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Author Topic: Lead Adventure Forum Rules  (Read 5556 times)

Offline nicknorthstar

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Lead Adventure Forum Rules
« on: January 26, 2020, 01:51:20 PM »
Lead Adventure Forum Rules (updated January 2020)

Every community needs rules. These are the rules of the Lead Adventure Forum.

When you join this community, you’re deemed to have accepted its rules, so please stick to them. They’re not onerous or intended to make life difficult. They’re here to help keep the forum on topic and provide a basis for the standards of conduct and discourse we want.

Since its inception in 2006, Lead Adventure has built a reputation as a courteous and constructive forum. We aim to keep it that way. There’s a fair amount of detail below, but the three most important rules (A, B and C) are:

A. Only post relevant content

This is a forum for the hobby of miniatures wargaming and clearly related topics (such as modelling, painting, rules, terrain, scenarios, and new hobby products). That’s it.

It’s not the place for venturing your opinions on other matters, sharing personal issues, shooting the breeze, or discussing today’s news, current affairs, politics, religion, music, sport or showbusiness.

Off-topic content is liable to be removed by the moderator team.

Many of the ‘adventure’ genres covered by LAF are inspired by movies, TV, books and comics. These are legitimate topics for discussion, but posts on these topics which descend into provocation and flaming are liable to be removed by the moderator team

B. Keep it polite at all times

The internet brings out the worst in some people, and the online world is home to a range of antisocial behaviours. We don’t want it here. We’re committed to the courteous, friendly, constructive culture we’ve built over many years. That means zero tolerance of personal attacks, insults, rudeness, provocation, flaming and aggressive language.

Any post that crosses that line will be removed by the moderator team.

Where a pattern of this behaviour becomes apparent, we'll permanently revoke the membership of repeat offenders.

C. The judges’ decision is final

This forum is a community but privately owned and run. When you enter someone’s house to enjoy the company / facilities you find there, you accept the homeowner’s rules. It’s the same here.

The LAF’s rules are supervised by a small group of unpaid moderators – members who help keep the place tidy & in good order.

When something goes wrong, moderators are tasked by the forum owner to step in. That might mean moving a post to a more appropriate board, deleting a double post, checking on a reported post, or removing content that breaks the forum’s rules.

We reserve the right to remove any post we judge to be in violation of the forum rules as written or in spirit. Any such decision is final. There is no right of appeal.

The rules in detail

1. Posting etiquette for new users

1. 1 Deletion of non-posting users


To remain a registered user of LAF, you need to make at least one post. A user who doesn’t post at least once within 4 WEEKS of first registration is liable to be regarded as a bot and removed from the database. We don’t require you to write huge amounts of posts (we prefer quality over quantity), but if you enter a house or join a group, it’s considered polite to say hello. That initial post guarantees life-long basic membership of LAF.

Beyond that, we encourage you to contribute actively, but you’re not required to do so.

1.2 Introductions

As a new member, please take a few moments to introduce yourself. We run a board for that called “Introductions”.  Again, it’s not mandatory, but does help make a good impression.

1.3 Acting politely

Remain polite. That’s it. Regardless of what happens - if you’re in a bad mood or you’ve had a bad day – please keep things polite and don’t take out any frustrations on the community. (See Rule B, above).

1.4 Know when to stop

If you can see that a discussion isn’t going anywhere, don’t keep pushing it. Call it a day. If you feel a need to prolong the discussion further with any particular interlocutor, then please use the private message (PM) function to sort it out amongst yourselves.

1.5 Swearing and crudeness

There are times when nothing beats swearing. Most wargamers are used to this given how the dice roll. We’re all adults, and we don’t worry about the occasional swear word. If you have a strong personal aversion to swearing, that’s your business and fair enough. But please bear in mind that swearing is permitted on this forum, so please don’t complain about it.

That said, while swearing in a theoretical or general context is allowed, you are not allowed UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES to use swear words or insults when addressing a fellow user, nor to attack someone personally.
Crude scatological and sexual humour isn’t seen as particularly funny or in good taste by most people. Remarks deemed too ‘off-colour’ are liable to be removed by the moderator team.

