Community Rules & Guidelines

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James Falconer

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Before we dive into specific community rules and guidelines, we would like to provide some general guidelines for our members.

Mobile Nations communities are fun, friendly and most of all helpful places to be. They are places where we make new friends, give help, get help, and find answers to the pressing questions we all have about technology. With that in mind, we ask that all members kindly follow these basic guidelines:

P.U.P.P.A.H
(Be Polite, Understanding, Patient, Professional, Attentive and Helpful)​

  • Be polite. We ask that you keep your language clean and polite.
  • Be understanding and patient. You may be a power user or developer, but the person you’re talking to on the other end may be a complete newbie. Be patient, and provide all details possible if you’re posting about a problem (descriptive thread title always helps).
  • Be a pro. Don’t get into arguments over dumb things. If someone responds in a poor or rude fashion, ignore it. If you notice a pattern of rude or poor behavior from a particular member, report them to our moderators. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. In a nutshell, ‘think before you post’.
  • Be attentive and helpful. Answer questions in a timely manner when you can, and provide thoughts and suggestions that might lead to the solution of a members’ problem.

Compliance with these basic guidelines should see you sailing in smooth waters for years to come at Mobile Nations. You’ll make friends, gain knowledge, and become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams (OK, maybe not that last point).

General Community Guidelines

Usernames - Must not contain email addresses, websites, or be promotional or offensive in nature. Usernames may contain characters a-z (upper and lower case) and numbers 0-9. Spaces, dashes - and underscores _ are also allowed. Mobile Nations reserves the right to modify, delete, or ban accounts that do not meet these requirements.

Multiple Usernames - You are only allowed to register one account.

Companies, Developers, & Service Providers - We encourage all companies, developer and service providers to engage in our forums. However, we kindly ask that in addition to posting links to any products or services you offer, you support these threads by answering questions, giving updates, and providing timely advise when appropriate. Long story short - engage with the members in our forums! For more information (and to inquire how to receive an ‘official’ company account, contact our Community Manager James Falconer at james at mobilenations dot com. Also, we encourage you to read our notes below on Spamming.

Private Info - Do not post personal contact information of yourself or others. This includes email addresses, phone numbers, serial numbers, IMEIs, account information and addresses. If you wish to contact another member, please send them a private message. This is for your protection. We reserve the right to remove this information from public view immediately to protect our members.

Avatars - Our Passport system is designed to accept avatar images up to 500x500 pixels in size. When selecting an avatar, please remember that the forums are a community of both men and women alike. Images that are suggestive, graphic, obscene or otherwise offensive are not permitted and will be removed at the discretion of the moderators. Avatars used for the sole purpose of advertising a site or service is not permitted. All avatars are subject to review and modification by Mobile Nations at any time.

Volunteers - Do not post complaints about Moderators or Ambassadors. Mobile Nations has the highest regard for individuals who volunteer their time with us. Every day they put their time and effort in to read through hundreds of threads and posts, and reach out to folks to make sure they feel welcome. For moderation in particular, all decisions are final We trust that any action that a moderator takes will follow the above rules and guidelines. Please send a PM to a Moderator if you have questions about any moderator action.

Surveys - From time to time we receive requests to post links to surveys on third party websites. We do all we can to support our community members endeavors, especially if educational in purpose. If you would like to post a survey within our communities, please reach out to our Community Manager James Falconer at james AT mobilenations dot com.

Appeals/Complaints - If you feel that a mistake has been made or you are being treated unfairly, or have a question about an action, you may contact our Community Manager James Falconer: james AT mobilenations dot com.

Forum Etiquette

In addition to the guidelines above, we’d also like to make you aware of some basic etiquette guidelines. If you catch yourself doing any of the following... please stop yourself. If you find someone else that is in violation of these practices, please report to our moderation team right away.

Refrain from Backseat Modding - refers to ordinary users taking a moderator-like tone in criticizing other members. Do not do this. If you feel a post or thread requires moderation, please use the report post button.

Make Relevant & Meaningful Posts - Do your best at all times to make relevant, meaningful and helpful posts in our communities.

Cross Posting - Do not post duplicate questions or topics in multiple forums or threads.

Use Proper Grammar & Spelling - Tiping lyk thz iz n0t kewl. NEITHER IS THIS.

Bumping - Bumping a thread means to post an innocuous reply to a thread in order to "bump" it to the top of a forum. Excessive bumping is prohibited, and is limited to once per 24 hour period.

Search Before Posting - Often times questions and/or topics have already been discussed in an existing thread. Before posting a new thread, please try the search feature to research your question.

Telling someone to "Search" - Do not reply to a question by telling someone to do a search. Kindly suggest a search link, answer their question, or feel free not to respond.

Tech Support - If you have any technical questions or concerns about any of our communities, please visit the Site Feedback Forum for support.

Helpful Linking - Providing helpful links is something we always encourage at Mobile Nations. Providing a link to a news story to provide more info is extremely helpful. Of course, we encourage users to post links to news stories posted on any of the Mobile Nations Sites - however - if no stories on the topic have been published, a link to a 3rd party site is just fine. Links to products, apps and outside services are also encouraged. Our members often use our forums to research and discover new products to buy. Providing links to products, apps and services serves as a huge help to those that are looking for more information.

