Moderator Notes and Guidelines- please take the time to read

[DilanMelis]

"We would also ask that you do not use animated avatars as they are distracting when trying to read text on the same page and they generally have a larger file size which can slow down page loading."

Some members seem to have forgotten this. Next time I see a moving avatar, I will kindly ask you to please remove it =]

[Rainbowstar]

Here's a reminder:

Posts have to be readable to everyone.  Remember, this is a public international forum, which means very young people, older people, and 'foreign' people come to this site, people who are not necessarily that comfortable with the English language.  A post without spaces, or with too many colours, or too many smileys, can be distracting, and hard to understand for someone like that.  So please stick to English that uses the right spelling, right grammar, and the proper English vocabulary. (I do know I don't always do this myself, but my excuse is that I'm one of those foreign people so sometimes I just don't know when I make a mistake)

This includes avoiding the use of text speak, abbreviations, too many capital letters, too many punctuation marks,...

To enforce this, I will delete every post I come across that is not following these rules, and send the poster a PM message telling them which post is removed, and that they can repost a cleaned up version.

Yes it probably is me being a teacher that makes me really dislike these types of posts, but in the long run this will help you, because later in life when you have to start writing official letters/reports/ whatever, at least you'll have learned it here as well as school.

[Rainbowstar]

I'm sick of reminding people to elaborate, explain, don't post with just "I agree" or something along those lines.  basically if you write 10 words, but all you really say is still 'I agree', then it's still a meaningless post.  In the last week or so I've had to tell people to elaborate and explain things almost 10 or 15 times, if not more, and obviously no one reads them, so for now, until I see people actually start paying attention to their posts, I'm deleting the posts that contribute nothing to the topic.  So the short posts that don't add anything.

And another warning.  1 more ridiculous twist in the "never ending" stories, or once more that i see a single (half) sentence in stead of a paragraph I'm locking them all.  Permanently.  I already temporarily locked the Alex Rider one, but it doesn't seem to have changed much

[Rainbowstar]

Think before you post.  Read topics before you post in them.

So often there are posts in here with comments that have been made before, or questions that have been answered before, in the same topic even!  If you were to read the topic before making your own post you'd already know.
Comments are made sometimes that are completely senseless, or have a bit of a "duh" reaction.  If you think for like a second before posting, you'd know!

So read topics, think logically for a minute or two, and then consider whether your post is still needed.

[DilanMelis]

Please remember that not everybody has the same colour background, so keep the colours readable
Also, try not to have avatars that take up too much space or are too animated because they are hard to load up on dial-up. Same with sigs.
Thanks guys

I've seen this with a couple of people already.  I don't mind you using colours in your post, it can help emphasize something, and it gives them a personal touch.  But could everyone please stick to lighter colours?  Because the darker colours (dark blue, dark green, black,...) are pretty hard to read against the dark background

There have been two warnings already. From now on, if I catch people still using unreadable/eye burning colours, I'm just changing them with no warning.

[Rainbowstar]

OK, I've been rereading the rules and guidelines, and I've noticed that there's one guideline that we've already applied for at least a year now, but that has never actually been mentioned, so I'll mention it now.

Games topics (like word games, number games, roleplay games,...) are generally not allowed here, because they generally end up to be spam topics, used by people to up their post count.  This is not some rule/guideline we pulled out of our heads just like that, this is because we've had them before and they got completely out of hand.
I'd like to remind all of you that this is the OFFICIAL Anthony Horowitz forum, and that the main feature here should be his work, another reason to not put those types of topics up. There are forums specifically created with the idea of playing such games, you can go play them there (after all, no one ever said you couldn't be on 2 forums ).

