Rules and Guidelines

Welcome to the forums. This page details all the rules, guidelines and expectations.

• Be nice. This is an environment that exists to encourage and foster a community spirit. General "netiquette" applies here.
• Do not upload or advertise illegal content, in any way, shape or form. To do so; puts yourself at risk of moderation.
• Do not debate, post about, or otherwise communicate anything that is centered on pornography/hate speech/political musings/etc.
• Understand that buying or "pledging", does not give you the "right" to post here.
• Do not post any kind of profanity (swearing)! We have a zero tolerance policy on profanity. However you may link to external content featuring profanity, such as videos or websites, only if giving a clear warning at the beginning of your post in bold red text and if the content is related to your post. Moderators shall at their discretion determine what is profanity, and act accordingly.
• Do not intentionally inflame a thread, post or member; doing so may get you moderated. "Skirting" the boundaries of the AUP is also frowned upon.
• Do not upload, or link to work (other than linking to inform others) that is not your own. Permission must be asked for, and received for any derivative work to be posted (ie., re-textures, added scripts, etc.)
• Do not post non-constructive posts outside of the "Off Topic" board, to do so will result in moderation. See below for more.
• Do not argue moderator decisions, all moderator decisions are final and not up for debate!
• There will be no "naming and shaming" any artist here. If you have a problem with a particular artist's work, contact support@thegamecreators.com about it for a resolution. Just like the questionable rating system we currently have, plastering what you believe is wrong about a particular artist all over the forums can have a negative impact on both the artist and the Community as a whole (should the artist quit making items for general download; we all suffer).
• Do NOT create multiple accounts, we can track multiple accounts and the posts made with them. You will be banned if found with multiple accounts!
• If posting code in your post you must use [code] blocks with the correct syntax highlighting. ie, [code lang=agk] your code here [/code]
• Unless posting in a language specific board all threads/posts must be in English.
• Signature images may not be any larger than a total of 600x120 pixels in size.

You can see the full forum Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) below.

Types of moderation

Below we have outlined the different types of moderation any of which can be used if any rules are broken.

• Locking or Deletion - Moderators are able to lock or delete threads or individual messages if they feel the content is not appropriate this is normally accompanied by one of the following actions.
• Noob Slaps - This type of ban lasts a period of time defined by a moderator, during this time every single post will be reviewed and approved by a moderator before it is made visible. During this time the slightest slip up will earn you a more serious punishment.
• Ban - This type of moderation can either be based on a period of time or be permanent. This will prevent you from viewing or posting to the forum.
• Nuke - If your account is nuked you will get a permanent ban and every single post you have made will be deleted from record.

Non-Constructive Posts

In order to make the Forums a more pleasant experience - especially for newcomers - the moderators will be taking a strict line on non-constructive posts. Offenders can expect to be placed on moderation for three days, with repeat offenders finding themselves moderated to a greater extent.

So what is a non-constructive post? Here are some examples, although not exhaustive:

"Use the search button" (in isolation, without any other value in the post) Anything containing the word "noob".

"I posted before this was locked"

"Hello I'm a cat"

There is nothing wrong with healthy debate and providing different or better ways to do the same thing, and this kind of discussion is welcomed. What will not be tolerated is any post that discourages rather than encourages.

To summarise - If you don't have anything constructive to add, don't post!

Selling

We do allow selling via the forums, however there are some rules that go along with this in order to protect our users.

• All sales must be made via PayPal or another payment service that offers buyer protection.
• You can link to your website that allows purchasing of items. However it is strictly prohibited to post links to websites that feature the ability to pay using credit or debit cards.
• In addition to the above point, it is strictly forbidden to feature the credit/debit card processing logos on your website, this includes but is not limited to visa and mastercard, even if card payment is not taken. This will be taken as a sign of intent to provide card payment abilities.

TGC may provide permission to provide card processing via your website by special request, please get in touch if you would like us to review your website.

Advertising Services

We know many members of our community have great services or products they can provide either for free or for a fee.

As a result we will allow active community members (members with previous post history and good reputation) to post adverts for their services, so long as they comply with all other forum rules including rules from the board in which they are posted.

However new accounts without any prior community engagement posting adverts for services will be considered spam and will be deleted.

