SB Rules (9/1/08)

SB Rules (9/1/08)
Terms of Service Sonic Blast Terms of Use NOTICE: Sonic Blast has its own terms of service. By using this site, you agree that Sonic Blast is free of any liabilities incurred by use or misuse of the site. Sonic Blast does not guarantee any information on this site. Users assume responsibility for their actions based on the content used from this site. Sonic Blast has the right to remove any user submitted content. ------------------Index------------------ 1. AGREEMENT OF TERMS 2. REGISTRATION OBLIGATIOINS 3. CONTENT NOTICE 4. ACCOUNT PROTECTION 5. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION 6. MEMBER ETIQUETTE 6.1 Offensive Posting 6.2 Flaming (Insulting Others) 6.3 Trolling (Prompting Flames) 6.4 Illegal Practices 6.5 Spamming (Useless Posting) 6.6 Bumping Topics/Double Posting 6.7 Off Topic Posting 6.8 Spoilers 6.9 Disruptive Posting/Proper English 6.10 Cussing/Vulgarities 6.11 Flooding and Invading 6.12 Imposture (Identity Theft) 6.13 Harassment/Stalking/Confidentiality 6.14 Restricted Access 6.15 Usernames, Profiles, and Forms 6.16 Signatures/Avatars 6.17 Advertising 6.18 Requesting Graphics and Codes 6.19 Criticism 7. VALIDATION 8. ERRATA 9. STAFF MEMBERS 10. PUNISHMENTS ------------------Index------------------ 1. AGREEMENT OF TERMS Sonic Blast provides services to you, the visitor, based on its Terms of Service. When using the services provided by Sonic Blast, you are subject to these terms. Exercise of the services on this site indicate acceptance of these terms. The TOS may be changed any time without notice, so it is recommended that you check back with this page at any time you have questions. 2. REGISTRATION OBLIGATIONS In order to view messages on Sonic Blast Forums without user restrictions, no registration is required. However, to post messages on the boards, you must register using a valid e-mail address. Upon registration, an Activation Key will be mailed to the address you provided. No posting privileges are granted until the account is activated. Once you are activated, you must post a topic in the intro section. Sonic Blast does not require you to use your real name or other personal identification. The e-mail address you provide will be kept private. Sonic Blast does not knowingly accumulate any information from members under 13 years. 3. CONTENT NOTICE By viewing the site, you agree to several terms. You agree that content on Sonic Sonic Blast is the responsibility of the person from which the content is posted. You agree that Sonic Blast and its affiliates are not responsible for any content that you post or upload. Sonic Blast does not guarantee the truth of any content. You agree that while using Sonic Blast Forums, you may be open to substance that is offensive, and you will in no way hold Sonic Blast or its affiliates liable for any harm or loss that may come to you from viewing this substance. 4. ACCOUNT PROTECTION Users are responsible for protecting their accounts from access by others. You are encouraged to select a complex password and not use that password on any other sites where it may be read by the administrators of that site. While it is acceptable for users to hold several accounts, Sonic Blast Forums tracks multiple shared accounts from a single or multiple computers as one account in terms of service violations. If the TOS is violated enough to justify the banning of an account, all known accounts shared between a single or multiple users who use the same computer will also be banned for the actions of the violating account. Because of this rule, it is highly recommended that board users do not share their accounts with others, or share their computers used to access the site with others, as the actions of some other person directly impact all known shared message board accounts. 5. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION Under normal circumstances, Sonic Blast will never release information to a third party without a court order requiring us to do so. However, in cases of severe and/or repeated TOS violations or illegal activities, we reserve the right to forward any and all known information about you and your accounts to your ISP (including gyms, schools, and places of employment), e-mail provider, your ISP account owner, and any parties whose copyright has been infringed by your actions. 6. MEMBER ETIQUETTE You agree that you will use this service following these guidelines(All members are asked to report any violations of the rules by using the report button.): 6.1 Offensive Posting Posts of an offensive nature are not allowed. This includes: Using excessive vulgar, profane, or sexually expressed language Using discrimination(race, religion, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, handicap, nationality, or gender) as an insult Using someone's sexual preference as insult in any way, shape, or form Using threatening, harassing, or defamatory language Posting or requesting links to material from pornographic, obscene, or hate-speech web sites Descriptions or details about any sexual act or sexual organs. 6.2 Flaming (Insulting Others) Any thread in which flaming occurs will be locked until the flaming can be deleted and the members dealt with. Posts insulting others, individually or as a group, directly or indirectly, are not allowed. This involves: Name-calling ("You're an idiot", "You moron") Direct insults ("Screw you") Offensive orders ("Go kill yourself") Implications ("Are you stupid or something?") or insults towards family ("Your mom...") Please respect all of the other SB members. Oppressing another's opinion is considered an attack on another member, which will not be tolerated. We encourage people to voice their opinions on this Message Board, without fear of being attacked. 