HPotD Forums FAQ

Here you can find answers to questions about how the board works. Use the links or search box below to find your way around.

Advertising

While we do encourage our members to promote their own homepages and sites, there are limits to these. We do not allow links of the following nature:-
  • Sexually explicit or obscene websites and content.
  • Warez and other piracy-related content.
  • Sites that can cause harm to one's computer.
  • Sites that ask for donations*, begging or scamming sites.
  • Sites offering free items (such as ipods etc) in exchange for refering people.

Offending links will be removed immediately and the author warned or banned.

Advertising by people who joined HPOTD for the sole purpose of advertising is strictly prohibited. It is the sole discretian of HPOTD staff to determine if this rule has been violated.

*Links to sites asking for donations for good, charitable causes may be permitted but require permission from the administrators before being posted. Permission should be obtained by private message.

Chatroom & Shoutbox

The Shoutbox is designed to be a relaxed environment, where users can crack jokes or post general silliness – but this does not stop you from carrying out an actual conversation either.

Despite the very relaxed nature of the Shoutbox, it does not mean it is there to be abused (e.g. preventing others from effectively reading what is going on – via mass-word or smiley posts, the latter of which causes computer lag).

Large font sizes (to the point of obscurity) and posts discussing issues that are not allowed in the rest of the forum are not tolerated in the Shoutbox.

All the forum rules (where applicable) also fully apply to the Shoutbox and Chatroom.

Cloning

Members are only permitted to own ONE forum account. If there is another member of your household (e.g. sibling) who wishes to join, please inform one of the moderators/administrators explaining the situation.

If you are banned from the community by a moderator and create a new account, we will consider this a form of cloning and we will close your new account immediately.

If a second account is found to have been created, it will be closed and the originator warned.

Discrimination

Discriminating against someone because of their race, background, religion or other issues is not tolerated. Offending comments will be removed and the originator warned.

Insubordination

The Staff are here to ensure these common sense rules are respected to maintain a healthy atmosphere on the forums. If you disagree with a staff decision, contact the moderator/administrator via Private Message only, in a civilised and patient manner.

Please help our staff maintain the forums by listening to them, and not directly acting out, for example, by restarting a topic which has been closed or restoring content which has been edited or deleted, such actions are treated as insubordination.

Please do not create public threads flaming a member of staff over a decision. The thread will be deleted, originator warned and most importantly it will not do your case any good.

A thread may be closed if it is clear that more flaming would occur based on the nature of the thread itself. Otherwise individual flame posts will be removed.

Flaming & Swearing

Flaming, as defined on Dictionary.com is:- To make insulting criticisms or remarks, as on a computer network, to incite anger.

We have no censor enabled at these forums, we are all adults and know what we are saying, but excessive swearing and "keyboard warrior" style posting will not be tolerated by the staff.

Homepage of the Dead does not tolerate flaming or baiting, which is posting a message with the goal of getting another member to flame something or someone.. If you have a problem with another member, contact them via Private Message or contact a Moderator or Administrator. If you are unable to remain civil, either employ the ignore feature or do not respond to baiting. We wish to keep Homepage of the Dead free of flaming. Harassment is likewise not tolerated.

Any public flames will be deleted, and the author warned or possibly banned.

Baiting

Further to the flaming section, we feel it is nescessary to make our position on baiting clear.

Baiting, or more specifically flame-baiting, is defined on Dictionary.com as :- A Usenet posting or other message intended to trigger a flame war, or one that invites flames in reply..

With this defination in mind, we do not allow baiting on our forums and treat it as a form of flaming. In case of a flame war, our moderators will immediately close the topic in question and take appropriate action against all members involved. it is not our policy to decide who is right and who is wrong or look for who started it, it is our policy to end flaming and take action against those who contributed.

Misuse and Malicious Use

Members are strictly forbidden from exploiting rare bugs/glitches in the software which can occur from time to time.

Do not post links to websites that knowingly contain viruses, spyware or adware, which can damage a user’s computer.

Using any means to access an area of the forums which you do not have permission to access is strictly forbidden and you will be banned immediatly if caught doing so.

Accessing another member's account without their permission is forbidden.

Respecting Other Members

We ask that members respect fellow posters, and therefore not seek to offend.

Each member has a right to their own privacy. Information that is private/personal (e.g. emails, PMs, IMs) cannot be posted without permission.

