Forum Rules & the Infraction System

[GSNAngel]

Posting Guidelines and Terms of Use

Please respect other members and the content of their posts. This may be a virtual community, but the people here are real and have real questions, thoughts and comments. Although we encourage healthy debate, we reserve the right to remove posts that in our opinion are abusive towards other members, defamatory, harassing, bigoted, sexually explicit, disruptive or otherwise exist solely to insult or violate these Guidelines. We may also remove user names when they violate these criteria.

Be sure to visit the GSN Terms of Service for a more detailed explanation of the policies governing your use of the forum. You are solely responsible for the content of your posts so be sure to read the entire article.

Infraction/Warning System

The following explains the infraction system. It's a good way for you to track how many infractions/warnings you've received and for the Administrators to track how many infractions/warnings have been issued. Warnings are worth 0 points and do not count toward your infraction total. They are a reminder to review the rules.

Each infraction will generate a point. If someone accumulates 3 unexpired infraction points they will be banned for one week. If the returning member continues to accumulate additional infraction points after their ban they could be banned permanently. If anyone tries to circumvent a temporary ban by posting under another user name, they could be banned permanently.

We reserve the right to ban people immediately as we deem appropriate. Please be aware that posters who deliberately and viciously break the rules may be permanently banned with no warning. Ruling on whether a permanent ban is necessary is ultimately left up to the discretion of the board administrators.

You may view your infraction points on your profile page. No one else is able to see how many infractions you have. If you do not see any infractions listed that means you have not received one. When you do get an infraction, a private message is sent to you. Infraction points expire after a certain number of days, so your active point total may decrease with time. Members will get infraction points for the following reasons:


• Signature rule violation - 1 Point (expires in 14 days)

Please review the signature guidelines here.

• Inappropriate links or graphics - 1 Point (expires in 14 days)

This includes any inappropriate pictures or links to inappropriate sites. Swearing, harassing or belittling others in your signature is also not allowed.

• Inappropriate language - 1 Point (expires in 14 days)

This includes sexually explicit language, vulgarities and swearing. The forum allows ages 13 and up and needs to have content appropriate for all ages.

• General Disruptiveness (spamming, trolling, derailing threads, etc) - 1 Point (expires in 14 days)

Trolls and spammers are banned immediately but sometimes a regular member is inadvertently disruptive and needs to be reminded about proper board etiquette. Please do not link to other commercial gaming sites, post links to pirated material, or tape trade on the boards.

• Attacking or harassing other members - 2 Points (expires in 30 days)

Belittling or attacking others for how they think or feel, name calling or debasement of any kind is not allowed. People are free to have their say within reason. If you think someone's post is unreasonable, please report them or place them on ignore.

• Attacking or insulting GSN show Hosts or Employees - 2 Points (expires in 14 days)

People are free to express their thoughts but name-calling, personal attacks, and general hate language towards GSN will not be tolerated. Comment on the shows, schedule, etc but do not get personal.

• Attacking Moderators or Administrators - 2 Points (expires in 30 days)
Self explanatory. People don't need to like what we say, but we ask them to respect the rules. We will listen to thoughts and concerns, but draw the line at personal attacks.

Controversial Topics

Threads with controversial topics such as abortion, religion, or politics are not to be posted and will be removed. We ask people not to use controversial or political topics in their avatars or signatures. It's important people consider the message boards a welcoming site to be on, not a place where people feel a need to defend themselves for who they are or what they believe.

Reporting Posts & the Ignore Feature

If you see a post that is a breaking the rules, please do not quote it or respond to it. Use the report post button. It's a little triangle found in every post. If there is a certain member you're unable to get along with, use the ignore feature found under the Miscellaneous section of your control panel. If someone is deliberately being disruptive report them but if it’s a personality issue than it’s your responsibility not to react to them. Use the ignore tools we provide.

If you have any questions regarding the posting guidelines, feel free to post in the General Community or Site Help forum.

Duplicate threads
Please read the first few pages to see if what you want to talk about is already being discussed. Duplicate threads will be deleted or merged with others. Feel free to report duplicate threads using the report post button. Please include links to both threads to be merged.

Thank you, have fun posting and welcome to the community!