[XPERIA X8 General] sgt. meow:
Hi fellow XDA members,

As you all may have noticed there has been a few changes in the moderation committee. There are new moderators for devices. New people, but that does not mean new rules. eagleeyetom had asked members in his proposal thread, to help out with the moderation. I asked if I could do an updated XDA behaviour thread and he agreed.

The rules of XDA stay the same no matter what, and apply to every member, even to Senior Mods. Heck, it even applies to the Admin himself. And as such, I feel it's only fair that we ourselves abide by them.

Therefore, this thread acts as a guide for new members and old ones alike, on how to behave on XDA. SpyderX has already made a thread on this, and it was even made a sticky, but still some members fail to abide by the rules. They still disregard the rules and, as a result, end up getting infractions or, in the worst cases, bans.

So if you want to avoid bans and infractions, read on.

1. Read through this: http://xdaforums.com/announcement.php?a=81

You must go through the rules, at least once. The above link is the latest set of them. Keep your eyes open for any new announcements. They're usually visible on the upper bit of the website.

2. Do not steal others' work. Or in other words, as SpyderX has explained in his sticky, don't post work, usually ROMs, that:

- Is not your own original work (usually ROMs with your own code, not to be confused with soft-mods, are acceptable)

- Is ported from other devices without the permission of the original creator

- Is just a soft-mod over someone else's hard work

Only stock ROMs are exempt from this rule. And as kernels have to be compiled from source, meaning there is no way to soft-mod them without some work done, they too are considered development.

3. Behave with others. Do not use foul language; it doesn't make you any wiser than you already are. There are members who are just kids, therefore any pornographic content, vulgar comments and other “smart” ways of abusing your freedom on the Internet is strictly prohibited on XDA. Post anything that falls under such categories and you may find yourself banned the next day. No personal insults, trolling (except in the OT) and flaming. Trust me on this, it'll get you nowhere except out of XDA. And always use English in the threads. What language you use in groups doesn't really matter to us.

4. Post in the appropriate sections. More on that later. For now, just remember, both the Development sections are for development-related stuff, like bug-fixes, sharing source codes, bug-reports etc. Don't spam there. It's really annoying for any user to see their favourite threads full of spam and being closed down. Act wisely. Like an XDA-ian. Don't create unnecessary threads. If you wanna talk about anything non-dev, visit the OT. Do not ask for ETAs or for the dev's help in your problems, without a proper bug-report. There's a thread on how to do a bug-report: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1935567 Read it thoroughly.

5. Instead of posting “Thanks for XXX”, click the THANKS button. This is a growing concern among many members. There are at least 1000 posts in every section that just say “Thanks”. These are considered spam and will eventually be deleted by a moderator and the poster may receive a warning. So instead of wasting time and energy to write thanks, click the THANKS button. It was made for that purpose. Use it.

6. When creating threads, be extra careful. Think, search and then discuss, in the words of SpyderX, not the other way round. Threads you create should be based on, or have valid content that can be discussed or used. And like #4, open up threads in the appropriate sections. Also before you create a thread, make sure there are no similar threads in the same device forum based on the same problems. And please don't create useless threads asking stupid questions.

7. Always be super kind to devs. They are not paid to bring you the stuff they do. Therefore if you can't donate, which you should if you can, always hit the thanks button when they are trying to help. If you misbehave with any dev, or any member alike, XDA will look after you.

8. Learn to post in the appropriate section.

- General section is for discussions and the all-famous OT thread

- Q&A section is for questions and answers

- Android Development section is for ROMs that are built from others' source, improved versions of others' ROMs etc.

- Original Android Development section is for original development like building ROMs from your own source, modifying someone's source and using it to build a ROM, self-compiled kernels, AIO toolkits etc.

Keep these guidelines in mind and you'll be able to stay in XDA for a long time. And please read all of it. Don't go TL;DR. Please feel free to drop in suggestions, or advice, here in the thread.

- Skeleton taken largely from SpyderX's "Behaviour guide" (which also you guys fail to follow. Thanks, bro.