Topic: A Quick Reminder of the Rules

Hello fellow Pushsquarers,

Over the past few days I have noticed people posting things, saying things in comments, threads etc the past few days and when I have stepped in the response is usually

Well haven't you heard of free speech?

While yes I have and I do respect freedom of speech, there are a few rules that we put in place to keep this place a safe, fun place for all users. So there is no confusion here is the rules for here at Pushsquare.

This website is intended for users of all ages. Please take this into consideration when posting at Push Square - use common sense and don't use profanity. We retain the right to edit or remove any posts deemed offensive or inappropriate.

Please show respect for all members at Push Square. Remarks towards others about racism, sexism, origin, creed and handicap will NOT be tolerated and will most likely be deleted by staff, and the poster will be warned, suspended or banned.

Your posts and posted images are constantly reviewed by the moderating staff, any post or image deemed unsuitable by them will be censored, edited or deleted without prior warning.

Common Decency

The following rules and guidelines on forum decency or "netiquette" are all mostly common sense, but we know some members lack any common sense so we've listed them here for you to review and hopefully abide by:

All posts should be made in English. Do not make posts or topics in foreign languages, they are likely to be closed.Before you start a topic, perform a search to see if the question or topic you wish to create has been made before. If it has, post in the topic that already exists. Duplicate topics will be closed.Please make the topic title you are creating descriptive, clearly reflecting the topic you are addressing. Do not make generic titles such as "Question" or "I need help", these topics will probably go un-noticed, whereas a topic with a descriptive title will gain more interest.Do not post topic titles in full capitals, or include an obscene amount of full-stops (periods) or exclamation marks, question marks etc.When replying to a topic, don't; unless you have something meaningful to say or something that will contribute to the discussion. Posts such as "Yes" or "I agree" or "LOL" are useless and are wasteful on the servers.Begging in the forums for anything is not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to; asking users to visit a website for the member to gain points etc., especially pyramid schemes, where you are asking members to help you out by registering places, visiting certain websites etc., these are completely prohibited.Do not over quote posts. If a post has more than one quote in it when you are quoting it, remove the one(s) you don't wish to quote.Show some restraint on the amount of images you post. Posts or topics with many images are a strain on dial-up users, so please be courteous.Do not post images that exceed the width of the page. This will stretch the page horizontally causing viewing problems for members. Large images are likely to be deleted by staff.When posting multiple large images in a post, consider linking to the images remotely rather than using the [IMG] tags.Do not post excessive amounts of emoticons within your posts.Do not harass other users, up to and including site staff and contributors. If you disagree with anything you've read here at Push Square, whether staff or user-submitted, please be constructive in your response. If you have a bone to pick with us, we welcome your feedback via the Contact Form, but hounding our staff via comments, forum topics, messages sent via e-mail, via other websites or other social media will not be tolerated.Do not "flame" others. Blatantly offensive posts directed at others will not be tolerated. While we do allow members to debate and voice their own opinions, there will be a limit to how far a heated debate can go before it is closed by staff.When contacting us via official means, whether by Contact Form or staff e-mail address, please behave as you would on-site — treat us like human beings, and don't waste our time. We don't stop being staff just because we're no longer posting publicly. Calling us filthy names behind the scenes and threatening to report us to the Internet Police will not persuade us to unban your account for you, end of story.Unacceptable Content

Whilst we grant members the freedom to talk about almost any topic there are still limits, most of these fall under the common sense column but the following subjects and activities are explicitly against our rules:

Users are prohibited from posting pornographic, vulgar or any other distasteful, inappropriate and explicit images. Users should also be responsible for the copyright of any image(s) they post.Linking to any illegal download sites, torrents or other resources that allow users to gain access to illegal content such as copyrighted ROMs, games, movies, music, TV shows, software or related activities is strictly prohibited.

Competitions, Contests and Giveaways

Users are prohibited from creating their own competitions and posting them within the Push Square forums, if you want to run a competition please do so on your own website.

Warnings, Suspensions & Bans

Depending on the severity of the violation of rules, the member will be dealt with accordingly.

Under normal circumstances, the member will be issued a single warning and an explanation.Under heavier circumstances the member will be issued one or more warnings and may be temporarily banned, pending a conversation between admin and user.Under extreme circumstances, being an extreme violation of rules or disruption, the member will be banned from Push Square.

All actions are decided by staff only and are not open to public debate, they remain a private issue between user and staff and therefore should not be discussed by other users.

If you find your account has been banned, you should first contact us and talk to us about it, we're actually quite nice people and given a short, polite apology we'll no doubt be more than happy to re-activate your account knowing that you have learnt your lesson.

Once banned, any additional accounts created that we suspect to be the same user will also be banned - we employ various techniques to back up our suspicions. If you feel your account has been wrongly banned please contact us immediately to discuss.

Now this is not directed to one person it's just more of a friendly reminder. I hope you all are enjoying Pushsquare and as always any questions feel free to ask below.

Tasuki

Is the word re****ed allowed? It's one of the words of always been unsure about.

@Jaz007: Not really. And to play it safe if it's a word that you are unsure about, then you should maybe choose another word. .

Thanks for the update. Some hopefully constructive criticism - Personally I'd like to see topics or posts moved more often (where possible at least) if it's felt that they are not placed appropriately instead of just closed or (worse) deleted. I say deleted is worse because usually someone has taken time to write something and they probably won't feel like rewriting it all, if they can even remember exactly what they wrote in the first place.

