Explanation of penalties:
INFRACTIONS
Infractions are points a user accumulates for actions not completely ban worthy. Think of it like a mild warning. Each infraction point expires in a time period connected to the offense. If you accumulate over 30 infraction points at any time, you will incur a ban until the infraction points expire and bring you below 30. If you have accumulated 30 infraction points which don't expire, you are out of luck.
TEMP BANS AND PERMA BANS
If you do something really stupid or cross the wide-berth into unacceptable (and unacceptable by TW terms is rather far) you will incur an immediate ban without the warning of infractions. This applies to first-time and repeat offenders. Anything that makes the moderators do a lot of work to clean up your mess is a good way to get a ban.
A NOTE ON THE RULES
Interpretation and enforcement of the rules is up to the moderators and administrators of the site. This document is only a general guideline and not a definitive document of the actions taken by those left in charge of making sure the forum is running smoothly and within the boundaries of some semblence of taste ... not to mention the law. Don't try and rules lawyer an administrator based on what you think the rules should be or you will wind up with a pissed off administrator unsympathetic to your cause.
Reasonable explanations and apologies will of course be considered.
SPAM
Spamming the forums with too many posts full of nonsense, repeated material or low content may be considered spam if the administrators deem the action disruptive to the flow of the thread at hand or the forum in question. Generally speaking, we are very laid back with what we consider spam, but if you start acting excessively malicious or disruptive, we will have to take action. Several other examples: Facebook style "if this thread gets X replies" and "rep train" threads are wholly unacceptable. Almost all parody threads are considered spam, especially if they are stupid. Constantly derailing threads with repetitive activity also falls within the realm of spam and suspension or bans can result accordingly due to severity.
DISRUPTION AND FORMATTING
Breaking the post of thread tables is a pain in the ass and negatively effects the readability of the forum. If the administrators deem a thread or post disruptive due to formatting issues, it will be editted and you may receive and infraction or ban. Use good sense and don't use long strings or excessively large images.
SIGNATURES
Signatures are over complicated.
Don't break the tables.
Don't make it too tall using text.
400 (width) x 300 (height) 120k
MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS / ACCOUNT SHARING
Having more than one account is generally grounds for some type of ban (an extra account may be banned permanently). There is to be no sharing of accounts as it is confusing for everyone and may result in bans. Using multiple accounts to abuse things such as polls as reputation is seen as aggravating the infraction. Penalty is based on user history.
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, DCMA, AND 'WAREZ'
Posting copyrighted material and software is against the rules and a serious offense. We are not a file trading or torrenting forum. Trafficking in DCMA protected material may warrant a ban, so keep that shit where it belongs and away from our forums where we can be held potentially liable.
PORN AND NWS
NWS posting is tolerated in moderation provided it does not violate the copyrighted material guidelines above, it is CLEARLY MARKED, and it is relevant. Do not hotlink NWS material in a thread because no one wants that shit popping up on their screen without warning. We also do not want to be considered an adult site by any means so don't go overboard and make sure you are respecting valid copyrights.
Using a the spoiler tag to embed NWS material is not acceptable. Just link it.
Any child pornography, in earnest or jest, will get you a quick ticket to a permaban and we will report you to the proper authorities.
ADVERTISEMENTS
Refrain from using the forums to advertise products or referrals for personal gain. Using forum posts for advertisements undermines the marketability of TribalWar which allows us to support ourselves and provide the forum for our users. If you are interested in advertising, please PM Rayn and we can point you in the right direction depending on ad space availability. The advertising ban encompasses a ban on referrals and conga referrals because we have had problems with abuse and viral marketing in the past.
TROLLING AND INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS
Moderating inter-personal conflicts is not the job of the moderators. We understand people are going to flame each other on this forum. We generally do not want to intervene and have to play nanny to you people unless a serious problem arises that causes excessive disruption falling under the clauses above. In some cases, excessive trolling will result in an infraction. This is our way of asking you to cool off because you are starting to disrupt or inundate the forum with your crap and its really becoming annoying. Repeated problems can lead to a ban to both parties if it becomes too much of a problem for the admins. Alternatively, if you're both being fucking morons please don't write me when things get too hot for one of you.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
What goes on in TW, stays in TW.
