BMG Forum + Signature Rules

BMG Forum Rules

If you post (or comment through VMs, blogs, user groups, etc.) on Bulbagarden Forums, you obviously have to follow the rules of Bulbagarden Forums. Here are the rules, conveniently placed in the URPG section, if you don't feel like looking elsewhere. It's the exact same as:

http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f223/forum-rules-vb4-edition-109748/

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Hello! These are the up-to-date rules of Bulbagarden, which we expect you to follow! If you don't follow them, you will receive warnings and infractions. If you get too many infraction points, you may be banned (prevented from posting):

10 active infraction points: 2 day ban.
20 active infraction points: 10 day ban
30 active infraction points: 1 month ban
40 active infraction points: 4 month ban
50 active infraction points: Indefinite ban (permanent except in really, really, really exceptional circumstances).

Before receiving an infraction worth 3 points or less, you must have received a warning. Note that when a moderator posts in public to tell you (or to tell everyone) to stop doing something, this counts as a warning. Moderators always have the right to give you a warning instead of an infraction, or an infraction instead of an aggravated infraction, but (except the one noted just above) have no obligation to do that.

In some cases, breaking a rule may count as a SEVERE violation, which will result in you getting more points than usual. These cases include:
-Having a past infraction of the same type
-Posting just to break a rule, or something that really obviously breaks a rule (shock images, etc).
-Having 10 or more active infraction points.
-Some rules also have specific cases which count as severe violations.

When you get an infraction for a severe violation, and that infraction gets your point total to 10 or more, the administrators may chose to give you a suitable additional punishment.

If you think you have received an infraction you didn't deserve, you should contact the staff member who gave it, and discuss it with him or her. If after the discussion (or if the staff member refuses to discuss it) you still feel the moderator made a mistake or was biased against you, you can ask for a Conduct Review Board. The rules of the Conduct Review Board are here.

Several forums have their own specific rules, or their own modification to the rules. Check these out!

Finally, we're not going to infract people for forum glitches. We ask that you try and delete extra posts when that happens, but we won't punish you for it.

The Infractions:

Multiple Posts
(2 points normally, 6 for severe violations):
Each post should be unique. If you only want to make a small change to your post, you should EDIT it, and if you want to respond to multiple people, you can do it in one post (use the MULTI-QUOTE feature if you want to quote them): don't use separate posts. We also shouldn't have two threads for the same thing on the first page of a forum, and we shouldn't have people answering or asking questions that already have been answered (unless the answer was bad). Again, we won't infract you for forum glitches!
Posting multiple really similar or identical posts in a short period can result can be a severe violation.
You can find a tutorial on how to use the "edit" and "multiquote" features here.

Incoherent/Unreadable Post
(2 points, 6 for severe violations)
All posts have to be readable (that means "basic grammar and presentation") and to make some sort of sense. Posts that are too poorly presented or make too little sense to read are not welcome. Generally, we also ask that posts be made in English, except in relevant threads (it's alright to post stuff in Japanese when discussing new Japanese episode titles or summaries), or unless you provide an English translation of your foreign-language content. In some cases, this infraction can also apply to thread titles that say nothing about what's in the thread.
Posting in gibberish (Words that just don't exist) can be a severe violation.

Wrong/Banned Topic
(2 points, 6 for severe violations)
Posts should have something to do with the topic of the thread they're in (or the topic of the forum they're in, for new threads). If a thread is user specific (fanfic/art/trades), it's also for that user. Posts also should not be about banned topics (what topics are banned depend on individual forum rules).
Making a post about a banned topic that's likely to start a flame war can be a severe violation, as can deliberately hijacking someone else's thread.

Pointless Post
(3 points, 6 for severe violations)
All posts have to say something useful. That can be as simple as quoting a post and saying "I agree" (so long as you don't do that too often), but it has to contribute to the thread somehow. Generally, posting to point out rules or to say "we already have this thread!" is pointless (unless a mod is doing it); report it to the staff instead.
Posting to say a thread is useless, boring or uninteresting can be a severe violation.

Unacceptable Signature
(3 points, 6 aggravated):
Signatures should not be wider than 575 pixels, taller than 160 pixels, and the total file size of all images in a signature should not exceed 500 kilobytes. Spoiler tags cannot be used in sigs. (Note that staff members, as part of the perks they get for working here, may have somewhat larger signatures and images).
When you receive this infraction, you have one day from the time of your next post to change your signature so it matches the rule; if you do not, you may be infracted again. You can get help here.