6.3 Trolling (Prompting Flames) Posts intended to annoy and/or offend other posters by going against the characteristic of a board or topic are not allowed. This involves: Agitating other users to reply with flames Agitating fans of a particular system or game, on boards dedicated to that system or game Producing misleading topic titles Asking useless questions Posting false information as the truth. 6.4 Illegal Practices Posts that violate or prompt others to break the law are not allowed. This involves, but is not limited to, asking for or providing: Illegal copies of copyrighted software (ROMs, Warez) Methods of elude copyright protection (Cracks, No-CD Patches, CD Keys, mod chips) Illegal copies of copyrighted music (MP3s), movies, videos, or other types of media Methods of cheating in online games. 6.5 Spamming (Useless Posting) Spam is anything that means nothing, or has little discussion value. Including posts with one or two words, comments that do not relate to the topic, posting to move a topic up the list, and triple posting. When writing your posts, please write something that can be responded to by another member, such as your opinion on the certain topic. Don't write messages that are only one sentence long and is basically a "Heh, yeah I like that" or something that does not expand upon the topic. Use the Private Messaging (PM) system to talk to members about something directly. At Sonic Blast, topics designed to get hundreds of posts with little or no content, topics that have nothing to do with the board's category, and other "social" topics are only allowed in the Casino Park! 6.6 Bumping Topics/Double Posting Bumping is not an issue here at Sonic Blast. We do not discourage bumping. However, bumping is only tolerated under the following circumstances: The topic is on the first page. The topic is not on the first page, but still relevant. The user has discussion worthy material to post. Double posting is also not an issue at Sonic Blast. Double posting is allowed as long as user does not spam in the process. Triple bumping and triple posting are not allowed. Multiple bumping (3,4,5, etc times) in the support forum is only allowed if no one answers your question within 24 hours. After 24 hours, you may bump your topic again. 6.7 Off Topic Posting Posting related material to the topic is expected and will be enforced on all sonic boards. On gaming or other topical boards with no Social board, new topics must clearly be related to the category in which it is in. Discussions may vary, but must essentially be about the topic at hand. Things such as RPGs, forum games, and the like should be posted on the corresponding Social board. 6.8 Spoilers Posting "spoilers" (critical plot details) about games, movies, or other media in the title of a topic or in a message without advance warning is prohibited. To discuss such information in a topic, users should leave the title of the topic as vague as possible and include put all spoilers into the spoiler BBCode as to not reveal any vital plot information. Please do not use the spoiler tag to hide large images or more than 5 images in your signature. 6.9 Disruptive Posting/Proper English Posts that disrupt the forum for others, intentional or not, are prohibited. This involves: Posts or topic titles that force browsers to scroll horizontally Large blank or content-free posts Posting multiple identical or near-identical messages or topics Posting images that stretch out the page(these will be removed and changed to a link) Intentionally hard-to-read topic titles the examples are: all caps, alternate caps, no spaces, no or excessive punctuation, and leet speak. Please type with capital letters, punctuation (commas, spaces, etc), and correct grammar. We do not allow short writing like 'u' for 'you' or '2' for 'to'. We accept that not everybody has perfect English skills and understand that sometimes people will make spelling or grammar errors. However, we do not accept extreme cases of this. Posts which clearly lack sensible use of English that are unreadable are not allowed. 6.10 Cussing/Vulgarities Cussing here is not against the rules, however excessive cussing is. Excessive cussing could be classified as four vulgar words in a single post, multiple posts in one thread using vulgarities, or constant use of vulgarities around the board. Please try not to cuss more than necessary. All of the words that are considered higher up on the vulgarity charts will remain filtered, and avoiding the word filter is a warning. All vulgarities referring to sexual topics are not allowed. Cussing as a derogatory intent is considered flaming, and won't be tolerated. Remember there are children here and mature adults do not need to use cuss words frequently. 6.11 Flooding and Invading Users will be instantly banned (along with any associated accounts) for: Flooding a board with multiple disruptive topics and/or posts Invading another board (flooding a board as a group with multiple topics or posts) Inciting, participating in, or avenging in an invasion of a Sonic Blast or any other online service. Announcing or inciting a "war" or any conflict with the regular members of another board. 6.12 Imposture (Identity Theft) Users will be banned (along with any associated accounts) for impersonating other boards users by creating and/or using a forum account with a name planned to impersonate, mock, antagonize another user, or falsely claim to be another forum member. 