Guidelines
Community Guidelines
1. Do Not Make Personal Attacks
Posts that serve no purpose other than to flame users annihilate the quality of discussion. Do not make personal attacks. This includes personal attacks obfuscated by vague language. You may critique or disdain argument and opinion posted by users, but you may not extend that method to maligning the users themselves.
2. Do Not Disrupt Discussion or Debate
Posts that disrupt the debate of a topic make discussion impractical. Do not ask users to stop debate or rebuff users for the act of posting to discussion threads. Do not respond to opinions that you happen to find offensive or outlandish by accusing the opining user of trolling, of being mistyped (in threads not dealing with typology), or by otherwise engaging in meta-discussion in such a way as to stymie debate. Do not accuse members of being sockpuppets (please do report them if you have serious concern). Similarly, do not create non-support threads for this purpose. Do not complain about forum operations in non-support threads.
3. Do Not Make Harassing Posts
An unsolicited pattern of posts that fixate upon another user, spanning threads outside of Support & Feedback, serves to harass. Do not harass or otherwise target users for disparagement across the forum, especially where doing so assassinates or distresses the character of the user. Do not sexually harass users. Do not use threatening language. This includes posts which, by those contents, would cause a reasonable observer to become concerned for their own safety. Do not send unwanted PMs, VMs, or make unwanted posts to a user's blog subforum thread if that user has made a request to you that you cease doing so, unless such communication is required in the course of moderating the forum.
4. No Spamming
Do not post copies of the same thread, the same thread to multiple subforums, or copy the same post to multiple threads. Avoid making empty "bump" posts or necroposting (bumping very old threads). Please refrain from appending ASCII logos, macros, memes or other taglines (manual signatures) to each of your posts. Do not endeavor to circumvent the automatic spam filter. Never repost a thread or post that has been deleted or locked by a moderator unless instructed otherwise.
5. No Advertising
Advertising bots, propaganda accounts (including the evangelizing variety), and persons who register with the intention of using this forum for SEO or link-dropping will be banned without warning. We ask that other registered users also refrain from engaging in casual or commercial ad campaigns upon the forum. Attempts to solicit traffic from this forum are forbidden. Do not import forum drama or politics from some other forum to this one.
6. Respect User Privacy
Do not post the contents of private messages on the open forum without the permission of all parties involved. Additionally, we ask that you not reveal personal details about other users without their permission. This specifically includes acts like the posting of addresses or telephone numbers.
7. Post With Quality In Mind
Although there is nothing wrong with being succinct, terse, or directly to the point, we ask that you try to avoid one-lined irrelevance. Chitchat and goofing around are welcome, but try to keep it to the appropriate threads and subforums and don't bombard those users who do not wish to participate. Do not dump excessively lurid or crude content into existing threads or create threads for that purpose. Do not post racist or antisemitic material anywhere on this forum.
8. Post Legibly
Please do not make posts in ALL CAPS, custom-format posts in a manner that breaks up the visual continuity of the thread, or otherwise make posts difficult for users to read. Post in English (we can not moderate other languages), use paragraphs in extensive posts, and avoid '1337 sp33k' or 'chatspeak' (substituting u for you, 2 for too, etc) altogether.
9. Use Tasteful Customizations
Vulgar, disruptive, or poorly formatted usernames, custom text and avatars will be mollified or removed at the administration's discretion. Custom avatars must be 150x150 pixels without the use of transparency or space-filling borders, must not be animated, and may not contain text.
10. No Duplicate Accounts
Each user is allowed one account. Please note that users who attempt to register multiple accounts may be placed onto the forum's blacklist automatically, which can have the effect of suspending all account function for each account associated with that user. Do not login to accounts other than your own. Purposefully assuming multiple identities (sockpuppetry) will not be tolerated.
Subforum Guidelines
Because there are subforums that serve distinct purposes, there may be posting guidelines particular to those subforums. You can find guidelines specific to individual subforums in the subforum stickies.