Sal's RuneScape Forum Rules
Last Updated: September 2, 2009

Firstly, we would like to welcome you to the forum. Since you're reading this, you must be wondering about the rules and what happens if you happen to break them. These rules are here to make the forum a better place for everyone. We're generally an easy-going forum, but you really need to follow these rules, and if you do, you'll be fine. But remember, the most important rule is to have fun! By following these rules, you'll help make these forums more enjoyable for everyone who uses them!

Thanks,
The Sal's RuneScape Forum Staff





The following rules are in effect throughout every part of the forum, except where otherwise noted. These rules are not meant to be "airtight". It is impossible to cover every possible scenario on this forum, but the rules outlined in this topic are a general guideline on how to behave on this forum. It is up to the discretion of the staff on how to handle individual cases, including cases which may not directly violate any of the following rules. If you follow the stated rules and use common sense, you will be fine.

Spamming¹:

Spamming is defined as any pointless messages posted on the forums, and is strictly prohibited. This includes off topic posts and topics which serve no purpose, as well as using another member's topic to advertise your own needs or causes.

Rudeness & Flaming¹:

Any posts, topics, comments, or names that could be considered hurtful to a member of the community are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, making fun of someone, physical threats, provoking flaming ("flame baiting"), and discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on anyone's religious, sexual or other personal beliefs, or ethnicity, gender, language, social condition, or anything else.

Swearing¹:

Swearing or using any other type of inappropriate language is not allowed on this forum. This includes evading the word filter set in place and bad language in images (including in spoilers, regardless of whether there is a warning). The world filter is designed to catch most bad language, but if it is inappropriate, you will be punished regardless of whether what you wrote was censored or not.

Multiple Accounts:

Each member is allowed to have only one forum account. Having multiple accounts will result in the original account being warned, and the additional accounts being deleted. Any positive warns accumulated on the additional accounts will be transferred over to the original account. You can still be banned for multiple accounts, if your warn level reaches seven or if your offence was severe enough.

Note:Once a member has been banned from the board, he or she may not return using another account. Bans and suspensions are handed out for good reason, and attempting to evade a ban or suspension is strictly prohibited.

Accusations:

If you have evidence that a member of this community has been scamming or hacking, please send the evidence to a moderator who can deal with the issue appropriately. Please do not post on the forums, as this will only cause arguments. If the evidence is conclusive, we can take the appropriate action against the member.

Misleading Content:

All topics must be labeled clearly as to what the subject of the topic is about. Misleading titles used only to grab attention are not allowed. On a similar note, all links must be properly labeled, and may not try to mislead the user into clicking them.

Linking:

All links in a post must be related to the topic's content. External links to violent or otherwise borderline content must be accompanied by a warning stating that it may not be appropriate for all users. We reserve the right to decide if a link is appropriate or not, and may remove any link we feel breaks any of our rules.

Copyrighted Content¹:

Copyrighted content such as articles and images may only be posted if credit is given to the copyright owner. If the owner requests that the content is removed, their request must be granted. You may not post any copyrighted content such as software, validation keys, etc. You may not encourage other users to break copyright laws, and you may not request help in breaking these laws.

Inappropriate Content¹:

Posting any type of material that is inappropriate for this forum is not allowed is strictly prohibited and will result in warnings or a possible ban. This includes vulgar and graphically obscene content, links to websites which intentionally try to scam, cheat, deceive, or infect another user's computer with malware, and any malicious websites.

Advertising¹:

Advertising any kind of service is not allowed. This includes (but is not limited to): websites, forums, blogs, and chat channels (e.g. IRC, Teamspeak, and RuneScape Clan Chat). Personal messages advertising these services are not allowed. You may advertise these services in your own signature or blog, as long as the service does not break any of our rules, or any RuneScape rules. The exception to this is advertising money making and free membership systems and all kinds of referral systems. Advertising these is never allowed.

Note: The exception to this rule is in the Clans forums, where only links to the clan's website, forum, IRC, TeamSpeak or Clan Chat may be posted, for recruitment or informational purposes.

Begging:

Asking for free items or money in the game is strictly not allowed, and such topics will be closed on sight.

Ranting About Our Rules:

While we welcome constructive criticism on how to improve our rules, any topics/posts which simply rant about the rules without making any constructive criticism or rant about a moderator's actions will be closed/deleted. If you want to criticize the rules, please include how they should change in order to make them better, while if you have a problem with an individual moderator, please PM him or her directly, or, if you feel that the moderator in question didn't give a satisfying answer, you can PM an administrator. This includes ranting about staff actions, including bans and suspensions, warnings, promotions, demotions, and others.

