Rules and Regulations

The following are the Rules and Regulations of the Gaming Rapture Forums... members, moderators, and administrators must all abide by them. Any abuse and or "breaking" of The Rules will lead to immediate action by the moderators and administrators.
All members are asked to report any violations of these regulations to a moderator as soon as possible.  If it is a serious offense Site Administrators can also be contacted, however the point of moderators is to keep order in the community without having the Admins bothered by petty little problems that pop up.  When in doubt go to a Moderator first, if the Moderator cannot deal with the problem, they will forward it to an Admin
Please note that "bending" of the rules (I.E. trying to use loopholes) can result in punishment as well, depending on severity.
Also note that punishment is solely at the discretion of the Moderators and Administration.

Please Read The Following Rules:

    1. Flaming, attacking, or otherwise being offense towards other members through the use of the message boards or Private Message System (see rule #2) is considered to be unacceptable by the Administration of this community.  Being such, behavior like this is prohibited and will be dealt with at the discretion of the Moderators or in severe cases the Administration.  The only exception to this rule is when such conduct is part of an inside joke in which all involved parties agree that it is such.  Remember, when in doubt as to whether or not something will be deemed offensive, don't post it.  Also, do not bother Moderators or Admins with questions like "is this okay to post", use common sense.

    2. The Private Message system on these forums are a privilege, not a right, and using them to abuse any member of these forums will not be tolerated. (Please make sure to delete any read or unimportant Private Messages).

    3. Sexual abuse, some on these boards disclose their gender and some don't, for those that do, any unwelcome comments, post, Private Messages sent to a member with explicit sexual content or abuse will again not be tolerated.   For those that do not disclose their gender, it is their right not to do so and attempting to get a member to disclose their gender when they feel they do not want to, is a type of abuse, and will not be tolerated and any of these "sexual abuses" will lead to an immediate banning.

    4. Expression of opinions on these forums are really the base of what a forum IS. All members are welcome to discuss and to agree or disagree with them, but all opinions on these forums are to be treated with respect.  Debates are welcome, as long as such debates are conducted with facts and well thought out arguments, not insults and quick comebacks.

    5. Respect for Authority, please note that ANYONE found to be disrespecting persons that are in a position of authority (includes Administrators and Moderators), will be BANNED without ANY warning what so ever.

    6. User Signatures will forth be restricted to certain parameters: 5 lines max; 2 images max; no bigger height of image than 200 pixels. If you do have an image larger than that which is stated here and think it should be allowed to be used by yourself as a signature, please contact administration and they will review your claim.

    7. Warnings:  Members violating these rules will be given one warning from a Moderator or Administrator.  If a member does not rectify the situation within one day of receiving the warning he or she will be given a two-day ban.

    8. Please don't ask about becoming an admin, and asking or mentioning the subject diminishes your chances of becoming one if there are openings. Complaining and professing dedication to the forum does not help either.

Please if you do not understand any one of these rules or are confused in anyway feel free to Private Message a Moderator or Admin
You are hereby warned that violations of these Rules and Regulations will be dealt with by a punishment decided upon by Moderators and Administrators which can and will include permanent banning, depending on the severity of the breach.

Off-Topic Rule

We see a lot of off topic posts. All members are asked not to submit off-topic posts, as they clutter up the discussion with useless information.  If you want to talk about something else please create a new thread with an appropriate subject line.  Punishment for posting off topic can range anywhere from a simple deletion of the offending post to a banning of the member depending on severity of the post.  In some cases a thread may be split by a Moderator or Admin at the point of the off-topic post.



Posting/Spam Rules

Double posting (posting twice in a row) is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Use the edit button if you have more to say.
Reviving old topics is also prohibited, for the most part. Use discretion when posting in old topics. If it's something that doesn't apply anymore or doesn't matter anymore, it will be locked without warning.
This has been said in other places but we will state it again here: one-word posts or posts that do nothing to help the conversation along are spam! They are totally unnecessary.



Warning System
(Working On...)

The warning system is a percentage gauge from 1-100% located next to the members username on their account profile (however, if you never received a warning, it doesn't appear).  
Each time a member is caught doing something such as double posting, spam, or other things that are against the Rules and Regulations, they will will have one or more points added on to them. This allows members to gauge how much of a troublemaker another member is.
There will also be consequences for having warnings

Depending on the percentage you're at, these can be the consequences:

1-5% You will just get warnings added on to your account
6-25% You will have warnings added and will get warnings from me, plus you must fix what you did
26-50% You will receive bans without warning
51-75% You will receive extremely LONG bans, no warning
75-99% You don't even want to know
100% You will be banned for life


the warning level amounts:

Spam- 1 (single word in post or other)
Double post- 2 (exactly what it is)
Cursing- 3 (NO excuse)
Being a bother- 4
Harassment- 5 (check the rules for reference)
Pissing the admins off- 10
Logging in someone elses account- 50 (believe me, I know!)
Hacking- 100 and Perma-Ban

We understand that there are some siblings/friends here on the forum that share computers. Accidentally logging in to someone else's account that you share a computer with won't get you in trouble. If there is some sort of conflict going on between you and the other users of that computer, please keep it to your own real life and don't bring it to the forum. If it appears that there is some sort of intentional hacking to 'get back' at someone or cause damage to the forum, all users from that computer's IP address will be banned.
Remember, the best way to avoid problems like this is to change your password once a month, and never leave your account logged in on a computer that others use.  When you are finished simply log out

Redemption will be granted after a certain period of time and depending on the member's behavior after a warning has been sent and points added. Requesting to have your points removed will not work unless you have had points on your scale for something you did a while ago (E.G: Say you cursed once 2 weeks ago, and the points are still there, that is a reason to request point removal).


Curse words at a high level count and you get warnings, mild level are ok to express yourself but if you over do it, then it will give you a warning.

Curse Words that you should NEVER say!:

F*ck
F*cker
P*ss off (can say pissed off)
Sh*t
b*tch (unless you are talking about a female dog, like "When a bitch gives birth, it eats the sack off its puppies" (don't over do it though)
Shut the hell up (counts as aggressive Harassment)
*ss hole
*ss wipe
*ss (except if you are describing a donkey, like "I fell off my ass")
n*gro (it is discrimination and will not be tolerated.)
n*gger
b*stard (except when referring to someone if they really are one, but don't upset them or points added)

Abbreviations and different spellings of curse words (e.g: bish) which appear to be trying to get away with cursing will not be tolerated either.

Please note that this list can be added to at any time, you will not be punished for saying a word that was just added to the list, nor for saying something before it is added to the list.  But again, use common sense and try to avoid words that will possibly cause problems

Mild Words are ok:

Damn
Suck
Darn
Freaking
Jerk
Jerk off
Jerk wad
Jerk face
Jerk monkey
Stupid
Stupid head