General Rules of Conduct
Once you register as a member of the forum, you agree to follow our code of conduct as seen below. As moderators, we wish to keep things under control and if these rules are violated in any way there will be a disciplinary action will be issued. So please read over these carefully:
1. There is an age limit. You are only permitted to use the forums if you are 13 years of age or older.
2. You may only register one User ID. Multiple IDs are not allowed. If you have been (for whatever reason) banned from the forums and decide to return under a new User ID, don't. You will be found out and you will be banned again.
3. No posting of vulgar or obscene material, or other material inappropriate for children. No profanity worse than the occasional "hell" or "damn" will be tolerated. This policy also applies to censoring expletives such as **** or @!*$&ing.
4. Always treat others the way you want to be treated - with respect and courtesy. This means any kind of disparaging comment against one's ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or political affiliation will not be tolerated.
5. Personal threats or harassment are prohibited.
6. Impersonation of other users is prohibited and will result in automatic ban.
7. There will be no misquotations or misrepresentations of other members. This is considered slander.
8. No posting of flames or material intended to start a flame war. If a member registers just to do so, they will be automatically banned.
9. No spamming. This includes off-topic commercial posts and/or off-topic links to personal websites without consent of the webmaster.
10. No irritating posting styles, including use of all caps, excessive punctuation, and posting the forum smilies excessively. Here's an example: !!!!!!!!!!oMG!!!!!!1111!!!!1!!!!????/?!!!!!
All posts must make sense. Any nonsense or very long meaningless posts will be deleted.
11. Discussion must be on-topic as frequently as possible. Off-topic discussions should be at a minimum. If you would like to start one, you must include the words "Off Topic" or "OT" in the thread title. Make sure you want to discuss stocks when you register; there's no sense in registering to a forum that solely discusses a topic you're not interested or have no knowledge in.
12. The "Report" button is not a toy. It is only used to report a rule violation in a board post to a moderator or administrator. This feature cannot be used for any other reason.
13. Discussion of banned members is not permitted – once they're gone, they're gone.
14. Please do not revive threads more than two weeks old unless you have something useful or interesting to add to the discussion. Usually bumping very old threads confuses and annoys other members.
15. Please do not attempt to pad your post count by replying to posts with just one or two words or a few smilies. These posts do not add anything significant to the discussion, and will only clutter up the board.
16. Lastly and most importantly, have fun. The forum can be a very fun place to hang-out just as long as you follow these rules.
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Disciplinary Procedure:
Violations on any of these rules will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis as listed below:
1. A formal warning from a Moderator or Administrator is issued.
2. A second formal warning is issued.
3. A third and final formal warning is issued.
4. If the user fails to follow the rules after a third warning, he or she will be banned. No more chances, no exceptions.
