General rules 1. Before starting a new thread, use SEARCH first (located on top of the page..) to see if your question has been answered before! 2. Consider an appropriate forum before posting your question -- look at the forum descriptions on the main forum page first. 3. Post your question only once! Don't cross-post your questions to multiple forums! 4. Don't just ask questions and leave the forum after you've received an answer, try to contribute something as well. 5. -> PIRACY AND LINKING TO PIRATED MATERIAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE FROZEN IF YOU DO THIS <- 6. No foul language, insults, personal attacks or otherwise rude messages. 7. Describe your problem specifically -- including the thread topic, because this helps people who are willing to answer to you. 8. Don't reply with an off-topic comment/question -- instead start a new thread. 9. No ALL CAPS MESSAGES or you will be banned (you know, turn the caps lock off before you type anything). 10. Don't post your email address to the forums! Spambots love dumb forum users who post their email addresses to public sites and grab those addresses and you will soon discover the wonders of penis enlargement kits and other really useful products posted daily to your inbox. 11. Don't abuse private messages -- if your post CAN be posted to public forums, POST IT to public forums. Some of our knowledgeable members receive hundreds of private messages daily and might abandon the site if asking questions through private messages continues. 12. Repeated posts to increase total number of posts is not allowed. Especially if your message is the last in the thread, edit it rather than post a new message. 13. Do not "bump" up threads that you want to remain on the first page. Instead contact a moderator and ask him to "sticky" the thread if necessary. 14. NO Spam posts at all. A spam post is considered as any post having less than 5 words, or one that doesn't make sense, or is not related to the thread. 15. Under any circumstances, you may NEVER post the registration code for our hosting on the forums, or on any other site whatsoever. If we catch you, you WILL be banned with no exceptions. 16. If you see a post that violates any of these rules, please report it to our moderators using the "Report an offensive post" link. Do not play the role of a moderator if you are not one. There is absolutely no need to nitpick on the posts of new users. Let the moderators do their work. Advertising and scams 1. Advertising via forum messages is strictly prohibited. If you need to advertise your products on our site, contact us via the feedback form and we will negotiate an advertising contract with you/your company. 2. Linking to pyramid schemes and other forms of "free schemes" is strictly prohibited! 3. Providing affilate tagged links to products or services is not allowed. Signatures These rules exist to make viewing the forum as pleasant as possible to all users. Even though you might think signatures with large pictures look cool, some might find them extremely annoying. 1. Text-only signatures should have at most 5 lines of text. 2. An image-only signature should be less than 50kb in size, and be at most 500 pixels wide and 200 pixels tall. 3. If you use an animated picture in the signature, it should not be too distractive. Eg. blinking images or images with quick movement are not allowed. 4. If you want to use both text and image in your signature the image should not be more than 500 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall, and you can use up to three lines of text. 5. All the abovementioned rules for forum posts apply also to the signatures. Violation of these rules does not lead to an immediate ban. However if requested user must edit his or her signature to fit these guidelines. Shoutbox The shoutbox on the index page is meant for short talk only as it says explicitly. However there are some rules to be followed in the shoutbox too. 1. All the rules for posts also apply to shoutbox messages, which include advertising/obscenity/profanity. 2. Don't spam the shoutbox, literally. 3. If you have a longer discussion, you can start a new thread under appropriate forum. Don't use the shoutbox for longer conversations. 4. The shoutbox is NOT for support. Support questions may NOT be asked in the shoutbox. All support questions must be asked in the appropriate support forum. 5. The moderators/administrators may give you infractions if you are found to be violating the above Shoutbox rules. Infractions and point values: OxyHost takes advantage of the vBulletin infraction system. This helps us ensure accurate forum records and to ensure enforcement of the forum rules. These are the infractions and their point values that we use: Spam Posting (ONLY WARNING) 0 Spammed Advertisements 1 Insulted Other Member(s) 1 Signature Rule Violation 1 Inappropriate Language 1 Acting like a Moderator/Disrespectful to other members 2 Thread Hijacking 2 Spamming Shoutbox 2 Spam Posting (1st Offense) 2 Spam Posting (2nd Offense) 5 Profanity/Obscenities Towards Other User 5 Failure to report Piracy 5 Spam Posting (3rd Offense) 10 Profanity/Obscenities Towards Staff 10 Software Piracy in Forums 10 Spam Posting (4th or More Offense) 10 Multiple Accounts 50 Posting forum code publicly 50 Please note: We may issue a custom infraction with custom amount of points if we see fit. We may also bypass this infraction system at our discretion and ban/suspend any user for any amount of time if we see fit. Automatic Bans/Suspensions: To enforce these infractions, we have Automatic Bans/Suspensions in place when you reach a certain number of points. Here are the Automatic Bans/Suspensions we have in place: Automatic Suspension: 10 Points Accumulated, 7 days. Automatic Suspension: 20 Points Accumulated, 30 days. Automatic Suspension: 30 Points Accumulated, 90 days. Automatic Ban: 50 Points Accumulated, Permanent Ban. Administrative actions Messages that break any of the rules above can be removed or edited by the moderators and administrators of these forums. Even if something isn't specifically mentioned in the rules, it doesn't mean that it would be permitted. It is up to the Moderators and Administrators to determine what is appropriate and what is not. Last revised: 4/21/2008