6.13 Harassment/Stalking/Confidentiality Harassing behavior directed at an individual or group with the plan of creating an intimidating, offensive, or hostile environment on the forums, with or without use of expressed or covert threats is strictly prohibited. We will remove any phone number, address or other personally identifying information posted in the board if it violates someone's privacy, is harassing or could lead to harassment or is otherwise inappropriate. Also, any posting of your own phone number, address or any other personally identifying information is prohibited. 6.14 Restricted Access Accessing or attempting to access any user account not belonging to the user without his or her permission is prohibited. Accessing another user's account in this manner will result in an immediate loss of all known accounts. 6.15 Usernames, Profiles, and Forms Violating any of the above rules with a username, any part of the user profile (signature, quote, e-mail, IM), or via feedback forms (such as the Mark for Moderation function) is considered a serious violation. This includes an advertising username. 6.16 Signatures/Avatars Please do not use the spoiler tag to hide large images or more than 5 images in your signature. The limit is 5 images in your signature, not including userbars, but do not over do the userbars. Sigs that contain hate messages and/or insulting material towards a member is an instant warn. Signature image size may not excede 250kb. Signatures that stretch tables will be removed. Avatars should be no more than 100KB. We want pages to load at a reasonable pace for users. Do not use text in your signature greater than size 5. Signatures and avatars should not contain quickly-flashing pictures that may cause problems for users with photo-sensitive disorders. Below is an example of a 500x200 pixel image: 6.17 Advertising Posts, Personal Messages, and E-mails that advertise a service or product are not allowed and considered spam. This involves: Uninvited commercial or personal web site promotions Users may not request comments on their personal site in a social setting Users are allowed to include a web site address in a signature or the advertising forum. Advertising must only be done in the Billboard section of the forum. 6.18 Requesting Graphics and Codes Sonic Blast will not give you our skin, graphics, or codes. Please do not PM an admin asking if you can have them as it will be wasting your time. Your PM will not be responded to. 6.19 Criticism When criticizing someone's work (fan art, fan fiction, sprites, etc), you should have a helpful comment or two. Don't reply to someone's work and say, "I hate it. It sucks." Give the person the reason why it isn't to your liking so that they can work it out, and make their piece of work better. 7. VALIDATION Sonic Blast requires no validation by E-Mail. This is out of kindness. If we receive members making new accounts/E-mails to spam or not abide by the rules, we will disable this rule. Remember we do not require administrator or E-Mail validation for your benefit and it is a privilege not a right. 8. ERRATA Topics and message posts that infringe the TOS will be deleted from the forums, and additional penalties may be applied at the administrator and/or moderator's discretion. Reposting deleted violations (yours or those of others) is also considered a violation. Messages and topics may be removed at any time and for any reason at the liberty of Sonic Blast and its designated moderators and administrators. User accounts may be warned, suspended, or revoked at any time and for any reason at the liberty of Sonic Blast and its designated moderators and administrators. Sonic Blast and whomever it designates as moderators will determine what is �acceptable� and �unacceptable� substance. You agree that the decision of the moderators and administrators is final, and you may not legally contest their rulings. Intentional, repeated, or serious violations are cause for the banning of your account, all use of the boards from your IP address or your entire ISP, and Sonic Blast contacting your ISP or other relevant parties concerning your activities. 9. STAFF MEMBERS Staff Members must follow the above rules. This includes Moderators, Co Administrators, and Administrators. As well as: move topics when in incorrect forums, close inappropriate topics, delete extremely inappropriate topics, respect all members, stop flaming and/or spamming, do not disrespect the admin(s) or other mods, and most of all do not abuse your powers. Any staff member who does not abide by these rules will be stripped of their rank at the other staff and Neo Metallix's discretion. No one person may strip another's rank. 10. PUNISHMENTS Warnings are up to the staff's best judgment given the severity of the violation, however here's a cut and dry guide for what you may expect. Warnings 1,2,3 - Member is given a verbal warning via PM Warning 4 - Member is warned and given a verbal warning via PM Warning 5 - Member is warned and given a verbal warning via PM Warning 6 - Member is given a stern lecture and put on moderated posts for a week. Warning 7 - Member is banned for a month. If behavior doesn't improve after that, it will result in a permanent ban. If a member hasn't broken any rules after one month of being warned, his/her warn level will go down by one. Evading a perm account ban will result in the banning of your IP.

