The Elements of Harmony [Forum Rules Updated: Nov 17, 2012]
by Redeye (?) » Sat Apr 02, 2011 2:55 am
Welcome to The Round Stable forums! We’re a friendly neighborhood community of fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We’re all about having a good time, and to make sure you help contribute positively to the community, please read and abide by the following forum rules.
Posting Basics
First, before you register, please note that
your first post must be approved by a moderator. This is primarily to keep out spammers. Several mods are usually browsing the forum at any given time during the day, and they are always on the lookout for new posts. Once you've made your approved post, you can then post without any approvals. So go hog wild, except make sure you follow the rules detailed below.
Write quality posts. We require that all posts are written in English with good grammar and spelling. We realize that English is not everyone’s primary language, so we will not ban or probate you for communications issues, but please spend some effort to write good posts. Occasional violations will net you a warning, but repeat offenses will net you a temporary ban. Please consider the following guidelines when composing your posts:
Non-Pony Forums. Foreign Lands, Fence Post, and games are not on the topic of ponies, but they still have normal standards of posting. All of our normal rules apply there. The Meetups Forum (At the Gala) is also available, but you must PM an admin to get access to the usergroup.
Post Content Guidelines
Because this is a fan forum, many different kinds of people will post. Within reason, you are free to post what you like. However, please avoid the following things when making your posts. A minor violation will lead to a warning at first, or a temporary (or even permanent) ban if it's very bad.
Fandom Created Content (Videos, Fanfics, Art, etc)
Here on the forums, we have sections dedicated to various fan works like fanart, fiction, videos, et cetera. Please keep the following content guidelines in mind when posting such works.
Pics Policy. Fanart and other images are allowed and welcomed on our forums! If you want a place to share images, check our media subforum, with proper accreditation to the original artists. You can also contribute artwork to our image host, bronibooru. If you’re ready to contribute to Bronibooru, please read the Broni thread for more information.
Remember, when posting pics, Don’t hotlink images. We try to respect others’ bandwidth. “Hotlinking” means embedding an image directly from another website. If you want to post an image, please rehost it to Photobucket, Imgur, your own webspace, or another image host. Hotlinking images from Bronibooru is okay, since it’s our own on-site image host!
Fanfiction Policy. Fanfiction is allowed on our forums, but only the highest quality ones make it through our rigorous pre-reading process. Occasionally we run mod-approved writing contests in addition to having our clean repository, the Old Mare’s Tales forum. For more about posting fanfiction, please read the fanfiction rules.
Forum Style Guidelines
Avatar policy. Avatars are allowed with a maximum size of 160x160 pixels and a maximum image size of 150 kilobytes. We have plenty available in our massive avatar megathread, or you’re more than welcome to use your own. The same rules for post content apply for avatars. If you are using an inappropriate avatar or custom title, a moderator will ask you to change it. Please comply, or we will remove it for you (and possibly punish you with a temporary ban if it is particularly bad) Also, don't use custom titles that break tables or are just gibberish (zalgo titles).
Special Note about Claming Avatars: You cannot claim an avatar based on preview clips or spoilers for upcoming episodes. You are only allowed to claim a scene or something for an avatar during the episode's actual airing or afterwards.
Signature policy. We want to keep page load times reasonable for everyone, so please keep your signature at roughly 468x125 in dimensions, and under 100KB. The same rules for content apply for signatures. If you are using an inappropriate signature, a moderator will ask you to change it. Please comply, or we will remove it for you.
LIMITATIONS: Only one large (468x125 at 100KB) image is allowed per signature. If you want to use multiple images, consider a sig rotator like SignAvatar. Do note that if your rotating sig is obnoxious, you will lose it. A user can also have up to four sigtags in their sig. Sigtags are like the pony tags underneath userneames, except you can place whatever ones you've earned in your sig. Excessive use of these tags will result in their removal from your sig.
Spoiler Policy
We aim to have a reasonable policy when it comes to spoilers. Any unaired episodes and their content are considered spoilers. All spoilers are kept in the Spoiler Discussion subforum. If you do not want to see this subforum (or anything in it), be sure to add yourself to the No Spoilers usergroup by going to the Usergroups page!
