Rules

Rules
These are the rules of the Pulse Music Board. They are not guidelines or suggestions but rules that must be followed in order to keep the board running smoothly for all members. Please note that in addition to these rules, all ProBoards Terms of Service apply, and posts violating ProBoard rules on objectionable content and intellectual property may be removed and serve as grounds for warning and/or suspension. By posting on this board, it is assumed that you've read and agree with these rules.

Housekeeping
1. Only one account per person. -- Only one account at any time per person. Anyone with more than one active account will have the new one suspended. One warning will be issued for the duplicate account, as well as additional warnings for any posts made under the duplicate account that violate other rules. Suspended and permanently banned posters are not allowed to create new accounts to re-enter the board. Suspended posters caught creating a duplicate account during their suspension will see any and all duplicate accounts permanently banned and extra suspension time added to the original account.

2. Keep topics in their appropriate forums. -- We have a lot of ground to cover but there is a space to put pretty much any topic. Since this is primarily a board for music and music charts discussions, there's more focus on that type of discussion. Below is a list of the individual forums and what goes where:


 * Chart Forums: To discuss individual songs as it relates to the individual formats. Also appropriate are general topics that relate to the specific format and its chart. One topic per song, current songs only and only songs confirmed as being singles allowed. Any topic not conforming to those restrictions will be locked and/or moved to an appropriate forum.
 * Radio Industry Forums: For discussion of general programming issues and format changes.
 * General Music News: To discuss general music news, industry news, sales charts, Billboard charts, concert industry and other non-artist specific news.
 * General Artist News: To discuss news related directly to individual artists. Typically separated with one topic for album. There are two sub-forums, A-J and K-Z. Location of topics are based on the first letter of the artist's first name or first name of the band as it would appear in a CD library (i.e. remove "the").
 * Personal Charts: For the personal charts of board members and subsequent discussion.
 * Your Opinion Please: To discuss anything music-related that is purely opinion-based rather than news artists. Ask questions, post reviews, discuss trends, etc.
 * The Polling Booth: For polls and other multiple-choice questions. Only a couple of active polls can be dedicated to an artist at any given time to avoid a flood of similar-polls
 * Games: Member-created interactive music-based games, as well as ongoing games such as Mafia.
 * Non-Singles/Album Tracks: Any song that doesn't fit into any of the other songs-based forums can be discussed here. Primarily focuses on relatively current album-tracks, b-sides and unreleased songs.
 * Nostalgia: For discussion of older music. A recommended guideline would be songs that are more than two years old.
 * News & Entertainment: To discuss non-music news. World events, politics, movies, etc.
 * The Lounge: Anything that hasn't already been covered in any of the other topics. Forum rules are relaxed here, though the ProBoards Terms of Service continue to apply.
 * Announcements/Board Concerns For discussion of board issues, questions or suggestions.

Moderators and Administrators reserve the right to move topics to a more appropriate forum and lock topics that have already been created or are deemed inappropriate.

3. No spam. -- No spamming permitted at all. Any advertising must be done in the avatar or signature of the member's own profile. Anyone found to be posting for the sole purpose of advertising will be considered a spammer and blocked at the discretion of the administrators. Solicitation of monetary contributions for members' own purposes is also prohibited.

4. Signatures, statuses, and whatnot. -- Display names, signatures, status messages, avatars cannot violate any of the Pulse Rules and Guidelines. Signature images also cannot exceed 100x500px in size nor can they be more than 300kb.

5. File Uploads. -- Files attached to a post must be relevant to the discussion. If not, the post may be removed.

6. Report posts that violate board rules rather than responding to them on the board. -- If you see a questionable post that violates any of the above rules or guidelines, you can report posts it by using the Report Post function located at the bottom right of each post. Don't respond to those posts on the board as it'll take discussion further off-topic. Do not abuse this function by reporting posts that simply contain opinions which differ from your own.

7. Warning/Suspension System. Warnings and suspensions will be determined by collective staff discussion and discussion (except in rare cases where immediate action is required due to a ProBoards Terms of Service violation). All staff discussion will include consideration of poster history (including the poster's track record of past warnings), the context of reported posts (including any relationship the poster may or may not have with fellow posters quoted or addressed in reported posts), and the intent of the poster. The warning system works as follows:


 * 1st warning: No suspension


 * 2nd warning: No suspension


 * 3rd warning: 7-day suspension


 * 4th warning: No suspension


 * 5th warning: 14-day suspension


 * 6th warning: Permanent loss of posting privileges

Particularly egregious offenses may result in double-warnings or accelerations to suspensions if the staff agrees that is warranted.

