I n i t i a l   D   W o r l d   F o r u m   G u i d e l i n e s

The following are the Board Guidelines for this forums. Please read them carefully as violating any of them may earn yourself an actual warning. If you have any questions about these rules, do not hesitate to ask them in Feedback & Support. All the rules are subject to change without prior notification. Please always remember, it's a privilege to use these forums, NOT a right.


-   R U L E S   &   P O L I C I E S   -

ADDENDUM (9 August 2012): Actual warns will not be handed out for one-time offenses (everybody makes mistakes). Members may receive a notice from the mod team if this happens, be it in the form of a verbal warning or just a reminder. Repeated offenses may escalate to actual warns if the mod team sees offenses as intentional.

• Please take the time to read the forums description before you start a topic.

• Use the search function before you start a new topic. There is no need to create a duplicate of a thread that has already been posted.

• Stay on topic. If you must talk about a new topic, start your own thread or look for an existing thread that relates to what you have in mind.

• Avoid posting spoilers. If you can't avoid spoilers, please be considerate enough to put a warning sign or spoiler alert on your post so that others may have the choice if they want to go on reading or not.

• Post a viewer discretion warning if you are posting something that some people might find offensive. (i.e. - adult language, graphic situations ... etc.) This rule also applies to what appears on your user profile, including avatars, signatures. Explicit content is entirely prohibited on IDW. Explicit content includes but is not limited to: pornography, gore, personal information (doxxing), and drug use and/or paraphernalia.

• Posting links to external sites/pages containing explicit content is not allowed. The moderating team will remove any links found to contain explicit content, and punish offenders according to the severity of the content and/or intent to offend.

• Please note that using spoiler tags does not mean that members may post or link to explicit content on IDW.

• No Spamming. This activity wastes precious bandwidth and disk space. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

   - Repetitive threads / posts of the same content.
   - Repeatedly advertising without actual participation in the forums.
   - Using more emoticons than actual words in a post. This is not a chat room. Use emoticons to convey mood or tone, but don't cloud a post with them. If there's more than a dozen in your post, you should probably rewrite the post.
   - Quoting more posts than is necessary to form the context of your post.
   - Bumping / reviving old topics without any valid reason(s).


• Posting twice (or more) in a row in the same thread is not allowed within a certain timeframe. Members are automatically barred from bumping a topic within 24 hours of a previous bump by the same member. This measure is implemented in order to prevent members from spamming threads. Members are encouraged to edit their post if they have to update the thread, if it can't wait 24 hours. Members that are found in violation or abuse of this system will be given an actual warning.

• Thread necromancy is defined as unnecessarily reviving a topic that has ceased discussion entirely at least one year - 365 days - ago. Unless the thread necro actually returns discussion to the thread, via conversation between at least two members that is on topic, the thread necro will result in an actual warning. Repeated offenses will result in a post ban, length determined by the moderating team.

• This board is Initial D anime / manga based. So please DO NOT post Arcade Stage related question in the General Discussion. All Arcade Stage questions go to the Initial D Arcade Stage forums.

• DO NOT attach random images in your posts. This activity will waste our disk space. If you want a signature, please do so in My Controls.

• No discriminatory / hatred posts pertaining to anything that affects others' cultures. (i.e. - religion, race, values, beliefs ... etc.)

• Respect all board members including moderators and admins. Violation of this rule includes provocation of members into flame wars by means of direct insults and name-calling. Resolve your issues privately or communicate them properly if you must post them on the boards for the community to witness. New members who come to the boards for the sole purpose of antagonizing / harassing members, both privately and publicly, will be banned outright.

• Trolling, harassing and/or bullying other members are all collectively prohibited. Members discovered performing these acts will be given an actual warning and a 24-hour post ban (posting privileges revoked).

• You agree not to have more than one account at any given time. If found having more than one account, you'll be given the option to pick an account. The rest of the accounts you have in possession will be banned.

• Clarification: If you are banned and try to come back in another account, you will be banned without any questions if we find out.


-   W A R N I N G   S Y S T E M   -



Here is how the system works:

There is a little warning bar under each user's post. If you violate the rules / policies, one of the moderators will give you a verbal warning on the first offense. If you continue to violate the rules / policies regardless of the verbal warning, you'll receive an actual warning. You are allowed to have a total of three (3) warnings. (although there are five (5) little blocks on the warning bar.) When you receive your third warning, you'll be permanently banned from the forums. (IP, Email and Name ban)


Warn Levels:

• Verbal Warning - You'll get this from one of the moderators if you violate the rules / policies.

• First Warning (33%) - You'll receive the first warning if you ignored the verbal warning and continue to break the rules / policies (repeat offense).

• Second Warning (67%) - This is also known as the last warning. The mod team will alert the offender that they only have one chance left before they are banned from the forums.

• Third Warning (100%) - As stated above, you will be banned when you receive a third warning. At this point, you will not be able to access the forums.