Terms of Service

Sonic Blast Terms of Use

NOTICE: Sonic Blast has its own terms of service. By using this site, you agree that Sonic Blast is free of any liabilities incurred by use or misuse of the site. Sonic Blast does not guarantee any information on this site. Users assume responsibility for their actions based on the content used from this site. Sonic Blast has the right to remove any user submitted content.

------------------Index------------------

1. AGREEMENT OF TERMS
2. REGISTRATION OBLIGATIOINS
3. CONTENT NOTICE
4. ACCOUNT PROTECTION
5. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION
6. MEMBER ETIQUETTE
6.1 Offensive Posting
6.2 Flaming (Insulting Others)
6.3 Trolling (Prompting Flames)
6.4 Illegal Practices
6.5 Spamming (Useless Posting)
6.6 Bumping Topics/Double Posting
6.7 Off Topic Posting
6.8 Spoilers
6.9 Disruptive Posting/Proper English
6.10 Cussing/Vulgarities
6.11 Flooding and Invading
6.12 Imposture (Identity Theft)
6.13 Harassment/Stalking/Confidentiality
6.14 Restricted Access
6.15 Usernames, Profiles, and Forms
6.16 Signatures/Avatars
6.17 Advertising
6.18 Requesting Graphics and Codes
6.19 Criticism
7. VALIDATION
8. ERRATA
9. STAFF MEMBERS
10. PUNISHMENTS

------------------Index------------------

1. AGREEMENT OF TERMS
Sonic Blast provides services to you, the visitor, based on its Terms of Service. When using the services provided by Sonic Blast, you are subject to these terms. Exercise of the services on this site indicate acceptance of these terms. The TOS may be changed any time without notice, so it is recommended that you check back with this page at any time you have questions.

2. REGISTRATION OBLIGATIONS
In order to view messages on Sonic Blast Forums without user restrictions, no registration is required. However, to post messages on the boards, you must register using a valid e-mail address. Upon registration, an Activation Key will be mailed to the address you provided. No posting privileges are granted until the account is activated. Once you are activated, you must post a topic in the intro section. Sonic Blast does not require you to use your real name or other personal identification. The e-mail address you provide will be kept private. Sonic Blast does not knowingly accumulate any information from members under 13 years.

