Community Rules
A place for open discussion, sharing knowledge, debating ideas, and enjoying the old-school forum experience.
General
1. Respect Other Members
Disagreements are completely fine. Personal harassment isn't.
Debate the idea, not the person behind it. Don't repeatedly target, threaten, stalk, intimidate, or harass another member.
A heated discussion isn't automatically a problem. Following someone around the forum just to antagonize them is.
2. No Spam
Don't flood the forum with repetitive posts, meaningless replies, unsolicited advertisements, referral spam, affiliate spam, mass private messages, or automated promotional content.
You're welcome to share your own website, project, business, or content when it's relevant to the discussion or permitted by the section you're posting in.
Contribute to the community — don't just use it as free advertising space.
3. Post in the Correct Section
Make a reasonable effort to post discussions in the appropriate category and use descriptive thread titles.
A title like "Having trouble installing an extension on Flarum" is much more useful than simply "HELP!!!".
Good titles make the forum easier to browse and help your discussion receive useful replies.
Content
4. No Illegal Marketplace Activity
Do not use the forum to buy, sell, request, facilitate, or distribute clearly illegal goods or services.
This includes stolen property, compromised accounts, stolen financial information, illegal drugs, malware intended for abuse, fraudulent services, and similar material.
Discussing controversial subjects or cybersecurity is not automatically prohibited. Using the community to facilitate criminal activity is.
5. Give Credit Where It's Due
Sharing useful information from elsewhere is encouraged, but don't present someone else's work as your own.
When appropriate, credit and link to the original source.
Don't dump entire copyrighted articles, paid courses, books, software, or other protected material onto the forum without permission.
6. Adult & Graphic Content
Explicit pornography and excessively graphic material should not be posted unless a section is specifically designated for that type of content.
If potentially disturbing material is relevant to a legitimate discussion, provide an appropriate warning rather than surprising people with it.
7. Follow Section-Specific Rules
Certain categories may have additional rules.
A marketplace, programming, cybersecurity, advertising, or debate section may require guidelines that don't apply everywhere else.
Section-specific rules apply in addition to these community-wide rules.
Accounts & Community Integrity
8. Keep Accounts Genuine
Don't impersonate another member, staff member, business, or public figure in a deceptive manner.
Don't create additional accounts to evade bans, manipulate discussions, artificially boost reputation, or pretend multiple people support your argument.
9. Don't Manipulate the Community
Artificial engagement hurts forums.
Don't coordinate fake likes, votes, reviews, replies, reputation, or other engagement.
If people like what you contribute, let that reputation develop naturally.
Privacy & Security
10. Respect People's Privacy
Don't post another person's private information without authorization.
This includes private addresses, phone numbers, financial information, login credentials, private communications, or other sensitive identifying information.
Doxxing is not allowed.
11. No Malicious Files or Links
Never knowingly post malware, credential stealers, ransomware, phishing pages, malicious downloads, deceptive redirects, or links intended to compromise another member.
If you're sharing a legitimate download, clearly explain what it is and where it came from.
Moderation & Enforcement
Moderation
Moderators may edit, move, lock, or remove content when necessary to keep the community usable and enforce these rules.
Depending on the situation, violations may result in:
Warning → Content Removal → Temporary Suspension → Permanent Ban
Not every situation requires every step. Serious abuse may result in immediate suspension or removal.
Appealing a Decision
If you disagree with a moderation decision, you're welcome to politely contact the staff and ask about it.
Creating additional threads to continue the same dispute usually isn't productive.
Use Common Sense
No rulebook can anticipate every possible situation.
Finding a technical loophole in the wording of a rule doesn't automatically make something acceptable.
If you're unsure whether something is appropriate, ask a moderator before posting it.
Most importantly: participate.
Start discussions. Ask questions. Share something interesting. Teach somebody something. Debate respectfully. Help newer members. Have a sense of humor.
Forums are only as good as the people who participate in them. We're trying to build a community worth coming back to.
This keeps the design you liked but makes the actual rules **your forum's rules**, including the more open-discussion philosophy we established earlier.
