Antsmarching.org Forums - Dave Matthews Band Discussion - Rules: Forum Guidelines

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Bad Traders
Bad trader warnings are unfortunate. Please take appropriate private actions before resorting to a public warning. Under no circumstances may a user's personal information be posted on the board. Any user posting another's personal information (address, phone number, etc) will be immediately banned from antsmarching.org.

Closed Threads
When a thread is closed, it is never acceptable to simply start a new thread about the same topic. The closing of the thread indicates that the discussion is over. Any questions about why a thread was closed should be e-mailed or PM'd to a board moderator.

Posting Copyrighted Material
We take copyright infringement very seriously on this site. Anyone found to be posting copyrighted material (officially released albums, for example) will be removed from the site, and possibly reported to the appropriate authorities.

Copyright Awareness
Articles may not be cut and pasted onto the boards. antsmarching.org is very visible to the music community, so copyright problems do happen. In addition, it is important to respect an author's work. Rather than posting an entire article, it's better to summarize the article or quote a paragraph or so, and then provide a link to it elsewhere on the web.

Free iPod/Other Crap Threads
...Will get you banned.

Selling Items
Users who wish to sell their wares on the antsmarching.org boards must do so with extreme caution: chances are your item isn't allowed. If it's a Warehouse item, the legalities are too complex so we'd rather not deal with any potential issues, so we do not allow those items to be sold. antsmarching.org offers advertising packages for any legal items, and we'd prefer you used those means to spread the word about your item(s). The site costs the staff a lot of money to run, and we like to keep the boards a place for discussion, and not advertising. Use common sense, please, and if your thread is closed and you're wondering why, PM a staff member.

No Torrent Begging
Threads/posts asking people to open their torrent windows for a seed will be closed/deleted. Begging for torrents is annoying, and any issues with torrent files should be brought up at the seeder's website.

There is a staff for a reason
When a users, whether it be a newcomer or a veteran, makes a mistake, or doesn't read the rules, then it is the staff's job to handle it. Self-policing is nice, but only if it's handled in a civil and helpful way. If you can't politely state the correct way to do things when you see something wrong, please, do us all a favor and close your browser window. If you feel like helping, in a kind way, by all means do so. Otherwise, leave it up to the staff to handle it.

Flaming
No flaming. Although there may be factual evidence that somebody's parents were not married at the time of their conception, that somebody is a waste of carbon, or that their sexual history is less than stellar, there is never any reason to provide this information to the general public. Flames are to be taken to e-mail.

'Netspeak
The English language is everybody's friend, and proper use of it is a must. antsmarching.org promotes the proper use of the English language. "4 me cn u gt tix plz?" demonstrates that the writer is not willing to take the additional three seconds that would have been necessary to make use of words found in a traditional dictionary. Complete words and sentences, please.

New Threads
Starting a new thread (as opposed to posting to an existing one) is a major action to take, and must not be treated lightly. First, it should be determined that the forum being posted to is the appropriate one. Second, it's necessary to read the first few pages of threads, to see if the topic has been covered. Finally, a search is always in order, to determine if an recent thread covers this topic already. It is never acceptable to start a new thread because of the fear that a new post to an existing thread might get lost in the shuffle. The concept of threads exist for a reason. Duplicate threads will likely be closed or merged with an existing one, and serve only to create unnecessary work for the boards' maintainers.

Have Patience, Vets
Veterans of the antsmarching.org boards must have patience for new users. Everybody was new at one time. New users should be given a break, and guided towards the rules to find the answers to their questions. antsmarching.org welcomes new users to our boards, and would like to make their stay pleasant.

Have Patience, n00bs
New users must have patience for the veterans. Regulars see the same handful of questions every few days, and they grow tired of them. New users will also grow tired of them, in time. It is recommended that new users begin by reading through the rules. Reading through the current topics in the DMBc Discussion forum will provide a good idea of how the boards work. Most veterans will help out new users.

The Band's Privacy
Discussion of private aspects of the lives of Dave Matthews Band, its family members and its employees is not permitted. Any information brought into the public realm by the band is acceptable, but providing directions to the homes of band members (for example) most definitely is not.

Issues with Site Policy
Any issues with policy are best discussed privately with a board moderator or administrator. Please contact them through email or private message with your issue, and they will respond as appropriate. Posting policy questions publically will not be tolerated.

Profanity
The use of profanity must be limited. Sometimes, at times, it is useful, and antsmarching.org respects that. But a whole post of swearing makes people look like five year olds who just learned some new words. Generally, they're simply unnecessary.

