Football Boards Rules - Please Read!

[Football Boards]

We have adopted a new set of rules that all users will follow. I have posted these rules in the Faq's section if you want to refer back to them in the future.


These rules are designed to clarify various responsibilities of community members here at www.footballboards.com. Please read it and become familiar with it, its terms are retroactive and agreed to by Moderators and Administrators.

1. Forum Rules

a) Posts are to be made in the relevant forum and in the relevant thread. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting. Users consistently posting to the wrong forum may be given a warning (see policy below).

b) Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. This applies to ALL users, regardless of post count, forum rank or perceived status at FB. Flaming, trolling or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.


c) Members who disrupt the normal flow of dialogue or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users’ ability to engage in real-time exchanges may be warned.

d) Members who participate in discussions should attempt to make a meaningful contribution. Users who spam or post with the sole intention of increasing their post count and ranking may be warned.

e) Members are asked to not act as "back seat moderators". If members note an issue which contravenes something in this policy document they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a Moderator. Only do this if a moderator has not replied within 6 hours. Members who consistently "act" as moderators may be warned.

f) If your thread has been locked or removed please do not start up another thread asking for an explanation. If you have a question about the status of a thread please contact the moderator of the forum by private message.

g) Members should remember this forum is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning. Members who repeatedly evade the language censor to post offensive language may also be warned.

h) Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc. or re-printing copyrighted material without permission will receive a warning and their post will be removed.

i) Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned, excluding the off topic areas where relevent.

j) Members should use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Huge Trade!", "Look Here!", "Check this out!", excluding the off topic areas where relevent.

k) Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. Users posting spam will be banned and their post removed.

l) The administrators and moderators reserve the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to Moderators and not users.

m) The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above).



2. Posting News Articles

As stated in the above forum rules, users shall not upload, post or otherwise make available on FB.com any material protected by copyright, trademark, or other proprietary right. Users shall be solely liable for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights, or any other harm resulting from such a submission. In simpler terms, no Insider or similar articles from subscription services can be posted. Newspapers, magazines and other online news articles are allowed.

If you wish to quote from a news article please follow these guidelines:

a) Quotes can be no longer than 3 paragraphs from any source.
b) The author of the material should be given credit.
c) A link to the articles source MUST be present in your post.

Members who knowingly post fake or fraudulent news articles with the intention of disrupting the flow of dialogue in a forum will be warned.


3. Warnings, Suspensions and Bans

Footballboards operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences in a three month period. If the need arises for a fourth warning a suspension will be put in place of between 1 to 7 days.

a) Arguing with moderators after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place as above.

b) Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact the relevant Global Moderator or Administrator, e.g. if warned by a moderator you should contact a Global Moderator. If they feel you were treated badly they may remove a warning. If you feel their decision is also unfair you may contact an Administrator, primarily Football Boards ... His decision is final. Contacting Administrators over warning matters should be done so as a very last resort ... Administrators do not want to be bothered unless vital.

c) Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account to evade an email ban. Circumvention also includes posting as an anonymous user.

d) An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact team members personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.

e) Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them, but if the situation warrants it an immediate ban may be given without warning. While Footballboards may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurrence.