terms

MOD SHOP CODE OF CONDUCT
Purpose and Synopsis

Why are there guidelines? Our mission as moderators is to have as many people as possible participate in interesting conversations about modding. Naturally, we want veterans to feel comfortable in the community they’ve helped create. However, certain behavior discourages new users from participating. These 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 users to share a variety of viewpoints while they 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 the Mod Shop from legal liability.

Nukes and Bans

Should you violate the rules, the offending post will be locked or removed, and you’ll be notified via email or private message. Should you continue to violate the rules, a ban will be issued. A ban prevents you from posting in the comments for its duration. Subsequent violations may result in an additional ban, which may last for a longer period, such as a week or a month; in the most extreme cases, a permanent ban will be issued.

Moderators will also lock or delete posts for organizational purposes. If a user accidentally posts something more than once, the extra post will be locked or deleted. If a user posts a new thread when there is already an active thread on the same topic, a moderator will delete the new post and direct the poster to the existing thread. These types of locks (for organizational purposes) will not result in a ban.

How Not To Get Banned For Being A Jerk

The Mod Shop 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 respected by your fellow posters. If you have any questions about a potential post, PM 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 is grounds for deletion and a temp ban. Simply a clever insinuation of warez in any form will be deleted. 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 / .exes, and CD Keys.


• This includes ROMS (but not emulators).


• There is no such thing as abandonware. If you can find an official statement from a 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 publicly addressed by the publisher or developer—and even then, links or explanations of how to obtain the leak will still be removed.

Other Copyrighted Materials

We recognize that many mods are based on copyrighted works. That’s fine, and is acceptable under the doctrine of fair use. However, just because you made a Spider-Man mod, doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to share Spider-Man the movie with other Mod Shop users.
Talking about MP3s and other digital audio formats is fine (ripping, audio 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 MP3s is will get you banned. This includes “PM me for linkage!” Don’t try to be cute about this either.
MP3s distributed in an unquestionably legal matter are fair game (artist’s homepage, mp3.com, etc.). This does not include mix sets, as they are not unquestionably legal.
In general, you may not post links to copyrighted books, movies, full-length videos, porn, TV shows, music videos, or 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.