Rules and Guidelines for Forum Membership and Posting

Requirements to participate:

By Registering, you acknowledge that you will abide by all BattleTech (BT) Forum Posting Rules. Failure to abide by these rules may result in temporary or permanent removal of your posting privileges.

Opinions, advice and all other information expressed by participants in discussions are those of the author. You rely on such information at your own risk. The Mod/Admin Team or Catalyst Game Labs will NOT be held responsible for the content of any message posted in the BattleTech Message Board

Forum Guidelines

The following are guidelines affecting particular behaviors on the BattleTech forums. All users are required to follow these guidelines. If you do not, the Moderators will contact you to make any necessary changes to your user account or forum posting habits. You will not receive an official forum Warning (see below) If you comply with these requests in a polite and timely manner.

Your first five posts

You will be required to enter a code each time you post on these forums for the first five times. This is to verify that you’re human (or at least not a spambot). Making trivial posts purely to get past this limit – things like “+1”, or “I’m with stupid” – will result in moderator attention.

User Signatures and Signature Image guidelines

You may only have one image, that image may not pass 640 pixels in width. You are allowed 112px total height for your image AND text. For text a 1024px wide display will be used to determine if your signature is too tall.

Using the forums

User Designs

The BattleTech forum has an entire sub-section for home-brew and original designs of ‘Mechs, aerofighters, battle armor, vehicles and all other types of equipment as well as home-brew rules. Please post your designs in the relevant sub-forum, put rules in the Fan Designs & Rules root, and do not post designs in other forums – such as the Fan Articles forums, General Discussion, etc.

Fan Imagery

Fan-created artwork belongs in the Fan Art section. Material posted directly into the forums using an IMG tag should preferably be restricted to sizes of no more than 600 pixels on a side for the convenience of other users who may be on slower or bandwidth-limited connections or smaller screen sizes. While isolated instances of going over the limits may be tolerated, repeated violations will be handled by the forum moderation staff as they deem appropriate. Please feel free to include a link back to the full-size or high resolution version in your post for users who are interested in seeing the full thing. Be aware that images must still follow all of the normal forum rules regarding acceptable material (see below). Because they cannot be filtered by the forums software, the forum moderation staff will issue a warning for Rule 2 if images you post contain profanity; the normal rules regarding complete censoring still apply as well. While posting images in relevant threads is acceptable (particularly in the case of miniatures), excessive posting outside the appropriate forums is discouraged.

It is acceptable to post your design or fan work in the appropriate sub-forum, and then provide a link to that thread in posts in relevant threads in another forum.

Roleplay

The forums in general are not a roleplaying venue. Please restrict “in character” commentary to the Roleplaying boards. While a limited amount of joking around or pseudo-in character banter is tolerated, excessive amounts outside those boards may be deemed off-topic or otherwise result in the forum moderation staff taking action. Extended “in character” monologues may also be posted in Fan Fiction.

If you have any questions regarding these directions, forum rules, or other topics related to the forums, please feel free to contact the Moderators or Forum Administrators via private message or leave a post in the Website and Forum Support forum. (These are the users with the red or blue BattleMaster icons under their names.)

Posting Rules

1. Proper Conduct

Confront an opinion, rather than a person; personal attacks of any kind are not tolerated. Proper conduct includes treating each other with respect.

The posting of messages or materials that are obscene, abusive, discriminatory or threatening in nature, or designed to harass or intimidate another person are not tolerated.

We encourage lively debate about a number of topics, however when you object to a post to the point where you intend to attack the poster, contact the Moderators. The post may also be objectionable to us, in which case a heated response will just get you in trouble as well.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact Moderators directly, or by using the “Report To Moderator” button available at the bottom right of any post.

2. Language

Hate speech of any form is not allowed.

Excessive use of swearwords in member posts is also not allowed since this is a PG-13 site.

Links to websites with swearwords are allowed if the poster provides a content warning along with the link. This exception only works for rule 2. Links to content against other forum rules, like adult websites, will receive a warning.

This forum has a language filter in place designed to catch words we object to. Filtered words are automatically replaced with ****** upon posting. The language filter is not perfect and doesn’t include non-English swearwords. If you are unsure whether a word is allowed or not, contact the moderators.

If a poster is unsure whether or not a word will be filtered by the forum’s filter prior to posting, we suggest using the Preview function.

This forum does not tolerate posters bypassing the language filter. Self-censoring will result in a poster being issued an official warning, even words that would pass the forum’s language filter.

3. Don’t start trouble

Posts the Moderators consider overly confrontational will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, trolling and ignoring in thread requests from moderators.

