TL.net 10 Commandments

Welcome to our site. Before you begin, here are the site Commandments. They are the rules of the site. They will help you get the most out of your experience here. If you don’t wanna play by the rules, then you don’t need to be here.

The Commandments are in no particular order. They’re all equally important.


1. THIS IS OUR HOUSE

You are our guests. We will make all attempts to treat everyone with due respect and to accomodate everyone's wishes as far as reasonably possible. But, this is a private site. We are not a "for profit" enterprise. We are not funded by any governments. This means we run the site the way we see fit. We are not obligated to observe anyone's notions of "free speech" or even "fairness." We try of course, and that's why we're consistently considered one of the best gaming sites on the web, and you are always free to give us suggestions. But, we have our limits. If we don't like you, we simply IP ban you. If we're really pissed off, then we IP ban you AND nuke every single post you've uploaded to the site - ever. It will be as if you had never existed here. This is our house. You've been warned.

2. THOU SHALL OBSERVE FORUM ETIQUETTE

Common sense, people, common sense. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (And if you happen to be into masochism, then you’re at the wrong site, anyway.)

This doesn’t mean you can’t get verbally medieval on someone’s ass every once in a while. We don’t run the place like a septic tank. But, flames are generally discouraged and we expect people to have a damn good reason for resorting to harsh language in the forums. This means gratuitous swearing is a no-no. Trolls will be burned, decapitated and banned. If you must flame, be smart about it. Creative flames will even get you respect – if the flame was warranted to begin with. Generally, you’ll almost never go wrong by being nice, polite and mature. All just common sense, people.

There are also a number of Rules of Posting in our forums. Take the time to observe and learn them. There are way too many to recite here, but the following are a few important examples:

- Racist remarks will be shot down and you will be lynched.

- Homophobic comments will get shoved way up your ass.

- Sexist remarks of any kind whatsoever will be dealt with especially harshly. Yeah, we have female members – and we sure as hell would like to keep them!

- DO NOT POST ANYTHING IN ALL CAPS IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE SCREAMING LIKE A RAVING LUNATIC AND WE WILL BE FORCED TO TREAT YOU LIKE ONE AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

- Post your topics in the appropriate forum. We have separate forums for a reason. Use your head and post under the forum that’s most relevant.

- Don't be an attention whore and give away the results of games, sporting events, movie endings, etc. in the title of the thread/post. Also, if you're going to reveal stuff in the body of your post, then be decent enough to put a "spoiler" warning in advance.

- Be very careful about resuscitating old threads. Sometimes it's ok, but sometimes it's not.

- Don’t know? Use the search function. It’s better than Google and it works because whatever questions you may have, chances are we’ve already discussed it before ad nauseum. Did a search already and you still don’t know? Ask politely!

3. THOU SHALL THINK BEFORE POSTING

Please, think before you chime in with your opinion on a given post or series of posts. There will usually be some history behind a given exchange in our forums, so take the time to observe what might really be going on and put the conversation into context before you decide who's "right" and who's "wrong." Above all, take into account who is posting - context is everything. Chirping in with your grossly uninformed opinions will only make you look dumb and irritate the heck out of the people who do know what's going on.

We can't tell you how many little kids we've ripped to shreds because they reacted first instead of thinking. The absolute worst examples are overzealous pinheads who automatically react with righteous indignation when an Admin bans someone for posting something that, to them, seems innocuous - never thinking that we could be banning that guy for a whole bunch of other things and that this may just have been the final straw. There's a reason why we do the things we do around here.

And please don't try to be Freud or Jung. Don't second-guess the motives for why someone wrote something. Only the author knows for sure the "whys." Respond to what's written. Avoid responding with comments filled with half-baked psychoanalytical presumptions about the poster’s imputed agenda or their psych profile. So, for example, when someone writes a detailed post outlining his/her strategy for countering a tank push, feel free to respond to or even criticize the content of the original post - but don't write about how the guy's just trying to impress everyone with his/her knowledge because of an inferiority complex! You don't know that and no one cares. Stop psychoanalyzing - you don't have a license to practice.

Thanks.

4. THOU SHALL RESPECT YOUR ID

This means you don’t use clones or aliases or any other form of obfuscation of identity (other than the ID you first signed on with). Try any skullduggery with your ID and you get an automatic ban. We can see your IPs in real-time and if we even suspect someone’s abusing, we just ban you. So, don’t even try it. It’s not worth it.

