This is mostly for the newer members, but some of the older posters could take note aswell.
Before you make a thread asking a question, please use the Search feature. I'd say 9 times out of 10 your question would've actually been answered, so you may save yourself (and us) some time.
The most important thing in this forum section is that everyone contributes. If five people are standing around with hoses filling up a swimming pool, one person who comes along and throws in a cup of water isn't contributing. Same thing here, if there is a discussion of any sort and you have an opinion feel free to express it, but make it worth reading. Remember, the whole idea of an internet forum is to share your views with others... not yourself. So while you might be interested and fascinated by your proclamation that 'dis game will rok" no one else will be.
If you make a post and then think of something you'd like to add to it, or fix, or whatever, use the Edit function to edit your previous post. Double posting is generally frowned upon, and while we're fairly lax about this we'd still ask that you edit your previous post instead of making a new one straight away.
Try and be somewhat respectful to others. I of all people understand that sometimes someone might say something ridiculously stupid, and that you might feel the need to inform them that they are in fact ridiculously stupid, but show some restraint. Heated discussions are one thing (and fine) but excessive name calling and flaming that goes completely off topic is unacceptable. If you disagree with someone, feel free to let them know but do it in a manner that isn't going to mentally scar them.
Slightly on that note, show respect to the moderators here. Not just myself, there are in total like 15+ moderators here, and while we all have varying personalities we are also human. Flaming a moderator will generally get you banned straight off most of the time, and no, no one cares if "he started it" the facts are, we put our own spare time and effort into this forum in order to improve it and keep things running smoothly and that does tend to get us some personal lenience. You might not like all of us, hell you might even hate 1 or 2 mods but just remember that we make up a very small percentage of the total community, so if you do personally dislike any of us then it is very easy for you to avoid confrontation. If you choose not to do this then the consequences are fairly obvious.
When you're making a thread, posting it ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS isn't going to get you more attention, it will just make you look like an idiot. Don't do this.
Please don't request a thread to be stickied, if we think it's something that will come in useful we will sticky it. We've done it plenty of times, and if stickying threads was a professional sport I'm sure we'd be very good at it.
THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT RULES
Yes, red, very eye catching etc but if you're going to ignore all of the above, these are the two I want you to take notice of...
No discussions of illegal downloads in any way, shape or form. If you even mention CD keys, places to download the game, hint at where to get it, hint at how you got the game or ask how to change language files or whatever you run the risk of being banned immediately. Those of you who do ask where to download the game, find CD keys, change the language files will be banned immediately. This has been a long established rule here, last year things got a bit out of control so we've basically had to go zero tolerance this time around.
NO ARM-CHAIR MODERATING Thanks Axel for the term. This mostly goes out to the older members, but also some newer guys aswell. Don't get me wrong, I would appreciate it if some of the more senior (or literate) members guide our newer members and help them when needed, but if someone makes a thread in the wrong section, or asks something that's already been asked we don't need 50 "U FUCKIN IDIOT U POSTED IN THE WRONG SECTION" posts, nor do we appreciate people telling us what threads to lock, what threads to sticky, which members to ban etc. We know what we're fucking doing.
Now, last year I locked the thread and said if anyone had any questions to PM me, this will work differently. I will leave the thread unlocked, and if anyone has any questions, doesn't understand something or even has a problem with anything mentioned in this thread feel free to post it and I or any of the other mods/Andrew will respond. Thank you.
