AWKWARD ZOMBIE

All right, it’s come to our attention that a rule thread is a seriously good idea at this point. AZ never had one because we were rather small, but that is not the case anymore. Any mod may hop in and add their two cents or change what have you, so keep an eye on this thread for updates.
Because some people will give up halfway through reading the rules, however, it’s probably best to post the repercussions first so you will at least know the consequences of not following the rules.

(Rule revision credit goes to [Insert_Fail] cause she's buttawesome)

Get to Know Your Moderators!

Mods
DarkSurfer
Shad (Skype: shadgandel)
Vax
[Insert Fail] (Skype: surveythesituation)
Lolita
Yeili

Moderators are here to uphold the rules of the AZ forums. If you see a moderator abusing their powers, please alert another moderator!

PUNISHMENT AND BAN CONTROL
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We operate on a three-strike warning system. When you violate any rules, you receive a forum warning. These warnings go on your profile, but only moderators can see them. We understand accidents happen, and you may receive verbal warnings from time to time, but those do not go on any sort of record.

When you severely violate a rule, you will receive your first forum warning.
When you violate the rules again, you will receive a second warning and be banned for 3 days.
When you violate the rules a third time, you will receive your third forum warning and be permanently banned.

In cases severe enough, we can and will ban you without needing prior warnings. We also hold the right to permanently BAN you without the three-strike system. These cases will be deliberated by all active moderators to determine if this solution is necessary and fair.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO ALWAYS CHECK YOUR MESSAGES. You may recieve a PM from a moderator, which requires immediate attention. Ignoring them can garner severe consequences.
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FORUM RULES
----REVISED AS OF 11/14/2014 BY [INSERT FAIL]---

1.) BE RESPECTFUL. This is our most important rule, and the rule that gets broken most often. This includes harassing someone, insulting someone, and continuously posting something despite protest from other members.

If you have a problem with a forum member, PM a moderator. If you're unhappy with the way you are being treated by anyone, message a moderator. They will handle the situation. Do not take it upon yourself to antagonize them, and do not let yourself become a victim.

2.) We have a zero tolerance policy towards racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, and derogatory language.

3.) Don't flame. Don't antagonize. Don't troll. Do not become the "forum asshole". We do not care who it is, or for what reason. We expect our members to have some sense of maturity. Breaking this rule will get you a verbal warning. Repeat offenses of this and/or back-talking a moderator results in your first official warning.

4.) If you have a problem with a moderator or admin, PM the mod themselves, or another moderator. Doing so makes solving the problem easier and smoother.

Do NOT make a thread about any mods or forum members. The thread will be locked, and you will receive your first warning for it.

5.) No multiple accounts. If you have an account to post from, use it. This means your original. Not someone else's, not your brother’s or sister’s or mom’s or dad’s, not your dog’s or anyone's.

6.) Do NOT multi around a BAN. Bans are given for a reason. It does not matter if it was your brother/friend/parent/sister/a hacker, none of the moderators will care. That's your own fault for leaving your account open for others to use or giving someone else your password.

You can email a moderator if you have a dispute about your BAN.

7.) No warez links, no pornography, no seven pages of passwords, nothing illegal. This goes for emulators, torrents, anime episodes (even on YouTube), manga reading sites, etc. Discussing and sharing stay in IM's, off the forum. Posts mentioning any of these, and topics made about these, will be deleted unless pre-approved and carefully monitored by a moderator.

We have had people post links accidentally, and that happens. It's okay. But intentionally doing this, and repeatedly, will result in you being permanently banned. Anything incredibly illegal will get your IP reported.

8.) Spam is not allowed. This means text, images, video, private messages, anything. If you are told to stop, you stop.

From time to time, you will also see spambots either making threads or posting in existing ones. DO NOT RESPOND TO SPAMBOT THREADS. If you see a Spambot, please use the "report" feature. You can find the "report button" on the bottom-right of any posts. Please fill out the form as well, so the mods who receive the alert will know what they are investigating.

9.) We do not appreciate one-post accounts made to advertise businesses, products, or any other sort of self-made/self-profiting enterprises. Threads or posts made by these accounts will be locked and edited to remove any names, links, and/or videos. The accounts also face a potential three-day ban.