Warnings expire for active members by one level every six months after the most recent warning.

8. Appeals of Administrators and Moderators' decisions must take place via PM or e-mail -- Admins/Mods reserve the right to lock topics, move topics, remove posts, warn and suspend members that repeatedly violate the rules in order to ensure order and proper running of the message board. If any member has an issue with a moderator or administrator's decision either on the board or with a warning/suspension, they must message TWO mods/admins with their situation, including pmbstaff, OR contact the staff via e-mail at pmbstaff@gmail.com.

Notice of warnings will be sent out via Private Message directly to the member by a moderator or administrator. Notice of suspensions will be emailed to the address listed in the member's profile. These notices are done off the public forums. Just because they aren't visible doesn't mean they're not being taken care of. The moderators/administrators keep a tally of all warnings and suspensions given out along with the date and the member who issued the warning.

Suspended members cannot use other members to converse with the board's administration either on the board or off. Any issues must be dealt with directly. Additionally, members may not post on behalf of a suspended or banned member; doing so will result in a warning.

Any posters unsure of their warning history are welcome to PM a staff member to find out.

Posting Rules
1. '''Stay on topic. '''-- try to keep all conversation relevant to the original topic at hand. If it's a topic about a specific single, keep the discussion related to that song. Same with topics about specific albums, artists, movies, etc. Some progression of the discussion away from the original intent is okay if the discussion is a quality one that grew naturally out of the conversation, but ideally discussion will come back to the original topic within a reasonable time. Some examples of unnecessarily going off topic include:

2. No obscene/illegal content. -- The ProBoards Community Guidelines define the kind of content considered inappropriate for this and all ProBoards websites. This includes but is not limited to
 * Ranking songs in the middle of singles topics is not allowed and must be relocated to specific Rank the Songs topics. Failure to do so may result in the topic being locked.
 * Bringing other artists into a discussion, especially for the purposes of bashing or baiting. This will result in a warning.

3. No Personal Attacks. -- Personal attacks towards other board members anywhere on the message board will not be tolerated and will result in a warning/possible suspension. These include, but are not limited to:
 * posting MP3s, links to MP3s or discussion on ways to attain illegal MP3s.
 * requesting MP3s from other members, requesting links to MP3s or requesting ways to illegally attain MP3s.
 * Posting or collecting Soundscan data to use on the board unless provided with a direct link from a reputable source/press release.
 * nude photographs or overtly sexual images, gifs or links to videos, and language that graphically describes lewd activity
 * threatening content


 * direct insults
 * underhanded comments (i.e.: "Well you must have heard a different version of that song", "Well you need to get your ears cleaned out")
 * racial/homophobic comments & any slurs against those with developmental disabilities (these will not be tolerated and will result in a suspension/permaban)

In evaluating possible personal attacks, staff will consider the intent of the poster and the poster's relationship with those addressed in questionable posts. Posters are also encouraged to work out possible issues in a respectful manner with each other via PM. Staff may initiate such group PM discussions.

4. No Trolling. -- Posting messages with the intention of starting arguments/upsetting other members will not be tolerated and will result in the topic being locked and warnings/suspensions given. Posts seen as bordering on trolling will be considered as such and given the same treatment as obvious trolling posts. This includes but is not limited to:


 * repeatedly trashing specific artists in the same topics
 * retaliating against other members by insulting artists you assume to be someone they like. (i.e.: "I didn't like Christina's last album." "It's not like Britney has done anything good lately!!")
 * replying to a troll in a trollish matter. It brings you down with them and may result in warnings for both people.

In evaluating possible trolling, staff will consider the intent of the poster and whether the poster was joking rather than deliberately derailing the thread.

5. No double-posting. -- Double posting is defined as posting consecutively in the same thread, and it is not allowed. Use the "edit" button if you have something more to add to a thread. Moderators reserve the right to combine consecutive posts. Persistent violations of this may result in a warning.

6. No nonsense posts. -- Please post only if you have something to contribute. If a post contains nothing relevant to the discussion, consists only of a previously-quoted message or strays the discussion off-topic, it may be removed to ensure continuity for the topic's discussion. Persistent violations of this may result in a warning. Please note that there is a "+1" or thumbs up option now for every post so if you want to agree with a post or like it, you can click that instead.

7. No personal information. -- Do not post personal information regarding others without their consent. This includes the use of other posters' pictures, as well as pictures of non-members (excluding celebrities). Furthermore, do not post any pictures of minors under 13 years of age, in accordance with the ProBoards Terms of Service/Privacy Policy.