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The Q8 Forum is new and it's easy to be overwhelmed when you join the community. Don't worry, you'll catch on quickly!

The forum is moderated by a group of level-headed moderators who have volunteered to put themselves in the position of making difficult judgment calls. Moderation is not unlike refing a soccer match. We want to let the discussions occur with out getting to ticky-tacky about small violations, but sometimes we will need to come in and warn offending posters to keep the thread on track.

We want to provide everyone with a level playing field and reasonable expectations for open discussions. Violations of rules will result in Official Warnings. Accumulation of warnings will result in bans, which may be temporary or permanent, depending on the level of offense. The one exception for this is spamming or Opposing team supporter trolling. This will result in an immediate ban (for obvious reasons).

Moderator warning process
1. Moderator will warn users by posting in troubled forum topic or PM individual user depending on situation.
2. Moderator will warn specific user with Forum tools. (official warning) This will notify all Moderators and Admins of the behavior.
3. Moderator will escalate into a temporary ban ranging from 30 mins to weeks depending on their judgement.
4. Administrators will be made aware of any bans to review the situation.

General Rules and Guidelines
-Pay attention to moderation directives. Moderators can give directives in a thread (e.g., stop posting off-topic, stop bad behavior, etc). Everyone is expected to abide by such directives, but users who do not agree with the fairness of the directives may appeal such directives to the moderators via email. Appeals are not to be made in threads. Directives may be general ("stop being so hostile" to specific ("no more talk about scabbard and blade”), and are intended to keep a thread from completely derailing.

-No trolling. Don't make posts that are inflammatory just to get people riled up. Substance is a key to not being labeled a troll, but substance alone cannot prevent you from being considered a troll. Substance with a dash of personal attacks will get you labeled as a troll.

-Ad hominem and personal attacks are not permitted. Criticize the ideas, not the people. An ad hominem attack is an attempt to discredit an argument by merely attacking the credibility of the arguer. Excessive flaming will not be tolerated. Users who verbally assault the character or person of other posters on a regular basis will be banned. Moderator's judgment applies here. "You are wrong" is not a personal attack; "You wrong because you are an idiot" could be considered one. Persistent name-calling in the absence of content will likely be assessed as a violation of this rule.

-Respect the privacy of others. Do not post other's private phone numbers, addresses, pictures, etc., without their express permission. Do not refer to Forum users by their real name unless you have permission from the user to do so, not everybody knows what people's real names are, so refraining from using real names keeps the forum readable for everybody.

-Abuse of editing privileges is not permitted. Editing posts for grammar or information is great. Users may not delete/edit content for the purpose of evading possible moderation (removing flames, trolls, etc.). Also, starting a thread, not liking how it turns out, and then deleting your own posts is irresponsible and unfair, and an actionable offense. It's simply not cool to troll users and then delete it, acting as if nothing has happened.

-NO SPAMMING. No commercial-oriented posts, and no flooding with useless content or content designed to engage readers into forum wars or trolling other sites.

-No Armchair Moderating. If you’re not an assigned moderator, do not post attempts at moderation, suggestions for moderation actions, or complaints about moderation. You can report a post by click the "!" icon on an individual post, and moderators will be alerted to the infraction. Repeated mis-use of this feature will be subject to the same warning system.

-Instead of continually arguing with someone just add them to your block/ignore list, and all posts by them will be hidden by default.


-Use descriptive subject lines and research your post. This reduces the chances of double-posting, and it also makes it easier for people to see what they do/don't want to read. Also, scan the subjects of the active topics first page to make sure you aren't duplicating posts.

-Post in the right forum! If it is a post about something that we have a forum for, post it there.

-Do not cross-post. If you have something to post and you're not sure which board it belongs in, do not post it in more than one board. If the administrators or moderators think it would fit better in another location, it will be moved there. Duplicate threads only serve to create confusion.

-Refrain from Off-topic posts. Repeated Off-topic posts may be removed from the topic and spun into a new topic, or may be removed all together if the thread is attempting to take a more serious/official tone. Most topics will be judged on a case by case basis and left up to the moderators to determine action/non-action.

-Identify posts that aren't safe for viewing at a work place with (NSFW) in the topic subject.

-Restrict the use of excessive foul language. We don't really care if people swear, excessive foul language is likely to get moderated. We also require that you leave offensive language out of the thread subjects.

-Please respect and abide by the decisions of the moderators. Self-explanatory. If you have issues with moderation, we want to hear about them, but the thread where the moderation took place isn't the place.