Forum Rules [English/Engels]

[Rosana]

De Nederlandse vertaling van deze regels kun je hier lezen.

Since I'm so busy with everything on the sites, I don't have a lot of time to write up stuff like rules. But it's a forum and even though the people who are here now know the basic rules of SNW, I think I should add them for the "newbies" that may join soon.
There aren't many rules on our forums, but the ones we have, are very important! We would like to keep our forum clean and nice for everyone to visit.

BBcode
Do not overuse BBcode! Only use BBcode appropriately. Not like this just because you can! Okay? Thanks!

Smilies/Emoticons
1. Do not reply with just one (or many) smilies, and no text. Smilies are supposed to be an addition.
2. The smilies you see here are mainly (re-)made by me. Do not copy them somewhere else please! I worked many hours on those.

Images
This forum is supposed to be friendly to all ages and all people all over the world. That means you are not allowed to post images that are offensive, discriminating, contain nudity or pornography. I have a kid of my own and some of the members who will visit here are still kids. Keep that in mind please!

Hotlinking
Do not hotlink from other websites unless you are allowed to do so! Don't know what hotlinking is? Go here.

Signatures and Avatars
You may use an avatar and an image on the forums (and website). The maximum size for a signature is 500x150 px, maximum for an avatar is 150x150 px. Our team reserves the right to remove any of these items if you do not keep them below those measures.

Punctuation
its very important how would you like it if we would type all of our posts like this with no capitalization no spaces and no punctuation marks thats horrible huh so try using punctuation okay thanks

No MSN/Br33z4h/l33t speak
For those of you who do not know what these terms mean, Br33z4h is an annoying way of typing in Dutch/Flemish, usually popular amongst teens. tH3Y tYpE l1K3 Th1S. That's just annoying and it takes more time for you to type and more time for us to read. Just don't, saves a lot of time. Same goes for MSN speak (typing everything in short, chatty style. I would like for people to address me with 'you' and not 'u')
Also, Don't Start Every New Word With A Capital Letter. It's annoying to read. Don't do it.

Be nice to other (team) members
The team members deserve to be treated nicely. They work here for free, to make sure you have a good time on this site. We want our members to treat each other as normal human beings. Just because you do not agree with someone else, does not mean you have to start a fight.

Linking to external sites
Because of past issues we no longer allow people to link to other sites in topics, unless there is a very good reason for it. You may link to your own website in your signature and in your profile, of course. But I do not want any spam topics on the forums. There are a few exceptions, like a Twitter topic, Flickr topic, Plurk topic, MySimPage, MySporePage topic etc. And of course, whenever you spotted some news somewhere and post it on the forums here, then you should link there.
UPDATE: We now also have a Spam Lounge, where you are allowed to promote your fansite/channel/whatever, but only if you have 50 posts or more, and no more than one topic per site.

Keeping the forums clean
1. Please make sure you use our search function first before opening up a topic, there may already be one!
2. Do not double post. With this we mean you should not open up several topics for one and the same issue. If you have a problem, someone will help you. But you have to be patient. We're only human beings with real lives outside the Internet! Yup, really!

Bumping topics
We don't like it when people bump older topics when those are no longer useful. There are exceptions, forum games and topics like that.

Off topic
Try to stay on topic when in a certain topic.

No useless posts
When someone asks something and you do not know the answer, don't post "I don't know it either". There's no use for doing so. You won't help the person who's asking and it will only add one more useless post (which eventually will lead to a cluttered board).
We also don't like one-word-posts, with a few exceptions. (Forum games and the like are often just one-word-topics)

Use a clear subject/topic title!
Do not shout "HELP!" or "How do I do this" or "Grrrrr" when posting a new topic. Be clear when you choose your topic title. That way people can easily see what it's about. It's also frustrating for us and you if we have a forum full of topics with unclear names. It's impossible to read through all of them, so choose wisely!

Use the forums, avoid private messaging!
We really want people to post their questions, ideas and comments on the forums. We started this forum so everyone could share their ideas and ask for help from other players. So avoid sending the (team) members private messages about issues! Private messages are meant for private issues.

Do not abuse the private messaging system!
1. We do not want spam through pm's.
2. If you get spam through pm's, forward the pm to Rosana!
Not everyone likes private messages, keep that in mind when you send someone you do not know a pm.

We reserve the right to change the forum rules at any given time.
These rules are mainly here to make the forum visits pleasant for everyone, including you.
Respect each other and have fun!