3. CONTENT NOTICE
By viewing the site, you agree to several terms. You agree that content on Sonic Sonic Blast is the responsibility of the person from which the content is posted. You agree that Sonic Blast and its affiliates are not responsible for any content that you post or upload. Sonic Blast does not guarantee the truth of any content. You agree that while using Sonic Blast Forums, you may be open to substance that is offensive, and you will in no way hold Sonic Blast or its affiliates liable for any harm or loss that may come to you from viewing this substance.

4. ACCOUNT PROTECTION
Users are responsible for protecting their accounts from access by others. You are encouraged to select a complex password and not use that password on any other sites where it may be read by the administrators of that site. While it is acceptable for users to hold several accounts, Sonic Blast Forums tracks multiple shared accounts from a single or multiple computers as one account in terms of service violations. If the TOS is violated enough to justify the banning of an account, all known accounts shared between a single or multiple users who use the same computer will also be banned for the actions of the violating account. Because of this rule, it is highly recommended that board users do not share their accounts with others, or share their computers used to access the site with others, as the actions of some other person directly impact all known shared message board accounts.

5. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION
Under normal circumstances, Sonic Blast will never release information to a third party without a court order requiring us to do so. However, in cases of severe and/or repeated TOS violations or illegal activities, we reserve the right to forward any and all known information about you and your accounts to your ISP (including gyms, schools, and places of employment), e-mail provider, your ISP account owner, and any parties whose copyright has been infringed by your actions.

6. MEMBER ETIQUETTE
You agree that you will use this service following these guidelines(All members are asked to report any violations of the rules by using the report button.):

6.1 Offensive Posting
Posts of an offensive nature are not allowed. This includes:
Using excessive vulgar, profane, or sexually expressed language
Using discrimination(race, religion, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, handicap, nationality, or gender) as an insult
Using someone's sexual preference as insult in any way, shape, or form
Using threatening, harassing, or defamatory language
Posting or requesting links to material from pornographic, obscene, or hate-speech web sites
Descriptions or details about any sexual act or sexual organs.

6.2 Flaming (Insulting Others)
Any thread in which flaming occurs will be locked until the flaming can be deleted and the members dealt with.
Posts insulting others, individually or as a group, directly or indirectly, are not allowed. This involves:
Name-calling ("You're an idiot", "You moron")
Direct insults ("Screw you")
Offensive orders ("Go kill yourself")
Implications ("Are you stupid or something?") or insults towards family ("Your mom...")
Please respect all of the other SB members.
Oppressing another's opinion is considered an attack on another member, which will not be tolerated.
We encourage people to voice their opinions on this Message Board, without fear of being attacked.

6.3 Trolling (Prompting Flames)
Posts intended to annoy and/or offend other posters by going against the characteristic of a board or topic are not allowed.
This involves:
Agitating other users to reply with flames
Agitating fans of a particular system or game, on boards dedicated to that system or game
Producing misleading topic titles
Asking useless questions
Posting false information as the truth.

6.4 Illegal Practices
Posts that violate or prompt others to break the law are not allowed. This involves, but is not limited to, asking for or providing:
Illegal copies of copyrighted software (ROMs, Warez)
Methods of elude copyright protection (Cracks, No-CD Patches, CD Keys, mod chips)
Illegal copies of copyrighted music (MP3s), movies, videos, or other types of media
Methods of cheating in online games.

6.5 Spamming (Useless Posting)
Spam is anything that means nothing, or has little discussion value. Including posts with one or two words, comments that do not relate to the topic, posting to move a topic up the list, and triple posting.
When writing your posts, please write something that can be responded to by another member, such as your opinion on the certain topic.
Don't write messages that are only one sentence long and is basically a "Heh, yeah I like that" or something that does not expand upon the topic.
Use the Private Messaging (PM) system to talk to members about something directly.
At Sonic Blast, topics designed to get hundreds of posts with little or no content, topics that have nothing to do with the board's category, and other "social" topics are only allowed in the Casino Park!

