TW Forum Rules Are A Pretense For Staff Prejudice & Harassment

[HeavenSent]

Rules:
1. No html. It isn't enabled.

2. No spam, including double posting, whitespace, ASCII, binary, or anything uninterpretable by the average English-speaking user.
3. No Disgusting/Porn pictures, links, postings. It doesn’t matter how much warning you give, no means no.

4. No Warez/Serials/Cracks/Hax0ring/SS Cheats/etc, including links. This includes discussions of bittorrent/DC or other file sharing programs.

5. When posting pics, keep the screen and file size reasonable, don't break the tables.

6. Do not leech bandwidth. If we get complaint emails we’re sending them on to you. Posted images must be linked from an image hosting site or from your own webspace.

7. Keep your fights in the trash talk forum. If you have an issue with in-game staff, please refer to the sticky in TW Staff forum. If you have an issue with Forum Staff, please email the Forum Admins with the Contact Us link below.

8. You get one forum account, that's it. If you lose your password or wish to modify your account name, please use the contact us link found at the bottom of the page.

9. If a topic has been moved, closed, or deleted: don't post it again.

10. If you have a complaint about a forum ban, E-mail forum staff. Do not make complaints about zone bans here, email zone staff.

11. No referring offsite offers/games, free ipods, etc.

12. Racism, discrimination, and harassment is forbidden in any form.

13. No overly large or obnoxious signatures. If your signature is inappropriate, you will be asked to change it. Failure to comply will result in it being removed for you and will count as a rules infringement.

14. Do not revive a perceived 'dead thread' without adding a worthwhile contribution to the thread. Both the variables in this rule are down to the individual mod's discretion.

15. No copyrighted content.

16. No forum or zone staff impersonation.

These are the rules that seem to be ignored (mostly by staff) 99.99% of the time.
They're just as much BULLSHIT as the Staff that unfairly throws them around.<_<

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

We're just taking orders from our reptillian alien overlords.

No seriously, this is Useless Crap.

[Deductable]

buuhuuu...
:crying: :crying: :bye1:

[HeavenSent]

No seriously, this is Useless Crap.

My point exactly. The Rules here ARE Useless Crap.

[PH]

i can't believe i'm going to waste all this time doing this.

1. No html. It isn't enabled. <-- if it's not enabled, then what the fuck is wrong with people trying to use it? it just makes them look stupid. big deal. let them.

2. No spam, including double posting, whitespace, ASCII, binary, or anything uninterpretable by the average English-speaking user. <-- the thread that's got you so angry is about wingmasters vs. plade. granted i needed a tad bit of help to understand that, but i don't see what the big deal is. honestly, you act as if a few äs and ös are going to single-handedly cause the forums to collapse. lighten the fuck up.

4. No Warez/Serials/Cracks/Hax0ring/SS Cheats/etc, including links. This includes discussions of bittorrent/DC or other file sharing programs. <-- the line is very clear when discussions of this nature come up. warnings have been handed out and threads get closed when the line is crossed. basically, p2p itself is not illegal. i can link you to bittorrent CLIENTS all fucking day and nobody can tell me to stop. if you stay on the legal side of the line we'll leave your thread open all day, but if you cross the line we have to step in, not because we want to but because of the potential legal repercussions. yada yada blah blah. there is no gray area, know the limits and things will be fine.

5. When posting pics, keep the screen and file size reasonable, don't break the tables. <-- face just handled a case of this a couple of days ago and it almost never happens anymore anyway, what the hell are you on about?

6. Do not leech bandwidth. If we get complaint emails we’re sending them on to you. Posted images must be linked from an image hosting site or from your own webspace. <-- 99% of images i see on this forum are on either imageshack or tinypic. if i see someone post a large image that is not on one of those, or some other hosting service, i generally transload it over for them. again, not that big of a deal.

7. Keep your fights in the trash talk forum. If you have an issue with in-game staff, please refer to the sticky in TW Staff forum. If you have an issue with Forum Staff, please email the Forum Admins with the Contact Us link below. <-- you must have missed the part a couple of months ago where i created a trash talk thread for sertifi and his fanboys after i got sick of them derailing countless threads. i will continue to do this for anyone else that can't keep their internet anger under control, so i don't really know what you're getting at here.

8. You get one forum account, that's it. If you lose your password or wish to modify your account name, please use the contact us link found at the bottom of the page. <-- two people already received lengthy bans for having multiple accounts and using them to evade bans, and we check for these sorts of things on a fairly regular basis. if you suspect someone else has a gimmick account then go ahead and let me or another forum staffer know, but once again, i don't know what you're getting at with this rule.

