Guidelines

The purpose of this forum is to provide a place for supporters of Halifax Town and Halifax RLFC to engage in debate. Supporters of opposition clubs are also welcome. You are expected to allow people to join in without fear or favour. You should expect debates to become heated and you should expect to see banter and mild insults. If you are easily offended then you should probably not use the forum.

We don't like rules and the forum usually ticks along without any need for a moderator. However, on occasion it becomes necessary to step in and restore some semblance of order. At such times we reserve the right to issue warnings for any reason whatsoever. Multiple warnings can lead to an automatic suspension and many warnings will lead to an automatic permanent ban. The following rules should be taken as guidelines only, because we reserve the right to be lax or strict when interpreting and enforcing them. The longer you have been a member with an unblemished record, the more likely we are to overlook a one-time violation. New users should tread particularly carefully so as to avoid problems.

Discussions about Covid/Corona

This is 100% banned anywhere on the forum except in the off-topic section.

Advertising

Advertisements for non-beneficial and/or non-related websites, businesses and/or organisations are not permitted on this forum.

Avatars, Signatures and Usernames

You are expected to use common sense when selecting your avatar and when editing your signature. You may be requested to make a change. If immediate action is deemed necessary or you ignore a moderator's request that you make a change, the avatar and/or signature will be removed and a warning will be issued. You are expected to use common sense when selecting and updating your username.

Content Removal

We reserve the right to remove content at any time and for any reason. In exceptional circumstances we may edit content to remove the offensive part, leaving the substance of the content intact. In either case such action may or may not also trigger a warning.

Discussing Moderator Actions

Actions taken against a user of the community are not to be discussed on the forum. Opinions about specific moderators or moderator actions are also not to be discussed. If you have questions, remarks, suggestions or complaints about moderating in general or about specific moderators, please contact an administrator by private message.

Personal Information

Without good reason you should not reveal real life personal information about anyone other than yourself. It is considered particularly bad form to reveal real life personal information about someone who is not known to use the forum.

Respect

You are expected to respect other users. This includes respecting their right to have a different opinion to your own. We don't want to see racism, hatred, violent language, threats, real-life insults, extreme vulgar language, flaming, harassment or grammar policing.

Spamming and Trolling

Neither are acceptable. Excessively communicating the same phrase, similar phrases or pure gibberish is spam and will be treated as such. Creating topics for the sole purpose of causing unrest, or causing disturbances such as picking fights or continuing an over-done argument is trolling, as is insulting other users without reason. Calling someone a troll is itself trolling. Abusing the report post function is itself trolling.

Sanctions

Users receive points every time they are issued a warning by a moderator. Each warning is usually equal to 2 points but more or less can be issued depending on the severity and/or the frequency of the violation.

The following penalties are triggered automatically:

4 points = 12 hour suspension

6 points = 1 day suspension

8 points = 7 day suspension

10 points = 30 day suspension

12 points = permanent suspension

Points are not removed when a suspension is triggered but they will naturally expire over time. What this means is that if you are issued another warning shortly after returning from a 1 day suspension, the 7 day suspension will automatically be triggered.

Appealing a Warning / Sanction

Unless you feel a moderator has misunderstood the post that triggered the warning, you should accept any points and sanctions in good grace. Believing that you have been unfairly targeted is not in itself a reason to appeal. You may appeal a warning or sanction by contacting an administrator by private message. Do not ask another member to post a message on the forum on your behalf because this may result in them receiving their own warning.