Vote on which option you think is best.
RULES OPTION 1
RULES OPTION 2
RULES OPTION 3
RULES OPTION 4
RULES OPTION 5
RULES OPTION 1
- Spoiler:
- The Sonic Community Official Forum Rules & Regulations
The messages contained herein this message board express the views of their respective authors and not the views of The Sonic Community, The Sonic Community staff, or any other entity associated with The Sonic Community. If any user finds a posted message that they deem is objectionable or in violation of the rules, they are encouraged to contact a forum staff member.
Through your use of this service, you agree that you will abide by all of the following rules and regulations set in place and approved by the staff, make all posts in legible English, and will not use this forum inappropriately. Inappropriate use of this bulletin board includes, but is not limited to, the following:
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I. Regarding this site and related services:
1.) Malicious attacks against The Sonic Community site, forum, or personnel.
a. If you have a problem with a staff member, contact another staff member and explain your problem. He/she will go through all of the proper channels to solve your problem.
2.) Editing or altering any text left by The Sonic Community Forum Staff in your post, with the intention of being misleading.
a. This is in regards to announcements, warnings, or messages regarding TSC.
3.) The use of open proxies to connect to the forum.
4.) False reporting of posts and/or abuse of the reporting feature.
5.) Evading or attempts to evade warnings, bans, or other administrative actions.
6.) Creating multiple accounts.
a. This goes hand in hand with Rule #5. If you are banned or deleted from the forum for any reason, you are not welcome back. Any attempt to re-register under a different username will result in an instant IP ban and might eliminate any chance in the future that you would be allowed back.
b. Appeals can be made to the staff of TSC via an email request. These will be discussed privately and voted on by all of the staff. The banning and/or warnings will be reversed if a 2/3 majority of the staff approves.
II. Regarding the Private Messaging System
1.) Sending private messages which are defamatory, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or that violate any local, state, or federal law.
a. The Sonic Community is not responsible for material that is passed on via the Private Messaging System, and therefore cannot guarantee that rules won't be broken in this way. However, if the system is being abused by a member, please report it to a staff member.
2.) Posting or quoting of any private message on the forum.
a. If there is a private message that offends you or breaks a rule, please report it privately to a staff member.
III. Regarding Posting
1.) Flaming, bashing, or threatening any individual or group.
2.) Racist, defamatory, or discriminating comments.
3.) Excessive use of curse words or words that could in any way be considered defamatory, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, sexually oriented, or threatening.
4.) Sexually suggestive pictures or text not suitable for the workplace.
5.) Using "1337" text, binary or any other method of reproducing inappropriate content or avoiding language filters.
6.) Small, generic or empty content, simply to increase your post count or the post count of the thread.
a. This rule does not affect posts in the Forum Games Board.
7.) Posting content intended to take advantage of, or exploit forum or server bugs.
9.) Posting content from, or the names or URLs of sites which explain or advertise illegal content or actions.
9.) Posting with the intent to derail the conversation in a thread to a radically different subject.
10.) Posting copyrighted material without permission.
11.) Posting rants with the sole purpose of complaining about any forum member or the site/forum.
a. Constructive criticism is welcome, with regards to the site and forum. If you have a problem with a member, PM them or report any incriminating posts to the staff.
12.) Constant bumping of threads.
a. Threads can be bumped at times, but usually, it is better to repost the question or information you have in a new thread.
13.) Re-posting locked topics. If a topic has been locked, do not create another topic without staff permission.
14.) Posting of duplicate threads in more than one board. Please do your best to delete accidental duplicates , or notify a staff member so he/she can take care of the problem.
15.) Posting advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or commercial solicitations.
a. We currently have a Fan section where users can freely post their websites and other creations for others to view. This is not to be abused by someone excessively promoting other forums, products, or services.
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Please note that this document is not intended to be a complete list of possible infractions, it should be treated as a basic guideline. Simply put, if you have to think about whether something is acceptable to post, it probably isn't, so just don't cross that line.
