1. MEMBERSHIP AND MEMBER ACCOUNTS

1.1 - Age Requirement
You must be 13 years of age or older to gain membership to and/or participate in GamersHQ.

1.2 - Single Account
You may only have ONE account on GamersHQ. Multiple accounts will be deleted, and the original account temporarily banned. If this rule is abused more than once, the original (first) account may be permanently banned, and the member's IP address may be permanently blocked.

1.3 - Sharing of Account
You may NOT share your GamersHQ account with any other forum members or individuals. This rule applies especially to the sharing of accounts with temporarily or permanently banned GamersHQ members. In ALL cases, you are responsible for any content or activity that originates from your member account.

1.4 - Banned Members
Permanently or temporarily banned members may NOT create new accounts in order to circumvent or dispute their ban. Such accounts will also be banned, and all threads or posts will be removed from the forum. Banned members found creating duplicate accounts will find their ban extended significantly (or permanently), and may risk having their IP address blocked. If you wish to contact the forum staff to discuss a ban, please use the Contact Us link at the bottom of any forum page.

1.5 - Impersonation
You may NOT impersonate other members, Forum Staff, real-world persons, celebrities or public figures.

1.6 - Member Names
Member names may NOT contain any offensive, racist, sexually explicit, profane, abusive or otherwise objectionable terms. Also, you may NOT use a confusing or intentionally misleading member name, such as "Official Reporter" or a member name that is confusingly similiar to that of an existing member, administrator or moderator.


2. GENERAL FORUM ETIQUETTE

2.1 - English Only
GamersHQ is an English-only forum. All content posted in publicly viewable areas of the forum must be written in English.

2.2 - Insults/Flaming
Personal attacks, insults, rudeness, racism, threats, name calling or unnecessarily inflammatory posts will NOT be tolerated. Posts of this nature will be edited or deleted by the Forum Staff without notice. It is important to keep in mind that GamersHQ is a global community and what might be acceptable behavior or language in one country may not be acceptable in others. Common courtesy, politeness and respect for fellow members and forum staff, along with constructive posting of opinions is essential in preventing posts from being edited and/or deleted, or having threads locked.

2.3 - Personal Disputes
Personal issues between members should NOT be debated in the public forum areas. Such threads will be removed, since they often promote an escalation of rudeness, insults, and flaming. If you feel that another member has attacked you unfairly, send a private message to a forum moderator or administrator.

2.4 - Threats/Intimidation
Real life threats of bodily harm, injury or assault (either explicit or implied) or any form of intimidation are STRICTLY PROHIBITED on any part of the GamersHQ website and will ALWAYS result in a ban from the forum.

2.5 - Personal Information
Revealing real world information about a member, administrator or moderator is STRICTLY PROHIBITED, regardless of the source, public or private. This includes any information about a forum member that reveals an individual's legal name, address, occupation or other sensitive or personally identifiable information. All such content WILL BE DELETED, and may result in a temporary or permanent ban from the forum.

2.6 - Private Communication
Posting the content from a private communication in a publicly viewable area of GamersHQ is NOT permitted. Private communications include any medium where the involved parties have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as: emails, chat logs, instant messenger logs, private messages, private forum posts, private social group posts, reputation comments, etc. Such private communications are to remain private, not shared with third parties. Any such private communication content posted on GamersHQ WILL BE DELETED.

2.7 - Profanity
Profanity in thread titles or user titles is NOT permitted. Profanity in posts should be kept to a minimum, and not be used in a comment directed at other members or Forum Staff. While generalizations using profanity and/or foul language may be common in everyday conversation, when used in a direct communication to another person, they can be interpreted as rude or insulting. Excessively profane content may be edited or deleted without notice, and may result in a temporary or permanent ban from the forum, depending on severity.

2.8 - Shouting
You may NOT shout (all capital letters, and/or excessive punctuation) in posts or thread titles. Use caps and punctuation only for minimal emphasis.

2.9 - Illegal Content
Any discussion of, or links to web sites promoting software piracy, warez, illegal downloads, cracks, cd keys, illegal file-sharing, pornography, illegal drugs, or any other illegal or similar content WILL BE DELETED without notice. Such discussions and links are totally inappropriate on GamersHQ (and often illegal in the US, Europe and most other countries).

