Read Before Posting: Forum Rules

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shaines

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Welcome to the Space.com Community!

We extend a warm welcome to you and invite you to participate in the ongoing discourse here in the Space.com forums! This is a place where you can share your thoughts with like-minded enthusiasts from across the globe! Before you begin, however, there are just a few rules of the road to know about, to make sure you're on the same page as everyone else.

Membership: Why Should I Become A Member?
Becoming a part of our community is free, and you get top-tier access to the latest discussion, news, and information, as well as being able to respond in the forum or comments section.

How Do I Create an Account?
Creating an account is simple! Just click the link titled “Sign up/Register” in the top-right of the main site or comments section and it will take you to account registration.

How Can I Confirm My E-mail?
Once you register with a valid email address, a confirmation email will be sent to you. Be sure to follow the instructions in the email to confirm your account, and check your spam folder as sometimes the email ends up there. Be sure to confirm your email as soon as possible to receive updates when your questions and comments are responded to.

How Do I Subscribe or Unsubscribe to E-mail Alerts?
Alerts are automatically sent to you when someone replies to a thread you have replied to. You can change this in your account settings.

How Do I Publish a Message/Comment?
While browsing the forums or articles, you can click "Post a New Thread", "Ask the Community" or any variation of "New Thread" to pose your question or start a discussion, or “Join the discussion” in article commentary. Fill in the appropriate boxes, be sure to pick select the correct category (where appropriate), and then click “Publish My Thread” / "Submit". It's as simple as that.

Are there Rules for Posting?
We expect all users to adhere to our Rules of Conduct (see below) for posting discussions, questions, and polls. Our community team ensures that forums and comments are moderated and kept safe and clean.

Why Hasn't My Thread/Response Received an Answer?
The first thing to do is to review your question/comment. Was it properly worded and the issue or take concisely described? Is the topic in the right category? Sometimes questions or discussions may not receive an answer right away, or at all.

How Are the Forums/Comments Moderated?
Our forums and comments are moderated by a team of dedicated volunteers under the supervision of the Community Team. Community quality is closely monitored to ensure a civil, safe, and friendly environment for discussion.

Can I Become a Moderator?
Moderators are chosen from long-time members of the community and selected for their maturity and jurisprudence in dealing with difficult posts. They are appointed on an as-needed basis and are selected with the approval and recommendation of existing moderators and staff. If you show exemplary patience and maturity, and have been a helpful, contributing member of the community, rest assured that it will be noticed and taken into account when new moderators are needed.

If you were a moderator on the previous Space.com forums, please email us at community@futurenet.com and let us know your previous moderator name. We'd love to bring you back on board to keep the forums running smoothly as we relaunch.

Why Have I Been Banned?
Moderators ensure that the Rules of Conduct are being followed by users on the forums and comments sections, and will take steps to ban individuals that present a danger to civil discourse. If you've been banned, chances are that you weren't obeying the Rules of Conduct and a moderator took action against your account. Most bans are temporary and last only a few days, but major infractions may result in a permanent ban from the Community.

Rules of Conduct

The Rules of Conduct are general guidelines for users within our community. We pride ourselves on being welcoming to users of all levels of expertise, from novice to guru, and all levels of enthusiast following, from the beginner to the long-time fan. Follow these simple rules and you'll have a great experience here on the forum.

Please do...

  • Keep criticism constructive! If you disagree with an opinion, explain why, but never attack the person.
  • Search the site and/or forum before posting. Someone else may have already answered your question or discussed the topic. Checking for duplicates can help save you time.
  • Read the Stickies/Pinned Comments!
  • Use proper spelling and grammar, with paragraphs as needed. Posts that are easier to read are easier to respond to.
  • If asking a question, provide as much in the way of details as you can to help other members answer.
  • Use formatting to improve the quality of your post or comment. A well-formatted post is easier on the eyes and receives more responses!
  • Report violators of the Rules of Conduct to the Moderation Team by clicking the "Report" button or “Flag as inappropriate” option on the comment.
  • Be sure to post your thread or comment to the forum category or article commentary most appropriate to the topic, so others can find it easily.
  • Utilize “MRI” for Most Respectful Interpretation of a fellow member’s intent when reading their posts.
Please don't...

  • Be rude or impolite. Civility is compulsory here, and remember that behind each user is a real person. Personal attacks are not allowed against other members, staff, or moderators.
  • Engage in any illegal activity. Asking for help pirating, cracking, or bypassing copyright protection is not allowed.
  • Post in ALL CAPS or use excessive punctuation!!!
  • Share personal information publicly, including your email address.
  • Post empty threads, throwaway comments, or responses that contain no content. Don't bump posts, claim "First!" or give single-word replies.
  • Hijack a topic. Keep to the original subject matter. Do not post off-topic threads/comments in categories or on articles not set for that purpose.
  • Spam or encourage spam. Commercial spam is handled with a zero tolerance policy. No posting links to any commercial service or product if you are personally affiliated. Official representatives may be present, but will be expressly indicated from their profile. Do not post /comment to advertise or promote.
  • Abuse the forum or commenting software by attempting to game the system through voting, reactions, or any reputation component functionality. Use is closely monitored and investigated.
  • Use long quotes when responding to messages - only quote as much of the original post as necessary.
Specific Rules

