General Rules (Please read this first!)

[L-Voss]

One small addition was made to the following rule . (the addition is underlined):

The main language used on these forums is English. You can post with other languages as well, but please keep it to a minimum rather than doing it on a regular basis. This rule also includes Hymmnos.

EDIT: Since the rule seems to have been misunderstood a little, I've added this small description to it:

Feel free, however, to use any language for artistic purposes in Silver Horn, in your signature, etc.
The main point here is not to abuse other languages for wrong reasons or holding long discussions most members won't be able to understand. A few quick exchanges of words in Indonesian is fine, for example, but an entire page written in it (outside of threads specifically created for that) is not.

[wizzardx]

Hi,

after some discussion, I (on behalf of the ARM staff) have added an advertising section to the rules:

• We request that you do not post unsolicited advertising-related links on the forum. If it looks like you are trying to profit financially by posting links, your links may be removed without warning by the forum staff. Links like these are spam (not the off-topic type), and we don't want this kind of thing on the forum (it's ugly, and gives the place a cheap feeling).

• Examples of advertising-related links include referral IDs, trying to sell someone something, links to blogs filled with advertisements, and anything else that looks very spammy or commercial, and which the forum members are not likely to be interested in.

• Places where you should not post unsolicited advertising-related links, include (but are not limited to) forum posts, your sig, and PMs.

• By "unsolicited", we mean any type of (financially-motivated) posting, that wasn't requested by another member. So if a member expresses their interest in cheap memory cards, you may reply with a link to a page like that if you know of one. But in most cases, we do not want links like this in the forum.

• Feel free to continue linking to other fan/hobby/etc sites as usual, if the links are not spammy (financially-motivated). Although the other rules (eg: off-topic), do still apply.

• Examples of websites which are fine to link to: your YouTube channel, your Last.fm profile, video game fansites and forums, so long as you are not trying to make money by linking to them.

• Staff members will use their discression in judging links. If it is hard to tell if a given advertising-related link is acceptible, the forum staff may remove the link without notifying you in advance.

Basically, this is a response to a very small number of members, who have links to things like "cheap memory cards" in their sigs, or who post links to blogs filled with adverts.

These rules will start coming into force in a couple of days, in case there are any members who want to comment on this update before then.

Practically speaking, here are the 2 main updates we're planning to make as soon as the rules come into effect:

1) Remove links to "cheap memory cards" from 2 forum members sigs, and send them a PM to ask them not to do that in the future.

2) Remove a couple of blogs from the "blogs" topic, which are basically just advertising/spam blogs (although, I will repost these links in a spoiler section in a post in that topic, in case they are needed for reference).

And semi-related, there are some blogs which no longer exist/are giving 404 pages, which will also be removed from the first post (but included in a follow-up post in the blogs topic).

Later, if we see more links to "cheap memory card" pages, or other (very) commercial spam-like things being posted on the forum, the staff will be removing those things in short order, and letting the concerned parties know.

We're basically already doing this, but we thought it would be good to also include this in the rules topic.

Anyway, give us a shout if you don't like this change and we can discuss refining any points you don't like.

I should also add that this type of rule is very common on other internet forums.

[wizzardx]

A small update to the Dive Therapy description, mainly so that it links to the Dive Therapy rules topic.

• Dive Therapy: A place for quiet reflections and deep, serious discussions. Due to the emotional nature of this sub-forum, please avoid posting jokes or off-topic content here; they won't be tolerated and will get deleted much more easily than in other forums. This forum has an extra set of rules, listed here. Please read them before posting in the Dive Therapy forum.

(Also, "humours" was changed to "jokes").

[wizzardx]

Another small rule update:

Wackyhabara: This forum is the most random part of the ARM. Threads deemed to be too random or off-topic are moved there and you are free to continue the randomness there. Please do not start new topics in this forum. Also, note that all the other forum rules (besides randomness/off-topic) do still apply. This includes posting spoilers.

Basically, this is because we do have a fairly large problem with At3 avas being posted in Wackyhabara at the moment, so people need to be reminded that most of the forum rules do still apply there (including the ones about at3 spoilers).

However, don't despair, random AT3 RP-ers - in the very near future we will (very likely) be adding some areas where you can freely have random AT3 RPs, including avas, without getting in trouble or needing to use spoiler tags. It is something being discussed by the staff at the moment. Look forwards to it

EDIT: There's now a related (to At3 RP & avas) poll and discussion over in the RP forum, over here.

[Pepen Cloche]

can you guys warn me if i get off-topic?

[Utsuho Lazy]

can you guys warn me if i get off-topic?

We've always been doing so. Though "warn" sounds a bit too heavy, I think "notice" is a better verb for this.

[Pepen Cloche]

can you guys warn me if i get off-topic?

We've always been doing so. Though "warn" sounds a bit too heavy, I think "notice" is a better verb for this.

ok thank you...

[Utsuho Lazy]

Could anyone please update the rules with descriptions for Firefly Alley forum?

[L-Voss]

Could anyone please update the rules with descriptions for Firefly Alley forum?

Okay, done.

[wizzardx]

As we've been discussing in the "about the off-topic rules" global announcement, I've updated the 2nd and 3rd points of the off-topic rules section to be less strict-sounding .

[wizzardx]

As per the (globalled) Observatory announcement, the fanart re-posting rule has been revised.

Old version:

When posting fanart drawn by other artists, please link to the page that displays that art instead of inserting the images directly into your post. Even if you don't know the address of the page that displays that image (i.e. it was from Photobucket), consider using [url] tags instead of [img] tags. This is to avoid trouble from artists who don't want their work to be displayed on other people's sites without permission.

New version:

On the forum, when posting fanart drawn by other artists, you're also encouraged to also credit the original artist (list their name, or give a link to their website) as a courtesy, but this is by no means required.

If you want to discuss this, please do so in the (globalled) Observatory thread, or contact me or the other staff over PM.

[wizzardx]

As per some staff discussion, I've added a new section to the rules: Use of ARM member translations.

Basically, we've finally made some official forum rules for the use of translations - we've had problems before, and another one recently, which prompted this. The main point of this is to make it clear how the ARM staff view the matter (including some translators who are also staff members).

There's nothing there to concern 99% of forum members though, but please do refer to that section if you're thinking of re-using ARM member's translations (for your Youtube videos, your blog, personal website, other projects, etc), to avoid problems.

[Prince Doebler]

Out of sheer curiosity, the comments about no financial gain:

Does that include links in signatures? For example, if I had YouTube partnership or a Blogspot account that had adverts and posted that in my signature, would that be subject to this rule?

[Utsuho Lazy]

For example, if I had YouTube partnership or a Blogspot account that had adverts and posted that in my signature, would that be subject to this rule?

No, they wouldn't.

[White_Rose]

hey, what about IF we "Tresspassing" or wadever ( Sorry, im bad @ english ) do we get banned?

[Utsuho Lazy]

hey, what about IF we "Tresspassing" or wadever ( Sorry, im bad @ english ) do we get banned?

What exactly do you mean by trespassing?

[Kiari]

Late but I believe he meant coming from another country? Like he coming for certain country and afraid to be banned.

[Thunder]

There's no reason anyone would be banned for that. We are an international community.

[Thunder]

Do we still have a moratorium on posting Japanese fan made artworks? If so, is the posting of links acceptable?

[Utsuho Lazy]

Do we still have a moratorium on posting Japanese fan made artworks? If so, is the posting of links acceptable?

I believe that as long as we do not re-upload the arts into external hosts, but instead link to their Pixiv page or blog, it should be completely acceptable.