9. If a topic has been moved, closed, or deleted: don't post it again. <-- reposts are almost always handled within a matter of minutes, because we generally know when a user is stupid enough to try it. no idea what your problem is here.

10. If you have a complaint about a forum ban, E-mail forum staff. Do not make complaints about zone bans here, email zone staff. <-- how the hell is this rule "ignored"? why is it even in the equation to begin with? what the fuck?

11. No referring offsite offers/games, free ipods, etc. <-- uh, what? how much of this do we get? honestly, the few threads that have fallen under this category have always been handled quickly and efficiently.

12. Racism, discrimination, and harassment is forbidden in any form. <-- ok, finally one that i can give you credit for. this rule does need to be rewritten, because it's basically saying that any sort of conflict is not allowed, which is not going to happen, and if it DID happen it would make these forums boring as shit. i'm all for a little internet cockfighting, but here's the problem. in my book some people here cross the line on a pretty frequent basis, however it's pretty much impossible to just start handing out warnings and bans every time somebody says something that somebody else doesn't like. this whole forum would be banned in a week if that were to happen. i think this rule needs to be reviewed and probably scrapped for something that is actually more useful.

13. No overly large or obnoxious signatures. If your signature is inappropriate, you will be asked to change it. Failure to comply will result in it being removed for you and will count as a rules infringement. <-- what? show me a "large or obnoxious" signature. urmamaisfunny2k's is pretty stupid, sure, but as far as i'm concerned the vast majority of users are keeping their sigs under control just fine.

14. Do not revive a perceived 'dead thread' without adding a worthwhile contribution to the thread. Both the variables in this rule are down to the individual mod's discretion. <-- see the last sentence here? yeah, that's right, if we think a thread revival is ok then it's ok, and if not we close it. you and other users might disagree, and that's fine, but calling us out for "ignoring" the rule without a good reason is just stupid.

15. No copyrighted content. <-- where is the copyrighted content?

16. No forum or zone staff impersonation. <-- see my explanation for rule 5.

conclusion: stop grasping at straws.

[Saturn V]

[Kolar]

Allowing pirated content to exist here or to be linked from here could make those who are footing the bill for our web services and game server liable, however rare the chance of it happening, it still is not up for discussion.

This site is reasonable easy to use for image hosting: http://www.freeimagehosting.net/
A lot more from my experience then image shack.

I think PH is right about some rules needing tweaking. All of our forum staff are on the up and up and for the most part things are relatively quiet on the forums.

[Aquatiq]

Stop discriminating against Forum Staff :shock1:

[HeavenSent]

i can't believe i'm going to waste all this time doing this.

Not that it really matters to you personally, but I do give you props & respect for trying. :wub:

1. No html. It isn't enabled. <-- if it's not enabled, then what the fuck is wrong with people trying to use it? it just makes them look stupid. big deal. let them.

I agree, totally.

2. No spam, including double posting, whitespace, ASCII, binary, or anything uninterpretable by the average English-speaking user. <-- the thread that's got you so angry is about wingmasters vs. plade. granted i needed a tad bit of help to understand that, but i don't see what the big deal is. honestly, you act as if a few äs and ös are going to single-handedly cause the forums to collapse. lighten the fuck up.

It wasn't about the wingmaster vs. plade thread and I wasn't angry. I just saw an opportunity to bring these bullshit rules to the surface with that thread.

4. No Warez/Serials/Cracks/Hax0ring/SS Cheats/etc, including links. This includes discussions of bittorrent/DC or other file sharing programs. <-- the line is very clear when discussions of this nature come up. warnings have been handed out and threads get closed when the line is crossed. basically, p2p itself is not illegal. i can link you to bittorrent CLIENTS all fucking day and nobody can tell me to stop. if you stay on the legal side of the line we'll leave your thread open all day, but if you cross the line we have to step in, not because we want to but because of the potential legal repercussions. yada yada blah blah. there is no gray area, know the limits and things will be fine.

This is the rule that actually ruffled my feathers. I posted a link to another forum which had links to sites like VEOH, Google, Stage6, etc., sites with some movies. Kolar took the link off my post and gave me a never expiring infraction. When I asked why the infraction never expires, he said he has no control over the infractions. He just inputs the rule broken and 'the system' assigns the infraction. I think he's talking out of his ass. I don't believe there is such a system and I also believe that this rule in particular is not the rule that I broke if any.

5. When posting pics, keep the screen and file size reasonable, don't break the tables. <-- face just handled a case of this a couple of days ago and it almost never happens anymore anyway, what the hell are you on about?

