Forum Rules

ProBoards Support Forum Rules

The rules on this page apply to the entire Support Forum including all boards. Some boards have specific rules that apply in conjunction with these forum rules. Users are expected to read and understand these rules prior to posting on the forum. Rules cannot always account for every situation. Please use common sense. The spirit of the rules will be enforced even if it is not specifically stated.

List of Contents		Board Specific Rules
General Information General Posting Guidelines Forum Decorum (Appropriate Behavior) Reporting A Post Advertising Posting Copyrighted Materials Member Information Accounts Avatars Signatures Member Ranks Custom Titles Warning Levels Reporting a Moderator Safeguards Staff Impersonation Sharing Personal Information External Links Abuse Issues		Tech Support Support Board Forum Customization Coding Help Plugins Request Graphic Design Request Your Forum Running Your Forum Promoting Your Forum Discussions Get Opinions About Your Forum Advertise Your Forum Affiliate Exchange Community Chats General Talk New Member Introductions

General Information

General Posting Guidelines

ProBoards software related questions should only be posted on the Support Board.
Never solicit another forum (or forum staff) for any type of staff permissions.
Staff may lock or move a thread at any time for any reason. Do not make threads about locked threads.
Do not reply to obvious spam threads. In addition to unsolicited advertising, spam is considered any thread that lacks any point of discussion or is inappropriate to be discussed at ProBoards. The only action should be to report the post by using the Report Post feature.
Do not post any material that may cause distress to others, this includes flashing images (triggers epilepsy), and 'screamers' (images that suddenly change to a screaming face).
Do not hotlink images from another site unless permission has been granted to do so by the originating site, or you own the site. This includes images for avatars, the signature area, and posts.
Do not make duplicate threads/posts of the same question or topic in the same board or on more than one board throughout the forum.
While member post count has meaning, it should not be taken too seriously. Attempts to artificially increase your post count are prohibited. This includes the mass creation of short or meaningless posts.
Posts that discuss illegal activities, transactions, or websites will be removed.
Automated account creation, participation, and content scraping is not permitted.
Mini-Modding is not allowed. Do not post with the intent of pointing out or correcting another member’s actions. Instead just use the Report Post feature.
You may not directly solicit funds by way of a post, nor may you post threads which require members to visit a site if it involves registration in order to vote for you, follow you, etc.
Any attempt, whether successful or not, to alter the outcome of any ProBoards game by any means other than natural play will result in a 50% warning.

Forum Decorum (a.k.a. Appropriate Behavior)

ProBoards Support is a PG-13 forum and members are expected to conduct themselves accordingly.
This is a community. While you are participating in this community, please keep in mind that we strive to create a fun, friendly and inviting atmosphere. So, have fun and enjoy the forum!
Posts that purposely belittle other members, causes or organizations will not be tolerated.
If you cannot be civil when replying, then do not reply.
Treat everyone with respect, even if you do not agree with their opinion or decisions.
Member/Forum squabbles should be left at the door and not brought to the support forum, especially the support board. If a member feels there is a situation that violates the Terms of Service or Community Guidelines they should contact abuseteam@proboards.com
Vulgar language (including creatively spelled words to bypass the censored word list) and inappropriate material are not allowed and will be removed. Repeated offenses may result in a warning or ban.
Any attempts to circumvent the rules may result in a warning or ban. Any attempts to circumvent a warning or ban will result in a permanent ban.

Reporting a Post

If you see a post that you believe breaks one of the rules or is spam, please bring it to a staff member’s attention by reporting the post.
You can report a post by clicking the gear icon in the top-right corner of the post and then choosing the “Report Post” option. You must include a short, valid reason for the report even if you think it is obvious.
Staff will review the report and take appropriate action if necessary.
Repeated reports without proper justification or any abuse of the system may result in a warning or loss of privileges.

Advertising

Advertisements by users are not allowed. Generally speaking, posts made specifically for the promotion of a website, product or service are considered advertising or, at least, posts made that unnecessarily send people to a website that you are in some way affiliated with. It does not matter if it is a commercial website, a personal website, a non profit website, etc. In addition, unsolicited PMs or emailing of members specifically for the purpose of advertising is not allowed.
Promotional posting of ProBoards forums is allowed only on the Advertise Your Forum and Affiliate Exchange boards in accordance with their respective board rules.
ProBoards Members can purchase and create their own ad campaign of forum banner/square ads. Details can be found by visiting: Advertise With Us.

Posting Copyrighted Materials

ProBoards does not permit the use of third party copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright holder. Do not post copyrighted materials on this forum or other ProBoards forums without the permission of the copyright holder. If you wish to reference an article, quote a sentence or two and link to the original source; never copy an entire article and repost it.

Member Information

Accounts

Since this is not a role-play forum, we ask that you only maintain ONE account on this forum. We do however realize that in the course of resolving a technical support issue it may be necessary to create an alternate account.
The creation of new accounts or use of alternate accounts to troll, spam, support your own threads/posts, or circumvent a banned/disabled account will result in a ban of all accounts on this forum. Associated global and forum accounts may be subject to deletion as well.
Staff reserve the right to disable or delete any secondary accounts for any reason.

