Miscrits Dreamland Forum Rules

The rules are to ensure that forum members respect the values of other members, and are to protect members and of the community to ensure that it is an enjoyable and safe experience for all its members.You may be punished for breaking these rules - please review the “Infractions and bans” section below. The text to the right of each rule indicates the infractions that may be awarded for breaking the rules. While the following rules apply to the community as a whole, some forums within the community may impose extra rules, so please check for rules in such forums before you post. If you have any questions about the following rules, please don't hesitate to contact a higher staff member (that is, a Super Moderator, or any Administrator).

SPAM is not allowed. (3 pts / 3 mths)
Don’t post Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages - this includes meaningless posts, or posts with no relevance to the thread. Such posts often do not add anything to a thread and hence may be removed.

Everybody is to respect other people on the board. (3 pts / 4 mths)
The Forums is open to anyone. Do not threaten, harass or insult your fellow members, or launch personal attacks against any of them. Please respect the beliefs of other members. If someone acts uncivil, or harasses/intimidates you, you are not given the excuse to act the same in retaliation. If you disagree with the conduct of other members, please contact a staff member.

No "trolling". (3 pts / 4 mths)
Inflammatory or irrelevant messages with the sole intent of provoking other users or inciting controversy is considered "trolling". We consider trolling to be unacceptable as it undermines the friendly environment that we aim for. At the discretion of the staff, any posts we believe are attempts of trolling will be removed, and continued offenses will result in any involved members being infracted.

Foul language is unacceptable. (3 pts / 4 mths)
As the Dreamland Forums is a place for people of all ages, please do not use words that may be considered offensive. Many swear words are automatically filtered, so intentionally bypassing the filter may result in an infraction. Do not use certain words in ways that may offend people. As an example, using words such as "gay" in a derogatory manner can result in an infraction. You may also be infracted if you use a censored term (which will be replaced with asterisks) to provoke or attack someone.

Pornographic images must not be submitted anywhere on the community. (Ban - Permanent)
In no section of the community can an image or link to a pornography site be submitted. Deliberately posting inappropriate content will lead to an immediate, permanent ban, regardless of a member's status or position.


Avoid double posting or consecutive posts. (3 pts / 2 mths)
Please try to avoid making more than one post in a row. Edit posts if you need to add more content to them. Exceptions apply, but only in forums that specifically allow it under their rules.

Do not post in threads that have not been posted in for more than a month. (2 pts / 2 wks)
A thread that has not been posted in for more than a month (generally around 30 days) is considered “old”. Please do not revive old threads. For restarting topics, create a new thread. Exceptions do apply in certain forums.

No unsolicited advertising. (Existing members: 2 pts / 1 mth, Joining to advertise: Ban - Permanent)
Advertising web sites or forums is not permitted. If you’d like to link to a website, then it must be about MISCRITS,nothing more. The only acceptable advertising may be done in your signature. Members found to be joining for the purpose of advertising may be irrevocably banned. It is left to the discretion of the staff to decide whether a link to a website or forum may be considered advertising. Unacceptable forms of linking may be edited without question.

The Forums is not a platform to sell goods or services. (3 pts / 3 mths)

Illegal content may not be posted. (4 pts / 4 mths)
The community does not allow discussion of illegal materials - this includes the illegal distribution of TV shows, video games (including ROMs), music, or software. You may not discuss how to obtain these materials or link to sites with these materials.

Infractions and bans

The Forums has an Infractions system for dealing with members who constantly break rules. The infractions system runs on a system of points, so if you break a rule, you will be given infraction points as a result. The points you may receive will vary depending on the severity of the offense. If you accumulate enough infraction points, your account will be suspended and you will be unable to access the forums. Listed to the right of each rule above are possible infraction points for breaking that particular rule. Some forums may also impose additional infractions, so please read the rules for those forums for any infractions that may apply.

Generally when you break a rule for the first time, you may be warned, indicated by a Yellow Card or "Warning".
This is more of a cautionary message and does not award you any infraction points. It is usually given before a Red Card.

