Forum Policy (rules)

[Damon Caskey]

Forum Policy

The following is Lavalit's global policy; it apply to all areas of Lavalit. Be aware that these rules are not lip service. To maintain a pleasant community and foster the highest level possible of communication, all of our policies are enforced strictly.


Professionalism

Retaliation

PM Use

Language, Grammar & Format

Threads

Round Robins

Respect of The Product

Spam

Solicitation

Personal Libel

Warez

"I Quit!"

Threadomancy

Common Sense


Enforcement

Banning and Arbitration

[Damon Caskey]

Professionalism: Lavalit is a serious open source gaming community. By serious we mean fun, but professional. This is not Youtube, Twitter, or any other unregulated host you may be used to. Elsewhere they tell you beware of the monsters. Here, the monsters are the ones who best beware.

Keep your discussions civil. Debate, refute, and so on, but do so respectfully. Name calling, flaming, derogatory statements, baiting, trolling, passive/aggressive attacks and generally any form of combative posting will not be tolerated.

[Damon Caskey]

Retaliation: If you feel another member has slighted you, DO NOT respond in kind. Doing so will not only be sinking to their level, it will also put you in violation of the forum rules just as if you had initiated the conflict.

This is not a fist fight or a real world threat. No one is harming you in any real way and there is no "honor" to be lost by not retaliating. Be the bigger person and leave the reply button alone. If you feel it necessary, report the offending post to a moderator and we will deal with it as per the forum rules.

[Damon Caskey]

PM Use: Private messages are for convenience. They are not a tool to hide flame wars from the moderators. If a PM war is discovered, all penalties for flaming will apply.

Note: Lavalit has not and does not view member PM's. We value member privacy and it's not possible without directly opening the database anyway. We do however reserve the right for extreme circumstances (i.e. a tangible real world threat, legal issue, etc.).

[Damon Caskey]

Language, Grammar & Format: Lavalit is an international forum with English as the accepted and required communication vector. As such, it is important that all posts maintain maximum legibility.

Non English posts are not permitted and all posts must be written with a reasonable level of professionalism.

No, you aren't required to have perfect fluency and panache with the written word. That said, you must at least show enough respect for others and yourself to use spell checking, capitalization and paragraphing. Basic sentence structure is nearly universal across every dialect in the world; nationality is not an excuse for writing like a five year old.

Once again, this forum is international and that means it is vitality important to be clear as you can. If a native English speaker has trouble reading your post then someone who is not a native speaker has no chance at all. This goes double for anyone who relies on a translator as many community members here do. Overly colloquial dialect, netspeak, walls of text, CAPS LOCK SPEAK, rainbow text, pointless abbreviation and smilie spam are all prohibited.

Posts failing to adhere to these standards will be subject to removal or scrubbing without notice, and the offending member placed under enforcement for spam.

[Damon Caskey]

Threads: Please keep topics and posts in the correct area of the forum; there is a General sector and specialty areas for nearly every conceivable subject.

[Damon Caskey]

Round Robins: A round robin is where one or more people continuously debate a point in circles while restating the same arguments over and over. Round robins will result in a thread being locked.

[Damon Caskey]

Respect of The Product: Feel free to make suggestions, but make them constructive. A lot of work goes into the various projects found here, and aside, it's just plain rude to run something into the ground without good cause. Explain the benefit of your suggestion, and try to offer examples of how it might be implemented. "I want X!!" at best will be ignored, and at worst will be treated as spam.

[Damon Caskey]

Spam: Badgering a member with emails or PMs, continuously posting repetitive or non related material and other forms of spam are prohibited.

[Damon Caskey]

Solicitation: Solicitation is a form of spam and will be treated as such. If you wish to advertise a commercial or non Lavalit product, you must obtain permission from the site owner.

Posting of pornographic material or creating an account for the purpose of posting obvious commercial spam will result in an instant ban.

[Damon Caskey]

Personal Libel: Attacks on a person using sexual, racial, religious, gender, creed, nationality, or situational inference will result in an instant ban (i.e. ?Nigger?, ?F A G?, ?Jap?, ?You must like doing it with X?, etc.). No arbitration, no exceptions. In addition, any tangible threat is also cause for immediate ban and may result in legal action against you.

[Damon Caskey]

Warez: In many ways the LavaLit community already walks a fine legal line via use of game sprites and music for fan works. We are not however in the business of exchanging ways in which to hack or steal licensed software (a common example would be cracks for Photoshop). If you want those things go elsewhere, as posting or requesting such here is prohibited.

[Damon Caskey]

"I Quit!": Keep the melodrama to yourself. If you decide you don't like it here then politely say good bye or simply stop posting. No one is impressed with a scorched earth post declaring you are finished and we'll be sorry. If there is anything that everyone knows, it's that someone who says that sort of thing will be back within a week. Well not at Lavalit. Here the quitters will be helped in their cause with an instant ban.

Note: Common sense applies. This is referring to the pithy, childish sort of "I quit" posts, not a normal resignation or absence.

[Damon Caskey]

Threadomancy: Lavalit has an unusual stance on Threadomancy (posting in or reviving very old threads). At lavalit, this is permitted and actually preferred over starting new threads about a topic previously discussed.

We have found this policy more tenable for organizational and collaboration purposes than having multiple threads for the same subject. If you see an old thread and wish to contribute, feel free. Conversely, it is a good idea to run a search to make sure a topic you are about to broach hasn't been covered already.

[Damon Caskey]

Common Sense: Just because something isn't spelled out verbatim in the forum rules does not mean it is OK. We are out to keep an open and friendly environment; not make lawyers happy. Use your common sense; if you think it might be wrong, it probably is, so don't do it.

Moderators have the ability to give warnings or bans as they see fit, and in turn are expected to judge fairly and impartially. If you think you have been treated unfairly, there is a set method of arbitration. See enforcement.

In short, show some self respect, respect your fellow man, and you'll be peachy!