Rules

Our network of web sites have rules to make sure things run smoothly and to keep jackassery to a minimum. Keep in mind these rules apply to every section of Project Paranormal, not just the forums, and they apply to all sites within The Hive network - including, but not limited to user profiles, signatures, avatars, chat rooms, and so forth.

General Conduct

No Pornography

Any picture, flash movie, video, or link to one of the previously mentioned things that contains nudity is forbidden and will immediately be deleted upon notice of one of the moderators or administrators, and you will be put on probation.

Other Images

Ideally other images should be uploaded to ButterImages and posted from there - this ensures we always have the images, because you never know when flikr, photobucket, imageshack, and so forth could disappear along with all the images on them -- sounds crazy but that does happen to web sites from time to time -- remember pownce, loudeye, bolt2k, etc? Didn't think so.

Profanity

All profanity, in English or other language, should be kept to an absolute minimum to keep this web site work and family friendly. While it's asinine to believe one can completely avoid profanity, using it too much makes one look like an idiot. Keep it down, keep it clean.

We do not owe you anything

The content, community, web site, etc are completely free. Therefore we do not owe you anything. However, we will do our best to please the community, but no single user is more important than another and rules apply to all users.

Spamming

This is filling up the forums, chats, comments, and so forth with unnecessary garbage. Spamming rules are less strict when posting on a social board, but even then, excessive spamming warrants a probation or in some cases a banning. 

On Discussion forums, spamming is not tolerated. Spamming includes multiple posts with little relevant content, such as "good point", "ok", and "I agree". Also advertising web sites that are not within The Hive arena is forbidden and could be subject to post or account deletion.

This also includes posting links to malicious files, scripts, and so forth - including scripts that have a lot of popups, annoy people, Rickrolls, Mormon Jesus, and anything similar at all - there's a large area of interpretation here so be careful what you link.

Ad Removal

As said in the Terms of Service, users must agree when joining "to not use scripts or programs, or promote said scripts or programs, that will hinder The Hive's advertisements or ability to communicate with users." At the very least this means not telling other users how to do these things, especially how to block ads - it's what we do for a living.

Contribute to the conversation

Think of it this way. Ask yourself when chatting, posting on a discussion forum, or similar: "Does this contribute anything valuable to the argument/discussion?" If the answer is no, the post is most likely spam or just stupidity - don't post it.

Flaming

This is a clear insult to another user, both direct and implied. "Joke" insults must be used with discretion; if a moderator interprets your joke post as a true insult, it will be deleted.

Trolling

This is posting with the intention of annoying other users with disruptive behavior. If a moderator views your post(s) as trolling, they will be deleted and you could be put on probation or banned yourself.

Chat and Quotes

These are rules related to chat and chat quotes specifically

Chat

These are mostly chat specific rules, keep in mind the General Conduct rules at the beginning of this page also apply here - just because they aren't mentioned against doesn't mean you're exempt.

No Spamming

We saw the URL the first time, do not show it again. Also don't go around asking "asl", nobody asks that anymore - at least not on The Hive chats.

No Proxies

Using proxies to chat is forbidden in most cases, and abuse of proxies will cause us to ban them all together again.

No attacking the chat service

Doing anything that can damage, crash, shut down, etc the chat service is obviously forbidden.

No warez, cp, or botnets

No warez, this isn't the pirate bay. No cp/child porn/girlies/jb/etc this isn't some crappy image board hosted in the Netherlands.

No clones

No more than 3 clones per host, and that means no more than 3 nicks per user. Abuse of this rule will lead to a very quick ban in that chat rooms and the web site. 

Quotes

Your timestamps aren't best

The option to automatically remove timestamps applies to standard timestamp styles such as [11:12pm], [23:12:30], (11:12pm), (23:12:30) - any other style may not be removed. If you have especially hideous timestamps, please remove them yourself - if moderators are forced to remove them, they may get annoyed and just delete your quote.

No MSN, Live, MS Chat

This applies to any other chat that shows usernames and messages on different lines, or the worst style of all where the buffer is updated in reverse and newer messages are at the top - that might even get you banned for using such a terrible client.

What quotes are not

Quotes are not places to make requests; quotes are not a place to complain about a mod or disrespect them, it won't get posted - if you thought it would, you're an idiot; not a place to submit trouble tickets; It's not for anything other than posting funny things from that chat, nothing else - we cannot stress this enough.

Special Clause

This service is provided for free to you. We reserve the right to deny the service to anyone, at anytime, for any reason (or no reason) at all.