Due to some past incidences and criticism, we the staff have tweaked the rules. However, we want your feedback before they're put into effect! If there's anything you think we need to add or clarify, speak now or forever hold you peace!
Most of the changes are fairly self-explanatory, but basically all that has been added so far is Rule #0 (the Golden Rule), a clear definition of "flaming" (our alleged loose interpretation of this term was frequently the topic of debate), and some guideline changes.
Again, if you have anything to add or say about the New Rules, please post it in this thread. Now's your chance!
Hello all, and welcome to the benheck.com forums created by portable enthusiast Benjamin Heckendorn. This bulletin board was created to discover a new and interesting environment based on the intriguing world of electronics and video games. To maintain a valuable forum, we all must follow and understand various guidelines.
The "big ones" you must abide by, and will be punished for repeatedly breaking.
1. No trolling, flaming, or spamming. The reason this forum came to be was not for you to put down or be put down. Respect is a completely necessity here, and anyone that decides not to show proper respect does not belong here. As for spamming, every member here should have a general knowledge of what spam is and what the effects of spam are. For those who do not know what trolling is; trolling is a slang word meaning the act of arguing and offensive controversy intentionally, just to create havoc. If followed, these generic rules will keep users content and comfortable with other members.
1b. Definition of "Flaming". Ribbing and horsing around are one thing, but it will be considered flaming if the discussion degrades into heated personal insults or hateful comments regarding someone's religion, political views, gender, age, race, sexual orientation, or personal beliefs.
2. No advertising or blogging. Following spamming, advertising your own site or forum is one of the most useless and obnoxious acts existent. If you are to do any advertising, it will reside in your signature, nowhere else. Too clear ideas up, the word blogging is derived from the digital web log (blog) and is defined as the act of creating topics that no one can discuss. Please do not post threads of your day at school, what you found under the sofa, or how you scraped your knee skateboarding.
3. No politics or religious talk. Past threads have proven that controversial issues and debates of religion and politics very rarely carry on calmly with respectful disagreement. Said topics constantly conclude with several hurt feelings, and a lock. Do not force or suggest your political and religious views and ideas upon others, this is not the place for it.
4. Mind your vulgarity. Or, keep it PG. We have a language censor to block a large portion of vulgar words, but there are obviously countless ways to bypass this filter. If you really cannot come up with a better word to use, please censor your obscenity appropriately. This still means you are not to change your "i" to a "!" or anything along those lines. Of course, any pornographic material or hateful content will result in severe punishment.
5. Legality is cruise control for cool. This rules speaks for itself; don't cross into the dark gray area by discussing and exchanges warez (illegal software and media). This includes modchips and softmods that bypass the copy protection built into modern consoles. We're not here to punish you and get you in trouble with the law - but it's not worth risking!
6. No excessive complaining about advertisements or anything else Ben does to monetize his site. The forums of Benheck.com consume 50% of the total bandwidth and thus are a major part of the monthly expense. The shiny new server is also an added expense to speed things up. As such, you will see a variety of ads around the benheck.com as you do with any other popular site. These pay for the site that you enjoy to be online, so as Trent Reznor suggests "don't bite the hand that feeds".
You won't necessarily receive disciplinary action if you don't follow these, however you'll look foolish to the rest of the community.
0. TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED! Always, BUT ALWAYS follow the Golden Rule. If you're helpful and polite, you can expect it in return. However, if you act like a jerk, don't expect to be treated like royalty.
1. Search before posting, and always check the stickies. If you're about to hit that new topic button, please think twice. Run through a search or two to make positive that your question has not been answered. The stickies and reference forum also contain a lot of information and answers for frequently asked questions, so check them as well. However, if you think that the possible discussion of your topic has changed over time, then feel free to create a new thread. This brings us to our next formality...
2. Do not bring up very old topics. Dusting off an old thread is only acceptable under a few conditions; if you have something new and intelligent to add to a previously discussed topic, it's fine to bump the topic for discussion. However, if you're only making a comment without contributing anything to the topic at hand, then it's best to leave it alone. It's tough to define "old", especially for forums that don't get much traffic, but as a general rule of thumb, it's best to leave threads alone after they've fallen back a couple pages.