Post In The Right Forum - All forum indexes are down by categories. There are specific forums for applications, devices, device hacks, accessories, carriers, general chat, etc. Unique forums exist for a reason. Before you create a new thread, please ensure it is being posted in the most applicable forum.

Keep it Legal - Moderators and admins reserve the right to close threads and ban members that post copyrighted and/or illegal materials. These kinds of activities can get us into trouble, and nobody wants that... so just don't do it. If you have questions on this, ask a moderator.

Warnings, Infractions and Bans

Our moderation teams do all they can to enforce our community rules and guidelines with a fair and even hand. Private Messages and Warnings are always the first course of action to alert a member that they are doing something wrong. If multiple warnings are necessary, or a user has shown a pattern of poor behaviour, infractions may be issued. Infractions are more serious, and carry ‘points’ along with them (you can read more about this in the next section). Ultimately, if warnings and infractions do not resolve the issues at hand, a ban may be applied at our discretion. Our preferred ‘schedule’ for banning can be found in the ‘Important Notes on Banning’ section below.

Our Infractions System

Our infractions system is based on points, and was built to communicate with and track members that have violated our forum rules. The system allows Mobile Nations to apply rules in a fair and uniform method across our entire network. It also ensures repeat offenders are not given unlimited opportunities to correct their behaviour.

If you receive an infraction you will receive a private message detailing the rule that you have violated. As you can see in the chart below, each infraction type is assigned a predetermined point value depending on severity. If you exceed our 100 point threshold, your account will be banned (See ‘Important Notes on Banning’ below for more details on this).

Infractions can also be sent in the form or a zero point warning. Warnings serve as a polite way to encourage first time offenders, and those with minor violations, to follow the rules.

PointsExpirationWarnings
Inappropriate Language256 MonthsYES
Taking Threads Off Topic256 MonthsYES
Developer Rules Violation256 MonthsYES
Marketplace Rules Violation256 MonthsYES
Abuse of Reporting System256 MonthsYES
Post Count Padding256 MonthsYES
Trolling359 MonthsYES
Personal Attacks or Insults359 MonthsYES
Posting/Linking to Copyright Material509 MonthsYES
Disruptive Posting509 MonthsYES
Abuse of a Volunteer509 MonthsYES
PlagiarismPermanent BanNeverYES
SpammingPermanent BanNeverYES
Multiple UsernamesPermanent BanNeverYES
Pornographic MaterialPermanent BanNeverYES
Discrimination or HarassmentPermanent BanNeverYES
Cookie StuffingPermanent BanNeverYES
Illegal ActivitiesPermanent BanNeverYES
Shared LoginPermanent BanNeverYES

Important Notes:

Many infractions have an expiration date. If you incur an infraction and return to best behaviour (or were simply misguided and have no intentions of breaking the rules again!), we will remove these infraction points on the expiry date.

It is important to note that no individual member should consider themselves ‘above the law’. If you make a habit of trolling, using profane language or posting inappropriate materials, our moderators will hold you accountable. We reserve the right to give arbitrary infractions at our discretion.

Please think before you post.

Explanation of Infractions

As detailed in the chart above, many violations will result in an immediate ban of your account, while other violations carry a lesser infraction point value. Below are explanations of each violation.

Violations that will result in a warning, infraction or ban of your account (depending on length of membership, severity of violation and previous violations):

Inappropriate Language - Mobile Nations is a network used by people of all ages, so please keep posts, usernames, and links family appropriate. We use software filters to block variations of profanity and will not tolerate attempts (i.e. use of special characters) to circumvent these filters.

Taking Threads Off Topic - While the interplay of a conversation in the forums will naturally wander; members must not intentionally derail a thread from its original topic.

Developer Rules Violation - We ask that all members adhere to our Developer Forum Rules & Policies. Failure to follow these policies will result in a warning or violation.

Marketplace Rules Violation - We ask that all members adhere to our Marketplace Rules & Guidelines. Failure to follow these policies will result in a warning or violation.

Abuse of Reporting System - Repeated and malicious false reporting of posts is not tolerated. Anyone found to be in violation of this will receive an infraction.

Post Count Padding - Posting a series of meaningless posts with the sole purpose of increasing post count.

Trolling - Do not post inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages to provoke users into responding in a negative way. Calling another member a troll is also a form of trolling.

Personal Attacks or Insults to Members - Constructive discussions, debates and free speech are encouraged in the forums. However, it is not constructive to either criticize or insult another member because their opinion differs from yours. Consider the tone of your posts before pressing the submit button. If your are irritated by a post, thread, question, or topic; you are in no way obligated to respond and are encouraged to move along to another thread.

Posting or Linking to Copyrighted Material - Creators of original documents, apps and products work very hard to produce what they do. If a member is found linking to copyrighted materials without the written consent of the copyright holder, we will enforce a violation immediately.

