MARVEL.COM POSTING POLICY
Hey True Believer! Thanks for joining the Mighty Marvel Forums!
Below you’ll find our posting guidelines, which we have developed with the goal of making these boards a pleasant experience for everyone. Please read these along with our Terms and conditions, before you post, and thanks a lot! Also, remember that these guidelines change from time to time, so keep checking this post to see if new things have been posted.
Basically, all these guidelines come down to respect. If you respect the space here, your other posters, and the mods, you’ll have a much better time hanging out on our boards. It’s as simple as that. All of these guidelines apply to PMs as well. So with that in mind, read on.
#1 The Moderators and sysops:
The moderators of the Marvel.com forums are comprised of Marvel Entertainment employees as well as a dedicated group of volunteers who help ensure that participation in our message boards are a fun and enjoyable experience for everyone who comes here. Moderators have the power to delete posts, lock, unlock, and move threads. Sysops are employees of Marvel who have the additional power to ban users as well as make changes to the actual code which runs the board. Moderators and Sysops may PM you from time to time regarding your posts, and all their decisions are final.
#2 Inappropriate posts:
Marvel.com is an ALL-AGES forum that is used by people from a wide variety of ages from all over the world. Thus, all posts must remain kid-friendly and work-safe. While we understand that some titles may have profanity or explicit imagery due to the rating on the title, please do not post profanity (including the use of acronyms which is a word formed from the first letter of a group of words or phrase, such as FBI, SHIELD, AIM), nudity or sexually explicit imagery, gore, discriminatory terms (including words attacking racial groups, nationalities, gender, or sexual preference), or anything else you wouldn’t want your grandmother or boss see you reading. This also includes uses text/letters to make porn imagery.
If you see an inappropriate post, you may flag it. Flagging posts causes them to become hidden until such time as a moderator can review them, so do not abuse flagging. Do not flag posts just because you disagree with its contents. Only flag if it breaks these posting guidelines.
#3 Impersonation:
You may not post in such a way as to imply you’re someone you are not (i.e. do not say you are Stan Lee if you’re not Stan Lee). You may not make a member name which mimics other people’s member names (including using easily confused characters such as <> and []). Do not say you’re someone you are not in a post or private message.
#4 Abuse:
Do not abuse other posters in any way, including but not limited to use of racial epithets, attacks on gender or sexual preferences, attacks on national origin, post spamming, saying nasty things about peoples’ mothers, or anything else that is intended to make people upset, cry, or gnash their teeth. Using private messaging for the purposes of abuse counts. Posters who engage in abuse may be punished in a variety of ways including a complete ban from the boards.
#5 Bashing:
Do not bash people, companies, or characters. Bashing is somewhat subjective, but, essentially it means being excessively negative about a subject without giving reasons why. This does not mean that you aren’t allowed to have your own opinions, only that you must be cognizant about how you phrase them. If you dislike something, you absolutely can say so, but say it in a way that doesn’t mindlessly lash out at the subject of your ire. Basically: “Spider-Man sucks and everyone who likes him sucks,” is bashing, while “I haven’t enjoyed Spider-Man since he got married because the marriage makes me less interested in the character,” is not bashing.
#6 Illegal Downloads:
Do not post links to or instructions on how to obtain illegal downloads of anything (including music, movies, and, yes, comic books). Doing so will only get you banned. Talking about the morality and ethics of these is ok, but do not use Marvel.com as a venue to facilitate illegal downloading. And yes, admitting to downloading comics will also get you banned.
#7 Off-topic posting, Spamming, raiding, and other disruptive behavior:
This is basically a catch-all category. Moderators and administrators can sanction posts and posters however they see fit in order to preserve the quality of discussion on our boards. Disruptive behavior includes (but is not limited to) spamming topics, board-raiding, and acting in a way intended to disrupt the normal discussions on our board or other boards.