Avatars

Avatar images are displayed at 150 x 150 pixels. Upload images should be sized accordingly as larger images will still be displayed at this size. Avatars should be kept under 75KB in logical size.
Images used for avatars should not be hotlinked from another site unless permission has been granted to do so by the originating site, or you own the site.
With consideration for those with epilepsy and visual concerns, excessively flashing images are not allowed.

Signatures

The signature area, whether it includes an image, text, or both is limited to a height of 300 pixels. The width is limited to a recommended 500 pixels, which is an absolute if it is an image. The logical size of the signature contents should not exceed 300KB.
Do not use hotlinked images in the signature area unless permission has been granted to do so by the originating site, or you own the site.
With consideration for those with epilepsy and visual concerns, excessively flashing images are not allowed.
Your signature may include solicitations or information that allow members to fund you or a cause, participate in a site, vote in a contest, follow your page, etc.
Only links to sites rated PG-13 (or family friendly) are allowed in signatures.
Please take into consideration those viewing with a smaller screen resolution when adding an image to your signature.

Member Ranks

Member rankings are as follows:

Posts	Rank	Stars
0 200 500 1,000 2,500 5,000 10,000 25,000 35,000 50,000	New Member Junior Member Full Member Senior Member Pro Member Veteran Part of the Furniture Portrait on the Wall Collecting Dust Permanent Fixture	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Custom Titles

When you have 5,000 posts, you may PM a staff member and request a custom title. However, we reserve the right to deny any member a custom title for any reason.

Warning Levels

Any violation of the rules of this forum results in a 50% warning level being added. Upon reaching 100%, a ban is issued. This policy is in place to limit disruptive or malicious behavior on this forum.
The warning percentage is only visible to staff and the member. Other members cannot see the warning level and warning levels should not be openly discussed. Contact a staff member if there are questions.
Members with a custom title that receive a warning will have the custom title removed. The title can be restored after the warning is gone.
A warning level can be reduced by 10% each month, by contacting a Moderator via PM to request the reduction. The request will be granted if the member’s behaviour has been in line with forum rules. Reductions are not automatic.
Repeat offenders may be subject to additional actions such as an imposed delay before a warning reduction can be requested or having their account temporarily disabled.

Reporting a Moderator

If you feel a moderator has taken inappropriate action, do not create a thread or post about it in public.
First see if you can resolve the issue by sending a PM to the moderator. State your case in clear, polite terms.
If you are unable to resolve the issue directly with the moderator, you may then contact a Global Moderator (Patrick [ASE], Sossity, Beast, or Wildmaven) to state your case, including your attempt to remedy the issue with the moderator.
Your complaint will be reviewed by other staff members and once a final decision has been made you will be informed via PM.
If your complaint is regarding the action or decision of a Global Moderator, you may PM the Support Manager, Michael Stone. Be clear and concise in your details, and polite.

Safeguards

Staff Impersonation

Members should not create signatures, display names, avatars, or mini-profile modifications that mimic a ProBoards staff member. Impersonation of any staff is grounds for immediate ban. If it is discovered that impersonation extends to other ProBoards forums, that user will be permanently banned from all of ProBoards.
Members should not create profiles on Support that falsely identify themself as an admin or staff member of another forum. Such a profile could be viewed as an attempt to mislead ProBoards staff or other members for malicious intent.
At no time will staff ask you for your password. PB Admins have global access power and thus do not require your password to log in.
Support to members is offered exclusively through the Support Board of this forum, and as an extension through this forum’s PM system or @proboards.com email for sensitive issues, and through no other means such as instant messaging.
On rare occasions PB Admins may register an account on a forum for the sole purpose of resolving an issue, and generally will not do so for the intent of providing support directly to the forum. (Of course Staff are people too and may join a community in a non-representative presence.)

Sharing Personal Information

Please be sure to exercise caution and common sense when sharing personal information online, either in a post or with another individual. This is a publicly accessible forum and as such, has many members from all over the world. If you are under 18, you should not share your personal information without the permission of your parent or guardian. If you are 18 or older, you should still use caution in sharing any personal information.
We advise against posting home or work addresses or phone numbers.
We realize that there are members who will want to pursue communications beyond the forum. Since currently a member’s email address is used in verifying account ownership, we recommend using a different email address to share with "friends".

External Hyperlinks

Links to information on sites other than those operated by ProBoards are for your convenience only and are not an endorsement or recommendation of those sites. ProBoards is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of such content or information and any use thereof is solely at the user's risk.

Abuse Issues

ProBoards has strict policies regarding what content is and is not acceptable on our service. If you believe there has been a violation of one of our policies, we invite you to report this information to our Abuse Team for investigation via the Report Abuse link located at the bottom of every forum, or by email at abuseteam@proboards.com.

The Abuse Department is a separate department from the Support Department so please do not discuss any abuse issues on this forum. Threads or posts containing abuse related issues are subject to locking or removal so as not to distract from the purpose of this forum.