Forum Rules

[Xirena]

§1 ~ Forum Usage

This forum is open to all players for free. Select content is available to registered users only. By registering for a forum account, users agree to abide by the rules set forth below. The staff members of travian.com.au administer and moderate the forum.

§1a ~ Communications
Staff members of travian.com.au usually communicate with users via forum PM, and occasionally via email. Users may set options regarding email communications in the User CP. Please keep your email address current; Admin reserves the right to temporarily ban any account whose emails bounce back until such time as the user updates the email address with Admin.

§1b ~ The Administration team is allowed to change the rules at anytime
The Administrators of travian.com.au are allowed to change the forum rules anytime without notice and/or special advertising. Any user who does not agree with the changes is free to leave the forum and/or delete their account.

§1c ~ One forum account permitted per user.
Creating multiple accounts will result in banning or deletion of the multi(s) as well as possible infraction on the original account. Accessing an account that does not belong to you is grounds for permanent banning or deletion of your forum account.

§1d ~ English is the only language allowed
All members of the travian.com.au forums are expected to be able to read and write in English. All posts must be written in English so that they may be understood by all forum members, including the forum staff, who are responsible for monitoring the content of the forum.


§2 ~ Forum Moderation

The Moderators are responsible for keeping the forum rules and ensuring polite discussions. Users who don't heed the rules will be punished (§3a). Forum staff are not here to be abused as a result of them doing their job. A Moderator’s decision is not to be openly questioned, but polite discussion with the Moderator via private message as to the reasoning behind their decision is permitted. Users do not have the right to flame, insult or argue with the Moderator either publicly or privately - such behavior may result in a permanent ban. The Moderator is not obligated to reverse the decision made.

Any user who feels the Moderator has acted improperly and has already discussed the matter with the Moderator without resolution may contact the Forum Admin. The Forum Admin's decision will be final.

Moderators and Administrators are not obligated to answer questions, this is done voluntarily as a courtesy.

§2a ~ Post Reporting Function
Users are provided with a reporting function. This function is to be used to report any post that breaks these rules to the Forum Moderators. Abuse of this function will result in Infractions being given to the user making the report. Reports made in good faith that are subsequently determined to not violate these rules will not receive an Infraction. Moderators are not required to agree with the reporter's assessment of the reported post.

§2b ~ Deputies are not tolerated
Only the moderators are responsible for the order of the forum. If you dislike something or see something which violates the rules, please report it using the Post Reporting function. "Deputies" who are doing nothing but showing the rules or making comments like "close please", are not tolerated.

Only the thread starter may ask for closing, editing, deleting, or moving the thread.
Being a deputy only applies to publicly threatening or requesting bans, deletion, or any other act of moderating. Using the Post Reporting function is the acceptable method of privately notifying Moderators that action may be needed.


§3 ~ Rule Violations

§3a ~ Users who violate the rules will be subject to one or more of the following actions:

• Post/thread modification or deletion.
• Warning given; an official warning is logged by the system and a private message sent to the user.
• Infraction given; this system works like demerit points, if you have too many, you will find yourself banned for 1 day up to 2 years depending on the amount of infractions and amount of points you have. Infractions are logged by the system and a private message is sent to the user.
• User banned; you cannot post using your account and certain areas or features of the forum may be unavailable to you. You may or may not receive a separate message about your ban, depending on the type of and/or reason for the ban.
• IP ban; you can’t post from your IP
• In-game penalty; If you can’t behave, evade punishments etc., we can and will give you an in-game penalty.

§3b ~ Ban Evasion
If the admonished player creates another account to evade the ban, it may be banned or deleted without notification and the length of the ban on the original account may be increased.


§4 ~ Behavior

§4a ~ Keeping of the netiquette
The forum is used by the players for public interchange and to help each other, and all users should feel welcome here. Therefore polite and respectful behavior is required (netiquette). While a certain amount of lighthearted "trash talk" is to be expected with a war game, flames and insults are not tolerated.