Thank you for your cooperation,
The Sonic Community Staff
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RULES OPTION 2
- Spoiler:
- -----------------------------------------------------------
There are several rules that you as a member have to be aware of. It is your responsibility to read them. Penalties will be issued after warnings unless otherwise specified, during your last warning before ban you will be notified, so please be careful.
By registering to [Site's Name], you have accepted our terms of service subsequently accepting the following rules- and are so held responsible for your own actions.
The following are general rules to be followed throughout the site, there maybe exceptions to a few rules and those will be included in a sticky/highlighted within the excepted forums/topics.
The rules have been split into three categories:
Posting, Private Message, General Rights.
Rules for each of the three categories apply to all three when possible.
Posting:
-Primarily, we would like to state that [Site's Name] is against suggestive and inappropriate material. This includes pornography, links to pirated material, hacks, cracks, racist, sexist and any form of discriminative language. Any posting of or linking to such material will most likely grant you a permanent ban from the site without warning.
-Spamming is not allowed. in [Site's Name], Spam for those of you who don't know, stands for "stupid, pointless and annoying messages" (-or "something posing as meat" but that's besides the point).
.Please don't say anything unless you think you have to voice your opinion.
.Avoid double posting. If you make two consecutive posts within the same topic during the same 24 hours, we consider this as double posting (Note: if you bump a topic a day or more after your previous post, it is NOT considered double posting and is NOT a violation- it must be within the same 24 hours to be considered a violation). Otherwise, use the EDIT button to add content you've forgotten to include to your post.
.Try to post in the correct sections of the forum. If you're unsure, contact a staff member.
-Keep in-topic one-to-one conversations to a minimum.. i.e. if you want to converse with a specific member alone, do it over PM (private messaging) and not in the main forum. On top of this, please quote or add an '@Username' when responding to a specific comment for us to know who you're speaking to. Try to remain clear.
-Post in English.
-Constructive criticism is fine (and we encourage it!) but please try not to be rude. We also encourage freedom of speech, so speak your opinions freely, but try to remain polite and understandable providing rational reasoning when required.
-We don't generally care if your swear at your own follies or for expressive reasons, but do not swear at other members- some may find it offensive. If swearing becomes too excessive, a member of staff will speak to you personally about it.
-No backseat moderating. Leave moderating to staff members. If you have anything to report, PM a staff member providing a link, a username, and a description of your complaint.
Private Messaging:
-Do not abuse the private messaging system. Do not spam another user's inbox.
-Do not ask for personal information about the members of [Site's Name]… i.e. Real names, addresses, phone numbers… etc. If the user wanted to post such information, he/she would do it themselves. On that note, be smart people! Don't give away such information!
-Do not use the Private Messaging system for advertising.
-We encourage you to private message a staff member for help.
Not complying with one or more of the above will result in the withdrawal of your right as a member to use the private messaging system. Depending on the severity of your offense, further consequences may be issued.
General Rights:
-We here at [Site's Name] treat all members equally.
-Staff members will moderate you if they think you've violated any of the rules. If you believe you have been mistreated contact an administrator [Link to the Contact Us page]. If you have been banned from the forums, contact an administrator providing your former username, the reason you were banned, and possibly a link to the topic of violation and the name of the staff member who issued the ban.
-Do not bring personal disputes into the forums. If you're holding a grudge against another member because of arguments outside of [Site's Name] (i.e. in real life, or on another website), don't continue it on the main forums. Argue all you want using the private messaging system (adhering to the rules). We can only penalize a member for what they have done on [Site's Name].
-Please do not advertise. You can include promotional links and logos in your signature, we don't offer a promotional service here at [Site's Name].
-Keep your signatures to a minimum, avoiding large images, sounds and animation. This is because such signatures may slow page loading times and ruin the experience for other members, and we value all our members. If your signature violates this, we will remove the entire signature without warning and you will be notified afterwards.
