Contents:
-Introduction-
1.) No inappropriate language or discussion
2.) No Flaming, Bashing, Pressuring, or Insulting other users or people!
3.) No posting, linking to, or promoting offensive, inappropriate, or illegal activities!
4.) No Spamming, Flooding, or Disruptive Posting
5.) Revive topics only when necessary
6.) Do Not Advertise!
7.) Avatar and Signature size restrictions
8.) This is an International Forum
9.) Don't give out any personal information!
10.) You are responsible for your account!
11.) User Ranks
|--11/A. Posting Ranks
|--11/B. Chatbox Ranks
|--11/C. Smash-Heroes Ranks
12.) HAVE FUN!!

This post contains Parts 1, 2, and 3.

Welcome to Smash-Heroes! This post here contains all of the Rules of Smash-Heroes, and all of the members here are required to abide by them to maintain order and peace between all members, as well as ensure that everyone have a good time.

Please, take the time to familiarize yourself with these rules. They are numerically ordered for categorization purposes.

1. No inappropriate language or discussion!

This rule is very important. Unlike a lot of Forums that like to let things slide, Smash-Heroes is rated PG. Smash-Heroes is to be appropriate for children and parents, and are to be family-friendly.

Please, do understand that this rule is not in place because we want to spoil anyone's fun. This rule is in place so parents and younger children may enjoy our wonderful Forums as well.

If you do not wish to watch your tongue and are looking for a Forum that does allow harsh language, these are not the Forums for you, I'm sorry.

For instance, if "Milk" were to be considered an inappropriate word (it's not, but for this example, it is):

!@#$% is ok.

**** is ok.

Mi1k is NOT ok.

M**k is NOT ok.

M*** is NOT ok.

Not all words are considered offensive alone, but when they are used in particular context, they become offensive. And remember, even the context alone can be considered offensive if you use it in a derogatory fashion.

2. No Flaming, Bashing, Pressuring, or Insulting other users or people!

One important rule on Smash-Heroes is respect. Smash-Heroes believes that respecting other users and people is very important and helps keep everyone friendly.

Posting a distasteful or inappropriate message directed at another user or another person is disrespectful and will not be tolerated. Show some courtesy, and refrain from saying anything of the sort in the first place.

Racial slurs are not acceptable at any time on our boards and may result in your account being banned at our discretion.

Be understanding of the fact that yes, someone may be wrong, or at least in your opinion, but it is not your sole responsibility to force them to believe that your way is right. Don't make people feel insignificant or like fools.

Debating is fine. Arguing can be fine as long as the argument remains civil. But going on and on about something that is clearly only irritating a particular user or group of users is definitely drawing the line.

If you have a problem with a certain member on the Forums, please, do not say it directly to their face. Don't take it up with them, and don't purposely try and antagonize them. The best course of action you can take towards someone that you just don't care for is to just ignore them and their posts.

If a user is harassing or insulting you, please contact a Moderator or Administrator about it immediately. If the insult took place over a Private Message (PM), please contact an Administrator about it, and include the URL to the Private Message! If the harassment or insult took place on another Forum, or in an instant messenger client, there is unfortunately nothing we can do, because it did not occur on Smash-Heroes and we can not prove that the harassment even took place.

Here are some good examples of what behavior is considered to be appropriate and inappropriate, as far as this topic goes:

"Hey, what is a(n) ____?"
"It's a(n) ____." = GOOD

"Hey, what is a(n) ____?"
"its a(n) ____, you n00b." = BAD

"What's up, guys?"
"u are stupid" = BAD

"Where do I find ________?"
"You can find _________ at _________." = GOOD

"Where do I find ________?"
"u idiot how do u not no were it is!! loser" = BAD

"I'm new here!"
"no one cares" = BAD

"I'm responding to a prexisting topic."
"i hate u and u need to leave da forums" = BAD

"I don't want to battle."
"c'mon chicken battle me chicken!!" = BAD

"I don't want to battle."
"alright." = GOOD

"Respond to my private messages!" = BAD

3. No posting, linking to, or promoting offensive, inappropriate, or illegal activities!

Being a Forum where anyone is able to post freely, without prior validation, it is important to make sure that this rule is followed. No offensive, inappropriate, or illegal activities should be discussed, promoted, linked to, or encouraged on these Forums!

Examples of such behavior include:

Posting a link to a website that contains inappropriate language or content on the other end.

Posting an image from a website, or using an image from a website, that contains any of the following in it:

Distasteful amounts of Blood

Excessive Violence

Racism or Prejudice

Offensive Language

lovey-themed images

Anything that could offend numerous people

Basically, if you think it might be controversial, don't post it. It's not worth it.

