NEW Forum Rules and Guidelines for Posting

Etiquette for Posting on the XF Forum:

No "post-boosting"

This is the act of posting and then replying to yourself in order to increase your overall number of posts and thereby what you perceive as your standing in the community. This goes hand-in-hand with pointless posting.

Why it's bad: Again, it fills up space in the database that could be being used for something more useful. There's no prize for having the most posts. Additionally, it wastes a massive amount of the Moderators and Admins time.

The official position: Posts will be deleted. If necessary, the post count function will be removed, so no one will have a post count total.

No "deep linking" or "hot linking"

Deep linking (or hot linking) is where you include an image (be it avatar, profile pic, or simply inclusion in a post or article) from another web site, without their permission by using a reference to it, say by using it in an {IMG} tag. Note that this is different from providing a link to a picture, since by using a link, you're informing people that it's from a different source. Saving a picture into your Photobucket/ImageShack account and posting it is OK, but linking directly off another side should be avoided.

Why it's bad: Every time you deep link, you are using that site's bandwidth for a purpose other than that which they have provided it to you for. As a result, every time that picture is used somewhere, it is stealing bandwidth from someone. Webmasters check their logs, and I've gotten quite a few emails from other webmasters telling me that the XF forums are sucking lots of their bandwidth.

The official position: Out of respect for other webmasters, deep-linked images will be removed.

No "trolling"

Trolling is the writing of a post with the specific intent of garnering an angry response from an individual or group of individuals - also known as "starting a flame war".

Why it's bad: Flame wars eat bandwidth. They serve no purpose other than to get people angry at each other, which in a small community website is a bad thing. Remember, when you post something mean or rude, you're taking to an actual person on the other end.

The official position: Blatant trolls will be banned, and their posts deleted.

No Flaming

"Flaming" is name-calling, insulting other members and similar behavior. It will not be tolerated here. Period. No defamatory posts/topics speaking poorly of people. Similarly, you will treat all members (and especially new people on this board who choose to announce their membership) with respect or you will be banned.

The official position: Flamers will be banned from the board.

Avoid "cross-posting"

Always try to post where it is appropriate to do so.

Why it's bad: People go to a specific part of the site for specific things. It helps them find things if they're grouped sensibly.

The official position: Threads will be moved if necessary. Multiple threads about the same topic in different forums will be deleted.

Violations of these guidelines may result in banishment at the moderators' discretion. This thread is not subject to debate or negotiation so please read and comply.