Don't post content from unaired episodes in non-spoiler threads. Keep all leaks, preview clips, et cetera in the Spoilers thread.
Special Note about Claming Avatars: You cannot claim an avatar based on preview clips or spoilers for upcoming episodes. You are only allowed to claim a scene or something for an avatar during the episode's actual airing or afterwards.
Episode synopses for unaired episodes belong in the speculation or spoilers forum. Generally, do not post these in normal threads.
Commercials aired during MLP:FIM are not considered spoilers after spoiler moratorium is over. If there's stuff that shows up during the week, them's the breaks. If the commercial airs during the week and it's a "This Saturday on My Little Pony" type thign where it gives away the plot or synopsis, try to keep it to that week's episode thread. Otherwise, general pony commercials are not considered spoilers.
At midnight pacific time of the day the episode airs, the spoiler ban for the episode will be lifted and you can post pics, use avatars, quotes, etc. from the episode across the forums. Until this time passes, keep all discussion, pics, etc of the episode contained in the episode thread.
How do episode threads work? A good question! When FiM is in season, we have a new thread every week for the new episode. This thread has distinct phases, and here's a typical lifecycle. Note that these threads are spoiler permitted zones. If you don't want to be spoiled, please do not look!
Thread is created. The OP will have the airdate and episode synopsis. During this time the thread will be used for general speculation and discussion of the episode. If preview clips or images are available, they are permitted in the thread.
On the day before the episode is due to air, it'll be stuck to the top of the forum.
On the day of the episode, the thread is used for live reactions and discussion of the episode. Because of the immediacy of reacting to the episodes, posting standards are generally a bit laxer, but please try to abide by normal forum rules.
After the spoiler ban is lifted, the time for live reactions is over. A post will be made in the thread that signifies that the time for high quality discussion is required, and that delayed "live reaction" posting is not allowed
The day before the next new episode is due to air, the thread will be unstuck and moved to the Episode Discussions subforum, where you can talk about any episode at any time.
Special Bronibooru Note: Images featuring episode spoilers may only be posted on Bronibooru before the ending of the relevant episode moratorium if they have the tag "spoilers" added to them so that browsers cannot see the image as a thumbnail. It is recommended to also add the tag "spoilers-{episode-number}" (e.g. "spoilers-25" for spoilers for the 25th episode of the season) so that Bronibooru mods can easily remove spoiler tags once the spoiler moratorium is up.
And The Rest
Crazy Catch-All Rule. The admins reserve the right to create new rules and update them ones at any time, so be sure you stay caught up whenever they update. The admins also reserve the right to ban anybody at any time for any reason, though that reason will 99% of the time usually be something on this rulelist.
Questions, Comments, Suggestions. If you’re unclear on any of these rules, or have a suggestion for how to improve the forum, please take advantage of the Dear Princess Celestia subforum. A friendly local moderator or admin will respond and answer your question, or present improvements to the rest of the team. This will ensure a fair response opportunity from all of the crew. DPC also acts as a sounding board for upcoming policy changes and technical problems/fixes for the sites.
The Comment Box subforum is special, as it means you can post complaints or questions anonymously. The admins can still see who makes the post, but not the mods or other users.
Please do not drag in outside problems (AKA The Offsite Rule). We don't care what you do outside of these forums. Please do not drag in other people's business or problems. We won't play internet detective on you. The limits to this are if the mods are made aware that you create or distribute child pornography; we will not harbor those that create or facilitate the distribution of those works.
changelog:
11/19/2012: Added the reminder about not claiming avatar material while it's spoilers.
11/17/2012: Added a note in spoiler rules about commercials.
11/5/2012: Simplified/reorganized the rules. They're mostly the same except simpler.
9/3/2012: Added links to the Comment Box.
5/31/2012: Made it clear that private PMs to mods regarding pedophile members is acceptable.
4/22/2012: Moved spoiler moratorium to the end until S3 starts up. Made a note about At The Gala (meetup forum) in offtopic.
