Rules

These are the rules put in place for the forums on Newgrounds.com. We should have something like this.

General Overview

These are the NG Forum rules. If you don't agree with them, you can leave or refuse to register an account. Upon breaking a rule you might receive a warning, but this is not mandatory. You can be banned for your first offense of breaking these rules.
NOTE: We often refer to our forums as the NG BBS. The term BBS is an acronym for "Bulletin Board System", which is the traditional name for what most people now refer to as "forums".

Why Are There Rules?

NG is a site for showcasing flash games and movies. That is, and always will be, the main point of newgrounds.com. A recent look at database usage showed that the BBS was using a vast majority of NG's resources. Although the staff is willing to keep the BBS alive and sacrifice overall site performance, they are NOT willing to do this so people can spam or just be outright jerk-stores. You aren't being asked to give everyone hugs and kisses, but you are asked to behave like a normal, decent, upstanding citizen.

The "Big Ones"

There are two huge rules that you simply must follow. Breaking these rules is an automatic suspension. No warning, no nothing. You will most likely get the maximum suspension, too (currently 7 days) for breaking these simple rules.

a) Do NOT post porn or any "questionable" material on the NG BBS; if you would be uncomfortable or get into trouble for viewing it at work or at school, do not post it here.

b) No hateful or racist remarks. You may have noticed that the "n-word" is not allowed on the BBS. There is a reason for this. Using trickery or any other shenanigans to get around this is bannable. Over-use of the word gay or any other homosexual put down is also prohibited.

General Conduct

Before making a topic, make sure you are going to be posting in the correct forum. The moderators don't have tools to move your topic, so if it doesn't belong, it will be deleted. It should be pretty clear where to post, each forum has a description.
When making a topic in the general forum, try to keep it somewhat NG-related, too. We don't need to know what you ate for breakfast, etc.

Give your topic a good title! This one is often overlooked. "WTF?" gives no clue as to what your topic will be about.

Before posting a topic, please ask yourself the following question:
"Am I making a post which is either funny, informative, or interesting on any level?"

If you can answer "yes" to this, then please post. If you cannot, then refrain from posting.

Before replying, please ask yourself the following question:
"Does my reply offer any significant advice or help contribute to the conversation in any fashion?"

If you can answer "yes" to this, then please reply. If you cannot, then refrain from replying. Your post or reply may be deleted and you might get banned.

Rules:
If you post "LOCK" or "this thread should be locked" in a thread, regardless of placement, you will be banned. Posting anything within a spam topic is spam itself. You are as guilty as the topic starter. If you feel a thread is spam don't post in it!

Try not to state the obvious. When you come onto NG and you see something new, chances are you aren't the first to see it. This happened recently when the post buttons were updated. There were at least 3 "ooh, new buttons!" topics.

If a thread of yours has been locked or deleted, it has been locked or deleted for a reason. Restoring or complaining about this will probably get you banned. If you have a problem, contact an admin or a mod via e-mail.

Posting that you're leaving NG for good will result in a ban, since you obviously don't need to use your account again. This is to catch all the pathetic attention whores out there.

Adding any malicious hidden links (i.e., URL's that are hidden and go to a site which floods you with nonstop popup's) will result in a ban.

Stat Topics aren't allowed. Everyone on NG (potentially) has a profile for a reason. No need to have a "Post your popularity here!" thread. Level up (blam/protect or experience) threads and threads about how many posts you have are also not allowed.

Gimmick posters, unless intensely humorous, will be banned and/or sacked. Same goes for people posting parody threads.

Stay out of people's personal lives. Don't deface pictures of users. This is a biggie. No one wants to see an MS Paint penis on someone's face.

We don't care if you're new; posting "HELO I AM NEW HERE U GUYZ SEEM KEWL" threads will result in a lock and possibly a ban. These posts are forum trash.

Do not repeatedly advertise! If NG users didn't like your site the first time you posted it, chances are they'll like it even less the second time around!

Discussion of piracy (especially pertaining to Macromedia Flash) is NOT allowed and will result in a ban. Stop and think. NG is a Flash based web site. It's not too crazy to assume that Macromedia may check in from time to time.

If you are new to the forums, always lurk before posting. This will give you a good idea of what is acceptable and unacceptable posting practice. It will also give you the chance to observe how you can avoid pissing off individual moderators, since some mods find certain infractions more offensive than others.

Whining about a banning (whether it's your own banning, or you're complaining on behalf of someone else) will result in your banning. This is a private forum and these rules are limits on what can be done by its participants. So when your ban runs out, don't come back and make an "I'm back!" topic.

Picture spamming can get on our nerves VERY quickly. Please refrain from posting the same picture over and over. If you like it so much, put it into your BBS signature. To do so, log into your account, and click on "edit your BBS Signature Pic".

If you complain about what you feel are shortcomings of the current moderation team, you will most likely be banned. If you don't like it here, feel free to leave. Yes, the moderators can ban you for publicly complaining about them. They are here to do a free service, so they don't need to take your crap. If you'd like to take your complaint up with Wade, e-mail him.

Sometimes flame wars are fun to watch, but usually it's just annoying. Try to keep fighting to a minimum. Don't follow another user around from thread to thread saying "you suck."

We will ban anybody attempting to circumvent any rule in a way that they obviously feel is remarkably clever and witty.

If you have any questionable, annoying, or non-work safe images in your signature file, or thread you will be banned. Real porn or hand drawn porn is not allowed. So no penis, and no cartoon penis. Hentai is also not allowed, if it's too graphic.

Flashing or strobing gifs are not allowed. Also don't try and be a smarty-marty and try to post something semi-obnoxious. If the moderators see anything that even touches infringement of the picture guidelines, they will most likely ban you.

CAPS: Most people are getting fed up with all-cap posts. It's not allowed in the chat and it's not allowed on the BBS.

Impersonating Newgrounds.com staff members and other regulars is prohibited. This means don't create another account and use a capital I instead of a lowercase l or anything like that. We'll ban the imp account and your main one as well.

Make sure your posts add to the discussion. Don't just go into a topic and post something like "What?" or "I don't care." Try to make your posts longer than one or two words. If the moderators deem that you are posting just to increase your post-count, you will be banned. Stay ON TRACK when posting too. Don't go into a topic and tell us how hard your pen0r is.

Do not bump old threads needlessly. If you're going to get banned for posting needlessly in a thread, then it's safe to assume you're going to be punished even more heavily for bumping an old thread if your post doesn't contribute to that thread. Let old threads rest in the abyss.

THE POSTING OF ANOTHER MEMBER'S REAL LIFE INFORMATION IS PROHIBITED. The only person you can post real life information on is yourself. The fact that the information that you post of another party is available elsewhere (such as a whois search) will NOT be accepted as justification for revealing other members' identities, without their consent.
Conclusion:

Look. We want to clean up this BBS. We want to see people engage in more intelligent conversation. We just want people to use common sense. We're just tired of all the spam topics. Users make so many stupid topics. If you don't have something interesting to discuss, don't post a topic! Remember: these are private forums.

A lot of these rules are pretty strict but most have good principles behind them.
-A