Marfan Friends World • Forum Rules

Community Forum Rules

This document is designed to clarify various responsibilities of community members here at Marfan Friends World. Please read it and become familiar with it.

1. Forum rules

a. Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting. Users consistently posting to the wrong forum may be given a warning (see policing below). #

b. Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning. #

c. Members are asked not to act as "back seat moderators". If a member notes an issue which contravenes something in this policy document they should use the report facility to bring it to the attention of a Moderator. Only do this if a Moderator has not replied within 6 hours. Do not respond to such topics yourself. Members who constantly "act" as moderators may be warned. #

d. Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning. #

e. Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc. or re-printing material without permission will receive a warning and their post may be removed. #

f. Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline ([IMG][/IMG]) image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to may be removed. #

g. Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this may be warned. #

h. Members should use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Help me!", "I'm stuck!", "I've got an error!", etc. Examples of good titles are; "Getting help with DLA", "Cannot change my e-mail address", etc. #

i. Members are welcome to use the test forum for general "test purposes". These may include checking signatures, testing a link or image, etc. (subject to previous points on decency, warez, etc.). #

j. Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. Users posting spam will be warned and their post removed. #

k. Members are asked to not disclose to any 3rd party, board or list any vulnerabilities in Marfan Friends World before first notifying the Site Admin. #

l. The moderating team reserves the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to the Moderators and not users. #

m. The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revocation of private messaging. #

n. Any new member who does not make a post within the first six weeks of their membership is liable to have their membership of this forum deactivated and will need to contact the Site Admin to have their membership re-activated. Any member who tries to circumvent this by registering under a different username and/or email address is liable to a permanent ban.#

o. Members may not, in any way or by any means, "poach", "tout" or "harvest" other members of Marfan Friends World to become members of any other similar type of forum. If any such actions are brought to the attention of any of the Administrators of Marfan Friends World then this will result in an instant, and permanent, ban.#

2. Signatures

a. Signatures may contain up to five lines (one line being that displayed on a browser opened to 800px width) of text (of small or normal size) and/or one image, valid combinations include; a single image of no more than 100px high, 468px wide and 0kB (0 bytes) in size. Signatures containing an image this large may also include one line of small size text. Signatures containing an image of 30px high may include up to three lines of small size text or two lines of normal size text. Images of 15px height or less may allow up to three lines of normal size text or four lines of small size text. Animated images are not allowed. #

b. Text sizes should be between 75% and 100% (small and normal). Text in signatures is subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, warez, emoticons etc. #

c. Links in signatures are permitted to a maximum of two unique pages or sites. Linked sites may not be commercial in nature. You may not link to warez, porn or political, racist or other similar hate sites. Links are included in signature size limits. #

d. Users abusing these rules will be warned. #

3. Avatars

a. Users are permitted to utilise a gallery avatar or to link to one of their own (subject to previous points on misuse of bandwidth). User defined avatars are to be no larger than 100 pixels square, contain no animation, contain no image which attempts to portray the user as having an official status here (e.g. mimicking ranks or copying avatars of team members), may not exceed 0kB (0 bytes) in filesize and have a consistently high availability (i.e. links to images on slow servers or those prone to failure may be removed). #

b. Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect to decency. #

c. Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges #

4. Show Off

a. Marfan Friends World does not provide a general fora or other solution for users to promote their sites. Such posting constitutes spam and may lead to a warning. #

5. Policing

a. Marfan Friends World operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences in a three month period. If the need arises for a fourth warning a temporary ban will be put in place of between 1 to 7 days. #

b. Arguing with team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place as above. #

c. Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact the Site Admin. If it is felt you were treated badly the warning may be removed. #

d. Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account of evade an email ban. Circumvention includes posting as an anonymous user. #

e. An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact team members personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban. #

f. Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While Marfan Friends World may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this will be a rare occurrence. #