1.6 Joining a discussion

When joining a running thread, please read the posts made so far before adding to the discussion and potentially embarrassing yourself.

1.7 The curse of publicity

When you write a post, think twice about whether you want the world to be able to read it. LAF is a public forum, so your contribution will be in the public domain. A moment’s consideration might save you subsequent embarrassment or worse repercussions.

1.8 Caterpillar posts

This is the practice of the same user making multiple posts, one straight after another, in the same thread. Please don't this. Make one long post rather than multiple successive short posts. It clutters the place up, people think you’re just trying to drive up your post count, and it’s rarely justified*.

If you’ve just posted and decide you have something to add, go back and use the modify function to add to your first post rather than adding more posts straight under the original.

* The exceptions are:

i/ Where a user wishes to present more than eight images using the attachment function, and thus requires more than a single post to add them all. (Although note, where linking out to an external image host or the LAF gallery to insert images, this limit is not an issue. And whichever method you use to add images, please don’t make a separate post to add each individual image).

ii/ Where a user wishes to purposely present content in a sequential fashion that benefits from separate successive posts.

1.9 The search engine

If you have a question, use the search function to see if it’s been answered before. It will save you the trouble of writing a post, and reduce the number of redundant threads.

1.10 Appropriate board location

Please check that your post is made to the appropriate board. For example, post a query about wargaming Lord of the Rings on the Fantasy board, and not in World War Two. (Sounds crazy, but you’d be surprised).

1.11 Private communications

You may not start topics in the forum to address a single user. Please use the private message (PM) function for that, or, if the recipient’s PM inbox is full, his/her email contact.

If that doesn’t work either, contact one of the moderators who may be able to sort out something.

1.12 Avatars/user images and signatures

You may NOT use animated avatars or animated signature images - the majority of users considers these to be a nuisance. Such items, along with excessively large static signature images, will be removed without further notice.

Feel free to use any avatar in the avatar library. But to be more recognisable we encourage you to choose one which is unique* or upload one of your own.

* The easiest way to this is to click on the 'Members' menu, sort by Avatar, and then work your way through it - obviously, this takes some time. The easiest way to get a unique Avatar is to upload your own.

2. Post content

2.1 Copyright material


Since the forum owner can be legally held responsible for copyright violations on the forum, you may NOT, under any circumstances, post, promote or request illegal copies of copyrighted material of any kind, including but not limited to scanned/digitized versions of rulebooks, magazines and software as well as unauthorized copies of digital products sold by their respective copyright holders.

This also includes links to P2P and other download sites. Posts violating these rules will be deleted without notice.

2.2 Criticism

Criticism of products or the work / ideas of other members is fine provided you keep it polite, proportionate, and give reasons. Many people appreciate and indeed seek constructive criticism. Against that, only posting criticism while never showing your own work is likely to leave people with a poor impression. Please don’t try to become “Critic Laureate” of LAF – it’s live and let live here.

Personal reviews of hobby-related products and services are encouraged as they can help others, but please keep reviews objective and slander-free. And don’t let reasonable criticism develop into a campaign of sustained knocking against the products of any particular hobby business. Where it becomes evident that a vendetta is being pursued by an individual, offending posts are liable to be deleted by the moderator team.

2.3 Your work

LAF is a forum for like-minded wargamers, painters and modellers, and we’re more than happy to see your stuff. Never consider anything “not worthy” of the LAF, even if it’s “just” a gaming model. The majority of users will appreciate your work, and anything has the potential to inspire someone else to try something new. It doesn’t matter how prolific you are as a painter, modeller, wargamer or rules writer – everybody has something to contribute to LAF.

2.4 Nationalism, politics and religion

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you allowed to start discussions about political events, religious or current affairs, or active / recent real world conflicts which may involve aggressive patriotic sentiment. We all love our countries, but this forum has members from all over the world - please don't assume everyone shares your world view or wants to hear it here.

