Forum Rules

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Although the administrators and moderators of Battlefront Forum will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of Battlefront Forum, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.

By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.

The owners of Battlefront Forum reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

This Agreement is designed to ensure that all Forum Members understand our behavior standards and how we react to violation of those standards.

These Forums are designed to be a fun, informative, and intellectually stimulating place where gamers can feel free to exchange their ideas and communicate with Battlefront's developers directly. It can be seen as both a tool to help create better games as well as a place for gamers to get together and discuss relevant issues without being distracted, disrupted, or discouraged by abusive personalities so prevalent in unmoderated settings.

Disagreement between Members is not only expected, it is generally desirable because it is impossible to have an intellectually meaningful Forum if everybody agrees 100% of the time. However, there is a very big difference between a respectful disagreement (argument) and an abusive exchange (fight). It is our job, as moderators and Members alike, to know the difference between these two things and to react positively towards the former and negatively towards the latter. Otherwise these Forums will become like so many other Forums... effectively useless.

Members who violate the rules are given a warning which specifies exactly what he/she is in violation of. Usually a repeat offense results in the Member being banned from the Forum for good or, at a minimum, a defined period of time (usually 2-4 weeks). Very rarely a Member steps so far over the line that instant banishment occurs without a warning. In all cases the warnings and punishments are posted in the thread where the incident took place.

Posts and threads are not deleted, nor edited, unless there is an extreme violation. In over 10 years and 1,500,000+ posts we can think of only 2 or 3 posts that were ever deleted. The public nature of the punishment procedures allows Members to see for themselves how situations are handled and why. Moderators who hide behind their powers do not deserve to be Moderators!

Basic Rules

1. Be constructive. The concept of these Forums is to exchange ideas and game suggestions in order to better the experience or understanding of Battlefront's products or topics related to them. Battlefront and Members should welcome constructive criticism, but be free from abusive or otherwise unconstructive behavior. For example, here are two possible ways to offer criticism:

THE WRONG WAY - "YOUR GAMES SUCK, YOU SUCK, EVERYTHING BUT ME SUCKS! YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELLS OF ELDERBERRIES!!!!"

THE RIGHT WAY - "I have been playing [game title] and have serious questions about the realism of [game feature]. I feel this is a major error which reduces my enjoyment of the game. It seems, from what I have read, that [unit name] are too powerful. In fact, all units of [unit type] appear to be too powerful. For example, according to [source] the real range of a ...."

The right way fosters the correct environment for productive, positive discourse while the wrong way does exactly the opposite. If a Member can't grasp this basic concept, then he/she really shouldn't be here.

2. No foul language, even if it isn't directed at an individual. Foul language is, of course, a relative concept since what is offensive to one is not necessarily offensive to all. Members that use common sense will not find themselves in violation.

3. There is no legitimate or innocent reason to have multiple accounts, therefore discovery that a single person has multiple accounts means an instant banishment from these Forums.

4. Members agree, through use of this service, that this Forum will not be used to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law. Members agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by self, Battlefront.com, or its agents.

5. Blatant advertisements for non-Battlefront product , chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also prohibited from these Forums.

Abusive Personalities

Abusive personalities are only tolerated for as long as it takes to identify patterns of behavior and to assure the Moderators, and the Forum Members in general, that the violator is beyond redemption. This can be a tricky thing to ascertain sometimes because often the basic behavior is normal and acceptable if occasionally displayed. An abusive personality takes advantage of this fact in order to obscure his/her real motivations. When confronted the Member takes a "who me? I'm sweet and innocent" position, which on the surface looks plausible to uniformed Members. This inevitably causes a controversy which the violator hopes will make it impossible for the Moderator to act. Since such manipulative personalities must not be allowed to flout the rules, the more a Member fits one or more of the following violations, the greater the chance the Member will be banned from these Forums:

1. Sniper - enters a discussion with a very strongly worded post and then departs the thread. If an opinion is worth expressing then it is worth defending if challenged. Snipers do not wish to be challenged, therefore their opinions are worth nothing. Members that make a habit out of this behavior are doing so for selfish reasons which are detrimental to the purpose of the Forum.

2. Agent Provocateur - similar to a Sniper, but without overtly running away after the initial volley. Instead, an Agent Provocateur sticks around to make sure that the thread remains heated or otherwise unproductive, yet will not engage in the discussion itself in any meaningful way.

3. Dodger - unlike a Sniper (who hits and runs) or an Agent Provocateur (who hits and keeps poking) a Dodger is someone who wants to engage in the discussion, but only if it is on their terms. When the Dodger is challenged he/she carefully selects which elements to defend and which ones to ignore. While this is a common debating tactic, it can be taken to an extreme where the person repeatedly avoids very direct lines of inquiry, facts, or other points of discussion despite being "called out". This is a deliberate attempt to "win" the argument by frustrating the opposing view into withdrawing. People that habitually engage in selective debates degrade the quality of discussion to the point of futility, therefore Members that show a pattern of such tactics are a detriment to the Forum as a whole.

4. Hijacker - topics are created around a certain idea and the first post usually defines its scope. Threads naturally shift, expand, and contract as they progress. Some people, however, try to unnaturally change the subject or scope for one or more reasons. Usually it is to get the attention of one or more people actively posting in that particular thread. Unintentional hijacking is common so usually a friendly indication of this by a fellow Member is all that is needed to put things right again. However, very rarely a Member does this habitually and therefore is a general distraction to the Forum as a whole.

5. Axe Grinder - it is only natural that people will occasionally have to agree to disagree. An Axe Grinder is someone who goes out of his/her way to make sure that such a topic remains a thorn in the side of an individual or the Forums in general. Usually it resurfaces in the form of snide comments or opinions restated as if previous debates never occurred. This causes old arguments, that likely have no resolution, to spark up again. This is inherently different from a "pet peeve" that is brought up within the context of some discussion, especially if it is acknowledged that opinions differ. Though after a while the distinction may be lost due to repetition.

6. Stalker - Members have a basic right to privacy on these Forums. Each Member decides for themselves how much, or little, they wish to reveal about their non-Forum lives. A Stalker is someone who, for their own selfish reasons, decides to reveal more than a Member wishes known. For example, revealing a person's telephone number, address, place of work, etc. It doesn't matter if this information is available elsewhere on the Internet or not, only if it is generally available on the Battlefront Forums or not. It is, therefore, important for Members to be consistent with how much information they reveal about themselves since if it's posted within the Forum it's fair game to use appropriately.

7. Baiter - someone who purposefully goads another Member into a violation. People who make a habit of trying to needle someone into doing something they ordinarily wouldn't do are a detriment to the sense of community and therefore will be held accountable for their actions. That being said, Members are still responsible for how they respond to a Baiter, therefore it is possible that both parties will find themselves banned (though perhaps for different durations).

8. Spammer - someone who starts threads, or adds posts, that have absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of the Forum posted in. Like many other violations, the occasional off-topic thread/post isn't a big deal, only a pattern of such behavior is.

Legal Disclaimer

Battlefront does not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of Battlefront.com or any entity associated with it. Members remain solely responsible for the content of their messages, and agree to indemnify and hold harmless Battlefront and their agents with respect to any claim based upon transmission of messages.