While on this forum you must follow these simple rules. Failure to follow them will result in warns, suspensions, or being outright banned. Every member has a warn meter with three levels – breaking a rule usually results in getting a warning and going up one level. If you have a 100% warn level, you are banned, plain and simple. (Don’t worry if you’re new, though – usually our friendly mods and admins will refer you to the rules. If you then choose not to follow them you get warned.)

1. No Spamming

Please stay on topic. No one goes to an Official Pokémon Topic to hear you talk about Barack Obama or something entirely unrelated. We have a spam forum where you can post silly nonsense, but even that has limits – you still have to follow the other rules. All in all we want to stay on topic, and spam is totally against that goal. If you are caught spamming you will receive one warning. We shouldn't have to go into examples of what spamming is, but to make it clear, no 1337 5p3Ak (leet speak) (that gets annoying really fast), no double posting, no posting off topic, and keep posts at least three words long.

2. No Flaming

We don’t want to cause drama on this forum, so if you have issues, please “take it outside” as it were. We realize that emotions can run high but this is a public forum and not the place to put them. If you are caught flaming someone (flipping out, badmouthing them, whatever you wish to call it) then you will receive one warning. A repeat offense will be punished with a temporary suspension. Trolling falls under this rule – deliberately aiming to provoke a reaction is frowned upon on this forum and will be dealt with more harshly (immediate suspension at the lightest).

3. Limit your bad language

We do not outright ban the use of profanity and obscenity. We realize that there are times when you just have to express yourself and such words are the best way to do it. However, we aim to keep this site family-friendly – some members may take offense. Should your obscene language become an issue, you will receive one warning. Two such repeat offenses will be punished with a temporary suspension.

4. Don't ask to be staff

The answer is no. Who gets to be staff is purely a staff decision. Repeated questions are considered spam.

5. No Advertising

If you want to advertise another forum or be our affiliate, please ask a staff member. Do not make a topic advertising a different site or PM another member about it. That is not what people log in to this forum to see. Unlike the other rules this will result in two warnings – we don’t want any spambots on this forum and you will be suspected of being one. Also don't link to any pornographic material. We will erase it and suspend you.

6. No Stealing

Don’t take anything from this forum or another forum and claim it’s yours. That’s called plagiarism and is against the law. If we find out that you have stolen another’s work and claimed it as your own you will be banned from this forum, and your IP address will be blocked. If you attempt to steal from this forum and claim work from it as your own on a different forum, we will contact the administrators or any other necessary authorities. We take this very seriously – do not test us.

7. No Duplicate Accounts

Don't try and make duplicate accounts to circumvent any of these rules. We can tell it's you. This is spamming and flagrantly disregarding the rules, and if you do it to try and post here while you've been suspended or banned, we will ban your IP. No exceptions.

8. Original Character Outline

Canons don't need to get an outline because we know who they are. Original Characters, however, need those to show what they look like and how did it happen. You will find the original character skeleton in the OOC section.

9. Character Tagging

If there is a character in a certain place, you have to tag that character in. If you want the character to leave to go to another place, make a post that a character leaves with a tag and go to the other place to place a tag that he or she arrives. CHARACTER TAGGING WILL BE PERMANENT ONCE THE POST HAS BEEN MADE. PLEASE BE CAREFUL.

10. Double Posting Issue

Duplicate posts will be permanent, but that doesn't mean you can edit them. If you made a duplicate post, edit it out and say that the post must be ignored.