The House Rules

Introduction:

The TBCS community grows daily, and this is due to the tireless efforts of
every member that contributes to the community. Please feel welcome to TBCS and enjoy your time here. Please read these rules carefully. All users are guests to this forum, and can be banned if abuse or neglect of these rules occurs.

In order to keep the forums running smoothly, please follow the rules listed below. If you have any questions or problems, please contact one of the staff members. The current staff is: Crimson Sky, DaveW, Rankenphile, Airbozo, Bucko & AJ@PR. The decisions of the staff are final in all matters pertaining to this forum. The TBCS staff shall be the sole arbitrator of what does and what does not violate community standards.

1. The Big 3

TBCS is a business website that belongs to Paul Capello. As such, the standards of this website are higher than some other internet communities, and members are expected to respect the following rules at all times. It should be noted that although TBCS makes every attempt to keep the forums a clean and friendly community, we cannot be held responsible for material contributed by members.

1. Illegal activities of any kind should not be discussed on these boards; this includes but is not limited to conversations about software piracy, music piracy, and drugs.
   
   DO NOT POST THE FOLLOWING:
   
   -Contracts and legal agreements
   -Documents with personal information such as addresses and phone numbers
   -Pictures of Photo ID's or Licence Plates
   -Computer Case Mod/Other Contest Advertisements (without the written permission of the owner)
   
   
   
2. Advertising of any kind must be cleared with a moderator or administrator beforehand. In some cases, advertising charges may apply. Any advertising not cleared beforehand with a TBCS staff member will result in an instant ban and deletion of the advertisement. Advertising includes SPAM posts, links within signatures, and abuse of the Private Message system.
   
3. As a business, the TBCS name, website, logos, and associated materials are all copyrighted, exclusively by Paul Capello. All rights are reserved and legal action may be taken against anyone found using the TBCS name for personal gain.

2. General Rules

These are general rules that apply throughout the website.

1. While debating and discussion is useful, posts containing rudeness, insults, personal attacks and spam are not tolerated. Please refrain from posting meaningless threads, nonsense, or any other material that clutters up the forums in a useless or distasteful manner.
   
2. Multiple or repeated posting in order to increase your post count is not allowed.
   
3. You cannot post any affiliate or referral links, or post anything asking for a referral. Such posts will be subject to removal.
   
4. No posts are allowed that portray pornographic material or are sexual in nature. Violation of this rule results in permanent banning, deletion of account and deletion of posts.
   
5. The TBCS staff can move, delete, and edit posts. The decision of the TBCS staff is final in this matter; as is any decision made to ban a member.
   
6. All images posted should be 800x600 or smaller and less than 120kb in size. This rule is in place for the courtesy of our 56k users.
   
7. All members are expected to write to the best of their ability. Therefore, using 'l337' speak (or similar) is not allowed. Members who have dyslexia (or similar) or to whom English is not a first language will be treated fairly. TBCS members are expected to be polite and helpful, and not to dismiss someone due to language barriers.
   
8. Excessive profanity will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with at the moderator's discretion.

3. Personal Accounts

The rules relating to personal accounts.

1. Each member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed.
   
2. Signature Links: Any links pointing to illegal material, sex related websites, or drug related websites are not allowed, as is any signature advertisements not first cleared with a moderator or admin. Any links meeting these criteria will be removed. Duplicate links to the same URL are not allowed.
   
3. Signature Images: All images in signatures must be in landscape format (horizontal) and not exceed 400x150 pixels.
   Images containing pornographic, lewd or objectionable material will result in the user being restricted or banned. Only static images are allowed; moving or animated images are not.
   
4. Signature Sizes: Text in signatures should not exceed 4 lines of normal sized text or 8 lines of small sized text. Text signatures should not exceed 500 characters. Font sizes above 2 are not allowed. Blank lines in text signatures count as lines.
   
5. Avatars: Avatars are not allowed.
   
6. Usernames: Usernames should not contain expletives or insults. Usernames created for the purpose of imitating or degrading other members will not be tolerated.

4. Reputation Points

Reputation points are given to users by other users. This is a means of rating the other users in the community and will not hinder user abilities on the forums in any other way. The reputation system is another method for the community to find the users that contribute the most without relying on post count or join date. For details on how to use the reputation system, please take a look at Bucko's Guide to the Reputation System.

1. Asking for reputation points is not allowed.
   
2. Abusing the reputation system will result in disciplinary actions determined by the staff. Abuse includes giving bad reputation points to members for innocent statements, giving a member a negative point because you believe they gave you one, and giving good reputation points in exchange for favors.
   
3. Whenever a user leaves a reputation point, the ability to leave a small summary is encouraged. The summary is anonymous unless signed by the user leaving the reputation point. There is no penalty for leaving useless or no comments, although action will be taken if comments are deliberately inflammatory.
   
4. It is acceptable, even encouraged, to leave a note in a thread telling users that you have given the rep: this is usually done simply by saying "+Rep". However, any posts that consist entirely of this message will be considered SPAM and deleted, as this clutters the forums.

5. Moderation

If a user crosses the line, then there's a variety of tools that the moderators and admins of TBCS will use to enforce our rules.

1. Verbal Warnings are the most common type of action taken: it's nothing more than simple warning to that member. They can be given publicly or through the private messaging system.
   
2. Bad Reputation points might be given out by unhappy moderators to people who haven't officially broken the rules but have still managed to clutter the forums. These will not be reversed and can take away a large part of your reputation; on top of this, you can receive one from each moderator.
   
3. Citations, also known as 'Red and Yellow cards', allow the moderators to officially warn a user if they're crossing the line. Each citation has a time period, and multiple citations can result in temporary and permanent account banning. Standard citation length is 30 days, and citations are handed out for a variety of things from signature violations to excessive profanity.
   
4. Banning occurs when a user finally goes too far. Temporary bans may be given to some users. When the ban period expires, the user can return to the forums penalty free, unless the ban is the result of a citation. Permanent bans will be given to users who constantly disrupt the forums, and can also be automatically given as a result of multiple citations.

Thanks and Welcome to the TBCS Community!

Rules by Nil8, edited by DaveW