General Guidelines

Abiding by the following rules will help maintain organization, companionship, and most importantly sanity, to the community.


Posting

* Before starting a new topic, check to see if it is already being discussed. Using the forum’s Search tool allows you to find topics and posts based on keywords that you enter.

* Each forum is specifically labeled with a title and a description. Read these details to find the forum that best suits your topic.

* Please make your post relevant to the topic you are posting in.

* Unless necessary due to post limitations, please refrain from posting in one after another in the same topic. If you forgot to add something to your post, use the user posted image button. Clicking this button allows you to make changes to your post without having to make a new one.


Privileges

So what exactly do you get when you are a part of the Silkroad Online Forums?

* Custom Member Title - You can give yourself a custom member title. Just go to "My Controls" and click "Edit Profile Info". This feature was disabled on the old forums, and was enabled now to give members more freedom. Just don't be an asshole and abuse this privilege by calling yourself administrator, veteran, moderator, banned, suspended, or whatever.

* Personal Message System - Members can store a maximum of 50 personal messages. To help keep your message folders empty, a copy of messages you send will not appear in the Sent Items folder unless you place a check mark in the box when sending the message. The Personal Message System is designed to allow individual users to communicate privately with others; not for advertising, recruiting gang members, spamming, or otherwise. Logs are kept of all PMs sent on the forums and are only used to ensure universal compliance with this rule.

* 500KB Maximum Upload Space - Maximum total global file space for all uploads including PMs and posts.

* 100KB Per-Post Upload Limit - Where uploading files are allowed, you may upload a file to a post or PM up to 100KB in file size. Only upload files that are relevant to the discussion and appropriate for the forum. Abusing this feature will result in removal of upload ability.

* Personal Photo- A common request from the old forums. You can add a small photo of yourself to your profile. Just go to "My Controls" and click "Change Personal Photo". Photos are limited to 200x200 pixels maximum dimension and 100KB in file size. If the only photo that you have of yourself is nude, then please contact bakircioglu and he will direct you to a website that welcomes perverts.

* Can Edit Own Posts - Mainly for members who make a typo or the such.

Restrictions

Now that you know what you can do, let's review what you can't do. Below is a list of what is not tolerated on the forums:


* Posting pornography or nudity

* Unwarranted flaming or insulting

* Initiating or partaking in an argument

* Thread hijacking

* Abusing privileges

* Real-life gang-related or other violence or illegal discussion (we don't really care what 'hood you're reppin', dawg)

* Triple(or more)-posting

* Extreme and excessive ignorance and/or stupidity

* Opposing administrative decisions

* Harassing staff, whether it be on the forums, via PM, on MSN/AIM/Yahoo/ICQ/Googletalk.


Problematic Members
If there is a problem with another member, please contact an administrator. Do not attempt to rectify the situation yourself, as doing so will most likely worsen the situation. If the member in question has directly attacked or insulted you, do not retort. Insulting them back will only prolong the argument and you will put yourself at risk of disciplinary action. Do not contact the staff asking for a particular member to be banned. The staff will determine which members need to be disciplined. Suggesting another member for banishment is not only rude but implies that the staff doesn't pay attention to what happens on the forums. Any problems with members outside of the forums are not subject to the forums jurisdiction and therefore should not be cited as failure to comply with these guidelines.


Duplicate Accounts
Creating more than one account will not be tolerated. If you need to express yourself in more than one way, we prefer mood swings instead of split personalities.



Forum Features & Functions

What does this thing do?


The Forum Help feature contains an overview of the many options available to you on the forums, and can help guide you through using features that you are unsure of how they work. The help feature will most likely answer any questions you may have about the functions of the forum. You can also search the entire list of help topics. If you cannot find what you are looking for in the help topics, you can use the new users board to ask a question.


Authority

Do not get in a staff member's grill. There are six administrators, eight global moderators and then thirteen Warehouse Veterans, who also are global moderators but are just there to look pretty (see "Staffing" below for more information on Warehouse Veterans). Administrators hold the most authority over the operations of the forum and will make the majority of the decisions. If you think a staff member has crossed their boundary of authority, please refer to the section "Reporting Staff Problems" below to learn how to handle such situations.


Staffing
Staff are chosen by G-WizZ, the owner of GTA Warehouse, and are only chosen as needed. Do not ask or imply, either directly or indirectly, to be a staff member. Period.

* Administrators: The owners of the forum.

* Forum Moderators: These Moderators are allowed to moderate over the forums, but have less priviledges then Super Moderators.

* Super Moderators: Global Moderators have control over each board on the forum. These members were chosen based on their attitude towards the community, recurrence on the forums, their level of intelligence, and experience in the field of moderation.

*Elite Members: Members who have shown that they are capable of becoming a Moderator.

Mutiny Reporting Staff Problems

As stated earlier, Administrators hold the most authority on the forum, followed by Veterans and Global Moderators. If you believe any decision made by a staff member is irrational, biased, or in any way objectionable to the rules of common sense, please do not openly bitch and moan about it. To maintain stability among the community, please bring staff complaints to a staff member (preferably an Administrator) other than the one the complaint is against. This will ensure that no arguments will ensue (which is a good thing) and will make for a much quicker resolution to the problem at hand. Please describe the problem as specifically as you can, providing links to the posts or topics in question if possible. Use the Personal Message System to report staff problems. Do not hesitate to report any staff abuse. Every member of the forum is subject to the same regulations, regardless of their position.



Discipline



Warning System

This forum is equipped with a member warning system. Your current warn status is indicated by the five small squares that appear under your information when you post. Staff members are able to increase or decrease your warning level based on offenses.


If you believe a warn was given unjustly, please contact a staff member in the proper manner, as outlined in the "Authority" section earlier in the guidelines. Maintaining respectable behavior and abiding by the rules will ensure you will not receive warnings. If you have a warning level, use the instance to learn from your actions. Keeping good behavior afterwards will help your warning level decrease. Asking if or when your warning level will decrease will not expedite its removal and may lengthen the amount of time before it is lowered.


Suspension

Suspensions will be applied per the outline above or as needed, determinable by the staff. If your account is suspended, you cannot view the forums for a set number of minutes or hours. When the suspension period expires your account will automatically be allowed back onto the forums. Please use the suspension time to think about why you were suspended and how to prevent further need for disciplinary action. Our goal is to maintain a problem-free community. Do not take a suspension as an attack and return from a suspension with revenge on your mind. You won't know what hit you.


NOTE: We will not temporarily suspend your account so you aren't tempted to go on the forums during periods of heavy academic activity. Unplug your fucking modem. Don't try to blame us for your shitty grades.


Banishment

If such a need occurs that the staff feels that you should not be allowed to use the forums at all, your account will be banned, along with your IP address and e-mail address.



If banned, you agree to accept any slander and/or libel and openly invite the members of the community to belittle you endlessly. Simply follow the rules, and you will never have to worry about this section.



The forum guidelines are subject to change without notice and all users remain subject to the rules regardless of any changes made.