Site Rules and Terms of Service

Responsibility

1. You remain solely responsible for your posted content and actions. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of altBoards, any related websites, its staff, and its subsidiaries.
2. All content you submit, upload, or otherwise make available to altBoards may be reviewed by staff members. All content you submit or upload may be sent to third-party verification services (including, but not limited to, spam prevention services). Do not submit any content that you consider to be private or confidential.
3. You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your content in connection with altBoards. You retain copyright over the content.

User accounts

1. You are permitted to have ONE (1) altBoards account only. If you need more than one, please contact an administrator to let us know why. We have various methods of investigating this, so we recommend following this rule. If you do not, both accounts are subject to removal at any time. If you made a typo in your original name, you may contact us to request a username change.
2. You are allowed to change your username once every SIXTY (60) days via your Account details. Your username history will be public to other users.
3. Usernames may not contain any profanity and/or vulgar words. Anything we consider to be profane or vulgar will be reversed and the offending user will be warned.
4. All account information is to be kept confidential. You are also not permitted to login under another person's account at any time, even if they give you their permission and account information. If you give information out you will be banned, and anyone logging in to said account will also be banned.

Privacy

1. Every member has the right to privacy.
2. Members who attempt to post personal information about themselves do so at their own risks. This includes websites, e-mails, instant message account names, addresses, phone numbers, and so forth.
3. Any member who takes it upon themselves to post information of another member because of personal vendettas or other are subject to removal.
4. All content within personal conversations are private. Disclosing what was said in any personal conversation in the public domain without all users consent may result in infractions.

General guidelines

1. Please keep posts in their proper forums. Read the descriptions of each forum before posting.
2. Be courteous and respect your fellow members E.g. treat others the way you want to be treated. To be clear, personal attacks, aggressive messages, and passive-aggressive behavior is unacceptable. If you take particular issue with another user and are unable to reply in a civilised and constructive way to their posts, you should ignore the user.
3. When posting images, please consider adding them as attachments or using a free hosting service such as Imgur or other. Linking directly to images hosted on other sites can be considered as bandwidth theft and is not good practice, as any linked images can be changed or removed from the host site at any time, resulting in unexpected results or broken links.
4. No double-posting. This is when you post successive replies without editing your previous post. This is especially frowned upon if it's a regular occurrence or within a short time of the previous post. This also includes posting threads more than once.
5. No abusing the reputation system. Do not ask or tell others to rate you in a post. Do not ask for ratings whatsoever. E.g., "Like if you agree". Alternatively, do not spam ratings on other posts, use them only where applicable. Users who ask for ratings or spam ratings will be warned & suspended.
6. No abusing the points system. This is designed to facitilate thoughtful engagement, not mindless posting. Users who abuse the points system will be warned & suspended.
7. Signatures are available under all postings, however, please note there are a few restrictions below:
   • You may have a maximum of 250 printable characters.
   • You may have a maximum of 4 lines.
   • You may have a maximum of 5 smilies.
   • You may have a maximum of 5 links.
   • You may have a maximum of 1 image, which may not exceed 400 pixels in height.

Content that is NOT allowed

1. Racism, discrimination, and hate speech are not permitted at altBoards. Anything we consider to breach this subject will be removed by staff and the result will be a swift, no questions asked, immediate ban.
2. Politics are not allowed at altBoards. Any political discussion will be removed immediately. Video games are for everyone and we aim to keep this site welcome to all without fear of political backlash or resistance.
3. No culture wars or console wars. altBoards will be kept drama-free and on-topic regarding video games and other subjects.
4. Promotional links with referral or affiliate ids, etc. are forbidden and will be removed immediately. All personal website links can be added and displayed via your profile. Even in that area the link(s) may be removed for any reason.
5. No "warez" talk or anything relating to illegal distribution of copyrighted materials such as movies, games, emulator roms, software, music, television programs, website designs, pictures, artwork, and so forth. Debating these issues is permitted, however directly incriminating yourself and your activities via your posts (whether using a link, or directly attaching or including it within the post) subject the post or thread to be removed or edited at any time for your own protection, and ours.
6. No postings of pornographic pictures, avatars, videos, profile pictures, or outside links are permitted on this website. Suggestive PG-13 is fine (such as cleavage or a thong), but no explicit nudity.

Spamming and other disruptive behaviors

1. Spamming is not tolerated anywhere on this site, including (but not limited to) threads, posts, comments, conversations, profile posts, custom titles, status posts, etc. If you spam any area on this website your account is subject to suspension or a permanent ban.
2. Other disruptive behaviors such as trolling, flaming, etc. are not tolerated.

DMCA Takedowns

1. We will respond to legitimate requests under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), and we retain the right to remove user content on altBoards which we deem to be infringing upon the copyright of others. If you become aware of user content on altBoards which you believe infringes your copyright rights, you may send us a DMCA request, properly formatted pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512.
2. Misrepresentations of infringement can result in liability for monetary damages, and you may want to consult an attorney. You may send us your DMCA request to: [email protected] with “DMCA Takedown Request” in the subject field.
3. Please provide us with the following information when submitting your DMCA takedown request:
   
   
   1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
   2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
   3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
   4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
   5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
   6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

DMCA Counter-Notice

1. If we remove your user content in response to a copyright or trademark notice, we will notify you via altBoards private messaging system as well as through the e-mail you provide during registrations. If you believe your user content was wrongly removed, you can file a counter-notice with us by e-mailing us at [email protected], with “DMCA Counter Notice” in the subject field. Please include the following:
   
   
   1. Your physical or electronic signature.
   2. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
   3. Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriber’s address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification or an agent of such person.

Final words...