[pzycoman]

Disclaimer

Babblers accepts no responsibility for the opinions expressed by the forum participants. Furthermore, Babblers and it's affiliates claim no responsibility or liability to third party links or information posted or directed by forum participants or images contained within user signatures or avatars.

These rules were written in order to keep the forums a fun place to post and express ideas, with a relaxed and open attitude. Although these rules are written, it should be noted that the intent of the rules will be enforced, the exact wording is simply the manner of communicating that intent.

Rules and Guidelines may be changed without prior notice.

Forum Rules

• Attacks on a person's sexual preference, racial background, secular beliefs, and/or nation of origin will not be tolerated.
• Giving out personal information of other forum users without their permission will not be tolerated and will be dealt with accordingly.
• This is an English Speaking Forum, please speak English unless otherwise warranted (International Forums or Mod/Super-Mod/Admin approval).
• Threads made to personally attack others (forum members/groups) will be closed/ removed, if you continue making similar threads, you will be banned.
• Bashing the Administrative/Moderation Staff will not be tolerated and will earn you a temp ban with duration dependant on the severity of your statements.
• Excessive use of foul language will merit a ban, length of ban is dependant on severity but will not be longer than 1 month.
• Every user is entitled to one (1) account. Accounts using a proxy to circumvent a possible ban and/or used for malicious posting will get the user banned indefinintely, unless previously authorised by an admin.
• Annoying links will not be tolerated at any level. This includes but is not limited to: "You are gay/an idiot" / "brain eating Z****e" / "you are ___'s ho/bitch" type links. Posting these will earn you a mandatory 3 day minimum ban, longer for a second infraction.
• Posting links for personal profit will earn you a perm ban. Fund raising drives for an organization (no clan's don't count) do not fall under this rule.
• Posting about how to commit or how you have committed theft/robbery/burglary will not be tolerated. Theft is illegal in all countries represented on the forums.
• Follow guidelines laid down in the Warez Sections.
• Posting multiplayer cheats, or links to multiplayer cheats, multiplayercheat sites, multiplayer cheat tutorials, multiplayer cheat forums, or anything cheat related (for online gaming) may earn you a warning. Persistant offenders may be banned.
• If you are banned do not re-register. Contact a Mod/Super-Mod/Admin via IRC or E-Mail. (See: Contact Information) Re-registering MAY increase the duration of your ban by 1 week. After the first 2 re-registrations, new registrations will earn extra months rather than weeks.
• If you loan out your account to a banned user your account will be treated as a duplicate account of the banned user. This means that your account will be banned and remain that way, you are free to re-register for this offense, but your old account's posts will not be transfered. If you feel this is unjust, please contact a Super-Moderator or Administrator (See: Contact Information).
• If your thread is deleted do not start another thread about it. Contact a Moderator of the forum your thread was in, a Super-Moderator or Administrator (See: Contact Information).
• If you have a problem with a Moderator please contact a Super-Moderator or Administrator (See: Contact Information), posting a thread about any problems you have regarding a member of the Moderation Team will be disregarded, and removed.
• Any user who breaks these rules will be dealt with on an individual basis based on the severity of their infraction. The forum Moderation Team is not obliged to give you "another chance" or stick to the initial ban duration. The forum Moderation Team is not required to tell you the duration of your ban. If you were not informed and wish to know the full duration of your ban you may ask a Moderator, Super-Moderator, or Administrator (See: Contact Information).

Moderator / Administrator Conduct

Moderators are hired based on recommendation and then are voted on. This vote usually involves all moderators/administrators, but can be a vote of only Administrators/Super-Moderators. This sub-section is to define what the moderator(or administrators)'s job is and what the users can expect from the moderators.

Moderators are hired to ensure that the forum rules are not violated, these rules are intended to keep the forum a fun place to post with as few mean spirited and ill willed threads/posts as possible. The rules that the moderators enforce were designed to ensure that users treat each other with respect, keep the forums a practical place to post, and keep illicit material off the board. Moderators will also provide information and help keep the forums clear of clutter in the forum they are assigned to.

Super-Moderators are promoted from the Moderator ranks. They have the same duties as Moderators only they moderate all forums rather than being assigned specific forums to moderate.

Administrators are the highest level of authority on the forums. Administrators perform all functions of the Super-Moderators in addition the Administrators are responsible for keeping all aspects of the forum running as well as possible.

For purposes of clarification and ease of reading the word Moderator in the following guidelines should be interpreted as encompassing all Moderators, Super-Moderators and Administrators.

General Philosophy for Moderation:
1. Moderators will conduct themselves in a professional manner.
2. Moderators will give the users the benefit of the doubt, and at all reasonable opportunity, edit a post or remove a thread as an alternative to banning.
3. Moderators will have proficiency in reading and writing in the English language, up to a point where they can make themselves clear to other members of the community, fluency is not necessary.
4. Moderators will take into account that due to the international representation on the forums, that some of the users may have a limited English proficiency.

Regarding Banning:
1. All bans are reported in the Administrator Forums, with the reason for ban and the duration. The duration is subject to change as discussion progresses, however all bans are reported.
2. Administrators will tell you the duration of your ban upon request. If the Administrator is late unbanning you do not re-register, send a polite reminder that you were due to be unbanned (See: Contact Information).

Regarding Closing/Deleting Threads and Posts:
1. Moderators will never delete threads. Threads that are to be "deleted" are moved to a hidden forum called the Dumpbox, as often they contain some content that the Moderator Staff may need to reference later.
2. When a Moderator closes a thread the reason for closing it will be explained.
3. Posts that get deleted / mass pruned usually contain something such a pornography or spam. Usually if posts are deleted because of flaming a backup of the original thread is kept.
4. Most posts / threads that contain material that is borderline for getting you banned will be edited and replaced with a warning. The Moderators are not here to ban you for no reason, and would like to give you the benefit of the doubt. If you want to know why your post was edited, ask the moderator who edited it (See: Contact Information).

