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Rules

The AusGamers/QGL Forum is one of the more popular gaming-related forums in Australia. Users from all over the country gather to discuss a variety of issues, not just limited to gaming but including current affairs, music, movies, religion, society, and much, much more.

To help encourage the growth of the forums and make them a better place for everyone, the following rules have been made available. The Forum team police these forums regularly and attempt to ensure these rules are applied equally and fairly across the board.

Failure to comply by these rules may lead to your posts being nuked or deleted, and your account being temporarily or permanently suspended. Please note that these rules have been developed over several years, and we strongly feel that they encourage the best community participation possible.

The moderators enforce these rules at their discretion. They have a lot of experience doing this and are chosen because they specifically don't let petty things annoy them, so please don't waste their time.

Any complaints or concerns can be addressed to the AusGamers team at http://www.ausgamers.com/contact/ . DO NOT EMAIL/MESSAGE INDIVIDUAL ADMINS. These rules are subject to change at any time and without notice.

We hope that everyone that participates in the forums has a good time and finds them a useful resource. Enjoy!

• New Users! new
  • If you're a new user, please take note of the following really carefully; your attention to these will be directly proportional to the quality of your experience here.
  • Here's a quick list of DO'S and DON'Ts if you are a new user:
    • DON'T instantly create a new thread or post advertising or promoting a product or service or web page or anything. This is what we call spamming and you will be instantly and permanently banned.
    • DON'T come in and abuse others, even if they make fun of you. Ignore them and post insightfully and you will be rewarded!
    • DO spend the time to read all these rules. We take them seriously to preserve the quality of this forum.
    • DO try to start threads that are interesting and will prompt discussion - but don't forget to support your position with evidence.

• General Behaviour
  • Don't ever abuse admins for locking, deleting, or nuking your post. In fact, don't ever abuse them ever.
  • Don't complain about being moderated/nuked/deleted/banned. If you think you've been really harshly dealt with, please feel free to email contact us and explain why you think you've been hard done by. DO NOT EMAIL/MESSAGE INDIVIDUAL ADMINS. Frivolous, childish or silly emails will be ignored.
  • Don't repost locked/deleted items. They were removed for a reason. Contact us directly if you want to know why.
  • If you are banned, accept your punishment and wait for it to wear off. If you try and evade the ban in any way, you will be rebanned for an even longer period of time.
  • If you relay a message from a banned user to the forum, it will be nuked and you risk banning.
  • Don't ever post "why was my thread locked/deleted?"
  • Don't call the admins names for enforcing these rules.

• New Post Rules
  • First, check to make sure no-one has posted what you're about to post before. Use the Search facility or just check back a few pages.
  • Try not to start debates that have been covered ad nauseum (CS vs Q3, etc).
  • Do not ask questions that can be instantly answered by someone else with a simple Google search. It is annoying to everyone else when you're not prepared to put in even a brief effort to solve your own problems or answer your own questions.
  • Don't use one word/non-descriptive/useless subjects.
  • Don't make subjects like "Does anyone know..." and leave it at that - learn to summarise
  • Don't use swear words in subjects
  • Try not to make spelling mistakes in your subjects
  • Try not to use kiddy abbrevations in your subjects like "u r smelly" or "roffle" (other abbreviations are fine)
  • Don't start threads about your post count, or post just to improve your post count.
  • Don't start threads about some topic about which you wish to start a discussion without including some sort of meaningful overview and your own opinion, preferably backed up with some actual evidence.
  • Don't start threads that won't be of interest to anyone, like a thread about your new shoelaces.
  • Don't use all capital letters in your subject, unless it is really, really, really, REALLY exciting and interesting.