Additionally, this rule covers actions that span more than a few posts. This includes deliberate, conscious and continued antisocial behaviours like thread crapping. If you have a problem with the basic premise of a discussion such that you wish it weren’t taking place at all, just ignore it. Blotching the thread with confrontational posts that don’t add anything to the discussion will infringe rule 3.

4. No politics or religion

Real World Politics and Religion are topics not allowed for discussion on this board.
Be aware that historical discussions can often involve sensitive issues that may be warnable. Tread carefully around such topics.

When in doubt, it’s wise to check with a Moderator or Admin.

5. Off Topic

All Off Topic posts belong on the Off-Topic board. Off-topic posts should be limited to non-controversial subjects.

6. Privacy

No posting other people’s personal information without their express permission.

7. Leave problems at the door

Do not bring problems or flame wars from other message boards or webpages to this one, or personal issues from any other source. You have a problem with someone, DO NOT bring it in here.

8. Contribute

Do not post without contributing to the discussion at hand. This will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

The odd frivolous post won’t attract attention, but systematic behavior and thread hijacking will be addressed with Warnings and Bans as necessary. Posts may be moved or deleted in these cases. This rule will be especially enforced in a few selected threads, like the News thread in the General Forum, for obvious reasons.

9. No trading, soliciting or commerce

Do not offer to buy, sell or trade anything on these forums.

Do not post links to active E-Bay auctions or similar content. It is acceptable to link to completed auctions. It is not acceptable to mention items on active auctions even if a link is not provided.

Do not post links to online businesses, including kickstarter-style projects, without first gaining permission from a site Admin. It is acceptable to post links to online stores, local game stores or other resources in response to a request from a fellow poster as long as the other rules are followed. The key is: no unsolicited advertising.

Do not ask for medical, legal or other professional advice. Do not request emergency crisis counseling or solicit personal financial donations. The forums will refuse any liability that those actions may create.

If you are unsure whether your link is acceptable or not, please contact a site Admin.

10. Copyright and Quoting Other Sources

This message board will not be used to distribute, or facilitate distribution of, unauthorized or illegally obtained copyrighted materials. This includes posting a link or even just references to websites or resources that distribute such, whether it happens on the internet or not.

If you post materials from other websites (including news sources), books and/or newsgroups:

  • Never quote more than a few lines from any source
  • Give credit to the original author
  • Provide a link to the source web page, where appropriate

Summaries of news articles are acceptable and in fact preferred, with links to the original article included.

If you re-post material from the BattleTech forums you are also asked to give credit when appropriate.

11. Executive privilege

The Administrators and Moderators have the right to edit, delete, move or lock any message and/or thread for any reason.

There may be NO warning and NO explanation as to why. We use our own discretion and judgment. This means that even if we’re wrong, it’s our right so long as we think our actions are necessary to keep the forum clean, and a desirable place to hang out. Often we’ll attempt to notify you when such measures are taken.

Disciplinary action

Posts that break any of the rules or are deemed inappropriate by the Mod/Admin team are removed to a separate storage area for review and documentation.

Below is our typical and preferred course of action. However, we have the executive privilege to make exceptions and deal with posters as we deem fit.

Every poster who violates the rules, with the exception of the violations listed below, will receive a Warning.

If a poster accumulates three or more Warnings in a 12-month period, they will lose posting privileges for the following time periods:

  • Third Warning within 12 months: 7 day posting Suspension
  • Fourth Warning within 12 months: 30 day posting Suspension
  • Fifth Warning within 12 months: Final Warning
  • Sixth Warning within 12 months: Permanent posting Ban

Note that there will be no additional Warning between the week-long and month-long Suspension.

Posters will receive one Final Warning between the 30 day suspension and Permanent Bans. This Final Warning is used as a last reminder to you that you will soon be permanently Banned from the boards unless you immediately modify your behavior.

All violations over one year (365 days) old are not considered in determining Suspensions. Suspensions will be issued purely on the basis of the number of Warnings received in the last 12 months.

Several procedures are in place to ensure that the Moderators are accountable to each other, the Administrators and Catalyst Game Labs. However, if you suspect that a Moderator is behaving inappropriately or has made a mistake, do not hesitate to contact the Administrators.

Contact info

Forum Administrators

Forum Moderators

Website Support

In case the source of your complaint is the Administrators, please contact observer@catalystgamelabs.com

Offenses that may result in an automatic ban:
  • Communicating any kind of threat
  • Serious and continued instances of online harassment
  • Circumventing an existing ban
  • Posting using another person’s username with or without their permission. This can result in both parties being banned.
  • Creating more than 1 account on this site. If you feel you have a legitimate reason for having multiple accounts, contact the Admins to discuss.
  • Posting pornography of any kind
  • Violation of Copyright as per Rule 10
  • Hacking the site or someone’s account

Please think carefully before you take any action that will cause you to lose your posting privileges.