Interaction with Users:
1. Moderators have the right to express their personal opinion on these forums. Moderators have their own opinions and are afforded the right to express them. Moderators personal opinions will not affect their professional duty. (See: Interaction with Users Point #4 and General Philosophy Point #1) Moderators will not use their status to boost credibility of their opinions, nor will they use their status to demean the option of others.
2. Moderators have to abide by the same rules of posting regular users. They do not get special treatment, and all incidents where a user feels unjustly treated by moderator are reviewed when reported to a Super-Moderator or Administrator (See: Contact Information).
3. Moderators will act in an unbiased manner towards the users. Preference will not be given to any users, nor will a moderator hold bias against another user.
4. Moderators will not perform their duties where they are greatly personally involved. If a moderator feels they cannot conduct their duties regarding a particular thread they will pass the judgment off to another moderator.

Forum Warez Rules

For purposes of clarification the word "warez" will be defined here. This is the definition of "warez" used by the Babblers Forums, and is not the "proper" definition elsewhere. This is the definition that applies on the Babblers Forums:

WAREZ:
(n) /weirz/
1. A term used to describe a crack, keygen, game or application that is made available to the internet via telnet, FTP, or a peer to peer file sharing program.
2. A term used to describe copyrighted or bootlegged music that is made available to the internet via telnet, FTP, or a peer to peer file sharing program.
(v) /weirz/
1. The act of downloading warez (as defined in the noun form) Also: warezing /weirzing/

• Posting how you specifically obtained warez will earn you a permanent ban (Ex: "I downloaded (insert program) from the internet" or "I copied the CD from a friend" ).
• Posting links to any warez downloads. This includes hacker/cracker groups/sites, FTP's sharing warez files, sites that contain cracks and peer to peer networks.
• Posting instructions on use or providing support for any warezing programs, or links on where to download them.
• Posting about how others should go and "get" copyrighted material will fall under this category and will be treated as encouraging warezing.
• Requesting warez in a manner that is specific. (example: Does anyone have a key for _____?)
• Posting about you are/will be going to "get" copyrighted material will fall under this category, permban.
• Posting links to Shoutcast or internet radio (streaming media) is fine. Posting about means to make your own internet
• radio station is fine, posting methods for downloading the stream will, however, earn you a perm ban. As always use your best judgment before posting. If you have questions about the nature of the link you wish to post, contact a member of the moderation staff (See: Contact Information).

Please note that posting any of the above will be treated the same regardless of context. Being sarcastic about the manner in which you post any of the above will in no way get you out of a ban. Violation of the Warez rules will not be tolerated, and the excuse of "I was just kidding" will not get out out of a ban. This segment was recently added as some people seem to have been under the impression that joking around about theft is fine, this will not be tolerated.

If you feel you have been wrongly banned under this rule contact an Administrator or Super-Moderator (See: Contact Information), contacting a Moderator will do you no good.



Forum Signature and Avatar Rules

These rules have been written for practicality's sake (less images to load, less text/graphics to scroll through), as well as making the forums look a bit more aesthetically pleasing. The Forum Staff should not have to give you a prior warning via PM, since you should be in compliance. In cases of Gray area, please take it up with an administrator or super-moderator in private.

If your sig violates the above rules it will be removed and replaced with a description of what rule you violated. If your avatar violates the rules in any way it will be removed and you should take up why in private with an administrator or super-moderator. (See: Contact Information)


Forum Signature Rules

1. Signature images (sigs) must be no larger than 600x200 pixels, the WHOLE Signature must be no higher than 200 pixels, which are about 10 lines of text (In this case, it shall be left to the moderator's discretion if the WHOLE Signature should be replaced or not.); see the image below to see the dimensions. If you use multiple images in a row, the sum is taken.
2. The file size of your sig must be below 40kb (40960 bytes). If you use multiple images, the sum is taken.
3. It must not contain explicit language.
4. It must not be derogatory/rude or aimed at any person or group (this includes racial/sexual slurs). It cannot break any other Forum rules (i.e. warez/pornography).
5. Do not put more than 6 lines of text below your sig, Do not use the "quote" tag, which take up unnecessary space. Remember that you can use the [size] tags to make your text smaller (0.5 instead of 1).

If any part of your signature (images or text) does not follow these rules, your entire signature will be removed and replaced with a warning. If you continue your non-compliance, you may face temp-banning for a period up to 1 week.

Forum Avatar Rules

1. Avatars are currently limited in size to 160*200 pixels.
2. Avatars must be under 20000bytes (around 20kb).
3. It must not contain explicit language.
4. It must not be derogatory/rude or aimed at any person or group (this includes racial/sexual slurs). It cannot break any other Forum rules (e.g. warez/pornography).

Information regarding Warning System

Forum users are warned by Admins/Moderators/Super Moderators if one of these cases are occured.
The forum staff member who warnes the forum user decides on how many points a forum user earns. The forum staff member also decides on the validity of the warning's duration.
New Warning Types are added to this list, as new cases occur. Once a user has reached a total of 10 Warning points (one warning is usually 1-2 points), a temporary ban will follow.


Contact Information (Top)

Forum Support is offered in Babblers: Talk to us. This forum was designed to provide support for the forums in all languages.

If you have questions or suggestions regarding the forum you can post them in The Forum Suggestions/Support Forum or contact a Moderator, Super-Moderator, or Administrator.

For a complete list of Moderators that you can contact via Forum PM please go HERE

Thank you for your co-operation,
Babblers Administration Staff