Impersonation¹:

Impersonating others is not allowed. This not only includes Jagex staff, but it also includes pretending to be another forum member or staff member. Using the pip of another member group as your avatar is also considered impersonation.

Bug Abuse:

You will not abuse any bug of the forum software in order to gain any advantages for yourself, to gain access to protected areas unless explicitly given permission to do so from the staff, or for any other reason.

Warn Logs:

Warn logs are to be private, between the member and the staff. Do not share your warn logs with other members of the forum.

RuneScape Rules:

While we cannot punish for breaking RuneScape rules in-game, we will not tolerate discussions of rule-breaking on our forums. You may not encourage the breaking of any RuneScape rules, or ask for or give help with the breaking of RuneScape rules. The complete list of RuneScape Rules can be found in the RuneScape Knowledge Base.

Note: We also enforce Jagex's confidentiality rule regarding messages from Jagex: "Messages sent to you by Jagex are strictly confidential and are intended only for the owner of the account to which they are sent. The contents of these messages must not be disclosed to any other person or copies taken."

¹ - Displaying these actions a considerable number of times may suggest that you do not wish to cooperate with the staff, and you may be banned before reaching your seventh warn (see the "warn" section of these rules). This is up to the moderator's discretion.





While almost all forum rules apply in blogs, there are a few exceptions and additional rules to this section of the board:

Advertising:

While advertising on the discussion board part of the forum is limited to signatures, it is allowed in blogs. You may link to other websites, forums or blogs in your own blog, as long as the link does not break any of our forum rules, or any of the RuneScape rules outlined by Jagex.

Blog Block Lists:

If you do not wish for a member to post in your blog, you may create a visible Content Block called "Blog Block List" and list the display names of any member whom you do not wish to have post in your blog. Every time you update said content block, you must post about it in your blog with a blog entry (which has a date and time) which has to be locked right after it has been posted. The content block should be clearly visible on the main page of your blog. Any member who posts in your blog afterwards (which is why a blog entry is required, to certify date and time of the blocking) will receive a verbal warn the first time, and full warns each additional time.

If you add someone to your Blog Block List, you may not make any comments about this user, no matter if positive or negative. It's a simple question of fairness. If you don't want that user to talk in your blog, you shouldn't talk about him/her in there either. Doing so will result in the poster receiving a warn. Attempts to "cheat" by unblocking someone, talking about him and then blocking again will be considered as an abuse of this system and will be punished accordingly.
It is also not allowed for ANYONE, including the blog owner, to talk about people in blogs where they are blocked from. Doing so will result in the same punishment as if the owner posted those comments.

It is important to note that moderation of the blogs is up to the staff's discretion. While we are often more lenient in blogs, any activity that we deem inappropriate or otherwise unacceptable will be dealt with.




The following are general guidelines for being on our forum. Unlike the General Rules above, you are less likely to receive a warn for a first infraction, although it is still possible.

Bumping:

The act of "bumping" covers two actions: (1) Making a post with the intention of moving the topic to the very top of the topic list to gain attention, which is strictly prohibited, and (2) Posting in an "old" topic, defined as a topic which has not been posted in for more than 7 days. When posting in an "old" topic, we ask that you use your best judgment when posting: posting will be allowed only if the topic still has relevance and potential for discussion.

Note: In the Marketplace, Clan board, Skill Logs, and Submissions board, you may use the "Bump Topic" link in the "Options" menu above the first post in the topic to bump your topic to the top of the list. Note that this does not allow the topic starter (or anyone else) to make a double post!

Post in the Correct Forum:

Topics should always be posted in the appropriate forum. All forums have a short description of the forum's purpose, so please read those first before posting. If you're not sure where a topic belongs, simply message an online moderator and we will help you decide where to post it.

Posting of Like-Topics:

Before posting, make sure that the topic has not already been posted recently. To do this, use the Search Feature to look for keywords to your topic (for example, if your post was about Gnomes, type the word "gnomes" into the search box to find similar topics).

Cross Posting¹:

Posting the same topic multiple times is called "cross posting", and will result in the topics being removed, and may be punished as spam.

Double Posting:

Double posting is when you post twice in the same topic, one post directly after the other. For example:

Post 1 (Member A): "Hey guys, how do I get a dragon spear?"
Post 2 (Member B): "You can get them from KBDs!"
Post 3 (Member B): "Or from Blue Dragons!"

The line in red could have just been added into the first post. Instead of double posting, please use the "Edit" button () to add the content on to your first post.

Display Names:

Your name may only contain A-Z, a-z, 0-9, spaces, underscores ( _ ) and hyphens ( - ). Any name violating these rules may be changed by an administrator without notice.
You are allowed to change your name twice in a 180 days' period.

Requesting to be a DM or Staff Member:

Requesting to be Distinguished Member, Forum Mod, or Forum Admin is not welcome and severely inhibits your chances from a future promotion. We choose our staff members based on forum activity and behavior, and do not accept applications to choose additional staff unless we specifically request them.

Reporting a Post:

If you see someone breaking the rules, please do not post to inform them of the rules. Instead, simply use the "Report" button located under the offending post to report it. Moderators will see this report along with the information you provide, and will act on it as soon as possible. False reporters will be punished if reports have little or no legitimacy.

Super-Glued Topics:

These topics are pinned at the top of a forum, and usually include very important information that you should - and in most cases, must - read before posting.

Minimum Post Count:

Certain forums requires you to have "x" number of posts before being allowed to post. These requirements are listed in the forum's description.

This forum uses a system known as a "Rating System" for dealing with both punishments and good deeds. To the left of your posts will be an indicator of your current rating level:



Everyone starts off with a 0 rating, which shows up either as an empty "( )" or a "( 0 )". Your rating will improve as you become a helpful community member by answering questions, helping other members, and submitting content to the site. That's all there is to it! But breaking rules will cause your rating to get worse.

• -7: This is the best possible rating you can have.
• (#): This is your current rating level. Negative is good, positive is bad.
• 7: This is a very bad warn level, which means that you're going to be banned (if you haven't already).

Notes About the Rating System:

• Warns are given out based on the severity of the offense, and it is up to the moderator to decide how many warns you will receive for a specific offense.
• Any member may be warned for breaking the rules if the collective staff sees fit.
• Moderators reserve the right to place a member on posting moderation, disable a member's posting ability, or suspend a member completely if they believe it is necessary.
• The staff does not ban on request, but we do suspend on request. The minimum length of a requested suspension is one week, and the maximum is six months. If you request a suspension, it won't be applied until three days after the request (in order for you to be sure that it is what you want). Suspensions may be cut short after half of the length of the suspension has passed.

Decreasing Your Warn Level:

Over time, your warn level can be decreased. If you make useful and helpful posts, the moderators will notice and will reward you by lowering your warn level. After at least a month (30 days), if you believe that you deserve a warn reduction, send a message to any staff member so that we can review your posts and make a decision to lower your warn level or not. You can not ask for a negative (below zero) warn level!

Banning Without Reaching +7 Rating:

It is possible to be banned without reaching a +7 rating level. If a member makes several consecutive actions such as flaming, it could be enough for a ban consideration by the staff. Signing up here only to advertise can get an account banned immediately, for example.

After Receiving a Warn:

If you feel that a warn given to you by a mod or administrator was unfair, you may appeal it to that same moderator and explain why you think it ought to be revoked (be careful not to flame!). However, so that we can effectively review warns, we require that all warn appeals are sent to moderators within two weeks of the warn being dealt.

All signatures and avatars must comply with the following guidelines. Remember that all of our rules still apply in signatures and avatars.

Signatures:

Signatures appear below each of your posts, and may contain any amount of text (including links), spacing and images as you like, as long as it fits within an area of 500x200 pixels, and 60kb. Essentially, you can have multiple lines of text, and multiple images, but they must not exceed the total dimension limit, or the total filesize limit.

Here is an example of the total size of a signature:

All oversized signatures will scroll, so it's ok to have 2-3 extra lines of text, or a slightly wider/taller image (by 3-5 pixels). However, the total filesize of images may not exceed 60kb (61,440 bytes). Inserting many line breaks and a pointless message at the bottom of a signature will result in your signature being removed, and a warning being dealt.

Hint: See the Sizing of Signatures and Avatars tutorial for information on finding the dimensions and size of your signature.

Signatures must be edited from your user control panel, and may not be manually added to your posts.

Avatars:

Avatars are small images which represent you on the forum. These images may not exceed 120x120 pixels in dimensions, and cannot be any larger than 25kb (25,600 bytes).

October 19, 2009: Added ban and suspension requests policy.
Summer 2009: Massive revision.
Previous revisions: