Forum Rules

These rules are disclosed to clarify the various responsibilities of all community members here on the H-A-W-K forum. They have been compiled and are revised for your benefit and should be adhered to by everyone.

Forum rules:

• Posts are to be made in the relevant topics. Users are asked to read the topic descriptions before posting. Users consistently posting to the wrong topics may be given a warning (see policing below).
• Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
• Members are asked to not act as “back seat moderators”. If members note an issue which contravenes something in this policy document they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a member of the Moderator Team. Please use the “post report” feature to report posts. Do not respond to such topics yourself. Members who constantly “act” as moderators may be warned.
• Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
• Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc. or re-printing material without permission will receive a warning and their post will be removed.
• Members are asked only to post in English, as this is an English speaking community.
• Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to may be removed.
• Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.
• Members should use an appropriate, descriptive subject when posting a new topic. Examples of bad subjects include; "Help me!", "I'm stuck!", "I've got an error!", etc. Examples of good subjects include; "Getting an TABLE FULL error upon login", "Cannot restore a backup", etc.
• Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. This includes advertisements of business and personal services. Recruiting members for other clans is not permitted and is also considered spam. Users posting spam will be warned and their post removed. See specific item on spam and 3rd party linking for more information.
• Members are asked to not disclose private information about the H-A-W-K clan and its members to other clans.
• The moderating team reserves the right to edit, remove or delete and posts what are construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc.
• The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revocation of private messaging.

Signatures:

• Signatures may contain up to five lines of normal sized text OR a single image that is no more than 60px high, 468px wide, 10KiB (10240 bytes) in size and one line of small sized text. The font size of signatures should be normal or small only.
• Signatures containing an image of 30px in height may include up to two lines of normal sized text or three lines of small sized text. Images 15px or below in height may contain up to three lines of normal sized text or four lines of small sized text.
• Content in signatures should be consistent with normal writing and abide by the general forum etiquette. You may not include hidden text or links or information that may be considered offensive to others.
• Links in signatures are permitted to a maximum of 5* links. You may not link to warez, pornographic, racist or other similar extremist sites.
• Remote signature images must have a consistently high availability to ensure page load times are not affected. Animated images are not permitted.
• Users abusing these rules will be warned or have their signature privileges revoked.

Avatars:

• Avatars should be no larger than 120x120 pixels and should not exceed 20KB (20480 bytes) in size.
• Avatars must not contain animation or include graphics which attempt to portray the ranks or avatars of moderators. Users are permitted to utilise an avatar from their own gallery or link externally to one of their own.
• Remote avatars must have a consistently high availability to ensure page load times are not affected.
• Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect to the general forum etiquette.
• Users abusing these rules will be warned or have their avatar privileges revoked.

Policing:

• H-A-W-K moderators operate on a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences in a three month period. If the need arises for a fourth warning a temporary ban will be put in place of between 1 to 7 days.
• Arguing with moderators after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place as above.
• Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact the administrator, e.g. if warned by a moderator you should contact an administrator. If they feel you were treated badly they will remove the warning.
• Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban or other moderator action will lead to a permanent ban of your account(s). Circumvention includes re-registering or using an already registered account under a non-banned username. Other examples include changing IP addresses, using a new email account or other action that can be taken to evade moderator action to hide your identity as the owner of the sanctioned account.
• An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact team members personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.
• Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While moderators may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurrence.

Thank you all for reading and adhering to these rules.