MTGSalvation Official Forum Rules

[Avatar of Kokusho]

MTGSalvation Official Forum Rules

Welcome to MTGSalvation, a community-based Magic: the Gathering site that is your #1 source for MTG-related rumors on the web! Before you start posting here, please take some time to acquaint yourself with our Forum Rules and Guidelines as listed below.
When posting on MTGSalvation, it's important to always be polite and use common sense. Respect others as you would in real life. If you're doing something that wouldn't be acceptable if the person you're talking to were sitting at a table with you, chances are it also isn't accepted on MTGSalvation.
In addition to these forum-wide rules, each subforum may have its own rules posted at the top of that forum. Each subforum may also have specific exceptions to the general forum rules. Please read those rules before posting in a subforum.

Infractions and Warnings
MTGSalvation has a number of rules that when broken will result in you receiving an Infraction or a Warning from one of the MTGSalvation moderators and your post being deleted or edited. If it is your first offense or if the offense wasn’t as severe, you might only receive a Warning. These Warnings are just meant to help you desist from your current undesirable course of action and don’t count towards more serious punishments like suspensions and bannings. If a moderator gives you a Warning, a Yellow Card () will appear in the bottom right corner of the post for only you and moderators to see and you will receive a private message giving you the heads up about the Warned post and why you should stop posting like that.
If your post broke the Forum Rules severely enough, you might receive an Infraction. These Infractions are serious penalties that stack up and may lead to you getting suspended or banned. If one of your posts is deemed problematic and you get an Infraction for it, a Red Card () will be visible in the bottom right corner of the post and you will receive a private message letting you know about the reason behind the Infraction and why you need avoid making such posts.
You can check both Infractions and Warnings in your User Profile. Infractions will be listed with a Red Card before the link to the post, while Warnings will have a Yellow Card shown before the link. You can also check who gave you the Infraction, the details behind the Infraction, when the Infraction was given, and when it will expire. When an Infraction expires, it doesn’t mean the Infraction will be gone. It will still be visible in your profile for you and the moderators to see. It just means the point value of the Infraction will not count towards your overall Infraction count.

All Infractions at MTGSalvation have a point value of 1, while Warnings, because they are just that, a warning, have a point value of 0. If you receive enough Infractions (around three over the course of about a month of active posting) and thus reach a total Infraction point value of three or more your account will be suspended. During this period you won’t be able to post or use the private message system, except for the purpose of speaking to staff regarding your suspension or completing trades already in progress at the time of your suspension. Each suspension following the first will double in length. In certain cases, if it is clear that the user is unwilling to follow the rules of the forum after repeated suspensions, the user may be banned. The following offenses might lead to you getting an Infraction:

• Spam
  A spam post is any post that contributes little or no content to a thread. Spam displays one or more of the following characteristics:
  1. Burdens the thread of conversation.
  2. Is not clearly relevant to the current topic.
  3. Represents a willful attempt to act as a general nuisance to the community as a whole.
• Flaming
  "Flaming" is a broad category consisting of various forms of malicious attacks directed at another person. Flaming can consist of, but isn’t limited to, racism, sexism, trolling (attempting to get another user to flame you), derogatory statements, inappropriate language, or other forms of communication that lack the manners and decency needed when posting on this forum. Flaming is not allowed in posts, signatures, avatars, locations, custom titles, etc.
• Signatures and Avatars Offenses
  Signatures may include only one non-animated 600x100 or 450x150 block of image, not including smilies. Any secondary banners, even if they are in spoiler tags, will be removed. Signature text should be kept to a reasonable length. Excessive amounts of text, links, quotes, empty space, etc., should either be put inside spoiler tags or moved to an extended signature thread. Avatars cannot be larger than 100x100 pixels or 40 kb and if animated must not be excessively fast or flashing.
• Double Posting, Bumping and Necroing
  Please do not post two times in a row on the same topic. Instead, edit the post using the button to add to the first post or the button to respond to several posts at once. Bumping a thread without adding content is not allowed. Also do not post on old and inactive threads which have effectively died and have dropped to the bottom of the forum page or beyond. ("necroing"). For more information about necroing, please read this post, specifically noting the exceptions when necroing is acceptable.
• Evading the Censor
  Certain words will be turned into asterisks (*) by the forum software. Do not attempt to get around this by altering the word slightly or inserting an asterisk of your own. If "gris" were a banned word, "gr*s," "gr1s," and "grris" would all be examples of censor evading.
• Mod Text and Evading an Infraction
  Bold red and the [mod] tag are reserved for moderator use. Using them will result in an Infraction regardless of intent. The only exception is text that is directly quoting a moderator in a post. If you quote a moderator in your signature, remove the red bold from the text. Also, do not edit your post after a mod has done so. Doing so will result in another Infraction being given.
• Backseat Modding
  If you see a post or thread that breaks the rules, hit the button. Don't lecture the person about their broken rule, don't say "This thread should be moved to ____," just report the post and be done with it.
• Repeated Bad Spelling and/or Grammar
  Continuous bad grammar, "text speak" or bad spelling in posts will not be tolerated. If English is not your first language and you use some words or grammar out of place, or you occasionally make mistakes don't worry. Only members who consistently make no effort to communicate clearly will get an Infraction.
• Image Leeching
  Image leeching is hot linking to an image (using [img] tags) that is NOT hosted on:
  • MTGSalvation
  • Magiccards.info
  • Your own webhosting
  • An image uploading site like imageshack.us or photobucket.com
  • A site that has given you express permission to hotlink
• Invisitext
  All posts must be made using fonts and colors that are easily readable on all available forum skins. Posts containing hard to read or invisible font will be edited to be more readable and the poster can be infracted. On the same note, any content violating the forum rules in invisitext is treated the same as a violation not in invisitext.
  Note that certain text colors show up differently on the various "skin" options the site has. Please try and ensure that they're visible in all the variations.
• Clan Advertising. It's all right have a link to your clan in your signature, but posting in various areas of the site trying to get people to join your clan can result in an infraction. Similarly, posting in established clan threads attempting to get members can also result in an infraction.
• Please note that all site rules also apply to our blogging area. Any conduct that would be subject to warnings/infractions/bannings/etc will be dealt with as such. The blog forum is still part of MTGS and we must ensure that rules are being followed there as well.

