Findadeath Forum FAQ

Generally, users will be banned for one, three, or seven days. Some users, particularly spammers and repeat offenders that are primarily here to be disruptive, will be banned permanently. This is a privately owned forum and costs money to run. This forum can also reflect poorly on the owner's business, which can end up costing even more money. Therefore, it makes sense that the primary goals of the forum are to entertain and inform as many interested parties as possible. If a user is disruptive, that user will be usually asked to tone it down. If that request is refused or the disruption was great enough, the user may be banned. This is not a showcase for anybody and no one has the right to do as he pleases. The Internet has free Web hosting and free message board software available to anyone that wants it, so if your only goal is to be the center of attention, you should look into those options.

All bans are recorded and even if a thread or post looks like it has been deleted, there is probably a copy of it saved. So if you are banned, please contact an administrator and state your case. We will look at the circumstances of the ban and send you a reply, either to the e-mail address that you registered with or - if your ban is already up or about to end - as a Private Message. If we find that you have started another user account, it will be merged with you original account and your ban will be extended or made permanent.

A moderator or administrator will attempt to warn you in the appropriate thread and/or via a Private Message if you are violating the rules of conduct here. You are expected to reply with at least the same level of civility you are given in that message. It makes zero sense to start a war on the boards for some perceived injustice, so resist any tendency to be dramatic or disruptive and just take advantage of the Private Message system or the contact form linked at the bottom of the page to state your case. If you feel the moderator is being unfair, send a Private Message to Nick. If Private Messages are not working for you, use the Contact form here or at The Next Level. You will receive a prompt response.

In an effort to keep the work of moderators organized and to help ensure a more even application of the rules, red and yellow cards are used to mark posts that violate the rules of conduct. If you receive a card, you will be notified by private message.

Yellow cards will be issued as warnings for infractions where, in the moderator's best judgment, there was no major conscious decision to break the rules but a line was still crossed. This will help to educate the poster, address users that may have been offended by the post, and allow us to easily keep track of repeat offenders. (You can only claim an innocent mistake once, right?)

Red cards will carry a penalty of one to three points and are cumulative. Either three one-point cards or one three-point card will result in a ban. (In other words, 3 POINTS = BAN, automatically.) The ban length will vary as explained in the previous section. Note that the forum software itself will only issue a one-day ban. The moderator may extend this ban, but it might take a minute or two to do it, so you could see conflicting information if you view a "ban will be lifted on" notice before the moderator has had a chance to make the adjustment.

A one-point red card expires after fifteen days and a three point red card after thirty. (Yellow cards for the same infractions carry no points and, consequently, no expiration dates.) However, if you have an active card and receive another card of the same type before the first one expires, the new card will add its time to the expiration date of the old one. So if you get a red card for hostility, you will in a sense be on probation for fifteen days. If you are given another hostility card two days later, the cards will combine for a twenty-eight-day probation period.

One-Point Cards - Expire in Fifteen Days
Encouraging Others to Break the Law (Rule 1)
Nudity in an Avatar, Signature, or Profile Picture (Rule 2)
Linking to a Sexually Explicit Item (Rule 2)
Posting Spam or a Link with a Referral ID (Rule 3)
Using or Endorsing Racist, Homophobic, or Sexist Speech/Media (Rule 4)
Hostility Towards Another Active Forum Member (Rule 4)
Disrupting a Topic or the Board As a Whole (Rule 6)
Copying Content Excessively from an External Source (Rule 7)

Three-Point Cards - Expire in Thirty Days
Posting Illegal Content or Links to Such (Rule 1)
Posting a Sexually Explicit Item (Rule 2)
Using PMs or Forum E-mails to Send Spam (Rule 3)
Posting Personal Information About Another Member (Rule 4)

If you clearly violate the spirit of the rules or otherwise engage in disruptive behavior, do not expect to be saved by arguing an overly literal interpretation of what is written here. Moderators will exercise their discretion as appropriate and will not be bound by a strict reading of the words used in the FAQ.