Forum Rules

IrateRedKite

The Starport is a safe haven for everyone. Please respect these simple rules in order to facilitate the interactions and daily workings of these forums and enjoy your stay.

Global Rules

Do not flame! This includes any rudeness, insult, personal attack, bashing, attack against a particular trait (racism, sexism, etc.) or any other sort of inflammatory post. Please remember flaming in response to a flame is also an offense.
Do not post spam or advertise.
Do not link to or post about torrents, pornography or any other kind of illegal activity.
Do not make meaningless posts or posts which do not pertain to the forum/thread they are posted in (off-topic posts or hijacking).
Do not post short posts such as “okay” or “I agree”.
Do not double/multi-post; the Edit button is available to all for a reason!
Do not make more than one account. If you are having technical issues which require you to make more than one account, please advise a Staff member as soon as possible.

Additional Guidelines and Notices

Notice: While these are not technically rules, they are highly suggested guidelines to which everyone should adhere.

Remember that if you want to chat or speak to a certain person, it is best to do so through private messages or via your favourite instant messenger. The forums are not there for personal discussions.
The Starport does not control what is being exchanged through private messages; if you are being sent offensive material through private messages, you can contact a Staff member or attempt to resolve the matter with the sender.
The authority of Staff members must be seen as absolute and definitive. You are of course free to contest any action through private messages, but do not reply to the Staff directly discussing moderation via forum posts. It is recommended to contact a Staff member other than the one you are having a problem with.
A Staff member must always give reason for any action he or she has done. If you did not get an explanation, please send a private message to the Staff member for additional insight. It is best to first contact the Staff member before doing anything else!
If you see anything you consider offensive, whether directed at yourself or at someone else, please report it to a Staff member as soon as possible. Remember the Staff sometimes does not notice offending material right away or that the material may be seen as correct by some and incorrect by others.
Please verify dates on the threads before replying! If you have purposeful information to add that would give new value to the thread you want to post in, go ahead. Otherwise, make sure whatever you want to say is necessary or if you’d be better off making a whole new thread instead.

Sanctions

If you break the rules, you will be given one of the following sanctions, depending on the severity of the offense. As noted above, you are free to contest the decision through private messages.

Warning: This is the most common sanction and basically is only a notice so you know you’ve done something wrong. No actual penalty is associated with this.
Suspension: If you get repeated small offenses, you likely will be suspended for a certain period of time. This means you will be able to freely read the forums, but not reply or create new threads.
Temporary Ban: This is reserved for the most extreme repeated offenders or first-time large offenses. You will not be able to access the forums for the decided period.
Full Ban: This is an exceptional measure for critical offenses such as posting pornography or outright disrespect. You will never be able to access the forums again.

Offending posts, depending on their nature, will be edited and/or locked. We try to refrain from deleting posts, but will generally deal with moderation on a case-by-case basis.

IrateRedKite

These rules have been lightly paraphrased from the original set written by @FriendlyFire that can be found here. They served very well for the better part of 15 years, and we’ll be using them going forward into the future.