Leaving the Site
Resignation from the antsmarching.org site/forum because people do not find them fulfilling, stimulating, emotionally satisfying, etc., happens, of course. It is important, when resigning, to refrain from posting a swan song. It fulfills no useful purpose.

There is no need to ask for your account to be disabled or deleted. We don't have the ability to do this. You are free to leave at any time (we won't hold you captive).


Signatures
Signatures take up bandwidth. Alot, since they're displayed everytime you make a post. We expect users to keep their signature lenghts to a minimum, as well as the content appropriate as laid out by the guidelines above. By minimum, that means not using huge text or having your signature consistently larger than your post area. It takes up screen space and distracts from discussion. Signatures designed to solely irriate the staff will be edited without warning. Remember, signatures are a privledge, and should not be abused.

Signatures can be a simple name or a small quote, to name some examples. When your signature is consistently much larger than your posts, that's a problem. Most people have acceptable signatures, but there are some who feel the need to take advantage of the privledge. Hint: Posting all 50 show dates you attended is overkill when there's a personal stats feature right on this site that you can link to in your sig if you so desire.

I like having signatures, and we're going to keep them. What we don't want to have to do is crank down on what you can do in them, banning colors, URLs, and the like. All we ask is that you use them wisely, and for the purposes they're meant for.

Furthermore, if people insist on lengthy signatures, and posting all 30 shows they've been to individually in there, then we will be altering your signature without notice, and may even remove signature privledges from your account.

There are user profile fields for your AIM, Yahoo! and MSN screennames. Please keep them out of your signature to keep the lengths down.

Slurs
Racial slurs, hate speech, broad and unnecessary invocation of hurtful stereotypes and other inflammatory remarks will not be tolerated. As a reminder, the word "gay" refers only to someone being homosexual, not the state of being generally distasteful.

Abuse of Staff/Users
antsmarching.org will not tolerate threats made against its staff, or any of its users. antsmarching.org will not tolerate abusive language directed towards its staff, or any of its users. This is not something to mess with; threats of violence or death always result in contacting law enforcement.

Existing Threads
It is always good and helpful to post to a duplicate thread and politely point out that there's an existing thread for the topic. Providing a link to that proper thread is even better. Criticism of people that provide this service is not acceptable. For people who wish to notify other users of these threads, please do so in a polite manner.

Three Day Rule
When you first register and are activated, you are placed in a usergroup that is not allowed to create a new thread for 3 days. This encourages the user to get familiar with the site, browse the topics, and use the search function. The user will still have the ability to post replies to threads, just not create them. After the user has been registered for 3 days, the ability to create a new thread will automatically be unlocked.

Tone of Posts
It must be remembered that inflection and tone, normally obvious via the spoken word, do not translate well to e-mail. Thus, it is important to write in a manner that does not require an appreciation of sarcasm, irony, or humor, unless those things are pointed out. In order to prevent misunderstandings, the occasional smiley and clarifying comment helps.

Topping Threads
The antsmarching.org boards provide a list of threads in descending order of when they were most recently posted to. The act of posting to a thread solely for the purpose of getting it to the top of the list, known as "topping a thread," is an abuse of this system. If a thread has both weight and merit, then it will get discussed; there's no need to artificially stimulate this.

Trolling
antsmarching.org will not tolerate trolls. People who post expressly for the purpose of getting a rise out of people or creating trouble will be summarily banned without any sort of warning. People who do so repeatedly very well may find themselves on the wrong end of a cease-and-desist or a no-trespassing order. We're also known to contact ISPs and other governing institutions (like universities) if people can't control themselves. ISPs shut down accounts, but universities kick people out.

Threads about other Users
It is not acceptable to create threads about fellow users of the antsmarching.org boards or about other threads. The exception to this rule is "Happy Birthday" threads; other exceptions can be made, via an e-mailed request.

"Which show should I download?" Threads
Since our download servers have been up, there have been literally hundreds of threads created asking others what the best quality/energy/setlist show is to download. These threads have been so overly done, there is no reason to create another. If you want some suggestions, check out the Downloads Forum and browse/search the threads there, rather than creating another thread with the same identical topic as hundreds before it.

How Do I Title My Thread?
When making a thread, be descriptive and succinct as possible. People want to know what the thread is about prior to clicking on it. This isn't a guessing game, it's a message board. "Anyone know..." "I think Cornbread is..." are examples of very annoying and misleading threads. In fact, anything with ellipses (...) is pretty non-descriptive.

Behave
Don't behave like an ass.


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