The following rules are to be followed at all times by users of this forum;

1. Forum rules

   1. Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting. Users consistently posting to the wrong forum may be given a warning (see policing below).
   2. Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Insulting or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
   3. Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
   4. Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc. or re-printing material without permision will receive a warning and their post will be removed.
   5. Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline ([IMG][/IMG]) image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to may be removed.
   6. Members should post in a way which is not 'off putting'. Meaning that users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc in titles or posts. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.
   7. Members should use an appropriate, descriptive and relevant title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Help me!", "I'm stuck!", "I've got an error!", etc. Examples of good titles include; "Problem loading game file", "My opinion on this comic" etc.
   8. Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. This includes offering hosting services (charged and free), installation services, solicitation, sales of meds etc. Users posting spam will be warned and their post removed. See specific item on spam and 3rd party linking for more information.
   9. The moderators or any other appropriate group reserve the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to Team Members and not users. If a post is edited, a reason will always be given.
   10. The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revokation of the private messaging ability.
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2. Signatures

   1. Signatures may only contain a certain amount of characters (including BBcode). You may use any of the available BBcode, including the image ([img][/img]) tages. If images are too large the user will be notified and if the user fails to change/remove the image they will be warned. The max dimensions for images in a signature are roughly 450px by 80px. If image is large, please refrain from including text in your signature. As with posts, any offensive, vulgar etc content within a signature will be remove and the user will recieve a warning.
   2. Text sizes should not exceed the 'normal' size. Text in signatures is subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, warez, emoticons, and so forth.
   3. Linked sites within signatures may be commercial in nature (following the following guidelines). You may not include links in a way which suggests you offer official support, software, etc for Gimp Productions. You may not link to warez, med sales, porn or political, racist or other similar hate sites. Links are included in signature size limits.
   4. Users abusing these rules will be warned.
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3. Avatars

   1. Users are permitted to utilise a gallery avatar or to link to one of their own (subject to previous points on misuse of bandwidth). User defined avatars are to be no larger than 90 pixels square, contain no image which attempts to portray the user as having an official status here (e.g. mimiking ranks or copying avatars of team members), may not exceed 6kB (6144 Bytes) in filesize and have a consistently high availability (i.e. links to images on slow servers or those prone to failure may be removed). Avatars are allowed to be animated.
   2. Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, and so forth.
   3. Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges.
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4. Support of Gimp Productions products

   1. This board exists to support any Gimp Productions product. No support will be given for versions of products released or made available from other sites. This includes but is not limited to; mirrors, warez vendors, etc. Users of these products should seek support at the site from where they obtained the product.
   2. Likewise the support forums are not to be used to ask questions on MySQL, Apache, Linux, etc. Questions regarding such things should be directed to the appropriate forum.
   3. Support is offered only via these forums and the contact form found the the Gimp Productions website. Do not contact team members privately (via any method) to ask for support. Users found to be contacting team members asking for support may be warned if it is deemed as hassling.
   4. Before posting a support question users are asked to try and solve the issue themselves. This includes reading any documentation enclosed with the product, the Knowledge Base(coming soon) and using Search. Users who persistently ask questions without showing any desire to help themselves should expect to receive at best a delayed response and at worst no response at all.
   5. When posting a support question bumping is permitted only after six hours have elapsed since the last post to that topic. Users who abuse this will be warned.
   6. Members should note this board is maintained on a voluntary basis. No team member receives payment of any kind for time spent here. Users should respect this and therefore not post demanding support, bug fixes, etc. Users who disrespect the work of team members will be warned.
   7. Users are welcome to help other users who may have any problems with Gimp Productions products. Such topics are intended for support only and not for general promotion of non-Gimp products, sites, and so forth or general posts. Users found abusing the help forums will be warned.
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5. Linking offsite

   1. Members may not include or post links to 3rd party sites within the support forums, unless it is specifically linked with the support request (ie; links to scrpting websites such as C++ or Javascript). Members are not permitted to post links to material unrelated to the support request or where linked material is not relevant to a given support request.
   2. General linking (within posts) to other sites is generally permitted. Acceptable contexts may include (but are not limited to): links to script websites (PHP, XHTML etc), hardware, and so forth (appropriate to the discussion). Unacceptable contexts include hosting providers (unless deemed relevant), links to porn, med sales/advertising of any kind, and so forth.
   3. Moderators have the right to edit/remove any links that they deem inappropriate. Using of inappropriate links may get you a warning.
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6. Show Off

   1. Users may not start posts with the intent of advertising. Such posting constitutes spam and may lead to a warning and the post will be deleted.
   2. Users may not promote their sites through posts, unless relevant to a topic. Such posting constitutes spam and may lead to a warning. Users or other persons wishing to advertise at www.gimppro.co.uk or any of it's sites should read our advertisement information.
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7. Policing

   1. Gimp Productions operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences in a three month period. If the need arises for a fourth warning a temporary ban will be put in place. The length of the ban is up to the moderator to decide, but usualy between 1 to 7 days. If the reason for warning is severe, your account may be permanently deleted.
   2. Arguing with team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place as above.
   3. Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact a moderator to appeal. If they feel you were treated badly they may remove a warning. If you feel their decision is also unfair you may contact the Admin. His decision is final. Contacting group members over warning matters should be done so as a very last resort ... group members do not want to be bothered unless vital.
   4. A lower ranking moderator cannot remove a warning given by a higher ranking moderator, although they can contact the moderator on your behalf if they wish. For example; If a board moderator gives a warning, a moderator of a specific forum cannot remove it. Likewise, if the admin gives you a warning it cannot be rebuked unless the admin feels that he did so in error.
   5. Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account to evade an email ban. Circumvention includes posting as an anonymous user.
   6. An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact team members personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.
   7. Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While Gimp Productions may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurrence.
   8. As mentioned in the support section and above, persistant contact or hassling of the moderators, will not be tolerated. Users who spam the moderators will be warned.