I just posted the complete set of rules that Kolar gave me to justify his actions against me. Since he posted all these rules to me, i'm assuming these are all the rules and I just decided to see what other members, staff & nonstaff think of these rules. It just seemed extremely hypocritical for him to show this shit to me.

6. Do not leech bandwidth. If we get complaint emails we’re sending them on to you. Posted images must be linked from an image hosting site or from your own webspace. <-- 99% of images i see on this forum are on either imageshack or tinypic. if i see someone post a large image that is not on one of those, or some other hosting service, i generally transload it over for them. again, not that big of a deal.

Again, not a big deal to me either.

7. Keep your fights in the trash talk forum. If you have an issue with in-game staff, please refer to the sticky in TW Staff forum. If you have an issue with Forum Staff, please email the Forum Admins with the Contact Us link below. <-- you must have missed the part a couple of months ago where i created a trash talk thread for sertifi and his fanboys after i got sick of them derailing countless threads. i will continue to do this for anyone else that can't keep their internet anger under control, so i don't really know what you're getting at here.

Again, just showing the rules for everyone else to see. I thought if it was important enough for Kolar to show me, it's got to be good enough for everybody here. If nothing else, just to show the inconsistencies of staff's application of these rules.

8. You get one forum account, that's it. If you lose your password or wish to modify your account name, please use the contact us link found at the bottom of the page. <-- two people already received lengthy bans for having multiple accounts and using them to evade bans, and we check for these sorts of things on a fairly regular basis. if you suspect someone else has a gimmick account then go ahead and let me or another forum staffer know, but once again, i don't know what you're getting at with this rule.

Really, I don't care.

9. If a topic has been moved, closed, or deleted: don't post it again. <-- reposts are almost always handled within a matter of minutes, because we generally know when a user is stupid enough to try it. no idea what your problem is here.

Again, since these rules aren't officially posted anywhere i just posted the rules for general viewing to see the responses of both staff & nonstaff members.

10. If you have a complaint about a forum ban, E-mail forum staff. Do not make complaints about zone bans here, email zone staff. <-- how the hell is this rule "ignored"? why is it even in the equation to begin with? what the fuck?

It's one of the few that's in common practice with the knowledge of most members.

11. No referring offsite offers/games, free ipods, etc. <-- uh, what? how much of this do we get? honestly, the few threads that have fallen under this category have always been handled quickly and efficiently.

My problem with rules like this is the "ETC" part is vague and could be whatever. How about just being specific to type of sites? 'Etc' implies there's other types not mentioned as opposed to other sites of the same type. Get rid of 'etc' in all the rules. It just shows a lack of thought in the process of making rules.

12. Racism, discrimination, and harassment is forbidden in any form. <-- ok, finally one that i can give you credit for. this rule does need to be rewritten, because it's basically saying that any sort of conflict is not allowed, which is not going to happen, and if it DID happen it would make these forums boring as shit. i'm all for a little internet cockfighting, but here's the problem. in my book some people here cross the line on a pretty frequent basis, however it's pretty much impossible to just start handing out warnings and bans every time somebody says something that somebody else doesn't like. this whole forum would be banned in a week if that were to happen. i think this rule needs to be reviewed and probably scrapped for something that is actually more useful.

Agreed

13. No overly large or obnoxious signatures. If your signature is inappropriate, you will be asked to change it. Failure to comply will result in it being removed for you and will count as a rules infringement. <-- what? show me a "large or obnoxious" signature. urmamaisfunny2k's is pretty stupid, sure, but as far as i'm concerned the vast majority of users are keeping their sigs under control just fine.

Not a problem in my opinion. In fact, I think we should be allowed an image of predetermined size in our sig as well.

14. Do not revive a perceived 'dead thread' without adding a worthwhile contribution to the thread. Both the variables in this rule are down to the individual mod's discretion. <-- see the last sentence here? yeah, that's right, if we think a thread revival is ok then it's ok, and if not we close it. you and other users might disagree, and that's fine, but calling us out for "ignoring" the rule without a good reason is just stupid.

The comment of 'ignoring' is for the overall rules in general.

15. No copyrighted content. <-- where is the copyrighted content?

Again, not that I really care, but how often is content/images checked for copyright infringements?

16. No forum or zone staff impersonation. <-- see my explanation for rule 5.

conclusion: stop grasping at straws.

LOL
No straws to grasp here, just some clarification and consistency in applying these rules. How about posting the 'official rules' somewhere and the corresponding infractions (and their duration) to each of these rules?

This is just an attempt in the philosophy of 'The squeaking wheel gets the grease.'

