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Shack Community Guidelines

Purpose and Synopsis

Why are there guidelines? Our mission as moderators is to have as many people as possible participating in interesting conversation about gaming. Naturally, we want old users to feel comfortable in the community they've helped to create. However, certain behavior can discourage new users from participating. The guidelines have been designed to discourage those behaviors.

Guidelines enable new users to acclimate to the tone of the community without feeling intimidated. They also ensure that existing users can continue to enjoy a healthy community. Our intention is to encourage a variety of viewpoints to interact with each other intelligently and respectfully. Posts contrary to that goal will be nuked by moderation staff. The copyright-related rules, however, serve a different purpose and are in place to protect Shacknews from legal liabilities regarding copyrighted materials.

PLEASE NOTE: General site issues, comments, and questions should be directed to Shacknews support; complaint posts in the comments will be nuked. Do not post about ad blockers; the site depends on ads for revenue. Pop-up blocker discussion is fine.

WHERE DID YOUR POST GO? Make sure to check your filters. Filters make some posts invisible (off-topic, random, not work safe, etc.) unless you choose to view them. You can change your filter settings on the settings page. Additional information on the specifics for each filter can be found below in the section titled "Filters and Tags."

Nukes and Bans

Most rule violations will result in the post being nuked and the user receiving a 30-minute cool-down ban. No one can reply to the nuked post, nor will it be visible in the comments. A ban prevents you from posting in the comments for its duration. Subsequent violations may result in additional 30-minute bans or longer periods such as a week, month or in the most extreme cases, permanent.

Moderators will also nuke posts for organizational purposes. If a user accidentally posts something more than once, the extra posts will be nuked. If a user posts a new thread when there is already an active thread on the same exact topic, a moderator will nuke the new post and direct the poster to the existing thread. Nukes for organizational purposes will not result in a ban.

How Not To Get Banned For Being A Jerk

The Shacknews comments host civil discussions on a variety of topics, and there are several things we'd like to ask of you to keep it that way. Please remember that others will be reading what you write without knowledge of your state of mind or sarcastic intent. Arguments are won by convincing the other side, not by scoring points with the crowd through personal attacks or rudeness. Other obnoxious behavior, such as spam, also detracts from the quality of conversation. Please don't cause trouble for the sake of causing trouble, and don't try to get around the rules.

If you follow these general guidelines, you'll usually find yourself nuke-free and respected by your fellow posters. If you have any questions about a potential post, send a Shack message to a moderator.

Copyrighted Materials: Software Piracy (warez)

Posting Warez, where to get warez, talking about how you just got warez, or asking where to get warez will be nuked. Simply a clever insinuation of warez in any form will be nuked. Don't talk about it; we live in an imaginary world where warez do not exist. Care to join us?

  • This includes all copyrighted software.
  • This includes NO-CD cracks / .exe's, and CD Keys.
  • This includes ROMS (but not emulators).
  • There is no such thing as abandonware. If you can find an official statement from the developer or publisher releasing an old game for free, that is fine, but that's not abandonware.
  • Leaks are warez and are treated as such unless publically addressed by the publisher or developer; and even then, links or explanations of how to obtain the leak will still be nuked.
Other Copyrighted Materials
  • Talking about MP3s, other digital audio formats, and digital video files is fine (ripping, quality, etc) as long as you don't say or even insinuate that you got the files illegally.
  • All forms of acting as a distributor for said files is nukeable. This includes "Shack message me for linkage!" Don't try and be cute about this either.
  • MP3s and video files distributed in an unquestionably legal matter are fair game (artist's homepage, etc.). This does not include mix sets as they are not unquestionably legal.
  • We are more lax regarding music from console and PC games. Such music may be posted unless it is officially available for purchase separately from the game.
  • Magazine scans may not be posted except for the covers and very old, obsolete articles.
  • In general, you may not post links to copyrighted books, movies, full-length porn videos, TV shows, music videos, and anime, nor may you post or discuss bittorrent sites or other sites that distribute such media.
  • Exceptions to these rules are sites such as Youtube and Google Video, which host videos that may be copyrighted. These sites have assumed the legal liability for such materials, so you may post links to these videos in the comments. However, we still discourage the posting of links to complete movies and TV shows on such sites.
Filters and Tags

Interesting, Off-Topic, Random, Political/Religious, Not Work Safe (NWS), and the Post of the Moment

By default, all posts are tagged as "Ontopic," but moderators may tag the post using one of the predefined tags based on the post's content. This gives a user that wants to read about certain topics the ability to customize what posts they will see using their Post Filters. Tags are not a punishment or critique of a post; they are merely a form of categorization.

The following explains the tags that are currently in use:

Political/Religious: All political and religious discussion will be tagged Political/Religious.

Off-Topic (a.k.a. Tangent): Discussion of vegetarianism/animal rights, drugs, relationships, sexual preference, sports, cars etc. will be tagged Off-Topic. In general, if a post starts a huge debate that is not about games and has no end in sight, it will be tagged either Off-Topic or Political/Religious. Rants about random non-gaming things going on in your life, such as what you did today, what you plan to do today, et cetera (also known as Everything/Nothing) may also be tagged Off-Topic, unless the story is particularly exceptional or amazing.

Random: Threads that add very little substantive discussion to the site such as "Shackpolls," "Listening to," "Good morning!," and "Hay guys!" threads will be tagged Random.

Not Work Safe: Posts will be tagged Not Work Safe if they contain pornography and similar material one wouldn't want one's boss to see (or hear) on one's computer at work. This does not include disgusting pictures, which will be nuked.

Interesting: Posts which are very helpful, important, or just neat will be tagged Interesting. Really funny posts may be temporarily tagged Interesting.

Post of the Moment: Some posts are thoughtful and show what makes the Shacknews community fun and interesting, without necessarily being as helpful and long as most official "Interesting" posts. Posts of the moment may be funny, insightful, or just really smart. Such a post might be designated "Post of the Moment", and an excerpt from this post will appear on the front page. These posts will be changed often.

Again, you will not see these posts unless you set your filters properly. You can change your filter settings here.

The Moderators

The following people are mods.

  • 1 head moderator