Posting links to inappropriate sites is also against the rules. Examples of such sites would be sites that contain:

Offensive or inappropriate language

Inappropriate material or themes

Racism or prejudice

ROMs, Emulators, MP3s, Crackz, Warez, or other ILLEGAL material.

Numerous pop ups or other disruptive ads, without prior warning

Viruses, Spyware, or Malware

Products that you are trying to sell, or trying to encourage people to click links or sign up for something (advertising)

All of these rules apply to your posts, signature, avatar, location, website URL, and every other part of your account and its presence on the Forums.

Smash-Heroes cannot be held responsible for the posting of offensive materials such as images or links with offensive language or content in them, as it is beyond our control. We will remove any images or links as quickly as it is brought to a Moderator or Administrator's attention, but we apologize in advance for any exposure to such material that may have occurred during the time of the incident and the time of removal.

4. No Spamming, Flooding, or Disruptive Posting

Spamming, which is the act of repeatedly posting pointless messages for the sole purpose of gaining points of post count, is not tolerated here. Please, when you post, make sure that your post is:

On-topic with the theme of the topic

Longer than 3 words

Not annoying

Not for the sole purpose of earning posts or points

This kind of behavior is not to be tolerated on any Forums of Smash-Heroes. One Forum here, General Discussion, is typically more lenient to the quality of posts.

"Bumping" posts, which usually results in short posts being made, will be covered in the next section. "Bumping" is exempt from the Spamming rules.

When responding to a topic, please try to avoid saying non-contributive responses, such as "Cool," or "Awesome." It's not really against the rules, but it is not a good example of a quality post, and continually posting those kind of messages over and over may result in a Demerit.

If you need to say something else in a post but forgot to say it, DO NOT MAKE A NEW POST ABOUT IT! Instead, use the edit button that is located at the top-right corner of your post. Doing this lets you edit your existing post to add any additional information or content to your post. Failing to do this is counted as double-posting, and is a form of spamming.

"Flooding" is the act of posting numerous new topics (instead of just replies) in any given Forum, each serving little point of purpose. Doing this is disruptive to the Forums, as it pushes down all of the legitimate topics to the next page or so. If you have numerous questions you'd like to ask or points you'd like to bring up, please do so in one topic instead of 10. There is no point to "flood" a Forum with numerous topics. If you do such a thing, you will receive a temporary ban for flooding.

It's better to post in an existing topic than to create a new one! If there is a topic on the first few pages asking "Who's your favorite Brawl character?", you don't have to make a new topic asking the exact same question. But there's also no sense in bringing back a topic from 8 months ago just to post in an existing topic (see Rule #5).

Disruptive Posting can be many different things. Basically, anything that is very annoying or unnecessary in your posts, such as using an excessive amount of smilies, or using a thousand exclamation points. If your post causes people to have to scroll their page over (due to a long string of text without any spaces), that is considered Disruptive Posting. If you use a ton of smilies in your post (20+), that is also considered Disruptive Posting. Even purposely posting in l33t or StIcKy CaPs is considered disruptive, if not called for (I mean, doing that once here and there is fine, but if EVERY post you make is like that, then it is disruptive).

5. Revive topics only when necessary

This is undoubtedly one of the trickiest rules that exists, simply because so much of it is either up to interpretation or is situational. To "revive" a topic is to post in it after it has been inactive for a long period of time. When people do this, the topic that was posted in is bumped up to the top of the Forum, regardless of how old it was. Normally, that's to be expected of posts, but when people "revive" old topics that have already been answers or are no longer relevant, then it gets disruptive and annoying, because not everyone checks that dates of the recent posts.

But, not always is it inappropriate and out of line to revive topics. As a general rule, you are encouraged to avoid going back more than 3 pages, or 1 week (in Super Smash Bros. boards), or 3 weeks (in other boards). These are just guidelines to give you an idea of a respectible time span.

Here are a few examples of when it is appropriate and when it is inappropriate to revive a topic:

If you are the creator of the topic, you may freely revive your topic whenever you wish, because if you choose to do so, then there is clearly a reason (such as you not getting the answer you wanted, or you want more discussion on the topic. This is OK.

If the topic is talking about where to find a certain item or something from one month back, even if the question was unanswered, it is not appropriate to post and answer it. It is no longer relevant after that amount of time, and chances are, the person would have already found what they were looking for. This is NOT OK.

If the topic is talking about something generic, like what your favorite type of music is, then it is probably ok to revive it. (Look at some of the posts and see if you think it's worth it.)

If a topic is already on the first three pages, going back and reviving a similar topic is NOT OK.

There are undoubtedly more situations regarding reviving topics than just these, but hopefully the aforementioned will give you an idea of when it is ok and when it is a bad idea to revive topics.

6. Do Not Advertise!

Do not post links in an attempt to promote your site or a friend's site in any Forum.

