1 - Flaming, Trolling, & Arguing
1.1 - Flaming
'Flaming' refers to insulting other users, staff, people, or groups of people (on or off the boards). This includes racial, sexual, and religious slurs as well as derogatory statements regarding people of lesser fortune/ability. Flame can be contained in posts, user titles, thread titles, names, avatars, signatures, private messages, and the reputation system (among others). Anything on the forums is our business, and we will deal with it accordingly.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban (Dependent On Severity)
1.2 - Trolling
'Trolling' refers to any attempt at provoking argument or flame. It may, at times, also pertain to an easily-misconstrued statement that, based on previous experience, is likely to lead to argument or flame. This decision will be made on staff discretion. Deliberately posting controversial viewpoints with the intent of inciting conflict is a serious offense and will be treated as such.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban (Dependent On Severity)
1.3 - Arguing
'Arguing' is not Debating. Debate is the free discussion of numerous differing opinions employing the use of logic, evidence, and civil disagreement. Arguing is a conflict between numerous differing opinions wrought with illogical and/or irrelevant exchange, a lack of proper evidence, and innapropriate or impolite animosity. The difference is usually very clear but, in a case that proves hard to distinguish, a decision will be made at staff discretion.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban (Dependent On Severity)
2 - Inappropriate Content
2.1 - Adult Content (Porn and Inappropriate Language)
'Adult Content' is an umbrella term used to describe any materials (visual, audio, or textual) that is innapropriate to expose minors to (minors being anyone below 18 years of age). This includes, but is not limited to, pornographic images, video, and sexual text. The forum rules do allow young members and we will strictly enforce the safety and security of these users. The occasional curse word will be permitted, assuming it is not directed at another or another group. Suggestive content will be allowed, as well, as long as there is no nudity involved.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban
2.2 - Personal Information
Do not share or reveal personal information or content of another user without their permission. This includes other members' private emails, phone numbers, networking pages, credit card numbers, names, ages, locations, private messages, artwork, etc. If you have been asked by a user to distribute their private information to others, do it via Personal Message. You may be asked for proof of permission by the staff.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban
2.3 - Warez (Hacks, Cracks, Torrents, ISOs, etc)
Do not - under any circumstances - request, link to, offer, or openly discuss the use or appropriation of illegal file-sharing / program altering software or the files you may download / alter. This includes illegal music downloading, illegal torrents, cd-keys, hacks, etc. Discussion of open-source programs and legal downloading are, of course, perfectly acceptable.
Max Punishment: Temporary Ban
2.4 - Third-Party Programs for Blizzard Games
All discussion of programs or codes used to hack or unfairly alter gameplay of Blizzard titles is absolutely not allowed. Mods not used for unfair gain within the game (Zy-el chronicles, etc) are perfectly acceptable.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban
2.5 - Spam
'Spam' refers to any posts in a thread (or any thread) that is or contains unsolicited or irrelevant material including, but not limited to, advertisement, pointless links, youtube videos (not directly related to Diablo or another topic at-hand), random gibberish, double posts, and single-word / single-image posts. Please do not respond to spam posts. If you wish to help cut down on forum spam, report the post and let the staff take care of it appropriately.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban (Dependent On Infraction)
2.6 - False Information
Providing false information about yourself is only against forum rules during an investigation by a staff member. During such an investigation, the discovery that a user has been lying or manipulating the truth may be seen as cause for a temporary or even permanent ban; otherwise it is simply too hard to properly moderate, but we encourage members to be honest. Deliberately providing false information about another person is strictly against the rules as well.
Max Punishment: Temporary Ban (Dependent On Severity)
2.7 - Off Topic
The term 'Off Topic' is used to refer to posts with little or no relevancy to the thread's original subject or question. If you feel the need to discuss a new topic, create a new thread (or, alternatively, search to see if you can locate and existing thread on the same subject).
Max Punishment: Infraction, Deletion of Post (Dependent On Number of Infractions)
3 - Staff Rules
3.1 - Requesting A Staff Position
Do not ask to be appointed as a Moderator or Administrator. Staff choices will be made by the existing staff based on traits such as experience, maturity, activity, and history. Asking for a position will only serve to diminish your chances of receiving one.
Max Punishment: None
3.2 - Etiquette
The Administrators and Moderators of this site are here to maintain peace and order. As the enforcers of the rules that protect and guide the users of the forums, they expect a reasonable amount of respect and cooperation on your part. It should be expected that staff decisions will be accepted and followed. Should there be a conflict involving one or more of the staff, please bring it up with other and/or more senior staff members. Please do this politely and privately. Posting complaints about the staff or their decisions in the main forum body is not permitted, to ensure the dignity and fairness to all parties involved. This said, we can't be everywhere all the time, so we appreciate any help you can give us. If you see someone breaking a rule, use the Report Post button to let us know about it.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban (Dependent On Infraction)
4 - Common Sense
4.1 - Please Post In English
This forum is composed in English and, as much as we encourage users from all over the world to join, the fact remains that the majority of members here speak only English. Because of this, we request that if you're going to post, you do it in this common language. Feel free to use whatever language you please in PM though.
Max Punishment: Deletion of Post
4.2 - One Account Per Member / One Member Per Account
Do not multi-account. Do not allow anyone else to use your account (including friends and relatives. If they want to post, they may make their own accounts). Should there be two accounts on the same IP, an explanation will be asked for before punishments are handed out.
Max Punishment: Permanent Ban
5 - Basic Etiquette
5.1 - Use The Search Function (But Don't Revive Dead Threads!)
Do not post threads the sole purpose of which is to ask other to direct you to some other thread on the boards. If you want to find a thread that suits your needs, do a search for it. This said, should you find a thread using the search feature that has been dormant (not posted in) for over 3 months, don't post in it. Create a new thread. Posting in a long-dormant thread is Thread Necromancy and is not allowed.
5.2 - Quoting
When quoting someone else, it's considered polite to exclude the parts of their post that are not relevant to your reply. If you are posting directly after them, you do not need to quote at all.