The same thing applies to historical sentiment. It’s not appropriate for a member in the UK, say, to make a post marking Trafalgar Day, to celebrate beating the French. Any more than for a member in Russia, say, to post celebratory images of Soviet propaganda posters commemorating defeating Germany in 1945. Before you post jingoistic content from the point of view of YOUR nationality, please think how that will feel to our thousands of members from OTHER countries.

Posts of this sort are liable to be deleted by the moderator team.

2.5 Advertisements

You may NOT post advertisements of any kind that are unrelated to the forum, including (but not limited to) cars, laundry detergent, online shops, etc. This specifically includes the promotion of other forums. VIOLATION OF THIS RULE WILL LEAD TO IMMEDIATE BANNING OF THE USER.

The only exception to this rule is the small-scale promotion of hobby businesses, painting services etc. Basically things that are wargaming-related. You are welcome to promote your wares through the forum, but if you do so regularly, we encourage you to make a contribution (via the PayPal Donate button) to support LAF and ensure it will keep running (servers and traffic aren’t free, after all). It’s hardly fair for hobby businesses and traders to use the LAF as a free billboard in pursuit of profits, while other users support it with donations.

2.6 Nazi symbolism

Following the 2018 move of LAF to a UK server, it’s no longer legally necessary to enforce the "No Swastika Rule" since we’re no longer under German jurisdiction.

Still, the whole issue remains sensitive in various parts of the world, notably Germany of course, as well as various central and Eastern European countries (e.g. Latvia, which outlaws both Nazi and Soviet icons).
To preserve the civil and amicable atmosphere, please consider seriously if a specific use is appropriate in the given context. Do you want to be associated with careless use of such imagery or be seen as a "resident Nazi"?

Most modelling and reference uses shouldn’t be a problem, but LAF reserves the right to take appropriate action if such imagery is used in any political, propagandistic or trolling fashion to incite argument. This explicitly includes (hence forbids) the use of images of war criminals and propaganda posters as avatars and signature banners.

2.7 Racism

We will not tolerate supremacist or racist content on LAF, be it overt or sly. This includes gratuitous use of outmoded C20th slang terms for particular races or ethnic groups - terms which these days are commonly regarded as racist or offensive, especially by those people they refer to. This includes, but is not limited to, "Jap", "Kike", "G**k", "Wog", "N-word", and many other similar terms.

2.8 Third party social media, GIFs, memes and the like

It’s become common to share content across multiple social media platforms – pulling in and embedding video clips, GIFs and memes from other sites and sources. This sort of content is often intended to be comic and/or provocative.

As far as this forum goes, you’re not allowed to post third party social media clips, GIFs or memes unless the item concerned is clearly relevant to the miniatures wargaming hobby.  Embedded third party content that doesn’t meet this requirement or considered likely to provoke discord or antagonism is liable to be deleted by the moderator team.

2.9 Erotica and sexual content

Images with erotic/sexual content that are not miniatures gaming-related are NOT allowed on the LAF. Pornography is a no-go, obviously.

You may display nude (or partially-nude) miniatures (but keep in mind that some image hosts such as Photobucket may remove such items as violating their use policies). There are, however, some subjects which might be considered inappropriate, in which case we will usually ask the poster to remove the images or place an ‘adult’ or ‘NSFW’ (not safe for work) warning in the title.

Feel free to censor your own images if you wish, but unless it’s blatantly pornographic, we won’t usually act on it.

2.10 Violence

Gratuitous violence is only allowed in miniature form, although as with nudity, there may be the need to act on particularly offensive items. Generally though, such things are subjective and we prefer not to censor any miniature.

Any other pictorial and textual forms of gore or graphic violence are not allowed.

2.11 Cross-Posting

Cross-Posting refers to the practice of opening multiple discussion threads on a single topic, across more than one board. Usually, people do this because they wish to reach more viewers, for example for figure searches.