Posting links to sites that contains the information or content that the topic is about is acceptable.

You may freely have a link to your site or Forum in your Signature, as well as a link in your Website URL field of your Profile.

Any links posted must be appropriate for the general audience, and must follow - for the most part - the rules of Smash-Heroes, at least as far as appropriate content is concerned.

Here are some examples of appropriate and inappropriate means of Advertising:

"Visit my site! http://smash-heroes.forumotion.com/" NOT OK

"Does anyone have a site that has (information)?"
"Yeah, I have that information on my site, here: http://smash-heroes.forumotion.com/" OK

"I need answers to (question)!"
"http://www.google.com" OK

"Please check out my site, it has cool stuff like Smash-Heroes'!" NOT OK

7. Avatar and Signature size restrictions

In order to accommodate to the users that have slower connections, all Avatars and Signatures must be reasonable in height, width, and filesize.

For Avatars, the following restrictions are in place:

The maximum size for Avatars is 150x200. Anything larger than that stretches the posts and makes the viewing experience unpleasant.

The filesize for Avatars must be 64kb or less. This means no long, animated Avatars.

Avatars must follow all rules of the Smash-Heroes, which include (but are not limited to): No inappropriate language, offensive, bloody, lovey, prejudice, or otherwise inappropriate content contained in the Avatar.

Failure to comply with these restrictions will result in your Avatar being removed and possible banning or being temporarily disallowed from Smash-Heroes. If you continue to use rule-breaking Avatars, your ability to display Avatars may be suspended.

For signatures, the following restrictions are in place:

You have 500 characters to work with in your signature.

You may have a maximum of 3 images in your signature, and the combined filesize of all of the images in your signature needs to be under 100kb. Anything larger only causes an obscene amount of loading time for those that have slower connections.

Each image in your signature may not be larger than 600x250 in dimensions.

Inappropriate language, remarks, or content in your Signature (either in text, images, or resulting links) is not allowed, and all signature content must comply with the Rules of the Smash-Heroes.

Failure to comply by these restrictions will result in your signature being removed and a possible ban or being temporary disallowed from Smash-Heroes. If you continue to use rule-breaking signatures, your ability to display signatures may be suspended.

The following file formats may be used for images as Avatars, in signatures, or in posts:

.gif

.jpg

.png

Anything else must be converted to one of those formats, otherwise it will not be able to be displayed.

Avatars, Signature images and any images posted on our boards may NOT contain any rapidly flashing 'seizure' style designs. They can be visually irritating and actually harmful to people with epilepsy, so we don't want to chance negatively affecting anyone by having them on our boards.

8. This is an International Forum

Although Smash-Heroes is based in the United States of America (the USA), a lot of the visitors and members of the Forums are from all across the world, from different countries, with different holidays and languages. Because of this, not everyone will be familiar with each country's customs, traditions, and holidays. Please be mindful of this, and do not bash another country's customs and traditions just because it is different from your own country's.

English is the primary language of Smash-Heroes. If you are not able to speak English, I'm sure we will do our best to try and communicate with you, but the Forums are not going to be translated into your language just so you can read them.

If English isn't your first or primary language, but you know it, that's perfectly fine! Just try and speak the best you can! Polite memebers aren't going to give you a hard time for that.

Since people of Smash-Heroes are from all around the world, the timezones that they live in will vary. While it may be daytime wherever you're from, it may be the middle of the night where another user lives at!

Although you are free to use whatever means of measure you like, keep in mind that Smash-Heroes primarily uses the following systems:

Feet and Inches rather than Centimeters and Meters

Miles rather than Kilometers

Fahrenheit rather than Celsius

3/12/07 is for March 12th, 2007, not December 3rd, 2007. (MM/DD/YY rather than DD/MM/YY)

And since Smash-Heroes is based in the USA, we will celebrate primarily holidays that occur in the USA. You probably won't find myself (H3R0) celebrating Canada Day or the Queen's Birthday. Not because I don't care, but because it's not relative to my country. You will see me celebrating Independance Day (July 4th) instead.

9. Don't give out any personal information!

This is less of a rule and more of a safety recommendation for your own safety. Please, for your sake, avoid giving out as much personal information about yourself as possible!

Avoid using your last name, where you live (State or Country is fine, but City or Street is not), and any other sensitive information about yourself.

10. You are responsible for your account!

When you create an account, that account is for you, and no one else. If you have siblings or friends around, always be sure to log out after your visit to the Forums to make sure that they do not access your account.

If someone else gains access to your account and breaks the rules with it, you will be the one punished, because we will take punishment against the account, not the person. If your younger sister gets on and deletes all of your posts, there's nothing we can do about it. If your older brother gets on and posts inappropriate messages, your account will receive Demerits or, at worst, become permanently banned. So please, MAKE SURE YOUR ACCOUNT IS SAFE FROM OTHER PEOPLE GETTING ON IT!