Do not pick up your internet detective badges and go hunting down people involved in TW stories to harass them outside of TW. We want to people to be able to talk about their personal lives here, if they so desire, without excessive consequence in their real lives. If someone posts about a problem with their professor, for instance, and you go and forward the thread to that professor, I'm going to be pretty pissed off. You may not like everyone here, but don't fuck with the lives outside of TW. I realize that's impossible to enforce since it can be done anonymously and most of this information is already out there on the Internet just waiting to be found by Google, so if you have something you want private, my best advice to you is to KEEP PERSONAL INFORMATION FAR FROM THE INTERNET.
If someone is harassing you / hacking you / hunting you / threatening you THIS IS A LEGAL ISSUE. You should contact LAW ENFORCEMENT. I can't make it stop. Trust me.
MALICIOUS SPOILAGE
There is a topic on this in this forum, but if you go out and read the newest book or see the hottest movie and come back to TW and make a thread titled DUMBLEDORE DIES or NEO IS A CYBORG, you're going to piss a lot of people off. It is proper Net etiquette to warn people before spoilers, and if you - through stupidity or maliciousness - choose to deny that etiquette I'll wind up banning you because I have to go and delete your posts. Not to mention the further fact that I'll have to go clean up your mess and have to read the spoiler myself.
DRUGS AND OTHER ILLICIT SUBSTANCES
Talking about drugs is fine, however we have absolutely NO tolerance for anyone who explicitly or implicity states that they are selling or buying any illegal substance and using TW as a medium. Trafficking is a very serious offense that cannot be tolerated.
HATE SPEECH
We're pretty liberal with what you can say here. If we deem something really and vehemently hateful racially, ethnically, or sexually we do reserve the right to impose a penalty or edit it. Sometimes, things just go too far. Also, keep slurs out of thread topics in particular since they show up explicitly in browser history and can cause ... undesired consequences.
BAN EVASION
If you are already banned and create a new account to get around that, it is grounds for a more aggresive ban.
LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS
Acting in a manner which threatens to bring legal ramifications upon the owners/operators of the site due to your actions can be consider grounds for removal for obvious reasons. Threatening any legal action against the legal entity of the site or the owners of said site - direct or indirect - is a great way to get your ass removed.
ITS MY BALL AND I'M GOING HOME
Posting that you are leaving because you hate the forum or you hate the admins or whatever - you're leaving so fuck us all - that's grounds for some kind of ban at the admins discretion if it is determined you are acting like an asshole. It's typically an immediate 30 point infraction of discretionary length based on past history.
INFRACTIONS
Infractions are points a user accumulates for actions not completely ban worthy. Think of it like a mild warning. Each infraction point expires in a time period connected to the offense. If you accumulate over 30 infraction points at any time, you will incur a ban until the infraction points expire and bring you below 30. If you have accumulated 30 infraction points which don't expire, you are out of luck.
TEMP BANS AND PERMA BANS
If you do something really stupid or cross the wide-berth into unacceptable (and unacceptable by TW terms is rather far) you will incur an immediate ban without the warning of infractions. This applies to first-time and repeat offenders. Anything that makes the moderators do a lot of work to clean up your mess is a good way to get a ban.
A NOTE ON THE RULES
Interpretation and enforcement of the rules is up to the moderators and administrators of the site. This document is only a general guideline and not a definitive document of the actions taken by those left in charge of making sure the forum is running smoothly and within the boundaries of some semblence of taste ... not to mention the law. Don't try and rules lawyer an administrator based on what you think the rules should be or you will wind up with a pissed off administrator unsympathetic to your cause.
Reasonable explanations and apologies will of course be considered.
SPAM
Spamming the forums with too many posts full of nonsense, repeated material or low content may be considered spam if the administrators deem the action disruptive to the flow of the thread at hand or the forum in question. Generally speaking, we are very laid back with what we consider spam, but if you start acting excessively malicious or disruptive, we will have to take action. Several other examples: Facebook style "if this thread gets X replies" and "rep train" threads are wholly unacceptable. Almost all parody threads are considered spam, especially if they are stupid. Constantly derailing threads with repetitive activity also falls within the realm of spam and suspension or bans can result accordingly due to severity.
DISRUPTION AND FORMATTING
Breaking the post of thread tables is a pain in the ass and negatively effects the readability of the forum. If the administrators deem a thread or post disruptive due to formatting issues, it will be editted and you may receive and infraction or ban. Use good sense and don't use long strings or excessively large images.
SIGNATURES
Signatures are over complicated.
Don't break the tables.
Don't make it too tall using text.
400 (width) x 300 (height) 120k
MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS / ACCOUNT SHARING
Having more than one account is generally grounds for some type of ban (an extra account may be banned permanently). There is to be no sharing of accounts as it is confusing for everyone and may result in bans. Using multiple accounts to abuse things such as polls as reputation is seen as aggravating the infraction. Penalty is based on user history.
