Sicy

Brought over from the old forum FAQs. Revised 05/30/2008.

General forum FAQs can be found Here

Premium Membership information can be found Here



Policies and Rules

Is posting private emails, Private Messages (PMs), chat logs, or Instant Message logs ok?
ONLY if you have the consent of the other party(s) involved in the communication in question. Posting of private communications without the consent of the other party(s) involved is reason to have your forum membership terminated and to be banned from the forum. This also applies to any private communications which are to or from the site's staff whether they be posted here or elsewhere. In some places, posting of such communications without consent is considered illegal.


Why are threads closed?
There are many reasons why a thread is closed. The most common reason is that the thread has evolved into heavy bickering, name calling or other childish behavior. Personally attacking other members of the forum is unacceptable and may result in an individual warning to the members in question, which may ultimately lead to banishment from the forum.

If the thread has racial slurs or other derogatory comments it is subject to closing.

If there are other threads already on the same topic, it may be merged or closed .. depending on the situation.

If the thread has over 1000 replies, it may be closed due to size of the thread. Large threads are taxing to the database. Each time a large thread is opened/accessed or viewed it can put a strain on the server. Also it makes it easier to moderate and read through threads when they are not so big.

If the thread is exhausted, gone completely off-topic, or repeating the same arguments over and over and seeming to have reached its limit, it may be closed.

If the thread is posted in an 'instigating' or 'flaming' manner it may be closed.

If you see a thread that you feel is unacceptable or out of control you can use the "Report post" link in the avatar section of each person's post. If multiple members of the forum suggest to a moderator or administrator (in private) that they feel the thread should be closed, it may be discussed among the moderators and ultimately closed.

If a moderator or administrator posts in a thread to warn participants against continuing in a harsh or unacceptable manner, and the warnings are not acknowledged, the thread may be closed.

Please do not start new threads asking why a thread was closed. PM or email the moderator who closed the thread.

Starting additional threads with the same/similar subject of the closed threads (i.e. 'Spin-off' threads) may result in a warning/suspension from the forums.



What constitutes a post or thread worthy of being closed, deleted, or edited by the forum moderators?
Anything that is a personal attack (by personal attack, we also include yawns, rolleyes, etc. that are directly intended to annoy, or used excessively).

Topics that are dragged on or 'bumped' up for no legitimate reason or to start a fight/get a rise out of people...etc.

Please do not quote extremely long posts in full when responding only in part or quote the same post over and over again. This is considered spamming and you may receive a warning as well as having your post edited by a moderator.

Cross-posting your topic in multiple forums is not allowed. Please just choose one forum to post your topic.

Anything that is "inappropriate" (overly sexual, excessive profanity, etc)

Anything that is defamatory towards another site, person, or organization.

Any posts or threads advertising your forum or website are unacceptable and considered spam, and will be deleted. A small text link to your personal website in your signature is acceptable.

Also, the selling or advertising of unofficial merchandise is prohibited.

Moderators and other 'staff' are included in this policy as well.

Arguing and debating are fine, just avoid the above and you'll be fine. Play nice

In addition, if someone wishes to start a thread to appreciate a specific band or album, please be courteous and do not start a flame war or bash that band or album in that thread. If you dislike a band or album, you may start your own thread voicing your dislike for that band or album.



What do I have to do wrong to get a warning or banned from the forum?
There are many reasons why you may be removed from the forum.

If you register on this forum solely to say negative things about U2 or other members of the forum, you will be immediately banned.

If you register on this forum solely to advertise your website or sell merchandise, you will be warned and may be ultimately banned.

If you have been warned by the administrators on more than one occasion to not personally attack other members of the forum, or for any other reasons, and do not agree to comply, you may be banned. Name calling is absolutely not allowed. Members who do not listen to moderator/admin warnings and continue to carry on after a mod has warned them in the thread(s), may be temporarily suspended from one or all of the forums for a week or longer, depending on what they did and how they cooperate during the suspension.

If you were previously banned from this forum and attempt to register or post again, you will be immediately banned.

Attempting to use a duplicate account during your suspension will result in a longer or permanent suspension.

