The Matrix Terms of Service (TOS)

Welcome to The Matrix. In order to make your visit as pleasant and enjoyable as possible please take your time to read through this document. It will answer many of the questions you may have on our posting guidelines. These rules and guidelines are designed to help give a better understanding of what behavior is expected and make your experience more enjoyable and safe. For the purposes of this document the word "moderator" also includes "administrator".

Respect other posters. Lets be kind, polite, and respectful to other members. Disagreements are acceptable. Debates are acceptable. Flame wars are not. Please do not harass or flame other posters in this forum.

1. Swearing, vulgarities and profanities with the intent to spam, derail a topic, antagonize or otherwise harass a fellow member is prohibited. Harassment is frowned upon and may result in either deletion or relocation of offending posts at the discretion of the moderator.

2. Flaming or disrespect in topics or flaming by questioning moderator decisions may result in being banned from the forum or other disciplinary action, which would be decided by the moderator handling the situaton in the manner that they see fit.

3. Stalking, threats, or other harassing behaviors will result in permanent removal from the forum of the offending member. The Matrix reserves the right to contact authorities in the event that it is believed a crime has been committed.

4. It is prohibited to post pornographic or obscene images including scat, bestiality, and child ****. This also includes links which refer to such material. Although there are exceptions in the case of "soft ****" in no way will the above stated material be permitted, and this will result in immediate permanent ban and possible notification to law enforcement officials.

5. Personal and Commercial ads are not allowed without consent of a moderator. In many cases the request to post a link to your site will be granted.

6. Please post in with paragraphs, punctuation, and capital letters as appropriate. Netspeak and shortcutting (b4, str8, etc) are difficult to read and is therefore discouraged. Posts that do not conform to these guidelines may be subject to edit or deletion.

An example of this would be: "if ur psts lks lik ths 2 mch" you are using not posting properly. Use this example until you get it right. Using standard net abbreviations in your posts such as LOL, BRB or LMAO are fine. This will also make it likely that more people will read your posts and you will get a better response.

7. Repost your topic in only one area of the board. Do not post the same topic multiple times.

8. Please post your topic the appropriate area of the forum. Moderators may move your topic if you post in a forum that does not seem appropriate.

9. Please stay on topic when posting within a thread in the upper boards. This rule does not apply to the Off Topic forums such as Anything Goes, or the subtopics in the Adult B.S. section, for example.

10. Meaningless posts which do not contribute to the thread they are posted may be deleted.

11. Respect copyrights from others. When posting material written by others please post only the first paragraph and credit the original author whenever possible. Do not reproduce or post complete works of copywritten material.

12. The use of "duals" or a second username by the same person and/or IP address is generally not permitted. There may be situations where a member needs a second ID and this will be permitted in most cases such as in the case of a shared network or computer.

13. Upon registering a new member will receive the following Personal Message: Welcome to the Matrix. We welcome new members; however The Matrix is a semiprivate board that is NOT open to the general public. Some boards are hidden from view to unregistered guests and we discourage those who register just to view private boards and use the member chatbox, and of course those who register simply to spam the board or flame the members here. Therefore we require that new members post at least one time, in the Introductions section, and furthermore any member's whose account is deemed "inactive" due to lack of posting will be deleted at the discretion of the Administrators without notice.

Moderators have the right to edit or delete posts without prior notice that violate any of the rules above or otherwise do not conform to the user agreement. If a member's post is edited or removed, they are welcome to contact a moderator via the Personal Message (PM) system. The public forum is not the place to discuss these situations.

Members who repeatedly violate the rules may be considered for a temporary or permanent removal from the forum. This is referred to as a ban. If a member is under suspension and registers a new account in an attempt to evade the suspension they will be permanently banned.

Please note that the moderators will not discuss member disciplinary situations with any other members due to privacy concerns.

The following is not allowed on this forum, and violations are likely to subject the offending member to an immediate and permanent ban:

Posting Personal Messages sent by another member without the express written consent of the sender.

Posting pictures of other members on this site or external sites, whether original or modified using photoediting software without their express written permission.

Posting real life information, such as a members real name or family members name, which was not originally posted on THIS forum by said member. In that vein, if you post your own P.I. here, it's your responsibility.

Posting links to external sites that have content that is prohibited by the TOS will be treated as if the material has been posted on this site.

Members that have violated the TOS may be disciplined in one of the following ways, at the discretion of the moderator, and subject to revision pending a discussion among the forum staff.

1) Sent a warning via the PM system

2) Posts may be moved, edited, or deleted, and future posts may be subject to moderation and will not be visible on the boards until approved by a moderator

3) Temporary or permanent ban as explained above

Lastly, this is not a democracy. Membership here is not a constitutional right.

This forum is relatively new and unforeseen situations may arise that necessitate modifications and updates to the TOS. In such cases a post will be made in this thread alerting members that there have been changes made which affect their posting rights on this forum.