For more severe offenses, or for if you continue to break rules, you will be awarded a Red Card or "Infraction".
Each red card has infraction points associated with them. Most red cards will expire after a given amount of time and will have no value. Red cards can also "stack" - if you continue to break a specific rule, the time for a related infraction to that rule may increase as a result.

Whenever you've received an infraction, you'll receive a private message listing the infraction, the reason you were infracted, and the offending post (if applicable). You can check your infractions or warnings under the Infractions tab in your profile.

Infraction points do have bearing, as they lead to bans. When you hit a specific point level or have received a certain amount of infractions, you will be banned for the times listed below:
If you earn up to or have exceeded 9 infraction points, your account will be suspended for two weeks.
Earning 15 points or more will result in your account being suspended for one month.
Earning 18 points or more or at least 10 infractions, whether expired or not will result in a three month suspension.
You will be banned permanently if you accumulate 20 points or more.
In addition, receiving 15 cards or more, whether expired or not, will also result in your account being banned permanently.

If you disagree with an infraction or ban you've received, you must bring it up with either the moderator that awarded the infraction, or a higher staff member. This is to be done via PM only, do not post a thread or post a visitor message about it.

e PC staff has been working on a totally new warning system (though those of you who are familiar with other vBulletin forums may already be accustomed to it), and we're finally ready to put it to use across the forum. It's a bit more complicated than the current way we do warnings, so it'll probably take a couple of reads through this to fully understand. If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask in this thread and one of us will be happy to explain further to you.

The new system is called the Infractions system, and overall, it's going to make it easier on not only us (the forum staff), but for you (regular members) as well. Though hopefully most of you will never receive an infraction, those of you that do will be able to keep track of your offenses in a much more organized way, making it easier to avoid getting more warnings in the future (which can eventually lead to bans).

The infractions system works in "points", when you break a rule and get an infraction for it, you get infraction points as a result. The number of points you get depends on how bad your breaking of a rule is-- more severe infractions give you more points than lesser severe ones. (Just to reiterate, points are a BAD thing. The less points you have, the better you're doing. 0 is best. It may seem silly to say that, but I just don't want any confusion with cash/shop/money systems some people may have used on other forums. XD)


Infractions "expire" after a certain period of time, again depending on how severe the offense is, while extremely severe infractions will never expire. The point of expiration is to award people who have infractions for good behavior. As an example, an infraction for spamming is worth 3 points and lasts 3 months. If you're given the "Constant SPAM" infraction, 3 points will be added to your total for 3 months. After 3 months, those points will be taken away. However, if you get the same infraction ("Constant SPAM") within those 3 months, you'll get 3 more points and 3 more months will be added to however much time you have left from the first one.

That may seem confusing, so I'll try to break it down further with another example.

Say "Brian" is spamming and causing trouble, and gets the "Constant SPAM" infraction because of it. Before this, he hadn't broken any rules, so his infraction points were at 0. By getting this infraction, he now has 3 infraction points total.

Brian, not wanting to get another infraction, stops his spamming. A month later, however, he's back to his old tricks-- spamming again. He's given the same infraction, "Constant SPAM", which brings his total number of infraction points to 6. His first infraction was only a month old, meaning he had two months left before it expired. His second infraction added three more months to what he had before, making his total until the points expire equal five months. He's now at six points, and he's stuck with them for five months. If Brian were to get the infraction again one week later, he would be at 9 infraction points and he would have to wait seven months and three weeks until they expire.

Simple enough, right? Another example, perhaps.

Jane is the culprit this time, spamming up threads in MCG. She gets the "Constant SPAM" infraction, bringing her total number of infraction points to 3. From then on, Jane follows the rules precisely. Three months pass, and her infraction expires. Her infraction points are now at 0. Because those three months went by without her getting any more infractions, the points for that infraction were taken away from her total.

(If you're still having trouble grasping this, post here in this thread with any questions you may have.)

So, how are infractions given? Infractions can be given one of two ways. The first, and probably most common, is from a post (since the majority of rules are broken in posts-- go figure).

If one of your posts breaks a rule, you'll be given an infraction for it. When that happens, you'll see a "card" displayed in the bottom right of your post ( / , the difference between yellow and red will be explained later).[tr][/tr]