Forum Usage Guidelines

This page is to act as a reference for XBMC Media Center Forum users, so that they know where Team XBMC draws the lines of acceptable conduct. It can also be used by forum moderators looking for suggestions on how they should handle a situation. Failure to follow any of the these official guidelines bellow can give you one or more official warnings, and if receive three official warnings you will get permanently banned from the forums!

This, this is what YOU need to know to not make a fool out of yourself in the official XBMC Community Forum!

Justification
XBMC Media Center, being an open source project, relies heavily on its community for support, bug reports and new feature requests. Consequently, the forums are a very important resource to the entire community. To make this resource as useful as possible to the entire community it is important to maintain organization, order and an amiable environment. As an XBMC user, you are part of this community. It is thereby your responsibility to contribute to this resource in a manner helpful not only to yourself, but to the community.

Posting Guidelines

 * Be civil. You'll get more friendly replies.  (See offenses below). Netiquette (short for "Internet etiquette") is a unwritten set of behavior rules of conduct which is assumed that you will follow when posting on IRC, mailing-lists or internet forums/message-boards and e-mails, these rules also applies to the the official XBMC Forum.
 * All posts should be in English-Only. The XBMC forums are English-Only (unless explicitly stated otherwise).  Please respect this.  At least use an on-line translation service.  If you are unsure of your translation, you can append a version in your native tongue (please identify this language).  Be prepared for English-Only replies.
 * Search (and make an effort) before you post. There's a search button there, use it!  Don't limit yourself to the forums, check our bug tracker and wiki too. Always before asking a question, search ALL forums using relative keywords and read the previous posts. Quickly do a new search of FAQ and the user-manual before asking a new question.
 * Read any sticky threads in the forum you're posting in. Most forums have a sticky thread requesting vital information and explaining how to obtain it.  If you don't post this info in your first thread, it's almost guaranteed that the first response you get will be someone telling you to read the sticky and post back with the requested info.
 * One topic per thread. Please for ease of management respect that only one issue/subject per thread is allowed. Don't report more than one bug or one request per topic!
 * Choose a descriptive thread title. Think before you post. Don't forget, the forums are a community resource. Start thinking more like a community member and less like an individual.  Descriptive thread titles are not only far more likely to be read, but will rank higher in searches and be more helpful to others with the same problem in the future.  Use some of the terms you used in your search queries as a base for the thread title.
 * Be as descriptive and detailed as possible. Assume nothing, there are no mind readers on the XBMC Community Forum. Post all the the information requested in forum stickies, everything you've tried so far, any suspicions you have.  Show that you've made an effort on your own.  You're the one who needs help here, no one wants to pry information out of you or hold your hand. Re-read and edit your posting carefully before you post, (check the spelling, grammar, and capitalization). Yet do not be a novelist (messages should be concise and to the point, nobody likes to read too long posts, exceptions and when you post a bug-report when details and step-by-step replication instructions are sometimes needed).
 * Be patient. XBMC's user base is global.  Please wait at least 24 hours before bumping your own post unless you have new, pertinent information to add.  This gives all users and developers a chance to reply.
 * No thread hijacking. Do not 'steel' other people threads (or your own thread for that matter) by starting an off-topic discussion about something else than the it was originally about. Instead just start a new thread about the new topic, but first search to see if someone else already started a thread on that new topic.
 * No flaming, trolling, or baiting. Flames, to flame means to reply many, not-so-nice words, which acts as a verbal attack. Such behavior is not taken lightly in the XBMC Community Forum and better be a for a really good reason or you risk getting banned on the spot.
 * No cross-posting. Do not cross-port or double-post, period. Double-posting to inappropriate forums and topic-threads is a big no no, this generates unnecessary work for the forum moderators, so never post the same thread or post in two places.
 * Do not abuse the smilies. The angry smilie for example means that you are REALLY pissed-off at someone that is not yourself, thus people may take offense if it is used improperly.
 * DO NOT POST IN ALL UPPERCASE. This is the same as SCREAMING and is never nice.
 * No piracy talk. Don't discuss (or link to any) pirated, shared movies, music, pictures, retail software. Don't ask for or link to any illegal (or 'gray') copies of copyrighted materials in any form. Don't ask how to remove copy protection from games, videos, music, (even if you own the original). Don't ask for or link to Xbox binaries or executable compiled with MS Xbox SDK (XDK)!

Offense Scheduling

 * Schedule I: Zero tolerance offense. Offending thread(s)/post(s) will be deleted and your account immediately and permanently banned.
 * Schedule II: Serious offense. Offending thread(s)/post(s) are at the whim of the handling moderator.  Generally a warning will be dealt and perhaps the post(s)/thread(s) deleted.  A ban may be in order for particularly serious offenders.  Repeat offenses may result in the account being banned.
 * Schedule III: Annoyance offense. These offenses will only be punished in the most extreme circumstances.  They are general, "proper netiquette" that all users should strive to abide by without further guidance.

Schedule I Offenses

 * Any hate driven defamation of a person or group. This includes but is not limited to the following; race, sex, religion, age, heritage, sexual orientation and disability.
 * Piracy discussion. Any request for, posting of, or linking to, pirated materials (regardless of content or medium) or discussion of means of piracy.  This includes but is not limited to the following; cracks, keygens, peer-to-peer service access, bittorrent trackers and defeating copy protection.
 * Any advertisement of sale or solicitation of any product or service, be it commercial or personal. The XBMC forums are not open for ad space.  Do not post ads for your company's or affiliates' products and services here.  Likewise, if you have something to sell, use eBay or similar.  We can not be bothered to deal with fraudulent sales and disgruntled buyers.  Just don't do it.

Schedule II Offenses

 * Any direct request for donations for any product or service that is not XBMC Media Center. We can't validate the legitimacy of these requests and refuse to put our users at risk of fraud.  If you want to link to your related open source application and have a request link on the page, that's fine.  But do not link directly to your donation page or a post of any kind requesting donations from our forums.
 * Excessive swearing. What you typed probably makes complete sense without all of the profanity.  Not to mention you won't sound like an ignorant 13yr/o.  Take a few out before you hit submit.
 * Posting of pornographic material. Keep it to yourself please.
 * Personal attacks. If you feel the need to resort to this, don't even bother posting.  You have nothing constructive to add to the debate.
 * Ranting. You're probably too pissed to make anything but a fool of yourself anyway.  Best to chill out before posting.
 * Non-English posts.
 * Posting the same topic in several forums. Please keep discussion of your topic in one place.  You will get better, more concise results if you aren't following multiple streams of recommendations.  If you realize that you've posted in the wrong forum by error, or would like your thread moved to another forum for better visibility, just post in your thread where you'd like it moved and a moderator will handle it when they come across it.
 * Posting several topics in one thread. Please keep a thread per discrete topic.  If you feel that topics are closely enough related, provide links.

Schedule III Offenses

 * Not following the Posting Guidelines. Reiterated here as necessary. (See above)
 * Creating new threads for topics where one (or more) already exists. If you've done this, it's clear you haven't searched or made much of an effort on your own.
 * Blank or non-descriptive thread titles. "I think I found a bug...", "Help (me)!", "Problem!?!", "What's wrong?", "Crash??!?!" you get the idea, no one wants to read that and it sure isn't helping anyone else.  "Need help getting X to Y", "Crash when I X", "Possible bug when you X then Y", put some meat in there so it will get noticed by others with the problem and the people who can help.
 * Bumping your post in under 24 hours. If you don't have something new to add, be patient.  Bumping your thread every 2hrs isn't going to make anyone more likely to want to help you.