Like in almost any place where people gather, we, too, have to have rules. This page is the official place where you can find these and will be referred to in any long winded debate at 4am when we should all probably be asleep. Aside from this, we also expect you to read any sticky topics and other notices that give an expansion on the rules for a particular subset of the site. Unless you can't read. In which case... oh, nevermind.

These rules apply to anywhere where there is an interaction between the users (i.e. you and yourself) and the site. This includes, but is not limited to, forum posts, IMs, page and news comments, Name Rater names and comments and the chatroom.

Note that if you, knowingly or unknowingly, allow someone else access through your account, such as by giving them your password (always a bad idea) or giving them access to your system, they may break the rules. You will be held responsible for the actions they take and punishment - such as bans - will still be continued. Saying "My little brother did it!", "My little sister did it!" or "My pet meerkat did it!" are not excuses for breaking them. Although the latter example will give you brownie points for originality.

The Rules

1. The admins and mods make the final decisions. Moderators are not chosen randomly, and we actually take their appointments quite seriously. We trust them to do their jobs, and if they are unsure, the admins are there to assist them. If you disagree with a decision, a polite PM to either the moderator in question or an admin is the best course of action to take. We can't guarantee we'll agree, but we can guarantee we'll listen. Alternatively, you can contact the admins through seniorstaff[at]pkmn[dot]net. You can safely consider an admin to be as close to perfect as is humanly possible WITHOUT being perfect, with the owners as the final authority if we get incredibly desperate.

2. Treat people as you want to be treated. We actually prefer friendlier forums. Therefore, don't insult people, don't start flamewars, world wars or fights, and also, don't continue them - you're making things just as bad then. This includes racism and similar stuffs. Simples.

3. Keep your posts suitable and legal The site is aimed at a younger audience, as such all content posted on the site must be acceptable at a PG or PG-13 level (as defined by BBFC if you're desperate for more stuff to read). Use common sense basically, such as posting in the correct board. This includes not posting about ROMs, warez, and whatever more. Apart from the TINY fact these things are illegal, you could get the site and the forums shut down. We'd rather you didn't do that to be honest. This also includes links to copyrighted material that is uploaded without permission of the owner of the copyright, such as music videos on Youtube.

4. No advertising. We forbid advertising for profit (for example, "I need more members, cry cry") or advertising when PKMN.NET already offers such content. Afterall, we want to keep our visitors. The two exceptions to this are a) sites which offer a feature relevant to the topic that is not offered by PKMN.NET, a fact which should be made clear in your post and b) your signature, where you can advertise whichever site you wish. Assuming it follows other relevant rules of course.

5. No Spamming That is, don't post multiple times in a row, don't post off-topic, don't post the same topic or post multiple times. Common sense stuff. To help enforce this, we enforce that any post containing just two words or less will be deleted when found, regardless of content. This is to ensure consistency.

6. If you use images in your sig, keep them small. The maximum filesize of all of the images in your sig and avatar combined may be no more than 150kb, 153,600 bytes. If it is over it, your signature will get disabled for it. Also, any images that causes a loginbox to popup, or has very large dimensions will be deleted.

7. Make sure your posts stay readable. Any post that contains a large number of smilies or characters in a row without spaces that does things such as causing a horizontal scrollbar to show up, or whose height is excessive, or excessively large images, will be removed. WRITING IN ALL-CAPS make it harder to understand your posts and is not allowed. Excessive repeating of one character, like '!!!!!!', is as well. We also appreciate reasonable attention to grammar and spelling. Not doing so makes it hard to read your posts and does nothing more than annoy people.

8. No swearing. Posts with swear words will be deleted or edited immediately. Censoring is used to disguise bad language until it's removed - it is NOT an excuse to swear. The swear word list is what we believe should not be allowed and to find out if your chosen word is acceptable, use the preview feature before posting to see if it's censored or not. The filter may be turned off in your profile, but this is to allow words that would otherwise be broken by the filter to be accepted and should not be abused.

20. This rule does not exist - But you are still expected to follow it.

These rules are not exhaustive. Rather than spelling out every possible situation, we ask that you use common sense while posting, just as how we'll use common sense while moderating.

And as a footnote, we request that everyone remembers that everyone else is human. The staff, yourself and even that idiot you can't stand. People will probably make mistakes. Acknowledge that nobody is perfect (even though the admins come mighty close). Additionally, if you see a rule broken, do not panic or wet yourself. Report the post in question using the provided facility, instead of replying and trying to deal with it yourself. We can't fix it otherwise!

Any breaking of these rules will result in edits of the posts, closing of topics, deleting of the posts, disabled signatures, warnings, or bans, depending on the severity of the offense. All of which can be discussed or in some cases appealled, but that's for then.

Page written by Typhlosion. Additional contributions by Joeno.

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Tags: Rules, Laws, Rule 20, Important, Forum