Any member sharing their Interference account with a banned member may be banned. Additionally, accounts should not be shared and members sharing accounts may receive a warning.

In general, using alters to violate Forum Rules/FAQs, voting multiple times in polls, as well as other common sense 'no-nos' will result in the banning of the alters and possibly the banning of the original username. Remember that alters are a privilege.

Members who have received 3 email or pm warnings from the mods or admin may be banned permanently from all forums.

If you personally attack a moderator or administrator in a harsh manner, you may be banned immediately.

Altering other members' quotes is unacceptable.

Abuse of the 'Report post' feature will not be tolerated. This feature is ONLY to be used to report posts that are spam, or are in violation of the FAQs/Rules. Abuse of any other forum features, such as the 'thread rating' feature, will also not be tolerated.

If you are trolling the forums you may be banned.

Trolling: Intentionally disrupting a forum by posting obviously inaccurate or inflammatory information and/or hoping to get a rise out of people. The perpetrators are known as "trolls". This also may also apply to our members who decide to 'troll' other forums. Should this lead to problems on OUR forum because of it, you may be banned.

*An "Internet troll" or "Forum Troll" or "Message Board Troll" is a person who posts outrageous or sarcastic messages to bait people to answer.

Personally attacking other members via pm on these boards may also result in a warning and/or suspension/banning from the forums.

Premium Membership subscriptions will not be refunded if you are banned.


What is unacceptable in PLEBA? (and the rest of the forum)
Posting about the band's "private parts" in any way will not be allowed. Any threads about the bands private parts, subtle or not, may be closed, and the author may receive a warning via pm or email.

Posting about the band's private life, questioning their marriages or sexuality is not allowed. Graphic sexual comments about the band in general will not be allowed. There is a level of decency and respect for the band we need to follow.


What is acceptable as Fan Fiction?
Fan Fiction is OK. Stories about the band.. you and the band.. even you kissing members of the band, is fine. However, nothing sexually beyond that will be acceptable. Graphic stories about you or any other girls having sex with the band will not be welcomed.

Slash.. is NOT OK. Stories about the band members making out with each other.. (a peck here and there is fine.. we all know they peck each other occasionally..) Band members in sexual predicaments with other band members or groupies, etc. will not be allowed.

You may post your Fan Fiction stories in the sub-forum 'Fan-Fiction', in the PLEBA forum.


What are the rules on sharing music/MP3's/posting links, etc.?
The moderators at Interference.com would like to remind you that the trading of any commercially released song is strictly against the rules. This is also true of any song for which the artist has not authorized reproduction/distribution.

Universal Publishing is starting to make the rounds on fan sites.... and is looking for reasons to shut the sites, or parts of them down. This is why there is no longer a U2 Lyrics Archive and U2 Guitar Archive.

Our opinions of whether or not this is okay have nothing to do with this; this is strictly a legal matter. Therefore, we cannot allow people to use the forums as grounds to trade commercially released songs, and/or anything that imposes on the copyright of an artist's material.

What you do in private, via PM or email, we have no control over, however we can't have 'active links' to copyrighted music, compositions, etc.


Is file trading permitted?
The primary purpose of this forum is for discussion and community not file sharing links.

File trading of ANY copyrighted material is prohibited!

Please do not request or provide links to songs, commercial releases, or other copyrighted material.

Various file extensions specifically relating to the most common types of files to be illegally traded have been censored and/or will be altered in posts.

Also, domains/sites which continually provide illegal downloads will be censored if/when needed.

What you do in private is at your own risk. We do not support, endorse, or otherwise encourage the illegal trading of copyrighted material.



Are Blogs moderated?
The blogs at Interference are provided for the use of our members to share just about anything they want--experiences, feelings, stories, jokes, pictures, etc. As such, the blogs are not moderated on a daily basis. However, we do ask that certain standards of decency and respect are maintained in the blogs. Public blog entries (and comments) are not to be used for personal attacks on other members. Personal attacks perpetrated in a blog or blog comments are still against the rules and could result in a reprimand, loss of blog privileges, or a total ban from the forum.

In addition, 'spamming' or abusing the blog feature by posting an excessive amount of entries in a row may result in the loss of blog privileges and possibly a ban from the forums.


