This site is supposed to have a certain kind of atmosphere, like a large club or other community organization. You can walk in and talk about what you want if you go to the right spot, but it's a private organization and you'll be kicked out if you're an asshole.
We don't provide an exact list of things not to do. Instead, the following principles describe how the site operates and you should behave according to those principles.
1. Provide a civil environment
Civil is different from "nice" or "polite". You don't have to like someone, you don't have to say "please" and "thank you", you can joke around as long as nobody gets hurt. But you can't insult them, flame them, treat them with contempt, or treat them in any other offensive way.
The mods are there to deal with assholes, so don't escalate arguments or sink to someone's level. "They started it" is not an excuse. If someone offends you, criticize them without being offensive yourself.
This also includes worthless minimal answers such as "I don't care", "whatever" or anything in that style, especially when other persons are actually putting noticeable efforts onto the discussion. Sustaining that behavior would also possibly lead to a QBQ (which will be explained later).
2. Allow the discussion of any subject that wouldn't lead to the board being overrun by nuts and other wackos.
On this board it is not an offense to disagree with the mods or other people, to be unpopular or to make a steak out of someone's sacred cow (as long as you're civil, reasonable, and posting in the correct forum). Having said that, certain topics that are notorious for causing arguments are frowned upon, generally including things like conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, and other topics in that vein. The True Off-Topic forum isn't a free-for-all despite its name, and these subjects should still be avoided.
Although we made a politics thread, and some people have posted slightly offensive memes, we intend to keep this for a minimum. Let's remember the forum is about DBM/DBZ, and although meaningful conversation can occur (about any other stuff not pertaning to DBZ world), it will not be encouraged and/or pushed for.
Of course, needless to say, porn and blatant hentai (sex just because the sake of sex and all of that) is totally prohibited.
NUDITY IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED TOO. OUR HOSTING DOESN'T LIKE IT.
3. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
A lot of people find certain ideas offensive, even if you say them in the friendliest way. Fans tend to get worked up about things great and small - it's jut what we do. Having said that, this board favors freedom of expression, not keeping the most easily offended people happy. What is offensive is antagonism and trolling to try and start an argument and personal insults (including the typical internet forum tradition of subtly bashing the intelligence of anyone who disagrees). You are allowed to accuse someone of being a liar, a racist, and so on - providing you immediately provide thorough and believable substantiation. Otherwise, any such accusations will be treated as a severe personal insult.
In this case, with the most obvious examples: You can't call someone a mysoginist because it personally dislikes Bra (unless there is reasonable proof beyond that in his wording). You also can't call someone "racist" just because he doesn't particularly enjoy Uub as a character.
4. No preference for regular members.
Having been on the board a long time does not excuse bad behavior. Everyone is held to the same standard, and long-time regulars should know that standard better than everyone else. If someone who has been on the board for years starts insulting everyone left-right-and-center, they'll be treated just the same as someone who signed up 5 minutes ago and started doing the same. People who are well-known off the board are held to the same standard - whoever your favorite person in the world is, they will be treated the same as any random poster.
However, if one regular member, who often posts quality stuff and is capable of meaningful conversations, by mere chance, starts posting drunk or on drugs and chimps out, he may be given a little more lenience than someone who registers and right off the bat starts insulting and being a nuisance.
5. Public administration.
All warnings, kicks, and bans are posted on the board. Courtesy copies of these messages may be sent in PMs as well, but the principle is that everyone gets to see exactly what the administration is doing. The idea is that it's not enough for justice to be done, justice must be seen to be done. This also allows members to criticize mod decisions, because everybody knows exactly what is going on and the people participating in a thread will almost automatically see any disciplinary action that happened in that thread.
One point should be made absolutely clear: Mods are not gods. We're not infallible. Under no circumstance is questioning a moderator or administrator decision an offense, and if you think we're doing something wrong, speak up and say so. Moderators are held to the exact same standards as every other poster.
