It’s been a while since we’ve updated the forum rules and guidelines and I think we can all agree, it needs doing. Dirty Bomb’s community has come a long way. First off we had MissMurder as our community manager, then Raziel came, and finally SD took back Dirty Bomb. It’s time to put the past behind us and for the forum rules and guidelines to be refreshed in: The Eox Update!
The forum rules and guidelines can be simply summed up by DB’s motto: ‘Don’t be a Dick’. Fairly vague, don’t you think? So here’s what “not being a dick” means:
0: ACCOUNTS.
The rules begin as soon as you enter account creation!
Your username must be kept clean. Don’t pick a username that is provocative, insulting or similar to a developer or moderator. You are also only allowed one account per user: using alternative accounts is not allowed. Sharing, giving or selling your account is also forbidden.
1: RESPECT IS KEY.
This is the number one rule for a reason (it’s the most important one). You must be respectful and tolerant of everyone on the forums. We don’t ask you to like every single person you come across, we just ask you to keep things clean. Hence, on the DB forums, insults of any form are not tolerated. This includes comments on: religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sexual identification, skill level, status, etc.
By extension, we also do not tolerate bullying, threats and harassment on the forums. The Dirty Bomb forums aren’t a place where users should cope with this kind of nonsense.
The Splash Damage staff are also taken into consideration under these rules. Hence, dev bashing is not allowed. We understand why you guys can get upset about the development team sometimes, but they’re humans like us. They make mistakes and do make people mad from time to time, but it’s still never acceptable to unleash a torrent of rage on any developer when something goes wrong.
2: POST SMART, POST GOOD.
This rule is to stop posts from becoming a total mess. Sure, it’s fun when a thread becomes a memefest from time to time, but if nobody is posting helpful or meaningful content it’s just chaos. Therefore you must make sure that your post meets a minimum level of quality standards. Off topic posts, rants with no feedback content, “I quit” threads, advertisements, sensitive content (pornography, gore, etc…), trolls, fear/doubt/uncertainty and spam are not some kind of posts or threads we can accept on the forums, no matter the form in which they are delivered. We can however overlook a few memes or jokes if they revolve around the main topic of the thread. We’re not monsters. Keep also in mind that the only language accepted on the forums is the english language. Sorry if you have a bit of trouble with the english language, but you’ll have to take some sunday classes.
Before posting you must make sure that your post fits the right section. For example, if your post talks about a Merc, it will fit the Merc Discussion sub-forum. If your post talks about DB in general, put it in General Chat. If you just want to goof around, post that in Off Topic. Also make sure your post has a meaningful title and avoid clickbait and caps lock. Don’t make a thread about the map Bridge and call it “RED BANANAS”. That doesn’t make sense.
You are advised to avoid excessive use of profanity. One from time to time is fine, but one per fucking sentence isn’t. Intentionally bypassing the profanity filter also counts as profanity. And yes, I just dropped an f-bomb in the rules and guidelines. What a madman.
Before posting a comment please make sure that the thread you’re going to post in isn’t already dead. Bringing back old threads isn’t something appreciated as they can contain very outdated information. Also, we want to keep the forums sustained with fresh threads most of the time. If you see that one thread hasn’t received any comments for two weeks, please make a new one. We can accept a thread necro from time to time if you are the OP, depending on what it is.
Be mindful about not posting links to stuff no one wants to see. Posting a link for a website promoting cheats, free gold or anything in between is unacceptable. The same goes with links redirecting to illegal websites, pornography etc. This is all about keeping everyone safe.
Finally, any post that leaks content, promotes bad behaviour (in-game or in the forums), showcases exploits or features cheating are not welcomed at all.
3: PRIVACY MATTERS.
You should never post personal information about yourself or your DB account on the forums, or the personal information of someone else, no matter who that is.
You are also not allowed to name and shame. This means you cannot make a thread describing how much of a terrible person somebody is. We know those people can be annoying to you, but we need to avoid creating witch hunts or giving unnecessary attention to the wrong people. Instead, please contact support. They know how to deal with those kinds of people.
4: FLAGS AREN’T TOYS.
Flags are great. They allow moderators to check out who is misbehaving. But when you guys report threads and comments which are not that bad, it’s not appreciated. Therefore, before reporting you must make sure that the post is worth moderator attention.
When it comes to abuse flags, only use them on posts or threads that are openly hostile and offensive. This means that you should not use the abuse flag for people who disagree with you or put a bit of sass/sarcasm in their post. Only use them for comments/threads that are openly abusive. Reporting out of spite just because one guy upset you is not a good enough reason to flag them.
In the case of spam flags, use them to signal unwanted advertising, spam bots or people who are just way out of line with off topic and unconstructive remarks. Please don’t use spam flags because one guy tried to bring a bit of humor to your thread. Attempting to be funny and failing is not the same as deliberately spamming.
Also make sure the content you’re flagging isn’t old. If the post is more than two weeks old it’s better to let it slide. Imagine if someone brought up that one bad thing you did a year ago and blamed you for it (it’s not constructive).
If you have some doubt, but still think the action is worth reporting, feel free to contact a moderator just to be sure.
One last thing. “Disagree” reactions may not be flags, but abusing them out of spite towards another user on every single of their posts is not acceptable. Before pulling out a disagree, make sure there is something to disagree with. “Disagree” is not a dislike button. Spamming a user with “disagrees” out of spite is also not a tolerated behaviour.
In the case where a user misbehaves, they may end up getting warnings from the moderation team. Those warnings can be a simple notice, or bring with them a small amount of warning points depending on how bad what they did was (usually 2 or 3). If you receive 3 warning points you’ll be set to ‘in jail’, which prevents you from posting as much as usual, making new threads and hides your pretty signature from the eyes of other users. If you reach 5 warning points, you’ll get banned from the forums. Warning points usually vanish after a week, but we keep track of all warnings a user has ever earned.
This concludes our “how to not be a dick” tutorial. As you can see, it didn’t change that much from our old rules and guidelines thread. A few rules are new, but still very needed. Hopefully you guys can agree with these rules and understand the reason they’re put in place.
This thread can be updated at any time with additional rules if deemed necessary.
And Dirty Bomb developer and moderator teams wish you a good time on the Dirty Bomb forums ! 
Don’t hesitate to ask a question if you guys need more precisions.
