:

Quote:

Username has reported a post.

Reason:

Quote:

The reason you submitted for reporting the post

Post: Post Title
Forum: Forum Name
Assigned Moderators: Any Moderators or Journalists.

Posted by: Username
Original Content:

Quote:

The actual text, pictures, videos, etc. from the reported post