2.10 - Administrator/Moderator Criticism
Criticism of these forum rules, or Forum Staff implementation of these forum rules is NOT permitted in any publicly viewable area of the forum. Such content WILL BE DELETED without notice. If you disagree with how the forum is being moderated or administered, please use the Contact Us link at the bottom of any forum page to contact the Forum Staff. If you are unclear about the purpose or interpretation of one of the forum rules, either contact an administrator via private message, or consult the GamersHQ Rules Discussion thread.

2.11 - Word Filter Circumvention
Certain offensive words, terms or links are automatically filtered by the forum software. Such filtered words will be replaced with exclamation points (e.g. !!!!!!!). Any attempts to circumvent the automated forum word filter (such as by adding spaces/dots/punctuation, using colors or text markups, or by substituting characters) will result in the offending content being edited or deleted, and may result in a ban from the forum.

2.12 - Affiliate Links/Solicitation
Advertising real life items or services, the posting of affiliate or referral links, or any other form of solicitation is NOT permitted on GamersHQ (this includes member profiles or any other publicly viewable area). If you would like to advertise on GamersHQ, please use the Contact Us link at the bottom of any forum page to inquire. Similarly, promotion of or posting links to charities or other services soliciting donations or money is NOT permitted.

2.13 - Excessive Website Promotion
Excessive promotion or spamming of links to personal websites, gaming forums, etc. is NOT permitted. Members are welcome to add links to their website in their signatures and/or profiles. However, any member found to be abusing this privilege by spamming links, or making useless/frivilous posts simply to display a signature (sig spamming) may receive a ban from the forum.


3. DISCUSSION AND POSTING

3.1 - Spamming/Flooding/Trolling/Sig Spamming
The following are NOT permitted on GamersHQ:

• Spamming - Posting the same thread in multiple forums, or posting the same post in multiple threads, or sending unsolicited private messages to members.
• Flooding - Posting many times in succession in a single thread.
• Trolling - Constant harrassment of a member, or repeated off-topic and/or rude posts in a thread.
• Sig Spamming - Creating pointless, off topic, or otherwise frivilous posts for the sole purpose of displaying a signature.

Depending on severity, content in violation of this rule will be edited or deleted, and may result in a ban from the forum.

3.2 - Off Topic
Please make every effort to keep your posts relevant to the active thread topic. Detours usually take a thread wildly off topic, and invite others to do the same. Off topic posts (and any responses to such posts) may be deleted without notice.

3.3 - Thread Location
Please make an effort to post new threads in the appropriate forum or subforum. Posting threads in the proper section makes the forum easier to browse for all members and visitors, and reduces the workload for our volunteer moderators and administrators. If you are unsure where to post a new thread, please take the time to read the forum descriptions in order to familiarize yourself with the focus of the various available forums and subforums. Threads posted in an inappropriate forum will be moved without notice.

3.4 - Crossposting
You may NOT crosspost (creating redundant threads that link to or promote an existing thread for the purpose of gaining extra visibility). Such threads will be closed or deleted without notice.

3.5 - Necroposting
Pointlessly bumping of dormant, inactive threads causes confusion for other members and visitors who may not notice the original thread post date. A thread is considered inactive if there have been no replies in the last four (4) months. Posting in an inactive thread is strongly discouraged, unless there is a very good reason for reactivating the thread. If you feel an issue or topic from an inactive thread deserves renewed discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum or subforum.

3.6 - Real-world Controversial Discussion
Discussion of real world politics, nationalism, religion, war, or other similarly controversial topics is NOT permitted or appropriate for this forum. GamersHQ is a global community with gamers from many different countries around the world, so discussion of such topics often disrupts the forum community. Therefore, refrain from starting or participating in any such discussions, as they WILL BE DELETED from the forum.

3.7 - Posting for Banned Members
Members are NOT permitted to post on behalf of any member permanently or temporarily banned from GamersHQ. Similarly, members are NOT permitted to allow any banned member to use their GamersHQ account to circumvent a ban (See Rule 1.3 above).

3.8 - Bumping of Threads
Needless bumping of threads is not permitted.

3.9 - Frivolous Posts
Please refrain from making pointless and unnecessary posts in threads, such as "First Post!!!" "In before the lock!" or "LOL!!" or other very short messages that add little to a discussion. Frivolous posts such as these will be deleted without notice.

