I'll keep this simple.

By using this site, you assert that:

• You are 18 years of age or older
• You agree to follow the rules or suffer the consequences

The rules:

You cannot:

• Troll, or feed trolls the attention they crave
• Flame or flamebait
• Advertise a product or service without the admin's personal approval.
• Harass other users, sexually or otherwise
• embed adult images/movies in your posts, except where otherwise marked by the admin
• Embed any flash in your posts that does not have an explicit start/stop button
• Use leetspeak without irony
• Use racial epithets except in the context of a discussion of same, or make personal insults
• Threaten other users
• Hack, crack, or otherwise mess with the server(s) on which this site runs, or threaten to do so

You can:

• Link to adult content, if you clearly mark it with [nsfw]
• Curse, swear, etc. Fuckin' Eh
• Do anything not prohibited by a rule.

You must:

• Use proper grammar, punctuation and spelling at all times. Zeta Channel provides a spellchecker supporting .uk, .ca, and .us English. If in doubt, use it.
• Keep threads at least marginally on-topic. If it goes too far, the mods and admin reserve the right to fork it off into a new thread.
• Start threads in the appropriate boards. Threads that don't fit can and will be moved at mod/admin discretion.

I claim full copyright on all original stylistic element of this site, such as the logo. The contents of your posts, including images (provided you created them) belong to you.

This forum allows you to link your profile to an external avatar image. If you choose to use this option (and we encourage you to do so!) please make it 100x100 pixels in size. Animation is, by default, OK, but the admins reserve the right to change your avatar at their own discretion.

This forum allows you to create a signature, and attach it to your posts. If you choose to use this option (and we encourage you to do so!), your signature should not have more than five lines of text. If you like, you may include one non-animated image in your signature, no larger than 40 pixels high by 100 pixels wide. Smilies do not count toward this limit; you may have smiley of your choice, out of the ones zCh provides, in your signature.

When posting a link that has a long URL, please encapsulate it behind anchor text, like this.

The mods and admins reserve the right to edit your posts and profile information at their own discretion. If you believe your post was edited unnecessarily, PM the admin with your grievance.

On this forum, you will, most likely, eventually come across statements you find offensive. That's fine; you have every right to take offense at anything you like, or don't like. What's not fine is expecting the staff to censor someone's writing just because you don't like it. You do not have a right to be protected from being offended, and I'm not extending any similar privilege.

These rules are subject to change, and it's your job to keep abreast of the changes. Punishments for violations are at the admins' and moderators' sole discretion.

The mods and the admin have lives outside the forums and, based on all available data, are not your mother.  While moderators and admin will do their best to accommodate you, if you have a disagreement with another poster please attempt to resolve your differences on your own before bringing it to a moderator/admin's attention.

Edit to Add Jul 19, 2008:  If you say you're going to leave the mod staff will be sure to help you along.  Threatening to leave the forum as a dramatic technique will not be tolerated.  If you say you're going to leave the forum the mod staff will ban you account to help you follow through on your actions.  We're here to help.

I believe it is the case that the rules aren't meant to be a hard and fast, all encompassing, This Is How It Is.  If someone's being a dick just to be a dick I think that falls under trolling or flame baiting and as such is against the rules.  If someone feels the need to argue and fight with mods constantly then I imagine their time here will be very short indeed.  Same goes for someone intent on being a dick under the umbrella "but I'm not breaking any rules!"  This is a forum for grown-ups so I hope everyone can act like an adult here.

I don't think this will be a tightly modded forum.  I plan to not use my mod hat unless absolutely necessary.  Does this give people free range to be dicks?  No.  Does this mean I'm going to mod against people I dislike since the rules have leeway in them?  No.  There are people on the forums I don't like.  That doesn't mean I'm going to hound them and pester them because I don't like them.  That's not what a mod is meant to do (in my eyes at least).  Of course this doesn't give people I dislike free range to be dicks and then claim I'm persecuting them because I don't like them.  I plan to be fair in my actions and there are other mods and an admin with a big stick to tell me if I'm out of line.

I'm a big fan of the FOAD approach.  It's honest, but doesn't descend into real nastiness, like name-calling or knocking on someone's door and beating them up.  I'm about 99% sure that Kyle agrees.

What's FOAD?

<edited because Zahnnie is teh sex, and typed faster than me>

I used to do that whole Gaia thing. Right before they added like a bajillion servers. I had Mini Nitemare Wings.

*Shoots 'Coon*

*Shoots sinic*

Hey!  What about me?

I've got wrath too, y'know!

*Concentrates reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally hard*

*Hops at Ashy*

Huh.  I think I may need my wrath recalibrated.

I think it would be easier to make the rules flexible here. With xF, that was a huge and long established community, and the rules were more like laws- set in stone and if you were within them, that was okay, even if you were being a dick. It was necessary because of the size of the place.

Here, it's new, we're all just learning and making things up as we go along. That means rules can be changed or added or taken away easily, until we have something nice and suitable.