The following rules MUST be abided by all who post in this forum. Continued breaking of rules will result in the offending member being suspended from the forum by the moderators. The moderators operate a three strike policy where if a member persists with a offense detailed below more than three times, they will be immediately suspended.

1. Swearing: Swearing is frowned upon in the H.I.V.E forum (like all other forums). If you feel it is necessary to say a swear word, replace the word with -R18- as an indicator you are using a swear word. Uncensored swear words in fanfics are permitted as long as it is not used excessively and there is an indication on the title of the fanfic that swear words will be used within the fic.

2. Fanfic: Writing fanfic is perfectly fine, but anything with really explicit violence or sexy stuff beyond involved snogging is out (If you're unsure, either ask someone for an opinion, or let your mum read it. If you're not comfortable with your mum reading it, don't post it.) This isn't because this place is populated by stuck up people, but some of us are using our parents and/or school computers to access this forum and don’t want to get into trouble because we clicked a link to something that turned out to be porn. If you want to tell people about your fanfic that’s fine, just make a thread with a link, and say which rating it is! And put the thread in the fanfiction section of the main forum.

3. Bullying: Defined as- sustained nastiness that goes outside the realm of disagreement over a point, i.e. disagreeing over which pairing would be better, as opposed to just popping up on a thread and saying someone’s fanfic is crap. We've had one example of this, and the offender was deleted, and it's unlikely we will see any more, but its something to keep in mind all the same.

4. Chat speak: Slang is fine and abbreviations are ok, provided it's possible to understand them, but, don’t type your posts entirely in chat speak. This is because it's annoying and no one will bother to read your posts because its too hard to translate. We want new opinions, posts and crazy people, just make your posts legible.

5. Roleplays: No godmodding- meaning no invincibility, you MUST have a weakness, and no starting serious interactions with another persons character without the characters owners permission (Killing them, injuring them, etc.) and if you want to ask a question in the roleplay thread, not as part of the actual roleplay, use double brackets- (( insert off topic post/comment here )) -to indicate you are off topic. For more specific details, ask on the Life thread, and look for Caitiebug 16, Cat Royal, Tora, Amaya or one of the more active members of the roleplay.

6.SPAMBOTS: NEVER reply to a Spambot's post/thread. It just encourages them and we have enough of them as it is thank you very much. A spambots thread is easily distinguishable as a thread that will have one post, with no replies, and that post seems to have a lot of random words in it, at least, on the old forum it did. So far, the spambots have posted in different languages (Russian). If you're not sure, the best idea is not to post on it at all. (Note this rule applied to the previous forum. The forum you are viewing now is of a different format and therefore this rule may not apply)

7. Unnecessary threads will be deleted/closed so don't bother creating the thread. If in doubt, put what you want to say on the the life thread.

8. No bumping old threads, or Necroing for no reason. If it's a legitimate reason, that's fine, but if you're not sure, just don't. It's annoying, and crams up the forum with unnecessary things.

9. Please ensure all threads are posted in the approapriate sub-section as to increase convenience for others in the forum to find the thread. The sub-sections have a clear overview of what should reside within them.

10. Double Posts: We won't kill you for these because really, we've all double posted once or twice, but, if you still have the option of editing a post, rather then adding a new one, edit the first post and add a second message into it. Just out of courtesy.

11. Spamtags: There has recently been a number of tags which are verging on harassment. DO NOT post SomeonexSomeone tags unless they are true (At time of posting, CatxYuio, MangoxAmaya and 0770xCaitie are permitted). At the same time, mass spamming of these across threads pointlessly will result in deletion of tags by the moderators. Those who post these tags may find it funny, but it is not for those affected. They are a form of harassment and bullying. DONT DO IT.

12. Smileys: With the introduction of smileys, it is now a rule to limit the amount of smileys used per post to five. This is to avoid cluttering up a thread, and besides the amusement of a thread full of dancing bananas quickly get annoying. A further addition of this rule is the editing of posts when a member attempts to unleash several waves of smileys to demonstrate their wierdness etc. If a moderator deems it necessary, they will write out a warning for that member. A post without any warrant of why they just suddenly posted a load of smileys will also be moderated.

13. Using Capitals and tags which affect the way text is portrayed excessively will be frowned upon as it can annoy others. Failure to stop when someone asks for you to stop capitalizing everything etc. will result in a warning.

New Three Strike Policy

So, after your first three warnings, you get banned for 1 week. Once you're back, you get one more chance before a one month ban. After that, it's permanent.

If it's been a long time between a first and second ban, there's a chance that it'll be rethought, so if you've changed, but made a mistake, you'll be alright.

For serious offences, however, the ban is immediate and for 2 weeks, no negotiations.

-Serious Offenses-

These offenses are only tolerated once. If a member persists with any of the offenses detailed below, they will be immediately suspended.

(1) Racism-: using the N word, using someone’s ethnicity as an insult or as the butt of a joke.

(2) Sexism/misogyny: It's to be left up to people in the conversation the offender was in to differentiate between harmless joking and actual harmful comment. If another forum member asks you to stop and you don't, you'll be reported to the mods for possible deletion.

(3) Homophobia: same as with racism and sexism. It's not tolerated or allowed.

(4) Posting M or high T rated fic directly onto the forum.

(5) Bullying.

(6) Excessive swearing.

Note that this list will be updated regularly.
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Moderators
-Mecblade, Amaya, ScottishLaura and M@ngomon.

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