Crowd Funding

We do not allow linking to crowd funding sites or requesting funding of any kind without having a completed product to provide in exchange.

Team Requests

We do not allow any form of team requests. This sort of discussion should be handled via the PM system in the majority of cases, with the exception of the Off Topic board where we do allow team requests for established projects only! This includes asking to join a team, asking people to join your team or asking about creating teams.

Name Change Requests

Once you have chosen your name on the forums you may not change it, except for exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances will be decided by the moderation team, if you wish to change your forum name contact a moderator directly.

Those with a moderation history including noob slaps, bans and warnings will be denied name change requests.

Posting Code

If you are posting code you must have permission to post all parts of the code from original authors or the code must be released for redistribution.

All code in posts must be contained within [code] blocks with the correct syntax highlighting, this is to make reading and reproducing code easier for everyone.

Forum AUP

Our Forums allow users of this site to post messages and discussions thereof. This is an automated post-moderated function (not pre-moderated). We cannot and will not be held responsible for the content of such third party addition. For the Forums and all interactive areas of our websites the following rules apply:

• 3.1 Do not upload, post, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy (up to, but not excluding any address, email, phone number, or any other contact information without the written consent of the owner of such information), hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable

The following software related topics, and discussion of them, are banned from all of our forums:

• 3.2 Advertising websites that are not on-topic
• 3.3 Spam / Pyramid schemes
• 3.4 Links to illegal software, illegal software sites, or illega Bit Torrents/p2p sites
• 3.4a Links to ebay or similar auctions for any of our software
• 3.5 Serial numbers or Cracks for any piece of software, made by any company
• 3.6 Anything considered "adult" material (be it pornographic or horrific)
• 3.7 Gambling (we do allow theoretical discussion of implementations of game mechanics such as loot boxes but advertising apps containing gambling is not permitted)

Due to continuous problems the following subjects are also banned from discussion on all of our forums:

• 3.8 Debate about religious belief or any tangent of religion
• 3.9 Debate about any form of pro or anti government sentiments, irrespective of which government
• 3.10 Debate about any form of creationist / evolutionary theories
• 3.11 Debate about abortion

3.11 We do not tolerate posts made for the purpose of putting down another forum member, group of members, religion, our company, our staff or any of our moderators, past or present.

3.12 We do not tolerate 'trolling', the process of posting inflamatory messages for the sake of starting an argument, or being plain obnoxious.

3.13 If your message violates any or all of the points above we reserve the right to take action against you. This can include restrictions such as: Temporary or full bans from our forum. IP/subnet/domain/ISP level blocking of access to our forum AND website, including your Order History. Refusal of all product related support. Removal of rights to purchase from our store.

We would prefer that we never have to enforce any of these, so keep your forum activity in check and it should never need to happen.

3.14 We will treat breaches of any of the above rules seriously. We will cooperate with all law enforcement agencies should they contact us regarding breach of any law. When dealing with a law enforcement agency we will hand over any information we have about you if requested. There are no exceptions. Your privacy rights do not apply in this instance. We fully support all forms of anti-criminal activity and crime-fighting organisations, including anti-piracy bodies. Should you use pirated software do not talk about or mention this on our forum in any manner at all, or even imply it, because we will fully support any organisation that challenges a copyright infringement, including passing to them any information we have.

3.15 Being a customer of The Game Creators gives no right to being allowed access to our forum.

3.16 If you upload a file to our forum, all of the points raised in sections 3, 4 and 5 of this AUP come into play.

3.17 Our forums are moderated by both TGC employees and trusted non-paid members of the public who volunteer their services and time for the benefit of the community. By using our forums you automatically agree that they cannot be held personally responsible for any actions arising from these forums. You agree that moderators shall, at their discretion, determine what constitutes a violation of these terms, along with generally accepted netiquette standards, and can take action against those who voilate these rules.

3.18 - If you are under the age of 18, you may not post your age, post a self image, or self video. Doing so may result in a temporary or full ban.

3.19 - Do not post any kind of profanity (swearing)! We have a zero tolerance policy on profanity. However you may link to external content featuring profanity, such as videos or websites, only if giving a clear warning at the beginning of your post in bold red text and if the content is related to your post. Moderators shall at their discretion determine what is profanity, and act accordingly.