I appreciate it is more work from the mods side but I think it's important to ensure posters feel their contributions are valid. I suspect people who have been shut down in the past just think screw it and don't come back. I know I don't really create topics myself as of late because I've seen instances of topics being closed when I don't think they warranted being closed, and others being left open when they should surely be merged so I don't really get where the goal posts are. I get the need for the forum to be kept tidy but its not as if there are 2 pages of new threads opened per day, either. Just seems like the vast majority of threads are "OT" ones and then the 4-5 that always stay at the top "recommendations, answer the question". Bit dull!

When a thread gets closed because of duplication can the relevant comments be transferred to the other thread which stays open? How long do locked threads stay before they are deleted? Also how long before threads get archived?

I am also unclear sometimes where to put certain newly created topics for example. An online only game ie Starwars Battlefront should that always go in the online games? or is it ok t put it in the PS4 section?

As an example there is a topic about the shooting in the Uncharted collection, essentially this started out as no more than a comment on how bad the author thought it was. Going by past experiences, this should not have been a new topic and instead just included as another post in the OT that already exists. I've seen more meaningful topics closed. But the fact it was left open meant the conversation expanded in such a way that it would not have done otherwise which ended up being a good thing.

Just seems a bit odd, then, that certain more meaningful topics get closed that could lead on to be pretty good threads. Again, not wishing to be overly critical just seems like a shame sometimes when things get cut short, especially since the forum is not exactly exploding with daily activity.

@kyleforrester87: Agreed, I feel the same way.

@kyleforrester87: @dryrain: Unfortunately there currently isn't a way to merge topics I am afraid. I am not sure if it's something that Ant is looking into for the future or not, but sadly as of now I don't have any other means but locking a duplicate thread.

However though, there is a way to search for threads right next to the new topic button is a search one. Obviously something as popular as Uncharted probably already has an ongoing thread so it before making a I need help on Uncharted thread a quick search is all that's needed. I understand it's not ideal at the time but hopefully wit the updates coming this problem will be elevated.

@dryrain: As for how long a thread gets locked or archived, it all depends. If it's a duplicate thread, it gets locked as soon as I see it. An archived thread is a bit different usually if it's a necropost again as soon as I see it. Unless it's a locked thread I wait a few days for the Op to see why it's locked before I archive it.

As for what section a thread goes, there is descriptions under the sections describing what is in those sections or what those sections are generally. Star Wars Battlefront for example can go in either depending on what you want to talk about. Are you looking for people to play the game with? That goes in the online section. Just want to talk about the game in general that goes into the PS4 section.

Almost every game nowadays are online only but the online section is generally reserved for making online groups etc. I hope that clears that up.

I've always wondered why all necropost threads are locked. If the reviving post is relevant and not spam, why should that thread be locked, only for a new thread to be made?

My question would be how long until a thread gets killed? I usually miss the creation date, and I remember when I joined some other forum and the very first day I got a warning for doing that. So annoying, never came back to that forum.

@Octane: It depends on the thread really. If it's a thread for help like techical advice or game advice if it's more then 2 months old that being said the last post was made two months ago I am pretty sure that the person needing help has already found the solution to there problem therefore any posts there after would be considered necroposting.

Now if it's a game thread i.e. Assassin's Creed III -OT- or FIFA 15 Online Match making thread then those ones it's ok to revive those ones since those games are still around as long as it's relevant. If it's just to post "I like this game" then obviously, that's not acceptable.

@sinalefa: I hope that answer your question as well.

@Tasuki: I see, thanks, was always wondering that. On some forums they close anything that's revived, despite the fact that the comment might actually still be relevant.

@tasuki

Yes, it does. Thank you.

@Octane: Yeah as long as it's relevant I will keep it open. Of course even if it's relevant and as I said the thread is 1 year old and the person is needing help to decide which game to buy, chances are they are long past needing an answer.

How do you even make a thread on here??? I was just curious about that. Also, thanks for posting the rules to this site. I made a comment about the Wii U on Nintendo Life, and the person followed me onto the PS4 to swear up a storm and call me all sorts of names...it ended up coming up on the screen when my young kids were playing, of course having to report the person to where I think nothing was even done about it until I contacted Sony and Nintendo themselves.
Thanks for being a great site to visit for Playstation info!@Tasuki:

@JLPick: It's pretty simple, just click on the section you want to post a thread in then click on new topic in the upper right corner and type away.

@kyleforrester87: "this should not have been a new topic and instead just included as another post in the OT that already exists."

I couldn't find the OT. But the whole scenario behind writing that thread fits in to the discussion above.
I believed it was a good subject to bring up as the the shooting in Unchartered was the weakest element of the game, worthy of its own thread. Maybe I should of called it 'shooting mechanics in gaming' or something more apt for what I really wanted to talk about. But I know what you mean, when I started that thread I had a forum post deleted for necroposting not long before so was wary of reviving a dead thread.

I'm unsure when this thread was opened but @Tasuki this was pretty harsh;

"but we know some members lack any common sense so we've listed them here"

True but very harsh.

@themcnoisy: If you ever need to find a thread you can always use the search function.

Not quite sure what you meant about something being harsh as I never said that.

@themcnoisy: just for the record wasn't being critical of your thread, just using it as an example of one that's a bit hit or miss as to whether it gets closed down.