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, DCMA, AND 'WAREZ'
Posting copyrighted material and software is against the rules and a serious offense. We are not a file trading or torrenting forum. Trafficking in DCMA protected material may warrant a ban, so keep that shit where it belongs and away from our forums where we can be held potentially liable.
PORN AND NWS
NWS posting is tolerated in moderation provided it does not violate the copyrighted material guidelines above, it is CLEARLY MARKED, and it is relevant. Do not hotlink NWS material in a thread because no one wants that shit popping up on their screen without warning. We also do not want to be considered an adult site by any means so don't go overboard and make sure you are respecting valid copyrights.
Using a the spoiler tag to embed NWS material is not acceptable. Just link it.
Any child pornography, in earnest or jest, will get you a quick ticket to a permaban and we will report you to the proper authorities.
ADVERTISEMENTS
Refrain from using the forums to advertise products or referrals for personal gain. Using forum posts for advertisements undermines the marketability of TribalWar which allows us to support ourselves and provide the forum for our users. If you are interested in advertising, please PM Rayn and we can point you in the right direction depending on ad space availability. The advertising ban encompasses a ban on referrals and conga referrals because we have had problems with abuse and viral marketing in the past.
TROLLING AND INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS
Moderating inter-personal conflicts is not the job of the moderators. We understand people are going to flame each other on this forum. We generally do not want to intervene and have to play nanny to you people unless a serious problem arises that causes excessive disruption falling under the clauses above. In some cases, excessive trolling will result in an infraction. This is our way of asking you to cool off because you are starting to disrupt or inundate the forum with your crap and its really becoming annoying. Repeated problems can lead to a ban to both parties if it becomes too much of a problem for the admins. Alternatively, if you're both being fucking morons please don't write me when things get too hot for one of you.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
What goes on in TW, stays in TW.
Do not pick up your internet detective badges and go hunting down people involved in TW stories to harass them outside of TW. We want to people to be able to talk about their personal lives here, if they so desire, without excessive consequence in their real lives. If someone posts about a problem with their professor, for instance, and you go and forward the thread to that professor, I'm going to be pretty pissed off. You may not like everyone here, but don't fuck with the lives outside of TW. I realize that's impossible to enforce since it can be done anonymously and most of this information is already out there on the Internet just waiting to be found by Google, so if you have something you want private, my best advice to you is to KEEP PERSONAL INFORMATION FAR FROM THE INTERNET.
If someone is harassing you / hacking you / hunting you / threatening you THIS IS A LEGAL ISSUE. You should contact LAW ENFORCEMENT. I can't make it stop. Trust me.
MALICIOUS SPOILAGE
There is a topic on this in this forum, but if you go out and read the newest book or see the hottest movie and come back to TW and make a thread titled DUMBLEDORE DIES or NEO IS A CYBORG, you're going to piss a lot of people off. It is proper Net etiquette to warn people before spoilers, and if you - through stupidity or maliciousness - choose to deny that etiquette I'll wind up banning you because I have to go and delete your posts. Not to mention the further fact that I'll have to go clean up your mess and have to read the spoiler myself.
DRUGS AND OTHER ILLICIT SUBSTANCES
Talking about drugs is fine, however we have absolutely NO tolerance for anyone who explicitly or implicity states that they are selling or buying any illegal substance and using TW as a medium. Trafficking is a very serious offense that cannot be tolerated.
HATE SPEECH
We're pretty liberal with what you can say here. If we deem something really and vehemently hateful racially, ethnically, or sexually we do reserve the right to impose a penalty or edit it. Sometimes, things just go too far. Also, keep slurs out of thread topics in particular since they show up explicitly in browser history and can cause ... undesired consequences.
BAN EVASION
If you are already banned and create a new account to get around that, it is grounds for a more aggresive ban.
LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS
Acting in a manner which threatens to bring legal ramifications upon the owners/operators of the site due to your actions can be consider grounds for removal for obvious reasons. Threatening any legal action against the legal entity of the site or the owners of said site - direct or indirect - is a great way to get your ass removed.
ITS MY BALL AND I'M GOING HOME
Posting that you are leaving because you hate the forum or you hate the admins or whatever - you're leaving so fuck us all - that's grounds for some kind of ban at the admins discretion if it is determined you are acting like an asshole. It's typically an immediate 30 point infraction of discretionary length based on past history.
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