-Please do not ask for awards.
Do not ask for reputation, do not ask for badges (unless you've rightfully earned them and we have forgotten to add them to your profile). Where is your decency? Such awards must be earned by you as a member.
Above all, DO NOT ask to be a staff member. No one 'deserves' to be anything. If you've joined [Site's Name] solely in hopes of becoming staff in the future, then please leave. Becoming staff is a responsibility, not an award. Staff don't get any more rights over casual members and so, in actuality, it's just more work. If we think you deserve a staff position we'll PM you directly. Anyone asking to become staff will be ignored, and will most likely never become one since such a request is a symptom of foolishness and immaturity.
If you have any questions regarding the rules, private message a staff member. If you have any suggestions, please use the feedback forum to post feedback.
We are human. We make mistakes, and we understand this concept. The following rules are not set on stone, and we may be lenient and tolerant in some cases.
Thank you, enjoy posting on [Site's Name].
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RULES OPTION 3
- Spoiler:
- The Sonic Community Official Forum Rules
1) Do not attack the Sonic Community forum, or any members of the forum. Hateful and derogatory comments towards another is not allowed. This especially applies for private messages.
2) Do not post sexual or vulgar pictures or messages. Try to be considerate and do not swear excessively.
3) Use proper English and do not constantly use text-speak. Show some intelligence.
4) Do not double post or post small, meaningless messages merely to improve your post count. This rule does not apply in the forum games section.
5) Do not bump threads without good reason to do so.
6) Keep on topic, and do not trail off. If you want to have your own random discussions, that's what the Random Hotel is there for.
7) If a topic is locked, there was a reason for it. Do not recreate a locked thread without a Staff member's permission.
8) One account is all you need. Don't create extras.
9) Respect the staff. Do not to attempt to evade bans or other administrative actions. Do not alter any text left by the Sonic Community Staff with any intention of being misleading.
10) Do not falsely report posts or accuse other members of doing something they didn't. Reports are not a game, and should be taken seriously.
11) Do not join to site just to advertise. Any members that join solely to attract members to their own site will be banned.
12) Private messages are private for a reason. Do not share these messages with other members.These rules are general guidelines and are obviously not able to cover every single aspect and possible situation of the forum. Do not attempt to find loopholes, or bend the truth. Use common sense.
RULES OPTION 4
- Spoiler:
- Greater rules:
1: Be respectful.
2: Don't be a nuisance.
3: Speak decent English.
4: Don't do anything insane.
5: Use common sense.
Lesser rules:
These rules are simply more in-depth explanation of the above 5 ideas. If they make sense to you on their own, you probably don't even need to read these.
1.- While you should be reasonably nice, don't be needlessly political. This is a community. We're all friends here. (For the most part.) You shouldn't have to worry about keeping your head low and not stepping on any toes, just don't go beyond extreme with ludicrous trolling/flaming/whatever.
- You aren't forced to like anyone on this site. You are forced to at least tolerate them so long as they aren't majorly breaking the rules. You can even have heated debates or things that are arguably flame wars with whoever you want, just don't fill the site up with your dueling.
2.- In general, if everyone's either yelling at you or pretending you don't exist, you're doing this. This is probably the surest way to get banned around here, so don't do it.
- Don't spam threads with completely pointless stuff, outside of Carnival Night, and to a lesser extent, Crazy Gadget. Those two forums are generally fine for that.
- Stay vaguely on topic. Rambling away from a thread's original purpose is normally fine unless it's a sticky, but in any thread, stay more or less on the topic of the forum it's in. In general, unless you post way off-topic all the time, this won't be a problem. The staff will just split the occasional thread and put things where they belong. If you derail a bunch of threads, though, you'll start getting warnings and maybe even punishment over it.
3.- Don't speak foreign languages in excess. This is an English site. The occasional sprinkling for style is perfectly fine, however.