Advertising your deviantArt, Tumblr, or other art site should be kept to the Art Thread. Alternatively, you can link your deviantART/personal website in your signature. It is recommended that you keep any personal sites in your signature.

If you would like to advertise something on the forums, please talk about it with a moderator beforehand and wait for them to approve of it.

Above all, do not spam any business/forum/event/item/rewards on the forum.

10.) NSFW (scary/gore/creepy) pics are only to be posted as links, and there must be a warning. NO EXCEPTIONS. It does not matter what you think is "scary" or "creepy". If you do not have a warning, the post will be deleted and you'll be warned. Please have common sense.

Please keep in mind: ABSOLUTELY. NO. PORN.

Anatomy and artistic nudes are fine, but please put them under a link and say it's NSFW. Likewise, pictures that have people in underwear are to be posted as links with an NSFW tag.
Pictures that are clearly sexualized or lewd, even if they are technically safe for work, are NOT allowed to be posted in any way on these forums.

11.) Cybering/sexual roleplay is not allowed, and discussions about sex should not go beyond relationships, health, and safe sex advice. No detailed descriptions of sex. Jokes about sex are okay, as long as they're not overly descriptive or crass.


FORUM GUIDELINES
----REVISED AS OF 11/14/2014 BY [INSERT FAIL]---

1.) If you would like to make a thread or post about Katie's comics, then go to Le Comic. If it’s about video games, proceed to the Video Games subforum. Any threads about television, movies, music, comic books, other webcomics, or any other media format belong in the Media Swamp. Everything else goes into General Shenanigans.

2.) Don't have huge avatars and signatures. The pixel limits are posted below, as well as the file size for .gifs. If people complain about the size of your image, or a moderator asks you to shrink it, please do so. We reserve the right to delete it if you do not fix it. If you decide to back-talk, your avatar privileges get taken for 3 days.

Almost all image hosting sites have image re-sizers built in. If you are unsure of how to use them (sometimes reducing .gifs on these sites reduces their quality), you can ask someone on the forum to shrink it for you. There are usually several members who will re-size images and .gifs for you if you ask in the Avatars & Signatures thread.

AVATAR LIMIT: 200px width, 220px height.
SIGNATURE LIMIT: 650px width, 250px height.
.gif files should be no larger than 1.5 MB
IT IS ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN TO HAVE A YOUTUBE VIDEO IN YOUR SIGNATURE.

3.) For picture posts, please refrain from embedding images that are larger than 1000p in width. If your picture is wider than that, you can either resize it or link to it. To link the picture, use this code:
[url=(enter your photo's url here)](Post text)[/url].

You CAN preview a post to see just how big it is on a page. Any image violating this will simply have its [img] tags removed. Do not put them back. Repeated offenses due to laziness will result in a warning.

4.) This forum uses wordfilters. Wordfilters take a word, and turn it into something else. For example, money is always filtered to cheddar. Wordfilters will not be removed. If you do not like them, you have the option to turn them off in your User Profile (see instructions here).

5.) LOOK before you post. If you want to make a thread, but see another thread about the same subject, please post in that thread. Accidents do happen though, and if you make a duplicate topic we will either redirect you to the old one and lock yours, or simply merge your thread with the old one.

The search function on this site is admittedly lackluster, but Google search works perfectly fine. If you ever want to try finding a thread, Google search "awkward zombie [thread topic here]". When the results come up, after the first link you will see a line that says "see more results from awkwardzombie.com" - CLICK IT!



If you don't see any related topics in the results, then feel free to post.

If you feel like reviving a topic, please be sure your post is relevant to the topic itself. Threads about certain events are a good example of ones that can be revived, but "lol i agree" does not count as a relevant post. Unnecessary posts will be deleted. If you continue to do it, you will be warned.

NOTE: If you make a topic after not finding any similar ones, and an older member posts a link redirecting you to an older, relevant thread, please follow their direction and continue posting in the linked thread. Your thread will be merged with the old one. You won't be in trouble - some things are just hard to find, and older members might remember old topics.