§4b ~ Inappropriate language is not allowed
Intentionally misspelling words to evade the language filter is not allowed. Users who attempt to do so will be treated as if the actual word had been used without the language filter. Other language deemed inappropriate for the forum audience may be edited or deleted and the user posting it punished (§3a). Accounts with inappropriate usernames may be deleted by Admin.

§4c ~ Encouraging others to break the rules
It is impermissible to discuss situations that break the game rules, forum rules, IRC rules and laws. Empowering or encouraging others to do so is also not allowed.

§4d ~ Denouncing other players is illicit
The same applies for "calling out" and sedition against alliances or players. So called "howling topics" or lighthearted "trash talk" are tolerated as long as the writer heeds the forum rules, §4a in particular.

§4e ~ Impersonation
Users many not create accounts whose names could mislead forum users into thinking that you are an official person when you are not. Such examples are TravAdmin, SupaMod or BanBot. This rule also extends to user accounts which attempt to advertise, for example; Microsoft, McDonald's or Jagex.


§5 ~ Posting Rules

§5a ~ Threads should be posted in the correct forum
Before you post a thread, please have a look if you have chosen the right forum. Otherwise the thread will be moved or closed.

§5b ~ Cross postings, double posting, thread bumping, and multiple threads
Posting a topic in several forums ("cross posting") is not allowed, except for announcements by forum staff. Cross posts will be deleted.

The users are obliged to edit their postings to avoid posting more than once in a row ("double posting").

Users may not "bump" threads back to the top of the listings. Bumping is defined as posting to the thread for the purpose of getting it back to the top of the list.

It is prohibited to open a new thread with the same topic and/or content (except when permitted by a Moderator), when a Moderator has closed the old one or the old one is still open.

§5c ~ Use the search to avoid same-topic threads
There is a search function in this forum. Use it before you post a new question, idea or topic. If a thread with your topic already exists, post in that thread and do not open a new one.

§5d ~ Posting of village and player names (not in battle reports)
In-game player and village names may be posted on the forums; however they must not be used to unfairly target players (see §4d), be used in a derogatory manner, or be used to impersonate another player. The forum staff has the final say in what names are and are not allowed to be posted on the forums.

§5e ~ Battle reports
Battle reports may be posted on the forums; however neither the report nor the posts in connection with it may contain the names of affected players, their villages or their coordinates. The reports must be completely anonymous, with only the report converter's automatic name replacements, such as XXX vs YYY, displayed. Any report containing a conquering must have the village name removed from the line of text that reads "The inhabitants of (village name) decided to join your empire."

§5e.I ~ Exceptions and conditions for World Wonder battle reports:

World Wonder battle reports may be posted two different ways, as outlined below.

1. Anonymous: this means the same rules as above, but with no defense numbers. You may, however, include the name of the World Wonder (not the player/village).
2. Modified With Permission: raw report except that the defense numbers must be removed. These reports may only be posted after getting the approval of staff (see below). WW holders may PM the BattleReports account and give blanket permission for the player's name to appear in reports posted via this provision.

To get approval for method 2: each player named in the report must send a private forum message to the BattleReports account granting consent, along with a link to the converted report that you are consenting to be posted (we can't see in-game links), and a notation as to what server the report is from. Once consent has been verified by staff, both players will receive a PM from the BattleReports account giving approval to post that report. The approval will be logged by staff for reference.

World Wonder battle reports may be posted unaltered ONLY after the server has ended.

§5f ~ Special Colors, Fonts and BB codes
Excessive usage of colors, capitalization and spaces between words are not tolerated.

The use of excessive white text is not allowed. Red text is also not allowed in posts, signatures or Avatars unless placed there by a Moderator/Administrator.

Custom BB codes exist for the exclusive use of staff, including those that set the Admins' posting colors and fonts, and those that place Moderator, Community Admin or Game Admin comment boxes in posts. Use of these codes by people for whom they were not intended is prohibited and is punishable by an immediate ban.

