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Forum Rules

Posted: Sat Feb 29, 2020 9:17 pm
by admin
Breaking rules result in punishments. There are several types of punishments:

First Warning - A private message will be sent to inform the rule breaker that they broke a rule, and which rule they broke. If the rule broken pertains to abusive language in a post, that post will be removed, edited, or censored at the Admin's discretion

Second Warning - .A private message will be sent to inform the rule breaker that they broke a rule, and which rule they broke. Then the post pertaining to the broken rule will be edited to say "Rule breaker. Second warning given."

Third Warning - A private message will be sent to inform the rule breaker that they broke a rule, and which rule they broke. Then the post pertaining to the broken rule will be edited to say "Rule breaker. Third warning given."

Permanent Ban - No private message will be sent. Your account will be locked, and you will never be allowed on the board again. Then the post pertaining to the broken rule will be edited to say "Rule breaker. Fourth offense, user banned."

The following rules list the most serious violations:

No Hacking - This should go without saying, but you are not permitted to hack the board. Guessing someone else's password and succeeding counts as hacking. Members who hack will instantly be permanently banned without any warnings.

No Discrimination, - You may not insult members based on their religion, race, sex, political beliefs, or whether they are gay or straight. This is worse than flaming, because it also hurts other members of the board who fall into the category you insult. Oak Ridge Apocalypse is a place where everyone is equal, and discrimination will NOT be tolerated!

No Bullying - Do not pick on other members. The worst kind of bullying is where new members are picked on. This hurts the member as well as the board by discouraging new membership.

No Flaming - Flaming harms the nice atmosphere of Oak Ridge Apocalypse. It also causes thread's to go off topic, and most importantly, it hurts the person being flamed. The victim may defend themselves against any accusations made to them, but may not make any additional accusations to the flamer (which also counts as flaming). In this case, please do not fight fire with fire.

No Profanity or Obscene Content - Such content does not belong on Oak Ridge Apocalypse. If you see words in your post being replaced with ****, you have done something wrong. Replacing letters of profanity with random characters or asterisks will also result in warnings, and bans. Some of our users are minors, so keep the language appropriate.

If you break one of these rules, the following penalties will apply (first time, second time, third time...) with the exception of breaking the rule "No Hacking" which immediately results in a permanent ban:

The following rules are also important:

No Advertising - You are not permitted to make money using Oak Ridge Apocalypse. You are not allowed to use the member list to obtain Instant Messaging Screennames to harass people to purchase a product from you or follow your affiliate links.

Do not remove Admin Affiliate links added to product links in posts. Admin reserves the right to add Affiliate links to user's posts where appropriate.

No Illegal Activity - You are not allowed to break the law using any Oak Ridge Apocalypse resources. This can get Oak Ridge Apocalypse into legal trouble. Posting links to roms is illegal, so this counts as a violation of this rule.

No Double Posting or Spamming - You may not post more than once in a row in the same thread. Posting lots of times in a row reduces the quality of the board, is a waste of the board's resources, and provides the culprit with ill earned post count points. Double posts will be merged into regular posts, and you will warned. The only exception to this rule is if your edit timer for the post has run out, in which case you may double post if you have something important to add. It is up to the Admin's discretion to leave the double post, or merge the posts, and whether to warn or overlook.

No Topic Bumping - If a topic you created has no replies, you may not post again in it (although you may edit the post if the timer has not run out). If you made the thread because you need help with something, you may post again as long as you include additional information about your problem (the fact that you really really want it fixed does not count as additional information). You must post this in the same thread, and you are not allowed to create more than one thread for the same topic. This clutters the board and reduces the enjoyment for everyone else.

No Posting Personal Info - You may not post your last name, or your street address on the Oak Ridge Apocalypse forum. This is because this information then becomes accessible to everyone, and could be used to harrass or stalk you in the real world. This is for your personal safety. DO NOT share your personal information with anyone, not even the Admins..

No Threatening to Leave the Board - You may not make posts threatening to leave the board. This causes flaming to occur. If you wish to leave the board. Just leave. Nobody is forcing you to stay. Publicly announcing your intent to leave is just a way to incite a flame war. Any user that posts a threat to leave the board will be instantly banned with no warning, and the post will be edited to say "This user threatened to leave the board and got their wish."

Warning - Depending on how serious a violation is, you may receive a warning.

Permanent ban - After the third warning, it is obvious that will not learn your lesson, thus, a permanent ban will get rid of you.

No Excuses:

There are no excuses for breaking the rules. It doesn't matter if you were angry at the time and weren't thinking straight. It doesn't matter if you were only kidding around. If you break a rule, it does the same damage, regardless of your reasons for breaking it, and you will be punished all the same.

Staff abuse will not be tolerated in any way. As a staff member, your job is to help the users, not harm them. You may only use your powers for the purposes that they have been given to you for. There is no limit on how much you may be punished for this severe offense as this must be stopped at all costs to protect the users. This means that if you abuse your powers, there is a good chance you will be permanently banned with no warnings whatsoever.

Harassing the administration about punishments is not allowed. The admins are only trying to do their job, a volunteer one at that, and many times they have to make difficult decisions. You may post your opinion on the matter in just one post as long as it does not contain profanity and does not single out or personally attack any individual. If this thread gets out of hand, it will be closed, and you may not complain elsewhere on the board, or by other means including, but not limited to: private messages, instant messaging programs, email, telephone calls, and or house visits. You also may not make threats against any person. Punishment for minor harassment will be warnings, and threats of any kind will result in instant, permanent ban.