(Note: Sigs are also subject to Copyright Violation, Inappropriate Content and Flaming and Baiting rules)


Copyright Violation
(4 points, 10 for severe violations) :
Members may not request or provide help to illegally view copyrighted content, and may not in any way admit to using ROMs. YouTube and similar links are allowed, except YouTube links to full pokémon episodes or movies (in part or whole). Mentioning fan translation in general is permitted, but not specific translation groups or projects. Finally, when putting someone else's fanworks in your forum or blog post, you should at least note that it is not yours and if possible credit the creator.
Posting direct links to full episodes, games or chapters, and presenting other people's fanwork as yours, is a severe violation, barring exceptional circumstances.
(SEVERAL forums have specific rules regarding YouTube link and crediting fanart, be sure to check!)

Inappropriate Content
(4 points, 10 for severe violations).
Members may not post anywhere on the forums (including galleries, blogs and social groups) anything that contains or describes excessively graphic violence, nudity, sexual acts, excrement, or similar shocking images. Except in sigs, and, in reasonable amount, in their own blogs, they also may not advertise another website (including youtube channels, blogs, etc).
(Bulbagarden affiliates get a certain degree of leeway for advertising their sites).
Images of people having sex, images showing genitals or a woman's nipples, posts supporting murder (including terrorism and genocide), and posting to argue about the quality of other fansites (youtube channels, etc) will generally be severe violations.

Flaming and Baiting
(5 points, 10 for severe violations):
Posts, avatars, signatures, user titles and visible profile information may not contain attacks or insults against other members (this include picking on them because of their grammar and spelling, or the content of their posts). They also may not contain threats (including threats to report them, or even saying you have reported them), attempts to anger them (gloating, mockery, etc) or attempts to pester them.
Threatening to hurt or kill another member is generally a severe violation.

Replying to Spambot
(Always 2 points)
Never reply to advertisement thread created by a spambot; this tends to attract more of them. Like other 2 point infractions, this one is always to be preceded by a warning.

Illegal Sockpuppeting
(Always 10 points):
Except for some games and activities the staff organize, you can't have more than one account. Having more than one means your main account will get this infraction.
If someone living with you (your siblings, etc) is also a member of Bulbagarden, you should advise the staff to avoid confusion.

Illegal Hacking/Trading
(Always 10 points)
If you agree to a trade here, you do the trade the way you agreed – if you ruin a trade or steal from someone, you'll get this. If you want to trade a hacked Pokemon, you tell people beforehand. And before sending someone a code or hack, you test it to make sure it won't ruin their game.

Illegal Account
(Always 60 points)
That's the infraction we give to accounts created as sockpuppets (see above), or to evade a ban. We give a similar infraction (SpamBot account) to account created, usually by machine, just to post stupid commercial ads; but if you're reading this chances are you're not affected.

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Forum-Specific Suspension

In addition to infractions, there are some situations that may result in you being suspended from a specific forum (for example: The Garden Grotto). This means you will not be able to see that forum, or post in it, until an administrator decides to give you access to that forum again. Situations that may result in those bans include:

1. Being banned from Bulbapedia may result in a suspension from the Bulbapedia discussion forum.
2. Receiving an infraction for stealing someone else's fanwork and presenting it as your own may result in a suspension from the Writer's Workshop and/or the artist alcove.
3. Repeated violations of the Real World's rules may result in suspension from the Real World.

BMG Signature Rules

If it were up to me, none of you could put images in signatures, but that's just me. BMG mods are nicer than that... Duplicate thread: http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/showthread.php?t=65093

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Hi everybody,

In anticipation of the upgrade to vB4, and to enforce existing rules, we're going to be making a change to our signature policy and (re)enforcing it. You could also say this is a reinforcement of our existing policy.

The first stage of this will take place over the next week. We ask that you remove all spoiler tags from your signature. Additionally, we will be enforcing our rule about signature length. If it's taller than 160 pixels--about ten lines of regular-sized text--it is in violation of signature rules. In addition, the width limit is 575 pixels, and the total file size does not exceed 500kb.

We're giving you a week to allow you to take some time and sort out how your new sig will work. After this week, there will be an additional week where signatures not in compliance receive warnings. After that, we will be infracting people with the standard signature rule violation infraction.

The existing rules of a maximum of one large banner image or six sprites remain. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask me about them.

-evkl and the rest of the BMGf moderator crew

 

Re: Signature Rules of Bulbagarden

I'd like for everyone to note that this includes your image and your text. So if the combination of both exceeds the 160 x 575 limitation, it is in violation of this policy.

The URPG Leaders have been asked to enforce this rule. We request that URPG members assist us in cooperating with these limits.

 

Re: Signature Rules of Bulbagarden

Thank goodness photobucket has easy resizing, my image was just 15 pixels too tall.

 

Re: Signature Rules of Bulbagarden

It seems that text does not count for width, but it does for height. < Hope that is right.

 

Re: Signature Rules of Bulbagarden

I think they said something about text wrapping so that the extra "width" is converted into extra height. So it still counts.

Probably.

 

Re: Signature Rules of Bulbagarden

Just checking to see if my signature is within the limits.
~ Xenon™

 

Re: Signature Rules of Bulbagarden

Yeah, you're good.