Forum Rules and Code of Conduct

This thread provides an overview of rules and guidelines for posting and editing in the forums of this wiki.

These rules and code of conduct are valid for all forums on this wiki, but also hold special rules for posting in some specific forums, notably the Suggestions forum.

## Suggestions forum Rules

### Suggestions must be original

Over the past years, we have already discussed hundreds of suggestions, some brilliant, quite a few very good and useful, many obvious, many useless and some hilarious. Don't underestimate the added value of posting an additional suggestion in a thread that already holds a suggestion your idea closely relates to. You may convince the author of that thread to include your idea in his first post.

### Suggestions should be specific, concrete and well thought-through

When posting suggestions, make sure to provide details for your ideas so that the community can better evaluate them. For example, instead of just suggesting the addition of Elven cloaks, also provide a description of them or even a texture. This can include what they look like, how they function, how they are crafted, what NPCs wear them, etc.
Do not combine a number of unrelated feature subjects and respective suggestions on them. The suggestion threads are to be judged on applicability by the wiki community in its entirity. If you propose to add two unrelated features in one suggestion thread, the thread itself, and the kudos given to it, become unspecific and useless.
You may select one specific subject and post a number of suggestions related to that subject. If you choose to do so, consider to add polls in the 2nd and subsequent post of the thread, so you can get votes for each separate suggestion (including valuable 'nays'!) and kudos for the entire thread as acknowledgement of the general notion you bring forward. For threads holding multiple related suggestions, it's important that you provide a clear argument, an objective that binds the separate suggestions.

### Set a **fitting title** for a thread!

The title of a any thread must be fitting and hold the main **keywords** that characterize the **subject** and the **objective / proposed feature improvement**. This is relevant for users to identify whether they wanna read a thread and possibly provide their feedback on it, and it helps a lot for both all of us to find a thread using keyword searches on the pages of both the main suggestions forum and the community-endorsed suggestions board.

### For the Anons

... or 'Anonymous contributors'. Be aware that if you do not (register an account and) log in, you can post new threads, but you will not be able to edit them!
Therefore, we recommend **anyone who wishes to post a suggestion**:
**(register an account and) log in before posting!**

## General forum Rules

### No CAPS

Caps is seen as shouting. Think about it -- would you like to be shouted at? Then don't shout at people who break the rules (see below)

### No spamming

There are many definitions of spam, but on these forums, spam is essentially any comment that is unwelcome. Another term for spam is "clutter". Clutter is a problem because...

* **Clutter** slows us down
* **Clutter** makes us cringe
* **Clutter** scares us away and makes us not want to come here as often because we have to wade through so much...**clutter**!

### No necroposting

Necroposting is posting on old, dead, forum threads. If a thread hasn't been active for a **month** or longer, don't post on it. Instead, create a new thread, under the appropriate board, about what you want to discuss.

### Use the "Thumbs up" button

If you agree with somebody's suggestion and think it's good, but don't have anything to add to it, click the "Like" [thumbs up] button on the top right corner of their post. It's neater and faster than typing "I like this" "Me too" "Good idea" or "Awesome!"; in fact, short comments such as these are considered spam by the moderating team.

If you want to see what's going on in the thread, click the "Follow" button right next to the thumbs up. You will be alerted via your notifications every time somebody posts on that thread.

### Don't "kudo" your own posts

While it is definitely possible to "kudo" your own posts, doing so is generally frowned upon by other members. It's rather obvious that you think your post is good, else why would you have written it in the first place?

### Don't use the forums for meeting people in chat

The forums are not an instant messager. If you want to meet somebody in the wiki chat, leave a comment on their message wall telling them this; by default, they will receive a notification. Afterwards, the user who received the comment can delete the message (and any replies) or leave it up there.

### No jibberish posts

Jibberish comments are considered spam and will be dealt with as such.

### No sexism/racism/etc.

Any discrimination will cast you through the door of night and into the Void with Morgoth.

### Do not abuse multiple accounts

While owning two or more accounts is totally OK, especially if you plan to use the alternative account for testing purposes, the abuse of multiple accounts is a serious offense. Here's a list of things that are not permitted:

* Using an alternative account for trolling.
* Creating an alternative account for impersonating staff members. If you have an account with a similar name to a staff member, inform them.
* Using an alternative account in order to pretend to be a real-life relative of a user, when in fact you own two accounts.
* Using an alternative account to get around a ban.

In any case, if you create an alternative account, let the staff know. Undeclared alternative multiple accounts may result in your getting banned, either temporarily or permanently. An interesting overview on wiki 'Socks' is presented here.

Staff may create alternative accounts named similarly to their main account for testing purposes, but they must provide a link to their main account on the alternative account's profile page.

### Respect everyone, especially wiki staff

If you were staff on this wiki, you would want to be respected, right? The Admins and Moderators of the wiki want the same kind of respect. Believe it or not, they're just mortals who enjoy playing this Game just like you, and they want to have fun. Treat them with the same courtesy with which you would like to be treated.

### Keep discussions on topic

When you start a discussion about a new topic, make a new thread in the suggestion forum, leave a message on that person's message wall, or post in a new thread in the appropriate subforum.

### Know how to use quotes

This is not really a rule, but more of a tip. When quoting a forum post, type your reply beneath the quoted text, by clicking the line below the text you have quoted. When the flashing vertical line appears below the text in the quote, start typing there. This should make your text appear outside the quote, when you click "Post".

### Do not Pyramid post

If the post you have quoted already has 3 posts quoted, then remove the highest post from the quote.

Go on to the Suggestions forum

**DO NOT POST SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THIS PAGE!**