New Sports Forum Rules & Guidelines *READ ME BEFORE POSTING*

[Sashanaru]

Table of Contents

• Post One: Intro & Sports Forum Survival /What Goes Here
  
• Post Two: What Does Not Go Here
  
• Post Three: General Conduct & the Penalty Box (Terms of Service Violations and how to Cope)
  

Introduction
Welcome to the Sports Forum! This is your place on Gaia to gather with your fellow sports fans! We are not always going to have the same opinions but as long as we keep disagreements civil, it's going to be a blast!



Sports Forum Survival:

What Goes Here?
Generally speaking, if it's a real sports discussion thread and it does not fall under one of our spam rules, it can go here. Please see the "Don't" section in the next post for clarification on this.

[Sashanaru]

What Does Not Go Here?

Flaming:
Flaming is not tolerated in the Sports Forum, or anywhere on GAIA. Abusing others because they have different views than you will result in your account receiving a warning.

Spam:
Please keep the Sports Forum spam free. If it isn't sports related, please don't post it here. Topics such as "Bump/spam/say hell yeah if you like a certain sport or team", are considered spam, and will be removed. Posting "repeated" or "wrong forum" in a misplaced thread will also be treated as spam. Also note, "is sex a sport" and similar threads aren't permitted because they have no relevance to sports discussion. Additionally, low content/low discussion threads may be moved to the Chatterbox forum or the Recycle Bin depending on content.

Bumping:
Please do not bump a thread in this forum unless its fallen off of the first page. Continual bumping will be considered spamming.

Trolling:
Making threads or posts with the intent to get negative remarks is a violation of the Terms of Service of GAIA, and any instances will be deleted and warned for. This includes topics like: "Sports suck", "Jocks are retards", "(team name here) blows", and any variations of this. Also not allowed are posts like "Baseball is for fags", "(team name here) blows" in a thread dedicated to that team, or anything else of this nature.

Least Fave Sport/I Hate Threads:
Since people in this forum are here because they obviously like sports, we do not permit users to make threads stating things like "I hate ___ sport/" We also do not permit "least favorite sport" as it does not foster much actual sports discussion and can easily descend into flaming.

Girls versus Boys threads:
Many of these threads can progress into flaming and hurt feelings. Due to this undeniable ability, we have decided that these threads are not allowed within the sports forum. Many sports do not allow certain genders to play while other require only that of the other gender.

Gambling:
Threads betting on Sports do not belong in this forum. Please use the Lotto/Money Games forum in the Exchange.


Warning!

• Random/Nonsense Posting: Please take these types of posts to the
  Chatterbox Forum. Repeatedly posting nonsense outside of the chatterbox can result in warnings/bannings against your account.
  
  
  
• Repeat Threads: We have sticky threads at the top of the forum for topics such as Favorite Sport and Favorite Athlete/Team. Any threads created on those topics will be recycled.
  
  
  
• Also, look around and see if there isn't already a thread on the same topic as you wish to make. Repeat threads are subject to be moved to the recycle Bin or the Chatterbox Forum.

[Sashanaru]

We want to keep this place fun for everyone, so we have a few guidelines for you guys to follow:

Swearing:
Swearing is not against the Terms or Service, but using swears directly AT another user can be a violation, so be mindful of this

Posting in Misplaced Threads
Do not post in misplaced threads. Please just report them. Posting in misplaced threads just bumps them up to the top of the forum and keeps them on the front page. Let's keep the front page open for all the sports talk!

Heated Arguments:
We know how heated that you sports fans can get. Be sure to keep flaming out of these situations. It's fine to have differing opinions but don't take it too far. Flaming is a violation of the Terms of Service and we don't want that!

Report Spamming: If the need arises and you report a thread, don't go back into the thread and post that it was "reported". This is really just spam and is not necessary.

Solicitation:
Even though it may be sports related, do not post any referral links/games. It is a violation of the Terms of Service. This includes but is not limited to solicitations for fantasy sports leagues, offsite message boards, etc.






Make use of the "report this post" button . It is located near the quote button, so be careful or if it is the first post in a thread, please use the "report this thread" feature located at the bottom of the page if you see any of the following:

• Misplaced threads
  
• Flaming
  
• Trolling (posting inflammatory statements to get a response)
  
• Cybering/Pg-13 violations
  
• Repeat Threads
  
• Other violations of the Terms of Service

Emergencies:
We encourage users to use the report system but we know there are times when you need an issue taken care of immediately. Contact a mod directly if any of the following occurr:

• People posting links to scams (or surveys asking for passowrds)
  
• Serial trolls
  
• Users posting gory or explicit images/material
  
• bots

What Mod to Contact:
List of Sports Forum Moderators:

mods will NEVER ask for your password If anyone asks you for your password, please PM a mod with a link to the post or if it is in a PM, include a quote and a Screencap of the PM.