6.6 Bumping Topics/Double Posting
Bumping is not an issue here at Sonic Blast. We do not discourage bumping.
However, bumping is only tolerated under the following circumstances:
The topic is on the first page.
The topic is not on the first page, but still relevant.
The user has discussion worthy material to post.
Double posting is also not an issue at Sonic Blast. Double posting is allowed as long as user does not spam in the process.
Triple bumping and triple posting are not allowed.
Multiple bumping (3,4,5, etc times) in the support forum is only allowed if no one answers your question within 24 hours. After 24 hours, you may bump your topic again.

6.7 Off Topic Posting
Posting related material to the topic is expected and will be enforced on all sonic boards. On gaming or other topical boards with no Social board, new topics must clearly be related to the category in which it is in. Discussions may vary, but must essentially be about the topic at hand. Things such as RPGs, forum games, and the like should be posted on the corresponding Social board.

6.8 Spoilers
Posting "spoilers" (critical plot details) about games, movies, or other media in the title of a topic or in a message without advance warning is prohibited.
To discuss such information in a topic, users should leave the title of the topic as vague as possible and include put all spoilers into the spoiler BBCode as to not reveal any vital plot information.
Please do not use the spoiler tag to hide large images or more than 5 images in your signature.

6.9 Disruptive Posting/Proper English
Posts that disrupt the forum for others, intentional or not, are prohibited. This involves:
Posts or topic titles that force browsers to scroll horizontally
Large blank or content-free posts
Posting multiple identical or near-identical messages or topics
Posting images that stretch out the page(these will be removed and changed to a link)
Intentionally hard-to-read topic titles the examples are: all caps, alternate caps, no spaces, no or excessive punctuation, and leet speak.
Please type with capital letters, punctuation (commas, spaces, etc), and correct grammar.
We do not allow short writing like 'u' for 'you' or '2' for 'to'.
We accept that not everybody has perfect English skills and understand that sometimes people will make spelling or grammar errors. However, we do not accept extreme cases of this. Posts which clearly lack sensible use of English that are unreadable are not allowed.

6.10 Cussing/Vulgarities
Cussing here is not against the rules, however excessive cussing is.
Excessive cussing could be classified as four vulgar words in a single post, multiple posts in one thread using vulgarities, or constant use of vulgarities around the board.
Please try not to cuss more than necessary.
All of the words that are considered higher up on the vulgarity charts will remain filtered, and avoiding the word filter is a warning.
All vulgarities referring to sexual topics are not allowed.
Cussing as a derogatory intent is considered flaming, and won't be tolerated.
Remember there are children here and mature adults do not need to use cuss words frequently.

6.11 Flooding and Invading
Users will be instantly banned (along with any associated accounts) for:
Flooding a board with multiple disruptive topics and/or posts
Invading another board (flooding a board as a group with multiple topics or posts)
Inciting, participating in, or avenging in an invasion of a Sonic Blast or any other online service.
Announcing or inciting a "war" or any conflict with the regular members of another board.

6.12 Imposture (Identity Theft)
Users will be banned (along with any associated accounts) for impersonating other boards users by creating and/or using a forum account with a name planned to impersonate, mock, antagonize another user, or falsely claim to be another forum member.

6.13 Harassment/Stalking/Confidentiality
Harassing behavior directed at an individual or group with the plan of creating an intimidating, offensive, or hostile environment on the forums, with or without use of expressed or covert threats is strictly prohibited. We will remove any phone number, address or other personally identifying information posted in the board if it violates someone's privacy, is harassing or could lead to harassment or is otherwise inappropriate. Also, any posting of your own phone number, address or any other personally identifying information is prohibited.

