Please Read Before Posting

**Ashlanne** · 01/28/2007 09:40:42

Message Board Conduct

As the Official Station Community Forums are part of the Station, posting on these forums is bound by the Station's Terms of Service that can be found in their entirety at http://sonyonline.com/tos/tos.jsp. In addition to these terms of service, we have a few supplemental rules that apply to the Station Community Forums.

In general, you may post any material written in a courteous and mature manner, providing that it is on-topic for the forum to which you are posting. This includes material that disagrees with the way that we, the developers, operate the game. We will not interfere with the communication of thoughts and ideas as long as the presentation is constructive and appropriate for all those capable of reading the forum.

You may NOT post or place in a signature any material that:

Attacks or insults others on the board. Feel free to debate the idea, but do not turn your disagreement into an attack upon the poster or any person or group.

Engages in name-calling, harassment, or threats.

Contains obscenity, vulgarity, profanity or is sexually explicit. Though we do have a filter in place to catch unintentional obscenity from time to time, this is not a license to abuse it. Bypassing the obscenity filter by using letter, number, or character combinations that allow the obscene or inappropriate word to appear is unacceptable as well.

Disparages any religion, race, nation, gender, or sexual orientation.

Is considered inappropriate for children 13 or younger as governed by general standards of decency in the United States of America.

Infringes upon anyone's privacy rights.

Is off-topic for the forum. These Forums are provided to enable members to help each other in sharing their passion for the game. There is a forum calledOff Topicfor topics that don't relate directly to Station Community gameplay. However, be aware that the Rules of Conduct will still be enforced. Do not assume it is a board that welcomes every discussion; debating religion, arguing politics, looking for romantic partners, and attacking other games or companies are all examples of topics better suited for other boards and websites.

Furthermore, you may NOT:

Make multiple posts on the same subject for the purpose of getting attention paid to your issue.

Post comments in threads for the purpose of drawing attention to another thread on a different subject.

"Bump" or "/sign" threads.

Cross-post the same topic to multiple forums or the same message to multiple threads.

Make replies to posts that do not pertain to or are irrelevant to the original topic, such as: In before the Lock, "first," or posting messages to reserve a reply spot with the intention of posting to it later.

Troll the forums. "Trolling" is defined as: Posting with the intent of stirring up trouble or to incite disruption. An example of trolling would be posting to a thread without the intent to provide constructive suggestions or comments and instead making disruptive comments.

Post topics addressed directly to another player. The Official Station Community forums have a private messaging system for conversations between two players. If you want to contact someone directly, use the private messaging system.

Use the official forums to debate private issues. The official forums are for all Station Community players. If you have an issue with other players or groups, deal with it outside of the public forums in a private space.

Solicit for guild membership on the general discussion boards. Please use the forums that were set up for this purpose or head over to the server-specific forums.

Use the official forums as a staging ground for creating general unrest within the game or forums, such as sit-ins, polls, petitions, etc.

Post exploits, cheats, hacks, or links to websites or domains that contain such material. If you wish to make the team aware of these issues, please send us a private message.

Use the official forums as a place to advertise the sale of Station Community characters or items in exchange for real-world money. This rule does not apply to any Station Exchange forums.

Advertise websites with content that violates these rules, the Station Community EULA, or the Station Terms of Service.

Advertise products or websites that are not related to Station Community or Sony Online Entertainment products.

Make posts seeking or giving feedback about Customer Service resolutions. All requests and feedback about Customer Service issues should be handled through petitions or emails using the Knowledge Base (www.station.sony.com/kb) and selecting Email Support.

All of these rules apply to the forums as well as to the private message system.

Please note that these rules also apply for communication to any SOE employees. This includes emails.

Action that we might take in regard to a post in violation of these rules on the Official Station Community Forums will vary depending upon the transgression. It may include any number of the following (in order of severity):

Editing of the post or signature.

Removal of the ability to have a signature or Link and image posting privileges.

Deletion of the post/thread.

Closing of the thread.

A Warning that is attached to a player's account. Warnings are given for less severe message board infractions. Any player that receives three warnings for message board conduct will have their account banned.

Suspension (results in user being unable to access any Official Station Community Forum, or play Station Community for the duration of the suspension at the discretion of the community team. Any subsequent warnings after a suspension will result in banishment).

Banishment (results in the user's forum posting privileges being revoked. At the discretion of the community team, your access to Station Community may be removed or Station account closed.

Legal Action (I.e. contacting law enforcement personnel in regard to a threat)

Those who violate the rules of the boards may or may not receive any warning before action is taken. In the event that a warning is given, the warning will be recorded upon the game account and may result in further action should the player show a pattern of engaging in prohibited conduct. Philosophically and administratively, there is no difference between conduct in-game and conduct on the Official Forums.

Things the Community Team and Development Team WILL MOST LIKELY NOT Respond To:

Threads addressed to a "Red Name" or "devs." If we responded to them, then you would see hundreds of posts trying to get our attention this way. Threads with a name in the title will almost never see an official response.

Private messages asking gameplay questions. When we can answer questions that are posted in discussion threads, we will. However, we will not reveal anything privately that we will not reveal in public. If you have questions, you should first read the FAQs or ask your fellow community members.

Private Messages asking for a response to a particular thread. We read as many threads on these boards as possible and respond to those to which we feel we can best contribute. Asking us to look at or respond to a certain thread will not cause us to answer a question that we otherwise wouldn't.

Rumors regarding internal SOE matters. Although we would love to debunk every crazy rumor that surfaces, if we start responding to that kind of post certain people will just use them to try to bait a response out of us. We are not going to play that game. The lack of a response from us is not an acknowledgment of truth, just a sign that we won't dignify such threads with a response.

Questions about possible employment. We'd love to help you, but we don't have anything to do with who is hired. All we can do is point you to the SOE application page.

In addition, answering Private Messages is at the discretion of the individual Developer or Community Team member.

**Ashlanne**

Here are the rankings for these forums. I had to make a change to our original plan.
Lord of the Forums * 2,000 posts
Supreme Commander * 1,500 posts
Board Veteran * 1000 posts
Valued Contributor * 700 posts
Forum Champion * 500 posts
Master * 200 posts
Senior Member * 150 posts
Journeyman * 100 posts, 16 days registered
Happy Camper * 45 posts, 15 full days registered
The Quiet Type * 15 posts, 14 full days registered, does not have the edit ability
Newbie * - 0 posts and 1 full day registered to the forums, does not have the edit ability
New User - Can only post on the Newbie zone until they have been registered one full day.