Under no circumstances should you give ANYONE your password! NEVER GIVE YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE, NOT EVEN ADMINISTRATORS! If there is a problem with your account, we will not require your password for it.

DO NOT ENTER YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD FOR TEAM LOL ON ANYWHERE OTHER THAN SMASH-HEROES.FORUMOTION.COM!
If it doesn't say http://smash-heroes.forumotion.com/ in your browser's URL box, it is not Smash-Heroes, and someone is trying to steal your password!

It is highly recommended, for your own account's security, that you use a different password for your account than on any other site you visit.

If you have to log on to a public or family computer, and there is a chance that other people may visit Smash-Heroes, it is advised that you log out whenever you're done on Smash-Heroes rather than staying in. Otherwise, all someone has to do is go to Smash-Heroes on that computer and they'll be able to cause trouble on your account, which could result in it getting warned or banned!

It is also highly recommended that you choose a secure password for your account! Something like "mario" is a HORRIBLE example of a password! But, if your password is "yJf3a9Tq", no one will ever be able to guess that, so you'll be very secure. Even something like "16M4r10" is a big step up over just "mario".

11. User Ranks

These ranks help to deal with authority and moderation. These ranks can be fun to achieve, and yet at the same time some bestow responsibility to you. The following sections explain how these ranks function and control things.

11/A. Posting Ranks

You can obtain most of these ranks through posting.

Non-Special Ranks-
Name/Number of Posts Required/Avatar
Newbie/0/
Chatterbox/50/
Frequent Poster/100/
Elite Poster/150/
Super Poster/200/
Master Poster/300/
Legendary Poster/500/

Special Ranks-
Name/How to Aquire/Avatar
Moderator/Be Chosen By An Admin/
Adminastrator/Be Chosen By An Admin/

11/B. Chatbox Ranks
Owner-Abilities: Chat, Ban, Kick, make Members, Make Guests.
Moderator-Abilities: Chat, Ban, Kick, make Members, Make Guests. (No powers over Owners or other Mods)
Member-Abilities: Chat
Guest-Abilities: None
Offline-Abilities: Offline

The list above is color sync'd with the actual rank colors.
Also note that there is another kind of Owner.
The Main Owner has the abilities to make Moderators, Members, and Owners (but not other Main Owners) into Mods-Members-Guests-and even Owners.

11/C. Smash-Heroes Ranks

The Ranks of the Clan are as follows:

Members: The purpose of the clan. To achieve this rank simply join. We could not exist without the ordinary Member for it protects it's teammates and battles hard in wars. Members create the whole purpose of having a clan to fight and conquer with. If you are a Member you must have "S-H." infront of your chatbox name, in addition you must register for the forums.

Commander: Has the ability to command it's lower ranks. To achieve this rank you simply must post frequently and be a loyal Smash-Heroes Members. If you are chosen to be a Commander I will usually choose you without any notice at all. If you are a Commander you must put "CM." infront of your chatbox name, and in addition you must put "Smash-Heroes Commander" in your forum signature.

Lieutenant: Has the ability to command it's lower ranks. To achieve this rank you must be a Commander and be chosen by me (H3R0) to step up to this rank. Lieutenants have a chnace at becoming a chatbox/forum mod. If you are a Lieutenant you must put "LT." infront of your chatbox name, and in addition you must put "Smash-Heroes Lieutenant" in your forum signature.

Co-Leader: Has the ability to command it's lower ranks. To achieve this rank you must be a Lieutenant. The chances of being chosen for a Co-Leader are very slim. seeing as this rank has so much power. The Co-Leader will be a chatbox mod/owner as well as a forum mod/admin. If you are a Co-Leader you must put "Co-L." infront of your chatbox name, in addition you put "Smash-Heroes Co-Leader" in your forum signature.

Leader: Has the ability to command all ranks as well as edit styles and functionality of the Clan Forums/Portal. The chances of becomming this rank are near impossible and will probably never happen. If you are a Leader you must put "S-HL." infront of your chatbox name, in addition you must put "Smash-Heroes Leader" in your forum signature.

Note that I may add and remove ranks at any time, as well as edit there descriptions and abilities so check back often.

12. HAVE FUN!!

Seriously. The rules put in place are meant to make sure that everyone has a good time here. We want everyone to have fun! If you follow the rules and don't let things bother you, you'll get the most enjoyment out of Smash-Heroes!

I appreciate you taking the time to read the Rules of Smash-Heroes! Please enjoy your stay, and have a great time here!

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Thanks to Marriland for writing these.