3.10 - Quotes
Quoting very large posts in their entirety is NOT permitted. Please limit quotes of other posts to those portions that are directly relevant to your reply or response. Doing so makes replies easy to follow for fellow members, and helps reduce unnecessary scrolling when reading a thread.


4. IMAGES, AVATARS AND SIGNATURES

4.1 - Third Party Images
All images embedded in threads, posts or blog entries MUST be uploaded to the GamersHQ Gallery, or to your personal member Album. In order to prevent broken links, the use of third-party image hosting sites is NOT permitted.

4.2 - Image Sizes
Any image embedded in a thread, post or blog entry that horizontally expands the forum tables or otherwise disrupts the website layout will be edited or deleted without notice. For large images that you wish to include in a post, please use the thumbnail display or direct link options.

4.3 - Objectional Image Content
Pornographic, sexually explicit or excessively violent imagery is NOT permitted anywhere on GamersHQ. Obscene images, pornography, or offensive content related to gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and any other imagery or language that the Forum Staff deems inappropriate WILL BE DELETED without notice. This rule also applies to avatar, profile and signature images. In most cases, a member will be sent a private message requesting that the image in question be replaced, unless the material is extremely offensive, in which case it will be immediately removed without notice.

4.4 - Image Category
When uploading images to the forum gallery, please make an effort to place them in the most suitable gallery category. Doing so makes the gallery easier to browse for members. Images posted in improper categories may be moved without notice.

4.5 - Signature Limits
Text used in your signature may not be overly long, may not use characters larger than “SIZE=3” and may only contain five (5) lines of text. Please limit graphical signatures to 500x120 pixels. One 500x120 pixel image and one line of text is acceptable, but not an image along with a large amount of text. Please keep your signature as small as possible, since large signatures clutter the forum and cause unnecessary amounts of scrolling when reading threads. Note that signatures are only displayed in a member's first post of a thread page.

---

DEFINITIONS

Publicly Viewable:
Forum threads, posts, member profiles, blogs, signatures, custom titles, reputation comments, thread tags, social group messages, calendar events and descriptions, public profile messages, GamersHQ chatroom text, gallery images and comments, member album images and comments, or any other area with content viewable by other members or visitors.

Forum Staff:
The owners, operators, administrators and moderators of GamersHQ.com.


NOTES

While the above rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate all circumstances. Consequently, the Forum Staff reserves the right to take any actions deemed appropriate to uphold the Mission of GamersHQ, to ensure that the forum is not disrupted or abused in any way, or to protect GamersHQ Staff and members from fraud, harassment or abuse.

Please be aware that it is impossible for the Forum Staff to review all content posted on GamersHQ. The Forum Staff does its best to keep discussions positive, on topic and polite, and to enforce the forum rules fairly and consistently. We encourge members to help us in this effort by making use of the Report Post tool (the red triangle located in the lower left corner of each post) whenever one feels a post is offensive, inappropriate or violates these rules. This will enter the offending post into the moderation queue, and will result in quicker attention from the Forum Staff. For other content that may be in violation of these forum rules or otherwise objectionable, please use the Contact Us link at the bottom of any forum page to alert the Forum Staff.

The Forum Staff reserves the right to edit, delete, alter or remove any content that violates these forum rules or the GamersHQ Terms of Service with or without notice. The Forum Staff also reserves the right to restrict the permissions or ability of any member to access any or all parts of GamersHQ.com for violation of these forum rules or for any other reason.

The more general right to refuse access, ban a user, block an IP address, or otherwise restrict the functionality of GamersHQ.com content or services in any way and for any reason is reserved by the GamersHQ administrators.

Circumstances and situations may arise that periodically require a revision of these forum rules. As such, GamersHQ administrators reserve the right to modify and/or expand the official rules of this forum at any time. We encourage you to periodically visit this page to advise yourself of the latest rules.

The Forum Staff shall be the sole and final arbitrators of what does or does not violate these rules and/or GamersHQ community standards.

The decisions of the Forum Staff are final.

These forum rules are supplemental to the GamersHQ.com Terms of Service Agreement. In any case of conflict or contradiction, the Terms of Service Agreement supersedes these forum rules.

---

GamersHQ Forum Rules effective as of April 3, 2009.

GamersHQ Forum Rules last modified on April 6, 2009.