I am not aware if Hammerfel ever posted rules and regulations. I think he figured we could self-moderate the place on our own. Unfortunately, the family can easily ask for people to behave, but there was no way to properly back it up. Now I can. So here’s the deal. I come from the SgtSavage/SavageSoundOffs/JoeBattlelines mentality of rules and regulations. Hopefully Fred won’t mind me using his. Honestly, I feel that his will work far better than if I used, oh, Metallica’s forum rules.

I’m a fair guy and I always give people the benefit of the doubt. As they say in school, “Everyone starts with an A at the beginning of the year. It’s you that changes it.” That’s very much how I see things.

Onto the body count...

1) Be good to each other. You can agree, you can disagree, and you can agree to disagree but don't get personal about it. We're all friends here, and we're all fans so let's just leave it at that.

2) Swearing is not allowed in any post in the forums or when replying to pictures. This includes the description area of your picture(s). IF your picture and/or dio has swearing, fine. Please keep in mind that we wish this to be a PG/PG13 sort of site. If you have a ton of swearing in a dio, please try and post a warning as a courtesy.

3) Absolutely no sniping and personal attacks on any member. If there is a problem between board members, take it somewhere else.

4) Blatant trolling. I'll be blunt on this one-- I don't care if you post links to features/reviews/dios/etc at other sites. What I do care about are people who only pop up to promote their site and don't otherwise contribute to the community in any way. This is "trolling for traffic" and I think it's a pretty sleazy thing to do. If you want to post links to your own sites/customs/work/etc, that's great and I encourage it! However, just don't show up to promote yourself and then leave.

5) Enjoy yourself. It’s a place to share stories and images w/ people who have the same interest. It’s great that we have a place like this.



The "order of battle" for disciplinary action around here.

If anyone is found consistently and intentionally violating the spirit of the rules above, the following steps will be taken:

1) Written warning. Either via email or PM you'll be hearing from me with one of those "Cut the crap!" messages. Hopefully this will be enough-- otherwise we move to...

2) Banning. I've seen too many boards grow "out of control" because some people can't remember to respect others. I won't tolerate that here-- ever. Anyone who consistently decides that they can do whatever they want will have to do so elsewhere.

BTW…

If you feel the need to disrespect other board members, make blatant insults, etc, your posts are subject to a bit of an edit. However, you'll know the reasons for the edit and everyone will be able to see that the post has been altered.


By the by...

You want a 1-way ticket to getting banned w/ no warnings?

1. Steal pics from another site, post them here and say they are yours.

It's one thing to post your own stuff. It's another thing to post someone's stuff with their permission. (ie; hosting pics on your own account and posting it for the public) But taking a pic from another site and posting 'em, that's a no-no no matter where you're from.

2. Racism in any form.