On LAF, however, this causes problems - the various threads are separate, and cross-posted threads don’t link back to a single thread (as "ghost threads", for example on TMP, do). The larger number of threads clutters up the boards, annoys other forum users, and fragments ensuing discussions, causing people to post information which, unbeknownst to them, has already been posted on another of the threads.

Therefore, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO OPEN MULTIPLE THREADS ON A SINGLE TOPIC.

If you want to open a thread, select ONE single board on which you think the topic will fit best. If you require more input than just the "board specialist" variety, please make this clear in your thread title (for example, "Looking for WW1 Civilians (possibly VSF or Interwar figures, too)", which you then post on the WW1 board.

If you open multiple threads, the moderator team will delete ALL threads without further notice, except one remaining thread on the board we consider most appropriate (for example, a thread on WW1 Naval Gaming, with cross-posts on Interwar, WW2 and VSF, will ONLY remain on the WW1 board).

2.12 Title and Post Formatting

All members are required to make sensible and proportionate use the formatting options, e.g. bold face, italics etc.

That means: Avoid excessive use of the caps lock function (i.e. all capital letters). Since using "all caps" is widely considered as the online equivalent of shouting and therefore impolite, you may ONLY use caps to emphasize specific, brief parts of your post (as in this rule paragraph), or to identify acronyms (e.g. CIA, SWAT, USSR etc.).

The use of all-caps topic titles (except for acronyms) is strictly forbidden.

Please avoid using non-Roman characters (e.g. Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic) in post titles, since issues with browser text encoding may result in the forum layout not displaying correctly.

The same applies to other formatting functions such as italics, boldface and centring of body text. Please use these formatting options only to emphasize parts of your posts, such as internal headers, links, etc., to increase legibility and clarity of your message. Formatting a whole post in bold or italic and centring it reduces legibility and annoys readers.

2.13 Blog links but no pics

It’s generally considered poor form to simply post a link out to your blog without showing any content here. It’s not mandatory to do so, but the forum only exists as long as members contribute content. So please contribute some content. Even one picture or short summary of what can be found on the blog link you’ve posted.

2.14 Requests for financial support

Sorry, but charity or other requests to send or pledge money in whatever apparent good cause are not allowed on this forum. First, this is a forum for people to share their wargaming hobby projects and activities without being pestered for cash, and second, it’s impossible to verify the veracity or validity of each request soliciting funds. So please don’t post those sorts of requests for people to send money here, because they will be removed.

3. Other board-specific rules

Please note, some of the boards on LAF have specific rules concerning what may or may not be posted in those areas. Please take time to read these subsets of rules, especially in relation to the General Wargames Discussion board (reproduced below, for completeness) and the Bazaar of Obscurities board.

3.1 General Wargames Discussion board rules

This board is to accommodate those topics which don’t have an obvious home in one of the thematic, period or genre-specific boards.

Note that it is ‘General Wargames Discussion’ and not ‘General Discussion’. It’s not a place for sharing personal issues, shooting the breeze, or discussing the news, current affairs, politics, religion, music, sport or showbusiness. You may only open topics clearly related to the miniatures wargaming hobby.

Basically this means anything demonstrably related to the hobby - for example photos from your recent military museum visits, hobby-related website links which don’t fit into one of the period boards, and so on. This also includes books (fiction and non-fiction), movies and periodicals if they have a non-specific, but wargaming-relevant focus.

If you post off-topic content, it is liable to be deleted by the moderator team.

We can’t provide a comprehensive list, so please use your common sense.
We can however, say that the following are explicitly forbidden:
  • Personal and ‘real life’ topics.
  • Objectless discussions opened purely for the sake of starting a discussion or argument (like ‘What’s your favourite whatever?’, or ‘What XYZ really annoys you at the moment?’)
  • Discussions of philosophical, hypothetical, abstract, ethical and moral questions and dilemmas (like ‘What would you do if you found yourself in this situation?’, or ‘When is a wargame not a wargame?’)
« Last Edit: August 18, 2023, 11:53:23 AM by Westfalia Chris »

 

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