The following activity is expressly disallowed within our community:

  • Harassment, threatening, embarrassing or insulting other users, including sending unwanted messages, attacking/denigrating race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
  • Hate speech is not permitted. You may not post or distribute any content that is harmful, abusive, disparaging, racist, homophobic, sexist, sexually explicit, defamatory, infringing or invasive of privacy.
  • Trolling, defined as knowingly soliciting strong negative responses simply for shock value, and disruption of the natural flow of discussion through vulgarity, spamming, flooding or other means.
  • Impersonation of others or sock puppeting.
  • Phishing. Moderators and staff will never ask for your password.
  • Uploading or linking to files which contain viruses or malware.
  • G.R.A.P.E.S. (guns, religion, abortion, politics, economics, sexuality) subject matter discussion is prohibited, except where the topics are expressly related to core subject coverage and is initiated by staff. The moderation team reserves the right to remove any such posts and take action as warranted.
  • Necroposting (resurrecting very old threads or article comments) is disallowed.
All content, including signatures, images, links, posts, and submissions are all subject to these rules. If your signature contains links, please ensure they adhere to our commercial spam policy. Additionally, forum and commenting accounts are non-transferable. Actions taken by a user on one account may affect all of that user's accounts. With these in mind, please remember to have fun. Most of these guidelines are common sense, and serve to keep the forum/comments useful, safe and secure for everyone. We thank you for your cooperation and support in this, and if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback regarding the Rules of Conduct, please contact a Moderator or Community Staff.

Accusations/Corruption
We’re happy to hear your criticism (and encourage it!), but unfounded allegations of corruption, payola, or bias are neither constructive nor welcome.

Image Upload and Sharing Policy

In addition to monitoring uploaded content, to ensure that it is both relevant and in keeping with our Community Guidelines, users are required to respect the rights of creators and honor valid copyright claims.
  • You may freely post and/or embed content for which you have permissions or own the rights.
  • If you post and/ or embed content created by someone else: please provide credit and link back to the content’s original source. Failure to do so is considered copyright infringement; content will be removed at our discretion or if a copyright claim is made.
  • Government agencies (such as NASA) often post images to the public domain - please read the usage policies on each site and check to see if there are any requirements to be met for distribution and use.
  • Exemption: memes, which are considered “fair use,” and public domain content created by NASA or any other governmental agency.
Copyright Claims
If you are the owner of copyrighted content that has been posted here without your consent and/or credit, please email us with details via community@space.com and we will address your concerns as quickly as possible.

This policy is subject to revision at any time at our sole discretion, or in order to comply with local, federal and international law.

Ads
Neither Editorial nor Community Teams have any control over ads that are served on the site. If you do encounter an ad on-site that you believe to be invasive or inappropriate, email community@futurenet.com.

Avatars
Avatars should not be obscene, display excessive violence, flash enough to be a danger to epileptics, or defame any individual, group, party, or company. Failure to comply can result in your right to display an avatar being revoked. Moderators are the final arbiters in determining when an avatar is inappropriate or in violation of the guidelines.

Signatures
Where applicable, if signature content contains forwarding links to either past or present websites that have caused problems, your signature privileges will be suspended.

Video Content
We encourage the posting of videos! They can be very helpful and having a visual aid can be very beneficial for some people. Here are the guidelines for posting videos, provided this option is available in the forum/comments.
  1. All videos posted should include a text description of what the video contains. This doesn’t have to be very long, but a sentence or two will let people know what they are about to view.
  2. When posting a video as a solution or reply in somebody else’s thread or article commentary, the video must be relevant to the discussion.
  3. Threads for standalone video content (reviews, unboxings, gameplay videos, etc) are permitted, but please ensure that they are posted in the correct category or relevant to the article posted.
Who do I contact if I have a problem or question?
The Community Staff and Moderation Team are happy to provide help with any technical questions you may have. For problems that fall outside the norm (disputes with moderators, issues with the site, forums, or commenting systems, or to appeal a ban), please send an email to community@futurenet.com and somebody from the Community staff will reach out to you as soon as possible.

Terms, Conditions, & Privacy

The policies herein are the contractual requirements for admission and participation in the forum and/or site comments. You agree to comply and are obliged to comply with the rules above and in the following policies when joining and using a Future plc Forum and Commenting Software, and Future plc reserves the right to suspend or remove your user account and/or access without notice should a user fail to comply with any of these policies. You acknowledge and agree that, by accessing or using the services or by uploading or posting any User Content, you, your heirs, and assigns (collectively, “you”) are indicating that you have read, understand, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, then you have no right to access or use the Services. All activity and participation within the forums and commenting sections are covered under the Future plc Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy.

Future plc reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to remove any User Content, block access to the forum and/or commenting system, and/or cancel the account of any user.
 
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