Illegal/obscene/pornographic content is not acceptable, for the obvious reasons, as well as the fact we have members under the age of 18 visiting. Offending material will be deleted on sight and the originator warned.

Topics discussing religion are often precarious and controversial in nature. Do not attack someone for holding differing opinions/beliefs. Reasoned discussion is perfectly fine, but such threads will be monitored to make sure proceedings remain civil and will be closed by the staff where they beleive appropriate.

It is recommended that you be careful of your wording, so you don’t accidentally cause offence.

Privacy on HpotD

Privacy matters are taken seriously on HPotD, we do not allow any quotes or infomation to be posted from a private message or chat/instant message log without knowlege of the sender.

We do not a monitor private messages and usually will not step into disputes between members in this fashion, If you feel another member is harassing you by private message our first advice would be not to reply and block that member if they persist, if for any reason this is not possible you should contact a administrator for further assistance.

Similarly, the moderators and staff here on HPotD will not discuss any warning or ban given out to a member with anyone but those parties involved, any topics which ask for such infomation will be closed immediatly.

Signiture Misuse

Signatures are personalised footers which accompany your posts; you may include text, links, smilies, and VBB code including [img] tags for hosted images. Homepage of he Dead rules apply to your signature as well as your posts.

We ask that you respect other members and avoid oversized images – as a guide we ask that signatures be no taller than 200 pixels (approximately 2 inches). If your signature is too large, you will be contacted and asked to reduce the size.

Spamming

As defined by Dictionary.com, spam is typically described as: Unsolicited messages, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.

Keeping this definition in mind, we consider spam on these forums to be:-
  • Repetitive posts: Member's deliberately posting the same/similar content multiple times in the same thread, or multiple threads.
  • Nonsense posts: Posts/Threads that do not make any readable sense or do not have a point to them.
  • Short posts: Repetitive posting that generally adds nothing to the discussion at hand (one word or short posts, just smilies* and no words etc.) unless the topic specifies/forgives it.
  • Off-topic posts: If the thread starter specifically asks for their thread not to go off topic, please respect their request.
  • SpamBot posts: These are online bots which automatically register an account to specifically post spam (e.g. selling mobile phones). If you notice one of these posts, and it hasn’t been spotted/dealt with yet, please inform a moderator/administrator.
  • Trolling: A troll is often someone who comes to an established community to specifically post inflammatory, rude, repetitive or offensive messages with the intention of antagonising forum members. Another example of trolling behaviour is ‘hit & run’ copy & paste posts. When a troll is identified they will be contacted to desist, if they refuse and persist threads will be closed/posts deleted and they will most likely be banned.
* Posts that seriously abuse the use of smilies (see above) are considered spam (e.g. to cause user’s computers to slow down/lag). Spam threads/posts will be deleted on sight and the user possibly warned.

Warez & Illegal Topics

Topics relating to violating copyright law and providing or asking for information on how to obtain material protected by copyright law is strictly forbidden. Topics which infringe this include, but are not limited to:-
  • Any information on, or links to sites giving information on, how to infringe copyrighted material.
  • Links to, or any information on, sites offering Torrent files, or direct links to torrent files (or similar).
  • Links to, or any information on, sites offering Hacks or Cracks for games, or other files which illegally modify software, or direct links to such files.
  • Links to, or any information on, P2P (Peer to Peer) sharing software. We are aware that many legal files are transferred via P2P software, but we also know that it is mainly used for illegal files; therefore there is a complete carpet ban on these systems.
  • ANY other topic believed by a member of staff to be illegal or inappropriate.

Such posts will be immediately removed and the user warned. A thread may be closed if it is clear that information concerning illegal activities is intended to be shared, based on the nature of the thread itself.

Final Thoughts

The internet’s great asset – a person’s anonymity – is at times its greatest downfall; People with just a thread of wire connecting them are often tempted to behave completely differently to how they might if they were instead face to face. As such we ask that when disagreements occur that you try your hardest to remain civil and level-headed.

While the moderators would prefer in an ideal world to remain as ‘hands-off’ as possible, undoubtedly they will sometimes have to get ‘hands-on’. In such an event they will attempt to enforce the rules, or resolve a problem, as politely and efficiently as possible.

Some moderation decisions can be somewhat subjective and as such members are asked to please understand the sometimes impossible nature of forum moderation and to therefore give the poor fellows a break - The moderators are here to make everyone's experience as pleasant as possible… Please try and return the favour.

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