There is one role play topic that uses official role playing rules.  It is currently right in the middle of it's storyline, but when it's finished another one will be started, and all those that want to join, can do so at that time

[Claudi - Ann]

I would please like to make a request. I have noticed a few times that the signature banners are getting to big. Please remember there is a restriction for a purpose. Pages will take longer to load and it is extremely distracting to the reader and it can get very frustrating to concentrate on what is being said. So please the next time I find a signature banner that is over the size of 300 by 300 pixels I will ask kindly to remove it and replace it with the correct size if that doesn't work we'll see how far I am willing to take this matter.

[Rainbowstar]

Sorry for this conversation breaking statement, but since can't contribute to that I think I should contribute to this topic somehow

You don't HAVE to contribute to a topic just because it's there.  If you don't have anything to fit the conversation going, don't try to think of something that'll at least fit in the topic.

As always, quality over quantity.  If you can't post something related, then sometimes it's best to simply not post.

[Rainbowstar]

I would like to remind everyone that animated avatars and signatures aren't generally allowed because they are distracting and can really slow down the loading of the pages for some.  All who have one or both of these, could you please change to a non animated one?

[Claudi - Ann]

I've seen this with a couple of people already.  I don't mind you using colours in your post, it can help emphasize something, and it gives them a personal touch.  But could everyone please stick to lighter colours?  Because the darker colours (dark blue, dark green, black,...) are pretty hard to read against the dark background

I believe this is the fourth warning. Please, do not use the dark colours unless you have a tendency to blind people. Please, this is rather a point that needs to made too often. I will from now on, if an eye burning colour is spotted I will change to the default colour. So please keep the colours easy to see, not everyone has a theme and not everyone can see the darker colours. Rather use neutral colours and default.

[Rainbowstar]

A word on Quoting Posts

I have noticed that this is something a lot of members do.  It's fine to quote posts to show what you're responding to, in fact that's the whole purpose on the quote feature, and it makes things so much easier.  However, often it's only a small part of a larger post, or the post that you quote has already got other quotes in it.  That means that sometimes you end up with a post with more quoted text than text of your own!

Please try to avoid this by either:
- deleting all the irrelevant text out of the quote
- copying the specific part you want to reply on, and putting that in the quote code:

Code:

[quote] copied text [/quote]

Thank you!

[Claudi - Ann]

I would please like to make a request. I have noticed a few times that the signature banners are getting to big. Please remember there is a restriction for a purpose. Pages will take longer to load and it is extremely distracting to the reader and it can get very frustrating to concentrate on what is being said. So please the next time I find a signature banner that is over the size of 300 by 300 pixels I will ask kindly to remove it and replace it with the correct size if that doesn't work we'll see how far I am willing to take this matter.

Please, this is the second time I am asking this. It is getting out of hand. Please make sure that this is obeyed, the rule is there for a reason. So to make this more understanding,

The next time I find a signature banner that is over the size of 300 by 300 pixels I will ask kindly to remove it and replace it with the correct size if that doesn't work we'll see how far I am willing to take this matter.

[Rainbowstar]

A summary of the general notes and guidelines for those of you who have missed the gist:

• Do not make topics at random.  Think about what subject it is, and check whether it already exists.  Use the search option.  Put them in the right section of the board
• Posts have to be meaningful and contributing to the conversation going on.  This means no posts that could be summarized in about 5 words or less!
• Elaborate, on your topics and on your opinions.  If you like something, explain why.  If you post something about an author/musician/topic/... provide either a summary of your own, or a link to some more information.  Preferably, do both
• Do not use text speak and leet speak.  Also don't use too many abbreviations.
• Don't use colours that aren't readable in some backgrounds.  It might look good in the theme your using, but it could blind someone else in another theme
• Don't use signatures and avatars that are too big/animated.
• Everyone's entitled to their opinion.  no racism, no flaming and no discrimination
• Game topics/role play topics/ neverending stories are no longer allowed, because of previous trouble we had with tham
• The main thing (and if you think about this, it pretty much sums up the rest): Quality over Quantity!

Thanks for your attention

[Rainbowstar]

Please do not copy huge amounts of text from just any website and past it here.  If it is a big piece of text, please just provide a link