I was banned! Now what?
Well, first, you'd most likely not be able to read this right now. But if you are:

There was probably a good reason for it. If you feel you were unjustly banned, the best thing to do would be to take it up with Sicy, neutral, or Andy the site owner. They're the only ones with the power to unban you, and were the only ones who could ban you in the first place.

sicy [at] interference.com
neutral [at] interference.com
andy [at] socialknowledge.net



Do I have to pay for membership through Interference? I used to be able to do all the cool things with my account, and now I can't! What gives?!
Due to the high costs of keeping this site running, it is only fair to request that members help out by making a small annual donation in exchange for access to certain features. The cost is $18 (US) a year. With the money, you'll be able to do all the things you used to be able to do, such as send private messages and view others' profiles.


Signature Policies
Please make sure your images are no larger than 400x120 pixels or 50 kb in file size. Anyone found violating these rules will be contacted privately and asked to edit their signature. If they do not, their signature will then be edited by a mod. If you turn around and edit it BACK to what it was...well, then you're asking for trouble.

Also, there are some other limitations as to what can go in your signature. Please refrain from advertising anything you have for sale, service, etc in your sig, and make sure there's nothing offensive in your sig. Anything that could be considered commercial/advertising and/or offensive is prohibited. A link to your personal website is acceptable.


Tags
Tags can be added to threads by either the creator of the thread, or moderators and admins. When tagging your thread, please use tags that only pertain to the subject matter of your thread. Please use serious tags only. Tags are very beneficial to the forums and we ask that you do not abuse this feature.


Changing usernames
Members cannot change their usernames once they register.
An admin may be able to change a member's username under certain circumstances:

If the username is long and stretches out the forum tables.
If a member wants to shorten it, take out letters or numbers.
If a member wants to shorten it to their nickname on the forums, and only if other members of the forum are already familiar with that nickname.
If a member accidentally registers with their full name and they decide that is not such a good idea.

Changing a member's username is up to the discretion of the admins. The username change should be similar to the current username. We will not completely change a username to something else just because you don't like your username. It has to be pretty obvious to others that it is the same person. This would be far too confusing for everyone.

If you want to change your name completely you would need to re-register a new account.


Disabling/Deleting accounts
We normally do not delete member's accounts. We may delete accounts that have no posts. If the account has many posts, completely deleting the account can significantly disrupt thread continuity. In that event, we may (if requested and at our discretion) disable your account. When we disable your account we do the following:

• Change the user name.
• Remove signature content
• Remove any info from the profile that might be identifying or
replace it with fictitious info
• Remove all subscriptions
• Remove avatar
• Remove e-mail address or alter as well as personal web site info
• Change account options to refuse PM's and E-mails from users and
admins
• After doing all this - ban account

Where you make use of the communication features to share information with other individuals, however, (e.g., sending a personal message to another Forum user) we generally cannot remove such communications. Also, if someone quoted your post, the original user name will be shown as having been quoted (which we cannot purge). If you would like to disable your account, please use the contact us form at the bottom of the page to make this request.


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If we feel the guidelines are violated we may remove, edit or delete posts and if necessary ban or remove members. Any abuse toward our administrators or moderators may result in immediate suspension of your account. Complaints about a moderator's decision regarding a particular post are not be made in posts; instead send a private message to a moderator. If a moderator deletes or edits one of your posts and you disagree with the action, contact the moderator concerned. Do not repost deleted material.

This forum is largely self-policing, which means that moderators will respond and react to problems reported through the REPORT POST option, via the CONTACT FORM at the bottom of each page, or via PM. Do not hesitate to use these tools to report any problems regarding the forum.

Someone has to interpret the above guidelines and how they apply to this forum. Ultimately it's up to our site moderators and administrators to make this decision. If you have any questions about these guidelines, please feel free to contact a moderator or administrator. Thanks to everyone for keeping the tone appropriate for a group of friends, at least the vast majority of the time. Please keep it up!

Registering and participating at Interference constitutes agreement to abide by these rules and to abide by the Social Knowledge Network Terms of Service (Social Knowledge is the company that owns this forum) We reserve the right to modify these rules at any time without giving prior notice to you.