Your First Port Of Call

[static anonymity]

Firstly, hello, welcome, and all that jazz.

Just a few pointers from myself, admin and the other mods with regards to how members should conduct themselves whilst pootling about the forum.

Conduct

• Firstly, it's common sense and basic etiquette that members don't go around insulting one another. Joining the site simply to make attacks on other members is not permitted, and action will be taken against those that do not take heed. Similarly, it's polite and far less hassle to take personal issues and disagreements to PMs, rather than drag your dirty laundry across the boards.
  
  
• Racist, sexist and homophobic remarks will not be tolerated. Admin and/or moderators will take whatever measures are deemed necessary to deal with such incidents, such as deleting posts and/or cautioning members. Severe cases can result in banning. And yes, we can report ISP addresses. However, whilst we do encourage opinions and debates, we trust individual members to handle these appropriately, conscientiously and responsibly.
  
  
• We also request that, to avoid many unnecessary new threads from popping up, could all "newbies" and other such first time members introduce themselves in the introductions board. This makes it far easier for both those who are new to the site, and for regulars to keep track of those who have joined.
  
  
• The Smerkers lot would also request that you refrain from posting links and/or pictures of a dubious nature. Similarly, if you do want to share a site or image with us which contans swearing, nudity, sex, violence, gore or anything deemed inappropriate for some members, then please provide a link (like using the code below:) [url=www.website_address.com]text[/url] and label with a clear NSSW so that members know that the image is Not Suitable For School or Work. It's common courtesy and ensures that teachers/bosses don't b*ll*ck other members. The filters on swearwords are there for the same reason, as you can see, so please don't bypass them.
  
  
• As you can see, our Spam Board is thriving, and due to this, please keep such threads to a minimum and ensure that any new ones do indeed serve a valid purpose. Smerkers is built upon relevent, thoughtful discussion rather than mindless spammination, so we encourage members to come explore and contribute to other threads and boards rather than lurking in that dark corner. ( ) As such, please don't feel that upping your post count will make you fit in any better: Intelligent or insightful contributions and opinions are what'll get people involved in conversation, rather than trying to impress tham with a 3 digit+ post count. Remember, it's not the size of your post count, it's what you do with it.
  
  
• The mods would like to keep Zombie Threads to a minimum too, please. That is, if a thread hasn't had replies for a long while, and the subject seems to have been exhausted, then please don't dig them up. Let them rest in peace. By all means, if you have something new to say on the topic, then begin another thread, and perhaps provide a link to the previous (and now dead) thread so that members replying to your topic can see what has been said before or what you're referring to.

Most of all, however, do have fun. Smerkers is meant to be a place of friendly banter and chit-chat, and as such please take all comments with a pinch of salt.

If you have any problems or questions, please feel free to reply here, or indeed PM or email myself, Admin (Graham) or one of the other Moderators (James or Kim).

I hope to see you about whilst pootling through the boards, or indeed in the shoutbox, and enjoy your stay at Smerkers.



Ellen and the rest of the Smerkers Staff

And for a treat from Ash for forum newbies
who learn best through visual stimulation, click here

Edited 3/8/06. Information updated.