1. Before starting a new thread, use SEARCH first (located on top of the page..) to see if your question has been answered before!
2. Consider an appropriate forum before posting your question -- look at the forum descriptions on the main forum page first.
3. Post your question only once! Don't cross-post your questions to multiple forums!
4. Don't just ask questions and leave the forum after you've received an answer, try to contribute something as well.
5. -> PIRACY AND LINKING TO PIRATED MATERIAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE FROZEN IF YOU DO THIS <-
6. No foul language, insults, personal attacks or otherwise rude messages.
7. Describe your problem specifically -- including the thread topic, because this helps people who are willing to answer to you.
8. Don't reply with an off-topic comment/question -- instead start a new thread.
9. No ALL CAPS MESSAGES or you will be banned (you know, turn the caps lock off before you type anything).
10. Don't post your email address to the forums! Spambots love dumb forum users who post their email addresses to public sites and grab those addresses and you will soon discover the wonders of penis enlargement kits and other really useful products posted daily to your inbox.
11. Don't abuse private messages -- if your post CAN be posted to public forums, POST IT to public forums. Some of our knowledgeable members receive hundreds of private messages daily and might abandon the site if asking questions through private messages continues.
12. Repeated posts to increase total number of posts is not allowed. Especially if your message is the last in the thread, edit it rather than post a new message.
13. Do not "bump" up threads that you want to remain on the first page. Instead contact a moderator and ask him to "sticky" the thread if necessary.
14. If you see a post that violates any of these rules, please report it to our moderators using the "Report an offensive post" link. Do not play the role of a moderator if you are not one. There is absolutely no need to nitpick on the posts of new users. Let the moderators do their work.
15. Political threads, as long as they don't relate to digital multimedia or legislation related to the IT world, are not allowed on this forum. The world is full of political forums where you can vent your opinions, we don't want them here. I rather prefer that this is a forum where a person from country X can ask a question and get an answer to it from a person from country Y, whether the country X and Y are in war or not.
Advertising and scams
1. Advertising via forum messages is strictly prohibited. If you need to advertise your products on our site, contact us via the feedback form and we will negotiate an advertising contract with you/your company.
3. Providing affilate tagged links to products or services is not allowed.
Invites to private sites
Requesting for or offering invites to private sites (such as private torrent trackers or similar private P2P sites) is not allowed. This rule has been requested by several private site administrators, and we honor their request. (Penalty: 2 day ban)
Signatures
These rules exist to make viewing the forum as pleasant as possible to all users. Even though you might think signatures with large pictures look cool, some might find them extremely annoying.
1. Text-only signatures should have at most 5 lines of text.
2. An image-only signature should be less than 50kb in size, and be at most 500 pixels wide and 200 pixels tall.
3. If you use an animated picture in the signature, it should not be too distractive. Eg. blinking images or images with quick movement are not allowed.
4. If you want to use both text and image in your signature the image should not be more than 500 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall, and you can use up to three lines of text.
5. All the abovementioned rules for forum posts apply also to the signatures.
Violation of these rules does not lead to an immediate ban. However if requested user must edit his or her signature to fit these guidelines.
Administrative actions
Messages that break any of the rules above can be removed or edited by the moderators and administrators of these forums. Even if something isn't specifically mentioned in the rules, it doesn't mean that it would be permitted. It is up to the moderators and administrators to determine what is appropriate and what is not.
Users who willfully violate the forum rules can be banned by the moderators and administrators.
Case examples regarding rule number five (5). No piracy.
Case: Pirated material, such as serial numbers and direct links to pirated, copyrighted material (including direct links to torrent files and ed2k links). PROHIBITED
Case: Posting "descrambling codes" or similar codes that allow unlicensed viewing of protected material. PROHIBITED
Case: Technical, in depth discussion about copy protection circumvention (i.e. cracking). PROHIBITED
Case: Discussion about pirated content and piracy, such as converting (downloaded) video and/or audio files to DVD/AudioCD/whatever format. PERMITTED
Case: Discussion about copy protection circumvention in general (extracting encrypted content, such as DVD movies, compact discs, copy protected console and computer software, using existing software). PERMITTED
Case: Links to sites offering possibly pirated content (including torrent files and ed2k links). PERMITTED
