Guidelines for creating an account and forum use

[Hellfire_WZ]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in registering for the WipeoutZone Forum

Below are a few guidelines to registering an account here, and the terms of use of the forum. Please familiarise yourself with these before starting registration.


Account Registration

• You will need a valid email address in order to register an account here. Once the registration process is complete, your account will be manually verified and an activation link will be sent out to you in due course.

• Use of disposable email addresses when registering will result in your account being immediately deleted. Disposable addresses just scream spammer to me, and besides that, you would not be able to receive the activation link anyway

• We have had spam issues with certain smaller email providers in the past, and as a result we do not allow accounts registered with addresses from these providers. If you find that you are told that your email address is banned when registering, it is likely that it falls under one of these providers. You will need to use a different address. Typical webmail services such as Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail are fine.

• When choosing a username, please choose one that is easy to address on the forum. You may be happy with your account being called "hnrh3spqz8h421hgfdi", but can you imagine how others would feel having to type all that out when trying to speak to you directly? Be sensible

• Multiple accounts are not permitted on WipeoutZone. Attempting to register an account from an IP where one already exists will result in the new account being deleted. If you are in the unusual position where there are several people living at the same address that wish to have their own accounts, then you must immediately send me a private message upon account registration to inform me that you are not the same person.

• Accounts are manually activated in batches by just one person - me. Before activation, your IP and registration email will be checked against a worldwide database to ensure there is no history of spamming forums, and to ensure that your IP does not already have an existing account (unless you have told me otherwise). This takes time. I have a life away from this forum and I will do this when I have the time to. You may have to wait a day, you may have to wait a week, but I will get round to doing it. Sending me stroppy messages via PM or the Contact Us form will ensure that you get pushed to the back of the pile.

I will delete ANY new accounts that do not follow these guidelines, no exceptions. Messages asking why your account was deleted will be responded to with a link to this page, if at all.

Assuming you follow these guidelines, you will receive an activation link. If for any reason you receive notification that your account was deleted, check the list above. If you're still not sure, please send me a message via the Contact Us form at the bottom of the page.


Forum Guidelines

Once registered, you will be expected to conduct yourself appropriately while posting. The forums are moderated, and persistently failing to abide by the guidelines may result in your posting privileges being removed. These guidelines are available for you to view from the top of any forum, so please check if you are unsure.

• Make use of the search function before posting. Look around, it is very possible that there is already a recent thread discussing the topic you want to talk about. Duplicate topics will be deleted.

• Look at the forum descriptions to ensure you are posting in the right place. I've no problem relocating topics if necessary, but please don't make a habit of it.

• This forum has been active since 2002, and indeed earlier as the Wipeout 3 Pilots Association. In all that time, the foundations of the site have always been built on RESPECT. No one on here is the same, we all have our differences, but we do all have one thing in common if you're registering here.

• The Private Messaging system is there for you if you wish to contact a member outside of the public eye. However, the PM system is not to be abused. If you choose to send abusive PMs to any member here then you will be instantly banned - no exceptions.

• As mentioned earlier, we all have our differences. But petty arguments and name calling are no way to go about dealing with disagreements. Anyone making deliberately provocative posts or just being downright childish will have their posts deleted and will receive a warning/infraction against their account.

• If you wish to start a new topic, please make sure there's actually going to be some discussion as a result of it. The usual "What's your favourite track?" has been done to death, and usually just results in people listing a load of tracks without any real discussion. Think about what you want from your topic before posting a new thread

• Please make sure your posts actually have some substance to them. Just responding with one word answers is pointless, and just says to me you're trying to inflate your utterly pointless post count. There's no pot of gold or big-titted beauty waiting for you when you hit 1000 posts. I know. I've tried.

• Topics are just that, a topic of discussion. Posts within threads should really have something to do with it. Keep on topic when posting. Discussion may naturally go off on a tangent, that's fine, but if discussions start to consistently drift too far away from the topic I will consider closing the thread.

• I've no problem with people advertising their own work and websites on WipeoutZone, especially if they're Wipeout related. However, spam links all over the forum and I'm going to take issue. I will also boot you out if you're registering for the sole purpose of advertising something completely unrelated

• Custom avatars are for the admin/moderation team only, and for a few others who have contributed to the community in their own way. This feature will not be enabled for regular users. There are a wide selection of Wipeout-related avatars for you to choose from in the database. This is to ensure that there is not another layer of moderation that needs to take place and to ensure that the site maintains its Wipeout theme. If you do have any suggestions for public avatars that could be added to the site, please use the appropriate thread in the Evolution Engine forum.

• Signatures are outright banned here. They serve absolutely no purpose other than to clog the forum up and as far as I can see, they are akin to running through a forum waving your willy around screaming "LOOK AT MEEE!!". Not having it. If you add signatures to the bottom of your posts, you'll find your posts being deleted in short order.

• Image posting has always been a bit of a contentious issue, but the same rule stands as has always done. You may post images up to a total of 50k within one post. This is to ensure that the site loads quickly for every member, not just those on 400 squigabit optic-neutron-gargleblaster connections. If your image is larger than this, then you need to make use of the attachment system. There are a few exceptions to this rule where posting large images is unavoidable, such as sharing artwork. In this case, the topic is clearly labelled to show that large images are present, and those on slow connections or with limited data allowances can choose whether to view the topic. If you feel a topic needs to have large images present, contact me first. Attempting to circumvent the 50k limit by posting multiple times will result in an instant infraction.

• There is a function to embed videos in posts. If you wish to do this, please only embed one video per post and provide links to the rest. As above, attempting to circumvent this by posting multiple times in a row will put you on the naughty step.

• This one seems to escape even long term members... Please don't quote a post immediately preceding yours! What's the point? All it does is make the forum untidy. The only exception to this is if it's a long post and you're only replying to a small part of it, in which case quote the bit you're responding to.

• Look around. Are we on a galleon? Is the Jolly Roger flying from the mast? Are we sailing the high seas? Do I look like I'm wearing a captain's hat with a vast stockpile of rum?... well, yes to that last one but that's beside the point. Piracy is an absolute no-go area on this forum and I will immediately delete any discussion and issue a ban to anyone trying to.

I know this seems like a lot, I know it seems draconian in places, but a lot of it can be summed up like this - don't be a muppet! Use your common sense and you'll have a good time here