§5g ~ Avatars and signatures
The maximum size for an avatar is 100x100 pixels (max 25kb upload), still images only. Animated avatar rights may be awarded to some users as prizes for contests, etc. Animations deemed by staff to be an excessive distraction or in violation of forum netiquette may earn the user a warning or removal of said avatar by staff.

Signatures may be a total of ten lines in height (10 lines @ 20 pixels per line at default size = 200 pixels max height). This includes all text, blank lines, quote boxes, and images (maximum image width is 500 pixels, still images only). Please note that an empty quote box is 3 lines high. "Originally posted by" adds 1 line to that, plus the number of quoted lines. Quotes are not required to be placed inside quote boxes if you wish to conserve space.

Avatars and signatures are judged by moderators and administrators. Users with images in violation of these rules or forum netiquette may be asked to remove or change them, or staff may delete them without additional notice.


§6 ~ Forbidden Content

§6a ~ Advertisements, spam, por.nography, etc. are strictly forbidden
Exaggerated or commercial advertisements, spam, por.nography, cheats, warez, violent, disgusting, graphic or adult pictures, serious insults, inflammatory statements against persons or companies, radical political or inhuman posts or any other things or statements which are illegal by law of the Federal Republic of Germany, Commonwealth of Australia and Realm of New Zealand are not tolerated and will be punished (§3a). The staff members of travian.com.au reserve the right to pursue further legal steps and are the final arbiters of acceptable content.

§6b ~ Game referral links are not allowed when they are not related to Travian Games
Any referral link to any browser based game will result in the immediate removal of the post and punishment of the user (§3a).

§6c ~ The content of private messages cannot be posted on the forum.
The content of Private Messages (PMs), In Game Messages (IGMs) and other private conversations (IRC, MSN...) are not allowed to be posted in the forum without the permission of the author(s). Such action can result in an immediate and permanent ban of your forum account and an in-game penalty can be imposed. The copyright law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies to the whole forum.

In order to record that permission to post has been given by all authors involved in one of the above items, each author must send a private message to both a section Moderator and the Forum Admin giving permission for the text to be posted before the post is made.

In the case of harassment/defamation or any other abuse transmitted via Private Message, this must be sent to the Forum Administrator by private message. Transmission of PM's to substantiate any other claim is summarily forbidden.

§6d ~ Forum and game bans are not to be discussed on the open forum.
Any questions or comments related to bans must be privately discussed with a member of forum or game staff.

§6e ~ Posting of personal information
The posting of personally identifying information, such as real name, home address, workplace address, or any phone numbers is strictly prohibited. You may post your own username for things like Skype, however we do not recommend doing so if the username contains your real name.

§6f ~ Consent of parent or guardian is required to post pictures of anyone under 16 years old.
Consent must be sent to the Game Admin (admin@travian.com.au), who will forward a copy to the Forum Admin.


§7 ~ Staff


§7a ~ The Moderators are free to:
- Move a thread into another forum without leaving a shadow topic or notice in the old forum.
- Edit topics and posts
- Merge posts
- Change topics
- Close topics
- Ban users when they don’t abide to the rules
- Any other actions to regulate the forum to normal use

§7b ~ The Administrators are –in addition to moderators- free to:
- Define forum rules and regulations
- Overrule any decision made by a moderator
- Administer moderator access
- Open/close forums and categories
- Create/delete forums and categories
- Turn the board on and off at their discretion

§7c ~ The travian.com.au forum staff reserves the right to delete individual messages, posts and threads without stating reasons or giving notice

§7d ~ Issues with staff members
If there is an issue with any staff member, users are free to seek assistance of the administrator about their issue. An administrators decision is final and cannot be be overruled by any moderator. Please make sure to give enough detail and arguments as to why the staff member was not correct in his actions.


Relevant links
Team overview: http://forum.travian.com.au/showthread.php?t=2450