Last updated on: 07/07/2021

The Sticks & Stones Website and Blog are dedicated to our friendliness and willingness to embrace all people.
In order to keep up that reputation, and to be able to act on instances where our reputation may be damaged, we have introduced a set of simple rules every member must consider and follow.

This etiquette applies to all members at any time, on our Blog as well as on the Main Site.

Keep in mind that all Moderators and Administrators are regular members just like you and offer their support in their spare time. Please respect that and be patient, even if you don't receive an answer promptly.

Registration on this website and/or blog constitutes an agreement to this Code of Conduct, our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.

• 1.1 Good behaviour is required
  • Uploads, posts, shares or otherwise made available to the members, any content that we deem to be harmful, threatening, unlawful, infringing, abusive, vulgar, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, pornographic or racially provocative, ethnically or otherwise objectionable is not allowed on our Main Site or Blog and we have zero tolerance for same.
  • We enforce a no compliance breach by Private Message policy as a part of your expected behavior.
  • The support you can receive should be available to everyone and hopefully not repeated too many times.
  • This makes the forums on the Main Site, the only logical place for Sticks and Stones Site and Blog support.
• 1.2 Illegal copied material (piracy) is not allowed
  • Sharing, or requesting sharing, of illegal copied material (piracy), of any kind of copyrighted material, software, music, videos, photos etc, is strictly forbidden.
  • Sharing, or requesting sharing, of serial keys or programs that give you access to programs without any need of serials (cracks) is not permitted.
  • You are not allowed to share links to sites that provide or contain such content.
  • Publicising of information from other media, except from the public domain, is not permitted unless there is a written permission from the copyright holder.
  • Discussion about technology and protocols such as BitTorrent is allowed, as long as the discussion is not about transaction of copyrighted material. BitTorrent is used for many legal purposes such as distribution of open source projects.
• 1.3 Pornographic and provocative content is not allowed
  • We have participants from a wide spread of ages and from many different beliefs that also come from the whole political spectrum.
  • Try to remember that what might be appropriate between people of the same age or gender might not be appropriate between people of different age groups or opposite gender.
  • Pornographic and sexually demeaning or provocative content will be deleted immediately.
• 1.4 SPAM, multilevel marketing and affiliated links are not allowed
  • You are not allowed to market for or add links to commercial products or services anywhere on the Main Site or Blog including your profile, unless written permission is given by the Site Administrator.
  • Other unwanted information that would be generally classified as SPAM is also strictly forbidden.
  • So called 'affiliated' links where the owner receives money, points or other services when someone clicks the link is not permitted unless you very clearly state that if anyone clicks the link it benefits you.
  • We reserve the right to remove any information that can be interpreted to violate this rule, to ban the user who posted it and to block their IP address.
  • We also have zero tolerance for repeated marketing of commercial products or services without written permission from the Site Administrator.
• 1.5 Respect Forum Moderators and Administrators
  • Moderators and Administrators are present in the forums to keep it in order and prevent bad and unwanted behavior.
  • They are here to help you and the community as a whole. Any remark or correction from a moderator or administrator must be accepted immediately.
  • Remarks made by a moderator or administrator can only be altered by the moderator or administrator that put it there in the first place.
  • Another moderator or administrator will not override the decision that has already been made without speaking to the staff member that made the decision in the first place.
• 1.6 Complaints regarding moderators, administrators or users
  • If a moderator or administrator has locked or edited a post or a thread of yours without really clarifying why the alteration was made, contact the responsible moderator or administrator in a polite manner via PM, asking them to clarify.
  • However, keep in mind that you should re-read the Code of Conduct before sending a message to the one who moderated your post because being unaware of the Code of Conduct is not an excuse.
  • If you have any complaints regarding a moderator, administrator or user they shall be sent via PM or email to the Site Administrator.
  • Complaints concerning moderators or administrators shall not be discussed in the forum under any circumstances, this shall always be dealt with by the Site Administrator.
• 1.7 Criticism
  • Any project related complaints are to be forwarded privately via our Site's contact form to the Administrator.
• 1.8 Site and Blog Membership
  • The Administrator reserves the right to edit, alter, suspend, delete, ban or blacklist any aspect of any member account for whatever reason he sees fit.
  • The Administrator reserves the right to edit, alter or delete any posted material on our server even if the offence is not specifically covered by this Code of Conduct and to act in any manner that he deems is in the best interest of our Site and Blog.