• Posting Rules
  • Don't revive old threads. That is, don't go searching for old threads and post in them just to bump them.
  • If someone is dumb enough to revive an old thread, don't exceed their dumbness by posting in there saying "ROFFLE" or anything. It is just as dumb.
  • Don't assume people don't have a point because they've made a typo in their post - saying "omg, u sux becoz u cant spell proper" is the single lamest rebuttle on the Internet and it actually makes you look stupider
  • Don't make wild, outrageous, crazy claims without backing them up. In fact, try not to make any claims without giving them some sort of substance.
  • Don't get into an debate or argument with a one-off post with a radical idea or concept that you're not prepared to follow up on after everyone has shot you down in flames.
  • Don't be racist, a bigot, a homophobe, or a communist (get it?)
  • Don't abuse other users.
  • Try not to talk about politics until you have the faintest idea what is going on in the world and have a remote understanding about current events, history, and general human psychology
  • Don't say "old" in response to posts - its only old if you've seen it before. Lots of other people haven't.
  • Don't first post just for the sake of first posting. Repeated first posts that are silly or useless will be deemed abuse of the system and you'll be banned until you learn not to do it.
  • Don't post in threads that you know are going to get locked or deleted - posting things like "in before the lock/nuke/delete" will get you banned.
  • Don't ask how to block ads, or discuss it, or talk about it in any way - ads keep websites (like this one) free to access. Blocking them will result in having to pay to access them. Its that simple. (removed 2021-01-05)
  • Don't give mis-information to newbie users asking genuine questions because you think it's hilarious.
  • Don't derail or drag threads off-topic
  • Don't post useless noise in threads by new users. new

• Legal stuff - for obvious reasons, some discussion is not allowed.
  • No warez discussion - no talking about where to get warez or anything to do with warez (including CD keys and no CD patches).
  • No discussing anything about where to get any copyrighted material.
  • Linking to any sites that encourage, promote or facilitate the above is not tolerated.
  • Freedom of speech is not a right that extends throughout every single medium. If you don't like these rules, then you are free to start your own forum and say whatever you want. This forum are run with these rules to try and encourage a fun, active, interesting forum in which people can discuss a variety of interesting topics and ask questions covering a huge range of issues. If you do not like the way these forums are run, make your own.

• Illegal Links - links to any of the following are not allowed under and circumstances
  • Warez/mp3s
  • Any copyright software or media at all
  • Pornography
  • Disgusting or foul pictures
  • Anything intended to humiliate another forum member
  • Links to illegal or inappropriate activities
  • Links to stupid websites that play "you are an idiot" really loudly, or count the number of people that have been recruited, or whatever. They're not cool.

• Images, media, linking, sigs and HTML in general
  • Full HTML is enabled on the forums. Do not abuse it.
  • Don't include images in your posts that are bigger than about 800x600 - use thumbnails.
  • Don't include auto-playing sounds or movies in your posts. Link or ensure autoplay is disabled if you embed a media player.
  • Don't make your text size really big or use horrible colours unless it is being done for specific emphasis.
  • Try not to make HTML mistakes that break the forum. Broken posts will just get deleted.
  • Don't have stupid sigs. This includes sigs that break any of the rules above, sigs that are excessively large in size (either display size or file size), or sigs that have audio.
  • Attempting to break the forum or circumventing the normal order of forum posting by getting creative with HTML - full HTML is left on to allow people to emphasise certain elements within their post. No special formatting is allowed in subjects. Anyone breaking the forum with broken sigs will have their sig removed - permanently. Anyone breaking the forum intentionally will be banned - permanently.

• Commercial posts/for sale posts
  • If you wish to post anything of a commercial nature, such as promoting your own business, please ask permission first.
  • If you wish to post a 'for sale' or 'want to buy' post, please do so over at The Sold Forums

Updated 15 March, 2008.
Updated 23 November, 2004.
Updated 05 January, 2021 (removed rule about ad blockers).

FAQ

Q: How do I link to other sites?
A: mongie has written a good explanation of how to do it. So has HERMITech.

Q: I got banned/post limited, how do I fix it?
A: Read the rules. Carefully. Especially the bold bits.

Q: How do I do spoiler tags?
A: Spoiler:
stuff with spoilers