IDW Publishing Forums

[bassbot]

IDW Publishing
Transformers Forum Guidelines, Rules and Official Moderation


This list is only relevant to the IDW Transformers Forum, as moderated by Bassbot, Cattleprod, Ladywreck and Tronprogram. All of the following was discussed and put together as a group, with guidance & clearance from Andy Schmidt, and it is hoped that all IDW Transformers Forum users can follow these rules and guidelines. As John Barber enters his new position as Senior Editor at IDW, we will refer issues to him if the need arises.


Rules – the non-negotiables:

• Refrain from vulgarity, swearing at users, personal attacks, flaming, baiting, abusive behavior and serious insults. {This includes signatures and Avatars}

• If you have a personal problem with another user, try to solve it via personal messaging (PM) with the user, and perhaps avoid further public conversations until the matter is settled. If needed, bring in the mods.
Please, if you have a personal grievance against another user, don't add gasoline to the flames - contact any moderator and ask for a resolution to the issue.

• Don’t stalk or bait a particular IDW artist, writer, or staffer

• Don’t troll the boards – stay on topic as much as possible, otherwise start a new thread! (But please avoid from creating multiple doubles of threads on the same topic) The Transformers Forum is not a place for second or double accounts.

• Please flag/hide all spoilers carefully. Avoid spoilerish talk in current issue threads – create spoiler titled threads for spoiler-talk. Do not post spoilers in signatures.

• We expect people to criticize the comics they're reading – but we also expect forum users to attempt a method of constructive criticism as much as possible.
Here’s a quote from Cattleprod as an example: “There’s a pretty big difference between explaining in technical terms why you find a product lacking and saying it sucks. ‘It sucks’ has never been considered constructive criticism.”

• Take some time before discussing things you want to rage about. Think about what you’re going to say – if you wouldn’t say it to someone in person, maybe you shouldn’t say it at all. Giving criticism doesn’t give permission to be rude.

• There's a dedicated subforum for fanart and fanfic. It's okay to make comments about what you'd like to see (writer X and artist Y doing a story about character Z), but detailed plot synopses get into fanfic territory and are best posted in the fanart section.

• Discussions openly encouraging piracy, the intent to pirate, or eluding to how to pirate comics are not allowed.

Official Moderation:

Please feel free to contact the mods VIA PM when alerting us about a rule/guideline being broken by a user. Links to a particular thread are helpful in identifying an issue.


All of the IDW Transformers Forum mods regularly discuss current forum issues, we bring pm’s to each other and any request will be discussed as a group. We all answer to the higher-ups in IDW.

In light of this, we understand that on occasion we will be required to step in to any ongoing issues, obvious or deliberate breaking of rules, and other possibilities.

As such we will follow this basic chain of feedback.

• 3 Warnings: A forum user who deliberately breaks rules and/or guidelines (as above) will be given 3 warnings. This may require contacting another user who has been involved in a conflict, or simply a curtailing of behavior. We will not do this lightly. Expect a request via PM for an apology regarding an offending post. A warning may not be given in light of an obvious mis-read that has been cleared between forum users.

• Temporary Ban: A temporary ban may be issued if a user cannot reconcile differences between forum policy and their own behavior. This may last for between 3 days to a number of weeks.

• Permanent Ban: The unfortunate good-bye. The very last resort. We do not think this will happen often. If a user simply cannot function within the rules and guidelines and ignores warnings and a temporary ban – they will be permanently banned from the forum.


We hope that the IDW Transformers Forum can flourish with users discussing this amazing interest and passion in ways that are considered, compassionate, and creative. Your opinion matters. But the way we express it counts too.


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The moderators of the IDW Transformers Forum retain the right to make a decision including all warnings, temporary and permanent bans in light of the rules as we see fit.
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