The Rules:

(New changes are temporarily in red.)



Yes Respect:
The most important thing for you to do at these forums is respect your fellow forumers.

No Trolling:
Just don't troll. If you're being purposefully and persistently antagonistic or contrarian in order to elicit a negative response from others, then you're trolling. It doesn't matter if you're 'technically' operating within the rules. Forum staff will use their discretion to decide if someone is trolling.

No Racism/Sexism:
Racism, sexism, or any other prejudicial attitude will not be tolerated here. Be extremely careful when making 'jokes' that can be considered racist or sexist, and if you decide to go ahead and make these 'jokes', be prepared for punishment. We also discourage inappropriate or 'creepy' behaviour which may make other forumers feel uncomfortable.

No Prejudicial Language:
ALL prejudicial speech, including intolerant or insulting terms based on intellectual disability, gender identity, sexual preference or political views is expressly prohibited by the Respect rule. Examples of slurs that will not be tolerated here include “retard,” “fag,” “slut,” “bitch” etc.

No Porn/Shock:
Don't post or PM pornography or shock images ever. Don't post explicitly gruesome images, either. Doing so will result in a banning from the forum.

All other images that are unsafe for viewing at work or school should be marked NSFW (not safe for work) and LINKED as a URL. Do not post them as images under a spoiler, because images still load under spoilers and this can be a problem for people browsing at work or school.

No Vigilante Modding:
If you see someone breaking the posted rules, use the report button to alert the moderators. A single, polite reminder that the offending poster has done something against the rules is fine, but don't take it upon yourself to admonish the offender or flip out about it for pages. You might even get in trouble for that! Please just use the report function and move on.




No Piracy:
Piracy of music, games, software, or anything short of a spanish galleon is a bannable offense. This includes asking people for files or offering to distribute them off-board. This rule will be enforced; consider yourself very fortunate if you get a warning.

No Pedophilia:
We have zero tolerance toward pedophilia here. Linking to any pornographic material relating to children (whether it is written, drawn, photographic or video) will result in an instant permanent ban from the forums, and the latter two will likely be reported to the authorities.

No Stalking or Harassment:
Inappropriate sexual comments, stalking or predatory behavior of any kind toward unwilling participants will not be tolerated. Same goes for any other type of harassment--if someone asks you to leave them alone, and you don't, you'll probably be banned.

No Promoting Other Illegal Behavior:
Duh.




New Users:
cannot create threads until they have more than 12 posts. This is chiefly to combat the massive influx of spambots. The exception to this rule is the Cradle, where new forum adventures are made - anyone can make a thread there! See this thread for more information.

Content-rich Posts:
Don’t make short posts, you need at least a full sentence and ideally several of them. Posts with few words or images only will be infracted as “contentless” posts; they add unnecessary clutter to the forum and are dumb. This is not a chatroom or an image board, so don't be dumb!

Don't Roleplay:
Adopting an MSPA character as your entire forum persona is not kosher. You can, however, use their names as a username. We love the creativity and enthusiasm of our members, but when posting outside designated roleplaying areas, be yourself!

Text Format:
Post in the normal font if you are having normal conversation. Alternate fonts/sizes/colors are to be used only when needed and not as your standard font for posting. They make posts difficult to read for people and therefore detract from the flow of conversation. Stand out using the wonderful content of your posts, not the color size or shape of your words.

Quote Pyramids and Spoiler Dungeons:
As a rule of thumb, don’t nest quote tags more than three deep. Huge quote pyramids visually clog up the forum and generally look bad. Don’t hide anything under an unnecessary number of spoiler tags, as opening them all is annoying and trollish.

Don't Have Huge Signatures:
Signature sizes can be no larger than a total of 80 pixels high by 500 pixels wide. That equates to a height of no more than 4 standard lines of text. If your sig is too large, feel free to put it in spoiler tags (and please note that putting only part of your sig in spoilers will usually cause the whole thing to exceed the size limit).

There is no wiggle room on this rule (seeing as how the wiggle room was egregiously abused in the past) and it will be enforced.

Nobody Cares About Pagetoppers:
The position of your post on a page is meaningless. If it's at the very top, the very bottom or anywhere in the middle, it will get read the exact same way. If you suddenly are overcome with the urge and desire to express your excitement or dismay that your post is at the top of the page, we will fire you directly into the Sun.

Remember that before you hit that edit button.

No Spamming:
Please try to post with a purpose, and not the purpose of annoying others! Post count means nothing here, and pointless or contentless posts just aren't funny. They add unnecessary clutter to the forum and are dumb. Don't be dumb!

Don't Try To Get Around The Rules:
This includes trying to mask something in vague text or creating an alt account when you have been banned or jailed. If you create a new account to get around a punishment, all of your accounts will be banned forever.

No Zalgo
Zalgo text is stupid and breaks the forums. If you do things that breaks the forums, you will be banned.

Whatever Else Happens
If a mod or admin sees a problem with something that is not specifically stated in these rules, that doesn't mean there isn't a problem. The rules are here as guidelines of behavior, and just because something isn't mentioned explicitly doesn't mean it's acceptable. Use your best judgment.

Do Be Aware of Important Threads:
Before you make a new thread, see if any existing threads would suit your purpose first. Some particular ones to be aware of:

Located in the MSPA Forum:
MSPA Recent Update Thread
MSPA IDE/Theory Thread
HAVE A QUESTION?

Located in the General Chat Forum:
Hi I'm New / Introduction Thread

Located in the Art Forum:
MSPA Fan Art Thread
MSPA Romantic Fan Art Thread
MSPA Fanfic Thread

A note regarding infractions:
Quote Originally Posted by NotASenator
vBulletin has an infraction system that we've turned on to give us a more granular system of corrective action. Previously we had banning and strongly-worded posts and nothing in between.

The infraction system allows us to apply points to a user's record for posts or other actions that break the rules or are contrary to the spirit of the community. The point values are as follows:


Minor - 1 point
Serious - 3 points
Severe - 5 points
Ultra-Severe - 7 points

We can also assign custom infractions of varying points. When you are assigned an infraction, the points are added to your total and remain for 1 month before they expire.

NOTE: This was three months, but I've changed it. If you already have an infraction, I will be changing the date of expiration to reflect the change. I have to do this in the database, or else I would have to rescind each infraction and reissue it, which would suck.

If your point total at any time hits five points, you are jailed. Jailing takes away a number of features of the forum, such as making new threads and editing posts and removes your avatar and sig. There is a jailed avatar that will be making an appearance shortly. Jailing takes away your privileges without removing you from the forum, so that you have an opportunity to change whatever behavior it was that got you jailed.

If your point total hits seven points, you are temp-banned for a week.

As soon as your point total drops below those levels, the punishment goes away.

If you are continually getting yourself jailed or temp-banned, we will probably make that ban permanent.