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| User Priviliges and Responsibilities (aka "The Rules") |
| Priviliges of Beyond3D members are earned by promotion through a series of user groups. These user groups, the requirements to attain them, and their associated privileges, are described here. Beyond3D management prefers to keep written rules for forum behavior to a minimum. There are, however, certain broad guidelines for most forums: Don't post scans of current or recent magazines; don't discuss means, methods, or personal occurrences of warez or other IP theft; don't post pr0n or other blatant "NSFW" material on our forums; don't post in an aggresssive and/or obnoxious manner; and please DO observe "fair use" or "fair dealing" copyright restrictions regarding the posting of portions of articles from elsewhere on our forums. Creating multiple accounts (aka "sock puppets") is generally frowned upon and may be challenged and disallowed at the discretion of the mod staff when detected. Creating a sock puppet to circumvent a temporary or pemenent ban of another account is grounds for permenently banning both accounts. Specific guidelines for specific forums may be posted as one or more "sticky" notes at the top of any given forum. All users are responsible for knowing and observing the rules for any forum they post in. The Console Forum rules are the most strict on the site, as long experience has shown this to be required to keep that forum reasonably friendly for the average user. The Console Forum rules are generally good practice anywhere, but will be particularly observed in that forum and its sub-forums. Beyond3D management reserves the right to change the rules at any time. Also, specific events (E3 Expo is an obvious example) may be the cause for posting a new sticky in a given forum with rules that will be observed during the length of the event (or more accurately for the length of the sticky being shown in the forum). Do not argue with forum staff what the rules are --as it only annoys them, and people with the power and authority to both temp and perm ban users are typically left better off unannoyed by you. A failure to follow clear direction by staff is an acceptable reason to ban users. General abuse of staff by calling them biased, vindictive, fascist, etc will also typically travel a short road to a certain destination. If you feel you have been unfairly treated by a specific staffer, or wish to appeal a ban, feel free to contact the site editor as identified on the About page. The Site Feedback forum is available to all unbanned members to ask questions about the site and its policies. Junior Members and higher have access to Private Messaging (PM) and may PM anyone on the moderation staff to ask them a question about policies as well. |
| New Users and the Spam Filter |
| It is our experience that the overwhelming number of forum spammers are new users. As such, we have instituted a fairly aggressive spam filter on posts from newly registered users accounts. There is a significant probability that even non-spam posts from these users may go into a moderation queue to await review and approval by a member of the mod team (only spam/non-spam status is reviewed in this step) before they will appear on the forum. We check the moderation queue regularly, but this may result in several hours delay before your first few posts will appear. To our legitimate new users we apologize for the inconvenience if this happens to your posts, but we hope you will understand the benefit to all of a mostly spam-free forum. |
| Before You Join the Religion, Politics & Socioeconomic Climate Forum |
HERE THERE BE DRAGONS Well, okay, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that "Here there be a notable absence of the usual quota of officially deputized dragonslayers." The Mostly Unmoderated Religion, Politics, and Socicoeconomic Climate forum is a place intended to discuss topics that are by their very nature highly controversial, often uncomfortable, and potentially emotional in nature. As such, by common consensus between the regulars of this forum and site managment, this forum will be mostly self-moderated by its inhabitants. Generally, Beyond3D site staff will only come if called by the "Report Bad Post" button, and will only take action on the most grossly egregious kinds of cases (like, say, advocacy of genocide against some identifiable group). The usual types of things that members would expect to be moderated --significant personal incivility, trolling, off-topic thread crapping, etc, are not in the purview of site staff moderation for this forum only. Members must moderate such activities by themselves. Reporting them to site staff is liable to get a surly response, or even an infraction or banning, for waking us from our nap or interrupting our MMORPG fest. Site staff will check for things such as warez from time to time, and if found step on it with great gusto. This does NOT mean that the management and staff of Beyond3D wants or intends this forum to be a cesspool of intolerance. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are providing a mostly unmoderated forum to create an environment where both majority and minority viewpoints can compete in the marketplace of ideas, without fear or favor from authority. Having tried multiple methods to do so over the years, we've come to the conclusion that this is the manner best able to meet everyone's needs and interests, while providing "informed consent" for potential new members by making them agree to the terms described in this FAQ before they can see and participate in this forum. The RPSC forum of Beyond3D has a long history of intense discussions on the topics of the day. Its regulars swear by it, and occassionally at it and each other. Make no mistake --this FAQ/Agreement is a WARNING. If you bruise easily go somewhere else. If you can not hear a word against a generic label like "American", "the French", "Neocons", "Liberals", etc. without perceiving a vicious attack on your sainted grandmother who was a member of that label group --go somewhere else. On the other hand, if you like to debate the issues of the day with a bunch of intelligent, and often funny, people from across the world and political spectrum, and don't mind the occassional elbow thrown in the direction of your proboscis. . . why, walk right in, and WELCOME. Update 9/12/2006: Warez, pr0n, non-political "site wars", and "wrong forum" type stuff at the moment in the "active moderation" catagory when spotted. Management reserves the right to add to the list when/if specific examples appear and are considered worth doing so. Update 08/11/2008: Attempting to continue RPSC disagreements in other non-RPSC forums will not be allowed and is open to moderation even if the original incident is not open to moderation because it happened in RPSC and is therefore protected by the rules upstream. |