Rules
Believe it or not about 50% of our active community members are under the age of eighteen, this is a statistic we do not take very lightly. In fact, we are quite proud of the family environment and the lean and friendly karma one can experience whilst being a member of our website.
To keep it this way sometimes the Council has to set down rules and policies which might seem hard or unfair or just plain censorship. However ,quite simply it is our job to look ahead and judge as best as we can what is and is not acceptable to keep this place running smoothly.
1. We will not tolerate any form of rude language, racism or unsocial behavior in ANY kind of medium and posts will be edited as we see fit and offenders notified with a warning.
2. Political / Religious Topics, Posts, Threads or Comments inside or outside of Tolkien related topics are not permitted. As moderators we have seen that such discussions always end up with people being hurt or insulted. If this happens your thread(s)/post(s) will be deleted and you will be notified. If it continues with membership will be terminated.
3. No using another member's custom avatar. If you need help finding an avatar Council Members will be happy to assist you. Check the Help Menu under avatar.
4. No single line posts, or single smiley posts. We have noted that posts in the forums are frequently just "one-liners" and far off topic. Seventeen posts in a row with just "ha-ha, that's fun" or just a smiley in them get really boring to read after a little while. We have a chat room and private messaging is also available so please do not use the forum to “chat”.
5. Please be careful of copy right infringements. We have noticed that members are posting the lyrics of songs in journals and in the forum. Unfortunately, this does violate copyright laws and Planet-Tolkien can be held liable. Parts of songs, poetry, etc can be used for discussion purposes provided the author is given due credit.
6. No posting just to boost your number of posts. Try to make your posts as meaningful as possible
7. No abbreviations like "som1, or How r u"?" Please write full sentences. Not everyone is familiar with sms and chatroom language.
8. Posting etiquette Don't post meter-long row of repeated text, such as hahahahahahahahahaha. It messes up the page and is also annoying as are rows and rows of animated smilies. Please don't post in upper case or capital letters as this is deemed shouting and is rude and annoying.
9. Posting of links to other websites should only be done in the Advertisement section of the forum. (Update: Grep is currently making a link page to replace this section. Please, do NOT post any new ads in this section at this time, nor anywhere else in the forum!) In keeping with the terms of agreement with The Family Friendly Site these sites must conform to the following regulation set down by the organization who have designated Planet-Tolkien as family friendly :
Quote:
Posts and enforces rules in its chat rooms and forums to prohibit
1. Sexually explicit language
2. Profanity
3. Remarks that disparage or ridicule other people
10. All posts must be in English.
Thank you for your understanding. I know that we all want Planet-Tolkien to be a comfortable home for Tolkienists with a good quality forum in which we can share our thoughts and learn from each other.
If you have any questions, our e-mail address is: Council@planet-tolkien.com or you can use the Contact information under Miscellaneous in the left hand menu to contact us.
-The Council-