Auto-Suspension Guidelines
Some offenses may result in a direct suspension regardless of the number of Infractions you have received before.

• Posting or linking of inappropriate material
  At MTGSalvation the guideline is content that is "work safe", which is a little more restrictive than a "PG-13" guideline. This includes but is not limited to excessive adult language and sexually explicit content. Posts with content that breaks this guideline will be edited, Infracted and can lead to auto-suspension. This rule counts for writing, images (both attached and linked), links to sites with inappropriate material, avatars, signatures, custom titles, etc. It is not possible to determine an exhaustive list of what falls under this guideline, so as a general rule do not post content that would not be viewable at work or school. Additionally, if images are found to be of an illegal nature (under-18 pornography, etc.) your account will be automatically banned and you will be reported to the proper authorities.
• Plagiarism
  Do not copy/paste other peoples' work without crediting them (a link is fine).
• Advertising
  The promotion of other sites, forums or products is only allowed in signatures. Putting advertising links in posts is only okay as long as it contributes to the topic. Do not create a new thread asking people to give you references for your FREE IPOD!!!!! Obviously accounts whose only purpose is starting threads meant for advertising will be banned instantly.
• Illegal Activity
  Do not discuss your latest Kazaa or BitTorrent adventures here, and do not link people to files which may not legally be distributed. Keep such discussions outside the forum.
• Disobeying a Mod
  If a mod makes a reasonable request that you do or not do something, please follow his or her instructions. If you feel a request from a mod is unreasonable, contact that person via PM or at his or her helpdesk. You may also contact a global mod or forum administrator to intervene. Do not simply ignore the moderator's request.
• Threatening
  Making direct threats of any kind toward a member or moderator will result in an automatic suspension.
• Abuse of the report system.
  The report post system is a valuable tool for the staff, but it has been found that sometimes it is abused by people disgruntled with other users, moderators, or simply used for spamming up inboxes. Anyone found abusing the report post system will be suspended automatically.
  

Auto-Banning Guidelines:
Breaking any of these rules will result in your account being instantly banned:

• Malicious links
  No tubgirl, goatse, lemonparty, etc. Also, do not link people to spyware or to a page with malicious code.
• Snuff or child pornography
  As expected, this material will get you banned and reported to the proper authorities.
• Scams, or Ripping
  Attempting to cheat people out of their money/cards subversively. If you are confirmed as a ripper in the Market Street forums you will be banned and lose all your positive references.
• Suspension Evasion
  When you are suspended, that means you may not actively participate in the forums in any way. Do not post on alternate accounts, do not have a friend post for you (this will get your friend's account suspended as well), and do not try to find other ways to participate in discussions and contests. Additionally, as stated above, the PM system is not to be used other than to speak with staff regarding your suspension or to complete trades already in progress at the time of your suspension. Doing so is expressly against the rules as stated.

Suspensions
When certain rules are broken (see above) your account may be suspended. A user's first suspension will be one week in length. A user's second suspension will be two weeks in length, and the third will be one month. After that, suspensions will last six months or longer but in the case of severe or repeat offenders the member may be banned. A user who would have three or more points worth of active infractions at the end of their suspension will remain suspended until they have less than three points worth of active infractions.

Posting on an alternate account while suspended will cause all of your accounts to be banned. Telling us that the account which matches your IP and became active the day you were banned is in fact your brother's/friend's/etc. is highly unbelievable. Letting other people post messages for you while you are suspended may cause your account to be banned and your friend's account to be suspended. If there is some real urgent need for you to post on this forum, contact one of the administrators. The staff of MTGSalvation holds the right to suspend any member for a reasonable purpose at any time, regardless of Infractions accumulated.

Only Administrators (currently urzassedatives, Lesurgo, Annorax, {mikeyG}, and Binary) and Global Moderators (currently Kraj, extremeicon, Nai, iRebel, and Yukora) may assign suspensions.

Bannings
When certain rules are broken (see above) your account may be banned. If you have shown yourself as a poster who has little to contribute to the site but spam, flames, and other negative things, your account may be banned. If you are banned, you are not welcome back. Your alternate accounts will be banned on sight and if you let someone else post messages for you his or her account will be suspended. Note that if you get suspended within a short time after your latest suspension (around a month) your account may also be banned instead of being suspended. The staff of MTGSalvation holds the right to ban any member for a reasonable purpose at any time, regardless of Infractions accumulated.

Global Moderators and Technicians (currently Hannes, Feyd_Ruin and JDski) have the ability to ban in emergency situations. Non-emergency bannings may be issued by Administrators (currently urzassedatives, Lesurgo, Annorax, {mikeyG}, and Binary).


Small Print

• Always read the Forum Guidelines and Rules in the individual forums. These may differ or expand the Rules as listed here.
• The staff of MTGSalvation holds the right to suspend or ban any member for a reasonable purpose at any time, regardless of Infractions accumulated.
• Interpretation of the Forum Rules is always at the discretion of the MTGSalvation staff.
• If you disagree with a moderator's decision, please PM them or post in their Moderator Helpdesk. Only make a thread in Speak Your Mind if you are addressing a sitewide issue.
• The Forums Rules listed here may be changed to any extent at any time. An announcement will be made to let the users of MTGSalvation know of these changes.