New forum rules

[Viper]

We have some new guidelines for the forums that we'd like everyone to please abide to. These are issues that have been escalating too much the past few weeks, and cannot continue to do so.

Necro Posting

We've recently started to notice a lot of necro posting, in several areas of the forum, but mainly the 3D Wips area. Depending on the content of the post, we allow it, but when someone posts a useless post like “nice work” on a 6 month old thread, it starts to get annoying. Not only you brought the thread back from the dead, you also bumped off a recent thread over to page 2 of the wips. So before posting on a thread that is at least 1 month or more old, please abide to these guidelines:

- First, make sure the project is not finished yet. If it is, it's probable the original poster won't come back to look at it.

- If the project was never finished, and you want to know the status of it, PM the original poster about it.

- If you are about to post a silly comment like “nice work” or “keep it up”, please think twice before you do it, and don't post it.

Besides this, if you are the original owner of the thread, and decided to continue your project, then feel free to post as you like. These rules should apply to all WIP areas with no exception. In discussion areas, like General Discussion, Games Discussion or 3D Q&A, only post if you are going to contribute to the subject at hand with relevant information.

Member Patrol

This is also becoming a sort of nuisance from some members. While we appreciate when a member reports to us any problems there might be existing like flame wars and general inappropriate behavior, we urge you to not take matters into your own hands. This does more harm than you think, and only makes our job more difficult. So, if you catch something, report to us, and leave it alone. Chances are, that someone from the staff will be on line and will deal with it properly. If you think it must be dealt with right away, contact somebody directly. Most of us leave MSN and ICQ numbers available, and you can always PM or email us.

General Discussion Rules

This another issue that's getting a lot worse, and we decided it would be best to draft a few rules for this area.

Some members seem to be getting very uncivilized of late. When entering a discussion, be it a TV show, movie, technology, whatever, you must always try and keep it civil. Resorting to calling names, and being a general PITA, will be, from now on watched very closely by the staff and subject to infractions and the post edited/deleted. This is non-negotiable.

The subjects of Politics, Sex and Religion are still prohibited. We'll also be monitoring this more severely from now on, as it seems some members are forgetting this too easily. We've recently been getting a lot of threads, where a simple movie discussion turns into a heated debate on US government/army. No more. We allow this in our special Cantina area though, and if you'd like to have these type of discussions, make a donation, and you'll get access to that section.

Gaming and joke threads will also from now on be strictly monitored. We have too much of these right now. On the following days, the staff will be reviewing each one to decide if it should be kept alive or not. And if you suddenly feel the urge to create a new one, contact the staff first! Then we'll see if it'll be allowed or not.

Failing to obey these rules can go from getting your post deleted or on the other extreme your account suspended.

Thank you,

The staff

[Viper]

In a quick addendum, we also have a new set of rules for crediting images:

Image Credits

All art posted on both the Scifi-Meshes forums and Gallery must contain credits within the image. The only exeption to this rule is Work in Progress images posted in the WIP forum. If all work shown in a WIP thread is your own, then credits are not required although it is recommended both for the protection of your work and the ensuring you receive any recognition your work might bring. Trust us...You never know who might be checking out your work.

As well as crediting yourself, credits on images must include acknowledgement of any image elements (background plates, models, etc.) that are not your own.

Note: While credits are required, there are no rules about how they must be displayed. As long as the names of contributors or mesh creators are clearly readable, you may choose to display your credits in any manner you wish. Some members prefer to use a logo, others their SFM name and others their real name. This is an art site. Feel free to be creative.

All these rules will be posted in a sticky thread in each relevant section as well.