• 2.1 Search first, ask afterwards
  • Before you post any questions in the forum you must search for a previous answer in the existing forums.
  • Our forums contain many threads and the possibility that your question has been answered before is always present.
• 2.2 Describing title on all threads
  • All thread titles must be as specific as possible regarding your problems or needs.
  • That increases your chance of getting a fast and accurate reply and will help us to maintain a clean forum with good overview.
  • Examples of subjects that shall not be used are e.g:. 'Help Me?', 'How do I fix this?' or 'This does not work!!!'. In worst case your thread might be deleted.
  • The title of your thread is as important as the content of the thread.
  • If you do not manage to name the thread in a way which describes your problem or need, you cannot expect to get a pertinent answer from others.
  • Naming threads correctly is also important for others who are viewing or searching the forums for help.
• 2.3 Place your thread in the correct forum
  • All threads must be placed in the correct forum.
  • This will make the forum easier to view and search for you and all other users.
• 2.4 Use proper language
  • Your language is important.
  • Please express yourself without using too many capital letters, exclamation marks or SMS-language / shortcuts.
  • This kind of excess is unwanted on our site because not everyone is accustomed to that kind of language.
  • Keep in mind that one forum thread can help hundreds of people if the language is understandable.
  • Please also note that all posts should be made in English on the Main Site.
  • This way the moderators and administrators will have more time to answer different questions instead of repeating themselves over and over again.
• 2.5 All forum posts must make sense
  • Remember to post responsibly when you are writing the content of the forum post.
  • Posts such as "Agree", "This is crap" etc. does not give any valid explanation of the statement or is not of any help, should be avoided.
  • Read through your post before posting it and make sure it's relevant to the subject which is being discussed.
  • Do not exaggerate the Quote function.
  • To Quote whole or very large parts of posts above your next reply is a form of Quote exaggerating.
  • It is clear what you are replying to in such scenarios even witout the Quotes.
  • When Quotes are used in parts of an above post in a greater conversation where many sections in the above post needs to have an individual reply it is fully acceptable.
  • Grateful posts are encouraged, when someone has contributed something good, please speak your mind and let them know about it.
• 2.6 Double posting and "bumping" are not allowed
  • Double posting is not wanted. A thread shall never be posted in more than one forum at the same time. Edit your last post if you have something to add to the thread.
  • The one and only exception to this rule is when your thread is no longer active and new information has been brought up.
  • A thread is not active when there has not been any activity for at least a week (7 days).
• 2.7 Guidelines for signatures
  • Font size of the text in your signature should be no larger than the default text size for the posted text in the forum.
  • Use of images larger than 468px in width and 60px in height (standard banner) for your signature is strictly prohibited.
  • Use of of animated images is allowed but please make sure it is tactful and does not distract from the content in the forums; moderators and administrators have the right to ask you to remove anything in your signature or remove it for you if they deem necessary.
  • The maximum size for such an image is 50Kb and you cannot use more than two images. The maximum number of lines in your signature shall not exceed four (4) lines.
  • Any links posted in the signature according to paragraphs 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 are permitted. There may be a maximum of four (4) links in your signature.
  • The text in your signature may not contain more than four (4) colours.
• 2.8 Avatars must not be provocative
  • Any avatars which are provocative, violent, pornographic, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive or racially provocative will be deleted.
  • Avatars, which imitate the avatars of moderators or administrators, will also be deleted without further notice.
• 2.9 No linking to external downloads
  • We will not allow any forum posts with links to external downloads.
  • All downloads presented need to be available from an attachment in our forums.

• 3.1 Profile fields
  • Fields in the profile which are optional can be left blank if desired.
  • However if you choose to fill out the non required fields be sure that the information you give is correct and relevant.
  • There is absolutely no reason to type in "N/A", "Don't have this" etc.
  • Chosen usernames must conform to the rules of common decency and not contain any profane language.
  • The staff reserves the right to edit any usernames that may be regarded as unsuitable or purporting to be (or that give the appearance of purporting to be) anything other than a standard member as well as any usernames containing trademarked names, religious or political references.
  • In extreme cases, the Administrator reserves the right to immediately ban, delete and/or blacklist an offender without warning.
• 3.2 Consequences of breaking the rules
  • Failing to comply with these rules can get you temporarily or permanently banned from this Site and Blog.
  • Breach of the aforementioned rules will lead to warnings, if you choose not to adhere to those warnings you will be banned for a period of time decided by the Site Administrator.
  • Warnings will come from the Administrator as a PM, e-mail or as a reply to your forum post.
• 3.3 Credits
  • Please everyone, remember to give credit when credit is due.
  • This goes not only for copyright issues but also for constructive solutions and constructive error handling.
  • It's important to give positive feedback. This makes life easier and more enjoyable for all parties.