Announcements

[Andreas Raht]

OOTP Developments Forum Rules and Posting Guidelines

We have one simple goal for this site:

The OOTP Development forums should be a place where people can share ideas and thoughts about our products in a friendly, respectful, and child-friendly environment.

This board benefits us as well as our customers. We all have much to gain by sharing ideas and concerns, and many of the best product ideas have come from the community. Your comments are welcome, whether they be in support of the game or in criticism. We do expect, however, that all comments will be presented in a manner which breeds teamwork and respect.

These rules and guidelines are designed to make the OOTP forum a pleasant place to be. We are all here because we enjoy the products from OOTP Developments and want to share that enjoyment with others. In the course of discussion, disagreement and criticism will inevitably occur. We feel that such disagreement and criticism must be presented and debated in a courteous manner.

It is the responsibility of each participant in the site to be responsible for his or her own actions. Additionally, site admins and moderators have the ability to enforce these rules through judicious use of warnings and bans.

Forum Rules

The following are the formal site rules to which you agreed when you registered for this site:

Although the administrators and moderators of the OOTP Developments Forums will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of OOTP Developments Forums, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.

By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.

The owners of OOTP Developments Forums reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

Rules Infractions

Rules infractions will result in a warning. The number of warnings will be displayed in the user information area next to each post. The text of the post will be deleted and an e-mail will be sent to the user about the warning. The complete issue will be logged in our database. Four warnings results in an automatic, permanent ban of the user. Users with fewer than 4 warnings will have warnings removed from their record gradually, as long as they do not receive additional warnings.

Warnable Offenses

The following specific offenses may result in a single warning per incident:

1. Swearing or deliberately insulting content (see below for more details)

2. Bypassing the swear filter

3. Inappropriate post content (see below for more details)

4. Quoting posts that have swearing or inappropriate content

5. Inappropriate use of aliases (using multiple accounts to deliberately deceive others about your identity, etc.)

6. Trolling (posting inflammatory, rude, repetitive, or offensive messages designed intentionally to annoy or antagonize the existing members or disrupt the flow of discussion)

7. Other behavior not specifically listed here that the moderators may deem inappropriate

Bannable Offenses

The following offenses may result in an immediate and permanent ban, with no accumulation of 4 warnings required:

1. Particularly egregious breaking of any site rules (at the moderators' discretion)

2. Spamming

3. Banned users returning to the site using a different alias and continuing the same pattern of behavior

Swearing / Insults

Swearing and any content posted with the intent to insult others will not be tolerated. Which words are "swears"? Generally, if a conservative person wouldn't say it to his or her mom, you shouldn't say it here. Remember,
we want this site to be child-friendly. It is still a "swear" if it's not directed at another person!

We're asking you to obey the "spirit of the law," which means no bad language, period. Masking swears with other characters is unacceptable and subject to warning. The moderators will consider the intent of your language. You can prevent us from making that judgment call by simply not crossing the line.

Quoting posts that have swears or insulting language is also warnable, as it simply perpetuates the undesirable content.

Inappropriate Post Content

Posts must not contain (or link to) nude pics, porn, stolen, or copyrighted material such as MP3 files, etc. This includes avatars and other signature links or graphics.

You may only link to images or files on external sites when you have the permission of the owner of that site! To link directly to a file on one site for purposes of displaying or playing a file on another site constitutes bandwidth theft. This is also called hotlinking. You are responsible for your posts and for any copyright violation caused by links in your post!

Quoting posts that have inappropriate content is also warnable, as it simply perpetuates the undesirable content.

Off Topic Forum

Because discussion in the Off-Topic forum covers a very wide range of topics, moderation of this forum will not be quite as strict as in other forums here. Be aware, however, that the definition of "not as strict" is at the sole discretion of the administrators and moderators. Disrespectful or insulting behavior will be addressed directly with the member and will be dealt with in the same way as other infractions. The relaxed enforcement of the OT board is merely a way to grant participants additional flexibility when discussing potentially volatile topics.

On Banning

We're willing to forgive and forget. Users who have been banned may return to the site. However, they must register a new account. Furthermore, site administrators will deal swiftly with those who return simply to continue inappropriate behavior.

Please note that posting porn or links to porn sites will be considered cause for an immediate ban without warning.

On Moderation and Reporting

The site administrators and moderators cannot review every post on the forums. While we try very hard to be consistent, there will be times that our inability to be omnipresent may give the appearance of inconsistency. Moderators have the right to make judgment calls on whether or not something is warnable. In some cases, moderators may ask users to take action (remove inappopriate content, etc.) or may directly modify post content without issuing a warning. As in real life, model citizens are much more likely to get the benefit of the doubt when we make these decisions.

Ultimately, whether or not your post garners a warning is up to you. Rather than leave it to our discretion, simply avoid posting content that is borderline, and take it out of our hands!

If you see a post with content that you feel is inappropriate, you can inform the moderators by clicking on the "report post" link at the bottom of the offending post. Please don't report posts frivolously, this could be seen as infraction.

Thanks very much, welcome to the boards, and enjoy!

OOTP Developments