- "Decent English" is defined as typing properly. Your grammar and spelling doesn't have to be absolutely perfect, just type well enough for it to not be jarring to an average person who likes to be able to read what you're trying to say.
- Swearing is allowed, but as with above, all things in moderation. Don't say things that would make pirate captains blush, don't act like a 7-year-old who just discovered the newest dirty word on the block, etc.
4.- Don't break the host's terms of service. Those rules are generally common sense, and you probably don't need to even read them to know the generic legalese stuff they say. If you break them, though, the host is responsible. Seeing as corporations don't like to be held responsible for anything, they'll make us responsible if that happens, and if we don't fix it they'll drop this site. If you break those rules, we've got a choice between getting you in line and getting rid of the stuff that breaks them, or having the site deleted.
- Don't break [.url=Link to some document about French cyber crime law.]French law[./url]. The server is hosted in France, so if we've got content that breaks their law we're prone to be shut down. Like the host's ToS, this is all pretty common sense stuff. Only worry about reading it if you might be prone to break the "don't do anything insane" rule above.
- Don't break [.url=Link to some document about US cyber crime law.]US law[./url]. Most of our users, including the head admin and most or all of the other admins live in the US. If you do something like that and it's not dealt with, the staff could get jailed for doing nothing, and in some circumstances anyone in the US could be thrown in jail as well. So, we have to fix it if you do something insane like that. It's out of our hands.
5.- If you have common sense, you have common sense. These rules simply can't cover absolutely everything you could do to get the hammer brought down on you. That's just impossible. If you don't have common sense, you just don't, but hopefully you'll be able to figure it out quickly if you want to not be banned. If your intuition tells you something you're about to do or say on this site seems like a bad idea, then stop for a minute and think about if it's actually a bad idea or you're just over-thinking it!
- While you should be reasonably nice, don't be needlessly political. This is a community. We're all friends here. (For the most part.) You shouldn't have to worry about keeping your head low and not stepping on any toes, just don't go beyond extreme with ludicrous trolling/flaming/whatever.
RULES OPTION 5
- Spoiler:
1. NO CRAPPY USERNAMES.
If there's one thing that's going to annoy other people on the boards, as well as damage your credibility, it's a bland and uninspired username. Such usernames include generic Sonic references--not all are forbidden, however it is assumed that you will follow basic common sense when picking a name. Names such as "Super Ultra Metal Hyper Sonic 557639028163" are COMPLETELY unacceptable.
ANY ACCOUNTS WITH GENERIC, HORRIBLE USERNAMES WILL BE DELETED ON SIGHT, WITH VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS. IN ADDITION, THE IP THE ACCOUNT WAS REGISTERED WITH WILL BE BANNED. DON'T DO IT.
2. TYPE IN PROPER ENGLISH.
We're not HUGE grammar Nazis, but it is expected that basic spelling and punctuation will be evident in all of your posts. If you type in all lowercase, use "txt talk" and other various incorrect English conventions, expect to be banned quick. It's not that much to ask, really. You can contribute your fair share to the community simply by participating in insightful, reasonable, and intelligent Sonic-based discussion.
3. THIS IS NOT A GENERIC, PRIMARILY OFF-TOPIC BOARD.
More specifically, if you're only coming here for the social aspects of the board (as in, you post in the Member's Lounge and nothing else ever), then we don't want you here. Go join one of the millions of communities in which people do absolutely nothing productive.
This is not to say, however, that off-topic discussion is forbidden. We're all real people, feel free to talk about whatever. Just don't abuse the privilege.
4. WE'RE ELITIST. DEAL WITH IT.
Our elitist policies are solely for the purpose of making this forum as productive and idiot-free as possible. Consider yourself smart? Feel free to join up and contribute your fair share. And, most of all...
5. HAVE FUN.
If you're not enjoying yourself, don't bother us with your petty complaints that you aren't, just fucking leave, thank you.
If you agree to these simple terms, feel free to click that registration button below. Otherwise, go away please.