2.5. Try to stay on topic. Threads are there to discuss a topic. Driving them off-course to a completely different discussion isn't very nice for the original poster or the people discussing the original topic. The mods can split a thread if it gets too off-topic, however if you have something new to discuss, it's better to start a new thread than to hijack one that doesn't have anything to do with your idea.
3. Be specific in your thread titles and posts. Posting a thread named "Halp!" filled with a vague description of the problem you're having in Forum 42 won't help anyone. If you have an issue, please write it out in the thread title. As for the post, the more details you post, the easier it will be for us to give you the answer you want. For example, posting "My Super Nintendo doesn't turn on!" could be any number of things. If you add details like "I checked the AC adapter and it's fine", "the TV is on the right channel", and "I tried several games and the same thing always happened", you'll help rule different parts out and narrow the scope of possible problems.
4. Grammar and spelling. Honestly, no one wants to read a heap of letters that were misplaced in attempt to resemble some sort of words. With that said, please try to keep somewhat of a structure to your posts. This does not mean you have to be a perfect typist or an English professor, it just means that you have to be able to type across your ideas so others can understand them without a code book. If typing in all lowercase is your thing and occasionally using chat lingo - that's fine as long as you're sure others have no problem with it. Remember, the best idea in the world can look like a bad idea if it's poorly written!
5. Don't play Grammar and Spelling Police. No one cares how well you can catch other people's errors - and it makes you look arrogant - not worth it! (But feel free to post a complaint in the thread if the post clearly violates rule #4 and looks like they typed it with their face.)
6. Don't back-seat moderate. The only thing that the moderation can't stand at all besides spambots are those who play moderator. (That is, they constantly remind others of the rules and order around moderators by saying "someone lock this" or "move this topic.") We know our jobs, and we will act when it is necessary. (However you are welcome to ask for your own thread to be split, deleted, moved, or locked. That's fine.)
7. Don't post in spambot threads. We know they're there. If you post in them, you're just making more of a mess to clean up. Please, if you see a spam thread, report it the "Report to Moderator" button (this little guy) and leave the thread alone. Do not report spam threads with PMs to individual mods/admins; with the warning system built into phpBB3 we can all see the report, and it can be taken care of faster.
8. Signature and avatar sizes. Please consider others' computers when creating avatars and signatures. (Not everyone is lucky enough to have a 1920x1080 resolution monitor and a fiber-optic internet connection.) Try to keep avatars lower than about 150px by 150px and signatures under 450px by 200px. Think of the 56K!
9. Do not post in abundance. Before you post a new topic, think of the number of topics you've created in the past week. If you can't count them with your fingers, you're posting too many topics. Try to keep your reply ratio under ten posts a day. We all know it's fun to add three senseless words to a thread, but people will get sick of you.
10. Don't be afraid to speak up. If you have a suggestion you believe will make the forums better, a question regarding the operation of the forums, or a complaint about anyone or their actions, don't be afraid to PM a mod or admin about it. After all we're not psychic, we won't know you have a question or comment unless you speak up!
11. Don't just quote-post. That is, don't just quote someone and only add something like "Yeah" or "+1". That doesn't add anything to the conversation. It's also ridiculous. It's not even funny.
Order subject to change depending on severity of offense.
1st Offense: Warning
2nd Offense: Warning
3rd Offense: Two week temporary ban
4th Offense: One month temporary ban
5th Offense: Permanent ban
1. Moderator rules
2. Posting and you animation
3. Guidelines to success
4. Rule Thread 4.0 SuperLite
Thanks for reading, enjoy your stay at benheck.com!
-The Management
Revised August 1, 2009
Revisions:
- Added Formality 2.5, addressing off-topic discussion. (Note: I'm lazy so I'll just do that and fix the numbers later.
)- Added formality 11, so people are discouraged form "quote +1" posting. (8/1/09)