3/16/2012: Updated spoiler rules. Specifically references use of #ponyspoilers channel and speculation threads.
3/9/2012: Updated signature rules. Only one large image allowed per sig and up to four sigtags allowed.
3/7/2012: Made a note in spoiler rules about synopses and future episode intel, added clarification about OC/OC shipping.
2/3/2012: No gibberish/zalgo custom titles.
12/9/2011: Updated the art section to direct people to our fancy new media forum.
9/30/2011: Added clarification on three-post rule, and that games are read only until the first three posts are approved.
9/14/2011: Added no dogpiling rule.
9/13/2011: Added spoiler moratorium policy.
8/30/2011: Completely rewrote rules from scratch.
Posting Basics
First, before you register, please note that
your first post must be approved by a moderator. This is primarily to keep out spammers. Several mods are usually browsing the forum at any given time during the day, and they are always on the lookout for new posts. Once you've made your approved post, you can then post without any approvals. So go hog wild, except make sure you follow the rules detailed below.Write quality posts. We require that all posts are written in English with good grammar and spelling. We realize that English is not everyone’s primary language, so we will not ban or probate you for communications issues, but please spend some effort to write good posts. Occasional violations will net you a warning, but repeat offenses will net you a temporary ban. Please consider the following guidelines when composing your posts:
- Use a spellchecker.
- No low content posting, trolling, or excessive profanity. For example, Don’t write a reply that just consists of an emoticon, or “lol,” or a poorly constructed sentence. Don't post while you're drunk, either.
- No personal attacks / harassing others in public. If you guys want to fight, take it to PM. Being an annoying jerk on the forums is not being smart — It’s a surefire way to ban-town.
- No hate speech. This includes, but is not limited to, racist, gender-based, or homophobic slurs.
- Don't start politics threads or make political posts. They almost always end badly, so political and politically charged posting is not welcome.
- Do not use the terms anypony/somepony in reference to another user on the forums. It’s OK when talking about ponies in the show, but not when referring to your fellow humans.
- No mod sass. Mods volunteer their time to keep the forum friendly, so give them some respect. This also means that if they ask you to do something, you should probably do it.
- Don’t backseat mod. This means don't pretend to be a mod or order people around. If something in a post breaks these guidelines, use the report function and a mod will attend to the issue.
- Don't be a Jerk. If somebody is posting something you don't like, don't be rude. If the mods think you're being an excessive jerk, they will let you know.
- No links to spyware / adware / spam. This should go without saying.
- No warez/filez/illicit content. This means do not link to areas to download episodes of MLP: FiM or other TV shows. Or movies, or music, et cetera. Links to public sites such as Youtube or The Hub are okay, but never link to sharing sites, torrents, et cetera.
Non-Pony Forums. Foreign Lands, Fence Post, and games are not on the topic of ponies, but they still have normal standards of posting. All of our normal rules apply there. The Meetups Forum (At the Gala) is also available, but you must PM an admin to get access to the usergroup.
Post Content Guidelines
Because this is a fan forum, many different kinds of people will post. Within reason, you are free to post what you like. However, please avoid the following things when making your posts. A minor violation will lead to a warning at first, or a temporary (or even permanent) ban if it's very bad.
- Keep content work-safe. This means don't write posts about sex or extreme violence.
- No Shipping. Shipping means pairing up characters into a non-canonical romance, such as Fluttershy and Big Macintosh. This tends to go very bad places very quickly. Do not post speculation on potential couples, and certainly don’t post any shipping fanfics or fanart, or they will be rejected/deleted.
Do note that canonical couples (e.g. Mr. Sparkle and Mrs. Sparkle, or Mr. and Mrs. Cake) are not shipping, because shipping is purely a fan-created phenomenon. If it’s on the show, it’s okay. The sexual content rule still applies for canonical couples, though!
- Crazy Catch-All Rule. The moderation team have discretion, at any time, to determine if something violates our community standards. A "lack of rules" doesn't mean they can't make decisions, and ambiguities will be addressed by the judgment of the moderation team. If you see something posted on the forums that you think breaks a rule or is below standards, please PM an admin (folks in red) or use the report post function. When they do make a decision, please respect it.
Fandom Created Content (Videos, Fanfics, Art, etc)
Here on the forums, we have sections dedicated to various fan works like fanart, fiction, videos, et cetera. Please keep the following content guidelines in mind when posting such works.
- No Sexual content. No porn. At all. Of anything. Post it, and you’re banned.
- No Excessive violence or gore. If you think it would make a movie rated R, it does not belong here. This also means no Scootabuse or other -abuses in any form.
- No furry works (depictions of anthropomorphized ponies). Don’t post half-human, half-pony works. Completely humanized ponies are OK.
- OC shipping policy No shipping applies to OCs as well. If the OC creator didn't okay it, it's non-canonical (and thus verboten).
Pics Policy. Fanart and other images are allowed and welcomed on our forums! If you want a place to share images, check our media subforum, with proper accreditation to the original artists. You can also contribute artwork to our image host, bronibooru. If you’re ready to contribute to Bronibooru, please read the Broni thread for more information.
Remember, when posting pics, Don’t hotlink images. We try to respect others’ bandwidth. “Hotlinking” means embedding an image directly from another website. If you want to post an image, please rehost it to Photobucket, Imgur, your own webspace, or another image host. Hotlinking images from Bronibooru is okay, since it’s our own on-site image host!
Fanfiction Policy. Fanfiction is allowed on our forums, but only the highest quality ones make it through our rigorous pre-reading process. Occasionally we run mod-approved writing contests in addition to having our clean repository, the Old Mare’s Tales forum. For more about posting fanfiction, please read the fanfiction rules.
Forum Style Guidelines
Avatar policy. Avatars are allowed with a maximum size of 160x160 pixels and a maximum image size of 150 kilobytes. We have plenty available in our massive avatar megathread, or you’re more than welcome to use your own. The same rules for post content apply for avatars. If you are using an inappropriate avatar or custom title, a moderator will ask you to change it. Please comply, or we will remove it for you (and possibly punish you with a temporary ban if it is particularly bad) Also, don't use custom titles that break tables or are just gibberish (zalgo titles).
Special Note about Claming Avatars: You cannot claim an avatar based on preview clips or spoilers for upcoming episodes. You are only allowed to claim a scene or something for an avatar during the episode's actual airing or afterwards.
Signature policy. We want to keep page load times reasonable for everyone, so please keep your signature at roughly 468x125 in dimensions, and under 100KB. The same rules for content apply for signatures. If you are using an inappropriate signature, a moderator will ask you to change it. Please comply, or we will remove it for you.
LIMITATIONS: Only one large (468x125 at 100KB) image is allowed per signature. If you want to use multiple images, consider a sig rotator like SignAvatar. Do note that if your rotating sig is obnoxious, you will lose it. A user can also have up to four sigtags in their sig. Sigtags are like the pony tags underneath userneames, except you can place whatever ones you've earned in your sig. Excessive use of these tags will result in their removal from your sig.
Spoiler Policy
We aim to have a reasonable policy when it comes to spoilers. Any unaired episodes and their content are considered spoilers. All spoilers are kept in the Spoiler Discussion subforum. If you do not want to see this subforum (or anything in it), be sure to add yourself to the No Spoilers usergroup by going to the Usergroups page!
Don't post content from unaired episodes in non-spoiler threads. Keep all leaks, preview clips, et cetera in the Spoilers thread.
Special Note about Claming Avatars: You cannot claim an avatar based on preview clips or spoilers for upcoming episodes. You are only allowed to claim a scene or something for an avatar during the episode's actual airing or afterwards.
Episode synopses for unaired episodes belong in the speculation or spoilers forum. Generally, do not post these in normal threads.
Commercials aired during MLP:FIM are not considered spoilers after spoiler moratorium is over. If there's stuff that shows up during the week, them's the breaks. If the commercial airs during the week and it's a "This Saturday on My Little Pony" type thign where it gives away the plot or synopsis, try to keep it to that week's episode thread. Otherwise, general pony commercials are not considered spoilers.
At midnight pacific time of the day the episode airs, the spoiler ban for the episode will be lifted and you can post pics, use avatars, quotes, etc. from the episode across the forums. Until this time passes, keep all discussion, pics, etc of the episode contained in the episode thread.
How do episode threads work? A good question! When FiM is in season, we have a new thread every week for the new episode. This thread has distinct phases, and here's a typical lifecycle. Note that these threads are spoiler permitted zones. If you don't want to be spoiled, please do not look!
Thread is created. The OP will have the airdate and episode synopsis. During this time the thread will be used for general speculation and discussion of the episode. If preview clips or images are available, they are permitted in the thread.
On the day before the episode is due to air, it'll be stuck to the top of the forum.
On the day of the episode, the thread is used for live reactions and discussion of the episode. Because of the immediacy of reacting to the episodes, posting standards are generally a bit laxer, but please try to abide by normal forum rules.
After the spoiler ban is lifted, the time for live reactions is over. A post will be made in the thread that signifies that the time for high quality discussion is required, and that delayed "live reaction" posting is not allowed
The day before the next new episode is due to air, the thread will be unstuck and moved to the Episode Discussions subforum, where you can talk about any episode at any time.
Special Bronibooru Note: Images featuring episode spoilers may only be posted on Bronibooru before the ending of the relevant episode moratorium if they have the tag "spoilers" added to them so that browsers cannot see the image as a thumbnail. It is recommended to also add the tag "spoilers-{episode-number}" (e.g. "spoilers-25" for spoilers for the 25th episode of the season) so that Bronibooru mods can easily remove spoiler tags once the spoiler moratorium is up.
And The Rest
Crazy Catch-All Rule. The admins reserve the right to create new rules and update them ones at any time, so be sure you stay caught up whenever they update. The admins also reserve the right to ban anybody at any time for any reason, though that reason will 99% of the time usually be something on this rulelist.
Questions, Comments, Suggestions. If you’re unclear on any of these rules, or have a suggestion for how to improve the forum, please take advantage of the Dear Princess Celestia subforum. A friendly local moderator or admin will respond and answer your question, or present improvements to the rest of the team. This will ensure a fair response opportunity from all of the crew. DPC also acts as a sounding board for upcoming policy changes and technical problems/fixes for the sites.
The Comment Box subforum is special, as it means you can post complaints or questions anonymously. The admins can still see who makes the post, but not the mods or other users.
Please do not drag in outside problems (AKA The Offsite Rule). We don't care what you do outside of these forums. Please do not drag in other people's business or problems. We won't play internet detective on you. The limits to this are if the mods are made aware that you create or distribute child pornography; we will not harbor those that create or facilitate the distribution of those works.
changelog:
11/19/2012: Added the reminder about not claiming avatar material while it's spoilers.
11/17/2012: Added a note in spoiler rules about commercials.
11/5/2012: Simplified/reorganized the rules. They're mostly the same except simpler.
9/3/2012: Added links to the Comment Box.
5/31/2012: Made it clear that private PMs to mods regarding pedophile members is acceptable.
4/22/2012: Moved spoiler moratorium to the end until S3 starts up. Made a note about At The Gala (meetup forum) in offtopic.
3/16/2012: Updated spoiler rules. Specifically references use of #ponyspoilers channel and speculation threads.
3/9/2012: Updated signature rules. Only one large image allowed per sig and up to four sigtags allowed.
3/7/2012: Made a note in spoiler rules about synopses and future episode intel, added clarification about OC/OC shipping.
2/3/2012: No gibberish/zalgo custom titles.
12/9/2011: Updated the art section to direct people to our fancy new media forum.
9/30/2011: Added clarification on three-post rule, and that games are read only until the first three posts are approved.
9/14/2011: Added no dogpiling rule.
9/13/2011: Added spoiler moratorium policy.
8/30/2011: Completely rewrote rules from scratch.
-
Redeye
I was a fan of ponies BEFORE it was cool 
- Joined: Feb 14, 2011
- Gender: Male
(where is my haybob trenchcoat smiley)