6. Crime & Punishment
The mods respond to problems in three ways - warnings and banning. And of course, deleting/managing/moving in case of duplicate or misplaced posts.
Warnings may be a casual "don't do this" message in a thread. Mods usually will not threaten that you will be kicked/banned if you ignore the warning, but that doesn't mean that you aren't being watched. Don't ignore the warning.
If, after having been warned multiple times, you continue to be a problem, and the majority of moderators agree that you're being a problem, you will be banned. The bans more often than not will be permanent and issued on its particular thread. However, other independent users may request a revision or open a case if they consider the ban unfair.
7. Quality before Quantity
Other important guideline is Quality Before Quantity.
The purpose with this guideline, is to ensure a quality check on our members, and to increase the quality and value of their posts. Needless to say, not every post you write on this forum must conform to some academic peer-reviewed standard, but try putting some effort into your posts. Make them informative, backed up with good sources and some thoughtful arguments; not only will it make your threads and posts more interesting to read, you will also learn a lot from other members in return, and that is the key concept to a high quality forum where you learn something new every day.
This includes everything from citing quality academic and/or credible sources (and using the [ quote] or [indent] tags when you quote a source/abstract/excerpt), to writing eloquently, with as few grammar and spelling errors as possible.
Since not everyone has English as their native tongue, I will tolerate a reasonable amount of spelling/grammar errors and turn a blind eye if I notice sloppy mistakes. But members who cannot spell to save their life, will be banned.
Blatant trolls, who come here only to provoke and waste bandwidth, and are obviously not interested in contributing with quality, intellectually stimulating discussions to this forum, will also be banned.
Banning someone for QBQ is not an easy procedure, and requires time to check through the member's post history and after that, come to the conclusion if a QBQ-ban is needed. If you've written a lot of good, quality posts on this forum, and you have some minor low-brow posts in your post history, it's okay, you won't be banned. But if it's the other way around, if your post history is infamous for containing a large amount of low-brow nonsense, chances are you'll be banned.
More members will probably be banned for QBQ, but I hope not. I really don't like banning members, I wish I won't have to ban anyone, let alone give infractions. Only administrators are allowed to QBQ-ban members, and hopefully, we won't need to ban any more members.
The QBQ guideline isn't applied on this forum just to show off that we can ban members; its purpose is to keep the useless lowbrow posters at bay, so that we can maintain a quality forum. The purpose with QBQ is to make this forum attractive for intellectual, knowledgeable debaters to join and discuss the scientific topics that are possible to discuss here.
And last but not least: opinions, however stupid or "wrong" they may be, won't get you QBQ-banned. So don't feel afraid of voicing your opinion.
8. SPAM is not tolerated
In reality this should be a no-brainer: THIS FORUM IS NO PROPAGANDA VESSEL.
Do not come here just to tell us to read your fan fic, fan comic, fan page, whatever. If there isn't a thread in the fanfic/fancomic section there's a very elevated likelihood we don't give the slightest shit about it.
If you're a regular member in formal discussions (pertaining to DBZ/DB, DBM and DBS in general) the opportune moment will come to talk or reference your fan work. But do not sweat it as this never should be the primary reason you're here.
Additional advises:
-Bans here are totally independent from those in the main site's comment box, so please avoid cross-discussing any of these. This means you may not complain in the comments box if you are banned here, or the opposite (which I doubt can happen).
-Certain amount of bantz is allowed (it is a necessary evil), but please be the most reasonable possible. This website is not 4chan ot shitpost central.
-Attachments, avatars and other stuff like that will be totally deleted every time the forum reaches its maximum hosting capabilities. It may be every year, or every 6 months. Take this in mind. It is highly advised you use an image sharing website for your avatars, signatures and images, such as imgur.com, or puu.sh . This will enable all the images you post to be available as long as you wish them to be. If you go asking "why was my image deleted" in the aftermath of a cleansing, you will be instantly banned.