-- Spamming is unwanted solicitations of any kind. This includes inviting others to join another website. This is what your signature is intended for, it places the link on the forums and if others want to visit that site, then they will do of their own accord instead of “Come check out my website.” If you are not sure about it, please PM a Moderator and ask them if it is spam or not before posting it. This includes spamming via PMs.
-- Raiding is when a poster posts in a thread and attempts to change the topic, repeatedly posts the samething in one thread or numerous threads/forums.
-- Disruptive behavior are posts/threads that are created to disrupt the community in general. While posting opinions is one thing, it can be the subject itself that is disruptive. This includes bringing problems from other online forums to Marvel.com and vise versa. For example, trying to get others to join your “cause” in defending your banning or a flame war on another forum or starting a rebellion on another forum and bringing it to Marvel.com.
#8 Circumventing Censors:
The words are censored for a reason. Please do not circumvent them just so you can swear. If you can figure out a way to circumvent the words, then you can figure out how to spell it in a way that it is not considered as swearing. This is an ALL-AGES board and the words are not allowed because of that. It does not matter if you feel the words are okay for children or not, Marvel does not think it is and therefore those words are not allowed. The use of acronyms to get around the censors (and guideline #2 in general) is prohibited as well. This also includes using " * " key to finish the spelling of the word.
#9 Emoticons:
Emoticons are there to be used, not abused. There is no need to post them constantly in one message or posting one per message consecutively in the same thread.
#10 Posting links:
Repeated posting of links, as in when a poster only posts links and nothing else thread after thread, is prohibited. This includes links to websites and/or images. This does not mean you can't post links, it is only the repeated posting in thread ofter thread instead of posting numerous links in one thread.
#11 Posting personal information:
You should never post your personal information online anywhere. All posts made by minors giving ANY personal information (including your age) are required to be deleted by Moderators to help protect yourself from online predators. If you repeatedly post this information, even when asked not to by a Moderator, you will be banned from the boards for the sole reason to protect you.
#12 Deleted/missing posts:
If you have any inquiries about posts, please PM a Moderator and ask them. Do not post about it in a thread. While it might be a good question with no intentions of being disruptive, it becomes disruptive when other posters join in. This is something that you should PM a Moderator and ask instead of posting). If done to disrupt the forums, this can lead to a banning as per Guideline #7 mentioned above.
#13 Bannings:
If you have been banned, you've been banned for violation of the guidelines. When banned it does not mean it is okay to create a new username and continue posting. That in itself is a violation of the guidelines and will only get your time banned increased. However, you CAN create a new username to PM a Moderator and ASK why you've been banned, but let me repeat do NOT post any messages with this username. Warnings are given when appropriate, but not always, which could be due to the nature of your post and/or previous warnings.
#14 Spoilers:
Please do not place spoilers in a subjectline, doing so will only get the post deleted. It serves no purpose other than to wreck the enjoyment of reading the issue first hand for others. Please use the word “Spoilers” in the subjectline when talking about a recent issue. This cuts down on the need to use it within the message itself because it is an advanced warning to anyone that reads the thread. All spoilers must be marked until four weeks has passed since the issue came out. Repeated violations can lead to harsher consequences such as banishment.
#15 Religion/Politics/Race/Culture
We are sorry, but due to posters in general not being able to discuss these topics in a civil manner, they are not allowed. While some of you are able to discuss these in a civil manner, we would like to thank you for that, however these threads always result in flame wars, insulting comments and in a way that is generally against the guidelines. We have tried to allow it to happen on a few occasions, but the end result is always the same. However, you CAN discuss it when it is appropriately in reference to comics and/or about a story within a comic. For example, the discussion of Mythology (as in Thor, Hercules, Ares, etc.) , or a character's religion or heritage. Just keep the discussion ON-TOPIC of the CHARACTER/STORY without making it personal.
#16 Posting images:
Due to posters taking advantage of posting images, there is a limit to the size of the images that can be posted. Image limits within posts = 400w X 400h (pixels) Signature limits = 400w X 200h (pixels)
#17 Posting videos:
Reminder, this is an ALL-AGES forum and therefore all videos posted are to be ALL-AGES.