Also, don’t use IDs containing weird characters, symbols, smiley faces, geometric shapes or any combination of the same. The last thing we need here are fan club members of the Artist Formerly Known as Prince moving in and setting up shop. The general rule of thumb – if we can’t pronounce it, it ain’t a proper ID.

In limited circumstances we do allow users to change their IDs later on, but we generally discourage it. It’s all about respecting your own name. If you have a legitimate reason for changing IDs (for example, you need to change your clan tag), let us know in the Website Feedback section and we’ll be happy to accommodate.

A comment about your country of origin. It’s all up to you what country you decide to put in your profile – but, why the heck would you want to lie about the country you’re from? We’ve had members think it’s "funny" to put "Afghanistan" in their profile for the heck of it. Some even put down nothing. Maybe it may seem cool or different to some. But, to us it’s really the farthest thing from "cool" – and it’s “different” in the most negative way possible. Users who are juvenile enough to lie to everyone about where they’re from don’t tend to last very long on our site. If you don’t respect your own name and where you are from (or where you happen to be), why should anyone else?

All just common sense.

5. THOU SHALL NOT SPAM

Do not spam.
Do not spam.
Do not spam.
Do not spam.
Do not spam.
Do not spam.
Do not spam.

Spam our site and you die. Advertise pyramid schemes (it’s been tried before) and you die. Post/link/request illegal stuff (CD keys, warez, serialz, copyrighted materials, actual threats of bodily harm, etc.) and you die. We’d rather ban you than receive a cease and desist letter from some lawyer or anal retentive parents’ organization.

You’ve been warned.

6. THOU SHALL RESPECT FORUM VETERANS

All other things being equal, we will give preferential treatment to site members who have been with us longer (as reflected in their post count + length of time with us as a registered member). It’s a simple recognition of the quality of these people. Longevity and contribution are prized commodities around here. In a similiar vein, "known" pro/semi-pro players will also be treated with deference (yes, quite a few hang out here). Don't complain - these guys have earned it.

Remember: we ban little girly-kids all the time because they sign on thinking they can say and do whatever they want to whomever they want right from the get-go – just like they’re used to doing at other sites. That attitude won’t work here. That’s a promise. As far as new users are concerned (i.e. anyone with less than 500 or so quality posts to their name), this site is Holy Ground. The veterans are the users who’ve consistently shown respect to the site and to others and that’s why they’re still here. Show them some respect.

In practice, this policy means a user who has 1000+ posts may be able to get away with a few minor transgressions in etiquette with just a warning. If you’re at 50 posts and you try the same kind of stunt, then we may just ban you. Harsh? Yes. Unfair? Most definitely. But that’s the way life is. Learn to live with it.

This also means you should think twice before calling that guy with 5000+ posts a jackass. If the guy’s been with us that long, chances are YOU’RE the one being an idiot. Some battles are just not worth fighting – just move on.

7. ENGLISH IS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Ceci est un site anglophone.

Vær så vennlig å benytt engelsk på disse sidene.

Engels is de officiële taal van deze site, gaarne geen andere taal gebruiken dan Engels.

영어 전용 사이트입니다. 영어를 사용 해주세요.

このサイトは英語を共通語とするので、サイトへの書き込みは原則として英語でお願いします。

Diese seite ist offiziell in Englisch gehalten.

Ingles es el lenguaje oficial de este sitio.

Use fucking English. Please.

8. THOU SHALL CONTRIBUTE TO THE SITE

Contribute to the site. Everyone should pitch in. Some people contribute by being helpful when someone posts a question. Some people contribute by writing interesting posts that stimulate discussion or by uploading relevant and useful facts and information. Some people contribute by posting news from the gaming world. Others contribute by participating in a meaningful way every single day. Still others contribute by simply making everyone laugh. Contribution can take many forms and there's no single prescribed way to go about it. But, like good porn, we know it when we see it. Good contributors will always get favorable treatment. That's just the way things work.

9. READ THE COMMANDMENTS

Read these Commandments. Pleading ignorance will not get you anywhere.

10. THOU SHALL HAVE FUN

It’s a fun site with fun people. Have fun with it. Enjoy it. Make others happy. Be happy. Avoid being negative. We don’t expect you to be Pollyanna, but users who are consistently negative will draw the ire of their peers and site staff alike. No one likes people who have nothing but bad things to say all the time. Heed the admonition of Oscar Wilde: some people bring happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.