Site and Forum Rules

Users who wish to receive help for a problem, or users wish to help others are welcomed to the Web Design Tuts Forum. There are a few rules which you must abide by, while being a member on the site.

If you do not abide by these rules, certain permissions may be taken from you, or your account deleted and your IP banned.

While these rules cover the majority of incidents that may occur, we cannot anticipate all circumstances, and as such, the Administrator of Web Design Tuts reserves the right to take ANY actions that are deemed appropriate, in ANY circumstances.

The Administrator and staff members reserve the right to share emails, personal messages and information from users among themselves, (relating to forum management issues) for the purpose of decision making. If you feel that your issue is too personal to be shared or discussed, please state this clearly in any communication with staff members.

These rules are very basic so you should read them fully.

No graphic material of an adult or pornographic nature.
Any posts or links to such content will not be tolerated. Pornographic sites in the “Review My Site” forum are strictly prohibited. Restrictions will be placed against the member’s account if such a link is posted.

No warez and cracks, help, requests or posts that discuss it.
This includes linking to illegally obtained software, movies and music files, posting about it, and suggesting getting it, as well as how to get it.

No cursing or swear words.
We encourage you to use our community as a forum to debate topics, but please use proper words and language to express yourself. We do not tolerate abuse upon other members. Certain vocabulary is acceptable, however.

No racism, threatening, personal attacks; no victimization or hateful posts / retaliation of any kind against a user or group of users.
If you are a long standing member, act like one. Lead by example and assist other newer users rather than attacking them. We look upon our veteran users to use this opportunity to teach the newer users the appropriate way to conduct themselves in this community. If you have a problem with another member, send a PM to a staff member, including a link or quote to what the member did/said. That member will be dealt with accordingly.

No personal attacks, verbal abuse or mocking of members.
Such posts will be deleted on sight and moderated accordingly. As above, if you are a long standing member, act like one. Members that reply to posts simply to instigate argument will be dealt with as needed.

Posts in a particular forum need to stay on topic.
If you wish to chat about something that is not related to the topic of a forum, please take it to General Discussion. The General Discussion forum was set up and designed for members to discuss issues not related to a specific section. Most general conversation is alright in the General Discussion forum, but discourage it from other forums. However, these rules apply in this forum also.

Use a title that describes the content of your post.
Don’t use ALL CAPITALS or special characters to draw attention – this usually does the opposite.

Unacceptable/Double posts.
While some members feel that post count is important, there are some posts that we feel do not contribute to the community in any way whatsoever. A member’s post count has nothing to do with how knowledgable he/she is. Also, some members post the same thing twice, or more, to get their question answered quicker. This is not accepted either. If you find a post that has been created two, or more times, direct a fellow member to the post that has already been posted, or just use the Report Post feature, and the post will be deleted/edited. “Flooding” also refers to posting the same question or same replies in multiple areas of the site. If you feel you have posted in the wrong forum, contact a Moderator or Manager, who will move the post for you. This also includes the creation of multiple new threads on the same or similar topics and sending PM’s continuously to one or more Staff members.

No avatar or signature abuse.
These are an “extra” – abuse of them will result in them being lost and your account being restricted. Forum signatures are to be used respectfully. Blatant signature spamming is not allowed. No unacceptable links/content are allowed in signatures. You may link to your main website or a particular page on your site in your signature, depending on the content of your website. If your site is deemed to be unacceptable by the forum administrator, the link will be removed immediately without notice. Referral links in signatures are not allowed.

This forum is not a support forum for affiliates or related sites.
Comparing, judging the content/value or raising the opinion of other sites, recruiting members or staff, bad mouthing and negative discussion about affiliate site issues on our forums is neither wanted nor tolerated.

No spamming or flooding.
Spamming is characterized by the initiation of threads or posts that contribute nothing to a forum, be it off topic or on-topic. Examples include: post bodies with few words that have no relation to the current thread or discussion and those posts that state they are spam, either to annoy, advertise or increase a member’s post count. Resurrecting old forum posts is also not appreciated unless it serves a worthy cause to the forum. This determination is made by a forum moderator or the administrator and is not up for discussion.

Respect the decision of the moderators.
Threads/posts questioning the actions or decisions of forum moderations will be deleted on sight, and the appropriate action taken (up to and including forum bans) against the thread starter and/or participants. However, as a member you reserve the right to contact any moderator or administrator regarding an action taken at the forum. If a moderator has made the wrong decision with something or other, please PM the forum administrator.

Do not abuse the report system.
While we appreciate members reporting bad behavior, we don’t appreciate rude comments or your opinion on how ‘quick’ staff are at handling problems.

No alternate accounts are allowed.
Should you be disciplined with a restriction or ban, you are not allowed to open a new account to obtain freedom to post. Restrictions and bans are given for a reason, so re-registering is not tolerated. If another account is opened, that account will be banned immediately, and the account’s IP address and/or hostname will also be banned.

Trolling and Flaming
If you are found causing trouble on the forums or generally harassing users, you will be considered a troll. The definitions of this type of behavior are many and are by no means exhaustive. Trolling by our definition could be any of, but is not restricted to the following:

• Flooding the board with comments arising from a single point of view in every reply.
• Intentionally posting something that contravenes our forum rules.
• Deliberately posting comments designed to start a “flame war” or to cause difficulty for the moderators.
• Posting continuous snide or personal comments about other users.
• Posting continuous or unwarranted criticism of Mods and their moderating decisions.
• Behavior which is continually disruptive to the general membership of the forum.

The Web Design Tuts Site and Forum Administrator reserves the right to change or alter these rules at any time without notice, and the Administrator’s word is final. The Administrator and ALL staff members also reserve the right to decide on what they believe is appropriate and what is not.

Any infraction of these guidelines will result in a warning placed against your forum account and will be added to your overall warning level.