[Aquatiq]

My philosophy is if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[HeavenSent]

4. No Warez/Serials/Cracks/Hax0ring/SS Cheats/etc, including links. This includes discussions of bittorrent/DC or other file sharing programs.

Re: the link I posted that caused Kolar to give me an infraction for breaking this rule:
Did the link have Warez? - NO
Did the link have Serials? - NO
Did the link have Cracks? - NO
Did the link have Hax0rings? - NO
Did the link have SS Cheats? - NO
Could 'etc' pertain to my post? - NO
Were there discussions of bittorent? - NO
Were there DC or other file sharing programs? - NO

Yet this is the rule Kolar says I violated.
BULLSHIT!!!

[Kolar]

Yes they are posted here in the announcement forum: http://forums.trenchwars.org/forumdisplay.php?f=11
You have no group affiliation so any forum or thread you view will be public.

The infraction system was implemented by Dangergirl who was a forum Administrator until she left sometime in 2007. I removed your text in the thread linking to the material. I also set a warning up for you so you would know it wasn't allowed on the forum and to track any future violation. I also gave you the rules not because it isn't posted here, but because I believed at the time you needed to review them before continuing.

The points allocated for each violation is also not up to the staffer setting the warning or ban. The inner workings will remain private much like our in-game warning/ban procedures to limit people "gaming" the system and causing more work and BS in general. If you follow the forum rules, and there's no problem clarifying some of them then you will have no problems.


The rule isn't flawed, it's to protect us in the unlikely event a copyright holder has a problem with something linked or posted on our forum. As per the DMCA rules concerning copyright material we can remove any materials upon request by the copyright holder. But to not put Priitk and others providing us with this forum and game server at legal risk it's best to keep blatant infringement completely off of the forum. Being sensible about it no one is going to sue over a picture here and there but a feature length movie is another thing. You can still use private messages on the forum or game to talk about it.

"4. No Warez/Serials/Cracks/Hax0ring/SS Cheats/etc, including links. This includes discussions of bittorrent/DC or other file sharing programs."

This would imply that no Warez material nor any material obtained and linked through file sharing (copyright material) is allowed on the forum. As PH said file sharing (P2P) isn't illegal but most of its uses are to obtain "illegal" material. As most forum members do not understand this distinction given the past threads concerning Bittorrent applications I believe the rule is proper.

""Warez" refers primarily to copyrighted works traded in violation of copyright law". We're not going to define every single medium possible to share media. Information is independent of the machine it resides on, copyright material is copyright material.

And yes I do pirate copyright material and I think it's a bit neurotic of you searching through my past messages to figure that one out.

[HeavenSent]

"4. No Warez/Serials/Cracks/Hax0ring/SS Cheats/etc, including links. This includes discussions of bittorrent/DC or other file sharing programs."

This would imply that no Warez material nor any material obtained and linked through file sharing (copyright material) is allowed on the forum. As PH said file sharing (P2P) isn't illegal but most of its uses are to obtain "illegal" material. As most forum members do not understand this distinction given the past threads concerning Bittorrent applications I believe the rule is proper.

""Warez" refers primarily to copyrighted works traded in violation of copyright law". We're not going to define every single medium possible to share media. Information is independent of the machine it resides on, copyright material is copyright material.

Still, You're full of shit here.

Did the link have links to Warez? - NO
Did the link have links to Serials? - NO
Did the link have links to Cracks? - NO
Did the link have links to Hax0rings? - NO
Did the link have links to SS Cheats? - NO
Could 'etc' pertain to links to my post? - NO
Were there links to discussions of bittorent? - NO
Were there links to DC or other file sharing programs? - NO

And yes I do pirate copyright material and I think it's a bit neurotic of you searching through my past messages to figure that one out.

LOL I don't know what the hell you're talking about here. I did no such thing.. and I think the irony here is your neuroticism for accusing me of this... like I give a shit about you. :turned:

[Kolar]

I just posted the complete set of rules that Kolar gave me to justify his actions against me. Since he posted all these rules to me, i'm assuming these are all the rules and I just decided to see what other members, staff & nonstaff think of these rules. It just seemed extremely hypocritical for him to show this shit to me.

What else could you have meant? you called me a hypocrite when the subject is clearly about copyright material. And I know you search through this forum for topics about me, it's weird and childish.

Warez is a blanket term used to describe any and all sharing of copyright work. You still broke rule 15, and since no one took the time or thought it was worth adding to the infraction system (or knows how to) the infraction stands, rule 4 and 15 are similar in intent and also would carry the same number of infraction points.

Edit: !:wub:

[Dameon Angell]

Oooooh, you're whining about a warning you got?