6.14 Restricted Access
Accessing or attempting to access any user account not belonging to the user without his or her permission is prohibited. Accessing another user's account in this manner will result in an immediate loss of all known accounts.

6.15 Usernames, Profiles, and Forms
Violating any of the above rules with a username, any part of the user profile (signature, quote, e-mail, IM), or via feedback forms (such as the Mark for Moderation function) is considered a serious violation. This includes an advertising username.

6.16 Signatures/Avatars
Please do not use the spoiler tag to hide large images or more than 5 images in your signature.
The limit is 5 images in your signature, not including userbars, but do not over do the userbars.
Sigs that contain hate messages and/or insulting material towards a member is an instant warn.
Signature image size may not excede 250kb.
Signatures that stretch tables will be removed.
Avatars should be no more than 100KB. We want pages to load at a reasonable pace for users.
Do not use text in your signature greater than size 5.
Signatures and avatars should not contain quickly-flashing pictures that may cause problems for users with photo-sensitive disorders.
Below is an example of a 500x200 pixel image:
Posted Image

6.17 Advertising
Posts, Personal Messages, and E-mails that advertise a service or product are not allowed and considered spam. This involves:
Uninvited commercial or personal web site promotions
Users may not request comments on their personal site in a social setting
Users are allowed to include a web site address in a signature or the advertising forum.
Advertising must only be done in the Billboard section of the forum.

6.18 Requesting Graphics and Codes
Sonic Blast will not give you our skin, graphics, or codes. Please do not PM an admin asking if you can have them as it will be wasting your time. Your PM will not be responded to.

6.19 Criticism
When criticizing someone's work (fan art, fan fiction, sprites, etc), you should have a helpful comment or two. Don't reply to someone's work and say, "I hate it. It sucks." Give the person the reason why it isn't to your liking so that they can work it out, and make their piece of work better.

7. VALIDATION
Sonic Blast requires no validation by E-Mail. This is out of kindness. If we receive members making new accounts/E-mails to spam or not abide by the rules, we will disable this rule. Remember we do not require administrator or E-Mail validation for your benefit and it is a privilege not a right.

8. ERRATA
Topics and message posts that infringe the TOS will be deleted from the forums, and additional penalties may be applied at the administrator and/or moderator's discretion. Reposting deleted violations (yours or those of others) is also considered a violation.
Messages and topics may be removed at any time and for any reason at the liberty of Sonic Blast and its designated moderators and administrators. User accounts may be warned, suspended, or revoked at any time and for any reason at the liberty of Sonic Blast and its designated moderators and administrators. Sonic Blast and whomever it designates as moderators will determine what is �acceptable� and �unacceptable� substance. You agree that the decision of the moderators and administrators is final, and you may not legally contest their rulings. Intentional, repeated, or serious violations are cause for the banning of your account, all use of the boards from your IP address or your entire ISP, and Sonic Blast contacting your ISP or other relevant parties concerning your activities.

9. STAFF MEMBERS
Staff Members must follow the above rules. This includes Moderators, Co Administrators, and Administrators. As well as: move topics when in incorrect forums, close inappropriate topics, delete extremely inappropriate topics, respect all members, stop flaming and/or spamming, do not disrespect the admin(s) or other mods, and most of all do not abuse your powers. Any staff member who does not abide by these rules will be stripped of their rank at the other staff and Neo Metallix's discretion. No one person may strip another's rank.

10. PUNISHMENTS
Warnings are up to the staff's best judgment given the severity of the violation, however here's a cut and dry guide for what you may expect.
Warnings 1,2,3 - Member is given a verbal warning via PM
Warning 4 - Member is warned and given a verbal warning via PM
Warning 5 - Member is warned and given a verbal warning via PM
Warning 6 - Member is given a stern lecture and put on moderated posts for a week.
Warning 7 - Member is banned for a month. If behavior doesn't improve after that, it will result in a permanent ban.
If a member hasn't broken any rules after one month of being warned, his/her warn level will go down by one.
Evading a perm account ban will result in the banning of your IP.