Note: You can click on the percentage link for your warning logs. The log shows you when, why, and who warned you.


Clarification:

If your warning level is not above 0% then you have NOT been warned. You may only see your own warning levels, but you are not the only one who have it. If you think you are warned unjustly, please contact the moderator who gave you the warning via PM or Email. If you and the moderator can not come to a settlement, contact one of the admins as soon as possible. The admin will make or change any and/or all final decisions. If you think you are unjustly warned/banned, please contact an admin as soon as possible and provide reason(s) why the decision should be reversed.


Warning Level Restart:

It is possible to restart or decrease your warning level. Members must wait at least 30 days before the Forum Moderators (read: not the Administrators) decide whether or not to lower the member's warning level. This period could be longer depending on the severity of the infraction. Repeat offenders have a much lower chance of having a warning level decreased.

Warning levels will not be considered for reduction if the offending member has not demonstrated an improvement in attitude. Withdrawing from posting for long periods of time in order to avoid further warnings will only reset the clock upon the member's return.

Bottom line: if your attitude does not change, and the offending behavior continues, you will eventually be banned from the forum.

Ban Lift

If a banned member desires to re-enter the boards and re-join the community, he / she could ask an member to submit a privately messaged request to the Administrators.

Ban lifts are on a case-by-case basis. There are absolutely no guarantees that a banned member will be unbanned.



-   A V A T A R S   &   S I G N A T U R E S   -

Please comply with the following restrictions for your avatar and signature:

• Max. size limit for avatar is 200KB (204,800 bytes)

• Max. size limit for signature is 300KB (307,200 bytes)

• Do not post anything obscene in your avatar and/or signature. On a case-by-case basis, if a significant amount of members find your signature offensive, the Moderating Team is obligated to remove the signature completely. Attempting to bring back the said signature will earn yourself an actual warning.

• Max. dimension for signature is 600pixel (width) x 200pixel (height). You'll NOT be informed if your signature exceed the max. dimension mentioned above. Your signature will be completely removed regardless of the situation.

• Each line of text (including blank lines) count as 15 pixels. In other words, max. limit for signature is 13 lines if you have nothing but text in your signature. However if you use some large size font, the maximum limit will varied and will be judged by our moderators. If a moderator think your signature is too big, your signature will be completely removed without notice regardless of the situation.

• Clarification: Everything has to be inside the 600x200 space in your signature (with the exception of text.) If your avatar / signature exceeds the max. limit, it will be removed completely without any notice. And as a result, you will receive an actual warning. Please take this seriously.

• There are no limit on the number of graphics you can have in your signature, but they must be equal or less than the max. dimension and the max. size limit.

• You are allowed to advertise your site and/or forums in your avatar / signature. However, excessive advertising will not be tolerated, please keep it short to the point.

• As previously mentioned, please DO NOT attach random images or posting the same images repeatedly in your post. Violators will be given an actual warning.




-   M O D E R A T I N G   T E A M   -

The moderating team consist of moderators with different level of authorities. Here is the hierarchy:

• Administrator - The highest authorities on the forums. They are moderators who govern the entire forums.
  
  
• Forum Moderator - These are the moderators who moderate all forums. They are able to give you an verbal / actual warning if you violate any rules / policies. They are basically Administrators with the exception that they can not access the Admin Control Panel.
  

-   M E M B E R   G R O U P S   -

There are different member titles as your post count change:

• Group: Members

   10 Posts - IDW Member
   30 Posts - IDW Full Member
   50 Posts - IDW Jr. Member
   70 Posts - IDW Senior Member
   100 Posts - IDW Expert Member
   150 Posts - IDW God Member
   200 Posts - IDW Regular Member
   250 Posts - IDW Special Member
   300 Posts - Custom Title (You can request your own custom title by Private Messaging any of the moderators or admins when you reach 300 posts.)
500 Posts - IDW Prime Member
750 Posts - IDW Supremo Member
1000 Posts - IDW Goldmember
10000 Posts - IDW Posts A Freaking LOT Member


As a member, you have the privilege to upload a 250KB file as an attachment to your posts. You have a total of 250 storable messages. (Private Messages) You can also start new topics / polls; edit topic titles and descriptions; vote in polls; and add events to the calendar.


• Group: Advanced Members

   500 Posts - IDW Prime Member (default title if you do not wish to have a custom title.)


As an advanced member, you have all the privileges that a normal member has. The advantage of becoming an advanced member is you can upload a 500KB file as an attachment to your posts; You have a total of 500 storable messages; (Private Messages) You can also remove your own posts and topics.

When you reach 600 posts, you can change your custom title yourself by going to My Controls -> Edit Profile info. You can change this as much as you want. There is no limit to how frequently you change your custom title. However, the content in your custom title must comply with the rules / polices stated above.

Note that member groups and titles are not a representation of heirarchy on IDW. A member with 1 post is considered the same as a member with 1,000 posts. There is no such thing as seniority or pre-eminence among the general membership.