6.) No "lol this thread will be locked u gaiz", or "inB4lock" posts. They will be deleted. They are useless posts and contribute nothing. The same goes for sarcastic reaction images. If a thread is poor, offer constructive criticism.

7.) Certain threads have their own rules. Be smart and follow those rules. Our rom hacks thread and Taboo Topics sticky thread are two of the biggest examples. BE SMART.

NOTE: In the Funny Pictures thread, DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT REPOSTS. Do not complain about something "not being funny". As of late, this behavior has been getting annoying. If it continues, there will be consequences. Discussing the humor of a picture is fine, but saying something is stupid just because you "don't get it" is unneeded behavior.

NOTE: In the Art thread, do not post something asking for critiques if you cannot handle honest, in-depth criticism. We have several talented artists on this forum that know their stuff and take art seriously. They are not going to sugar-coat critiques. If you want to show your art but do not want critiques, then simply state "I do not wish to be critiqued."

8.) DO NOT USE RIDICULOUSLY TINY TEXT. There is a difference between "small" and "unreadable". Any posts containing it will be edited to be obnoxiously large (or however the moderator sees fit). If you decide to abuse this, your posts will just be deleted.

9.) Do not double-post. Edit your post if you have something you wish to add. If your last post was 24-hours old, though, you will not get in trouble for posting again.

If a moderator sees you blatantly double-posting, one of three things will happen.

1) Your second post will be edited into your first one with a note from a moderator attached to the post, and your second post will be deleted.
2) Your second post will be deleted with no editing to the first.
3) Both your first and second posts will be deleted.

10.) Do not complain if your posts get "bottom-paged". Posting about your post being last is an obnoxious form of attention-seeking. If people care about what's in a thread, they will read it, and they will see your post regardless.

If your sense of self-worth is THAT reliant on your posts being noticed, then do basic math. There are fifteen posts on each page. If there are fourteen posts on a page, wait until another person posts.

NOTE: Posting about page-gets is obnoxious as well.

11.) You may see members with titles below their names. Titles are superficial and unimportant, given to people under no real guidelines - some people have been given them as rewards, some spawn from inside jokes, and some people were just handed titles at random. You can ask for a title, but it is at our discretion. Asking does not guarantee a title.

Do not complain about other people having titles. There is absolutely no reason why words under a name should bother you that much. Titles do not validate you as a person or forum member. If you believe they do, you need to develop some self-confidence.


Please remember, our report button is there for a reason. If you see any post breaking a forum rule, do not hesitate to report it! The moderators will deal with the post as they see fit. You will not get in trouble for reporting another user's post, and your report will remain anonymous.

yes i completely agree

ALSO

Uploading avatars from your computer and uploading from a URL both do not work. If you want to use an avatar, upload it to another image hosting site, such as Imageshack, Photobucket, or Vulomedia, and put the image URL into the "Link to off-site Avatar" field.


FURTHERMORE

If you make a topic and it flourishes and is all right and stuff it'll be promoted to a sticky.
As soon as it starts to suck, it'll be taken off as a sticky.


THIS HAS BEEN A MESSAGE FROM BIG BROTHER.
HAVE YOU HUGGED A MODERATOR TODAY???

Okay what happened to my post about tiny text.

If I see tiny text, I will edit your post to include huge text.

Tiny text is pretentious.

With Dark stepping down from his Frozen Throne, I introduce some stupid asshole named Xabyrn as new mod.

Also Odds. She is a mod too.

Oh goddammit what did you do this was not supposed to happen

STOP ABUSING YOUR POWER

This isn't a playground.

Man I am having so much fun.

I'll be the creepy guy sitting on the bench watching the kids play.

Oh hello

What's up

Playing Warcraft

Just wanted to add one more rule

18.) No harsh personal attacks. If you are angry at a fellow forum goer, stop before you type. That is another person you're talking about. If you wouldn't say it to their face, don't say it at all.

If you REALLY have a problem with someone, PM your friendly neighborhood mod. That's our job.


THIS IS NULL AND VOID SINCE IT IS REWORDING RULE 5

-Odds

horf dorf edited to have rule in first post

Stop being smarter than I am.