Disruptive Posting - Taunting or harassing towards an individual or group, use of provocative language, pictures or videos meant to disrupt or de-rail a thread conversation, or to flame or entice flaming.

Abuse of a Volunteer - Our volunteers donate their own time and resources to make our communities awesome places to be. Abuse of volunteers will not be tolerated. If you have a complaint or issue with a volunteer, please bring it up privately via private message, or email our Community Manager, James Falconer at james AT mobilenations dot com. Additionally, no discussions on warnings, infractions or bans between a Mod and user should be made public. No exceptions!

Violations that will result in an immediate ban of your account:

Plagiarism - Blatant plagiarized articles or comments from outside sources is strictly prohibited. Failure to include your own original thoughts or relevant feedback is discouraged.

Spamming - Blatant spammers looking to shamelessly promote and drop links will be banned immediately. Our moderation teams endeavour to differentiate between spammers and legitimate companies/individuals looking to engage in our forums. If you’re a legitimate company, individual or service provider looking to get in touch with our community, we encourage you to become a productive member of our community. In this case, posting of links is fine (actually encouraged), but we ask that you support our membership by answering questions, giving updates, and providing timely advice when appropriate.

For more information, or if you would like to promote or advertise your products or services, please contact our Community Manager James Falconer at james at mobilenations.com.

Multiple Usernames - One account per person please. If we discover multiple user accounts from one location without our prior written consent, we will ban these accounts immediately. Creation of a new account following a ban for improper behavior will result in this infraction being applied to the new account.

Pornographic Material - Do not post pornographic images or links to sites containing such material.

Discrimination or Harassment - Be courteous to other forum members regardless of their race, age, nationality, country of residence, ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, political views or religious beliefs. Prejudice or discrimination of any form is not tolerated.

Cookie Stuffing - This is the act of placing a link to an image in a signature or post. The image will not display and will be replaced with a typical broken image icon. The browser will still follow the link regardless in an attempt to find the image. What happens then is the browser downloads a cookie to your local machine containing affiliate information. From that point on, any purchases made on the site embedded in the cookie appear as if they were the result of a referral. This is extremely shady. Any users found to be practicing ‘cookie stuffing’ will be banned immediately.

Illegal Activities - Do not post, sell, link, discuss, or request warez, serials, ROMs, UDID's or illegal copies of intellectual property of others. Discussion on how to defeat the insurance protection with it on or off devices will not be tolerated on the forums: Remember accidental damage is not done on purpose. Claiming damage be accidental for the purposes of an insurance claim is misrepresentation and, fraud. Discussions regarding hardware or software modifications designed to steal service, such as ESN cloning & phone programming modifications are also forbidden in the forums. Discussion regarding stolen devices is not permitted.*

* Stolen devices should be reported to your local police and mobile service provider.

Shared Login - The use of shared login services is strictly prohibited. Any accounts discovered using shared logins will be banned immediately.

Important Notes on Banning

While our infractions system makes it CLEAR that some infractions can accrue to result in a ban, and other infractions can result in an instant ban... We realize that (from time to time) certain members may simply need a ‘cooling off’ period. To deal with this, we have a policy on banning for members that may simply ‘go off the rails’ once and awhile, in hopes of rehabilitating negative behaviour.

At our moderators’ discretion we will follow the schedule below:

First Ban - Triggered by 100 Infraction Points - 3 Day Ban
Second Ban - Triggered by another 75 Infraction Points - 1 Week Ban (7 days)
Third Ban - Triggered by another 50 Infraction Points - 1 Month Ban (30 days)
Fourth Ban - Triggered by ANY Infraction - Permanent Ban

Offering members with a pattern of poor behaviour THREE CHANCES to rehabilitate themselves is more than generous. This schedule is to be executed at our moderators’ discretion only and is a suggested course of action for those we feel can be rehabilitated into a productive member of our communities.

In the case of flagrant spam, illegal activities, or other ‘instaban’ type violations, our moderators reserve the right to ban the offending member(s) permanently without notice.

Blog Comments

Our site EIC’s, editors, contributors and writers work extremely hard every day to bring the best content to you. They do their absolute best in a professional manner to keep you informed and up-to-date on everything mobile.

To that end, while we encourage to leave your own comments within our blogs, we also ask that you be courteous and tasteful. As a general rule of thumb, following the P.U.P.P.A.H guidelines above should land you in good standing with our community.

If you come across any objectionable comments (spam, hateful or inappropriate comments) please report them by clicking the report button.

The Mobile Nations team reserves the right to ban or warn users regarding blog comments at any time.

Accounts

All accounts and content found within any Mobile Nations Community is property of Mobile Nations.

If you wish to disable your account for any reason at any time, please contact accounts at mobilenations dot com.

Conclusion

This document acts as guidelines for our users and volunteers. We cannot imagine every circumstance and reserve the right to change these rules, move/remove/edit/close threads and posts, and warn/penalize/ban members at our discretion with or without reason at any time.

Please conduct yourself like a pro and we will do the same!
 
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