Guidelines

You must read and abide by these rules to be a member of ProjectPokemon.org, this includes the wiki, forums, and IRC. If you do not, there will be consequences as detailed below.

Keep in mind that the interpretation and enforcement of these rules is strictly up to staff members and is not open for debate.

• Abide by Canadian and International laws when on this site.
  Project Pokémon is hosted in Canada, and as such all material on it must abide by Canadian and International laws. This means you cannot upload or link to pirated material (copyrighted material which you do not have the rights to distribute). If you mention having a ROM in any of your posts, we will assume that you backed it up from a retail cartridge that you own. If we have reason to believe that that is not the case, any offending posts will be removed and the poster will face consequences as detailed below. By extension this means there should be absolutely no discussion of pre-release leaked ROMs or Pokémon distribution ROMs as there is no legal way to obtain one. Should you need to share an edited ROM with others, you must use a patch file; linking to or uploading a ROM, even if it has been edited, is strictly forbidden.
• Be considerate of other members and Pokémon fansites.
  This encompasses many of our rules. Specifically, do not offend other members and/or Pokémon fan-sites in the IRC or forums. Do not flame or write slanderous comments regarding any other websites and/or members. Keep in mind that CAPS LOCK is generally considered shouting and should only be used accordingly. You will be penalized if you do not follow these rules.
• Do not impersonate Project Pokemon staff.
  While using the Forums, IRC, or other Project Pokemon services, you are not allowed to impersonate a member of Project Pokemon's Staff in any way. This includes, but not limited to, similar nickname(s), similar username(s), stating you are staff, etc. You will be asked to change your Nickname/Username. On the forums, please PM an administrator to change your user name. Failure to avoid this may result in a ban.
  Staff: Forum Staff and Site Admins; IRC Staff
• Do not request to be Project Pokemon staff outside of open applications.
  Do not ask to become part of Project Pokemon's staff. If we need to add staff, we'll ask you. If you want to be on staff, follow the rules, contact staff or use the report button when you see a problematic post, and just try to set a good example for other users. Try to be reasonable when reporting. In IRC, staff might give temporary moderator staff status to users who are being considered for some type of staff status.
  The exception to this rule is when submitting to one of our open staff applications. Asking to be staff in one of these applications is not only fine, but encouraged.
• Do not post inappropriate content.
  Posting pornographic, vulgar, explicit, or otherwise inappropriate media is forbidden. Swearing is acceptable in moderation (read: when used as a part of normal speech to add emphasis or meaning); in excess it qualifies as inappropriate content.  This includes inappropriate words in usernames.
• Do not advertise.
  Promoting anything exclusively for your own benefit or that is not related to the topic at hand is considered an advertisement. Blatant ads will not be tolerated anywhere on the forums, even the off-topic boards. This includes fan Pokémon games.
• Do not spam.
  In other words, do not post unnecessary or irrelevant messages on any part of the site. Use common sense and pay attention to what other users do and don't post; it should give you an idea of what is acceptable. This rule is somewhat more lax on the IRC.
• Always search this site and the internet before asking a question or asking for help.
  In the majority of cases any question you may have will have been addressed on the main site or the forums already. By asking such a question that has already been answered in plain site, you are wasting the time of others.
• Write in a manner that others can understand easily.
  Messages must be written with proper spelling and grammar for ease of reading (to the best of the poster's ability). Again, this rule is more lax on the IRC channels.
• Follow the reporting procedure if you think another member is not abiding by these rules.
  If you come across another user that is violating these rules, you may politely point it out to that individual, assuming they have not been notified already. However, moderation should be left to the staff; do not attempt to take matters into your own hands. The correct course of action is to use the report button if on the forums or PM an operator if on the IRC. As always, be patient.
• Do not misuse the report button.
  The "Report" button is intended to be used to notify us of posts that you think are breaking our rules. Please do not use it simply to ask questions or because you disagree with the author's opinion; in these situations the correct course of action is to reply to the post or private message the author.  (Note that you will not be penalized for reporting something if you think it's against the rules when it turns out to not be; this rule only applies to reporting something for the wrong reasons.)
• Do not impersonate anyone.
  There will be very little tolerance for members found to be impersonating other people or misrepresenting their own identity, specifically others in the online community. Coming onto the forums, wiki, or IRC under multiple accounts is a violation of this rule, even if one account has been banned. Consequences for ban evasion include an even longer suspension and permanent bans for any alternate accounts.
• Do not scam other members.
  This applies to anyone offering a service on this site, whether it's battling, trading, requests, or something else. If terms agreed on beforehand are broken, it will be a violation of this rule.
• Do not cheat.
  We do not support or condone cheating at the expense of others. Do not use cheats against unsuspecting opponents. Do not provide cheats intended to be used online. Do not use significantly hacked Pokémon in battle or in trades with those who are unaware hacked Pokémon are in use. Details about this rule can be found here.

• Post threads in the appropriate forum.
  It should be pretty clear where any given thread goes, but if it isn't just post it in one of the general boards and a staff member will move it if necessary. Keep in mind that all of the editing forums have a sub-forum for help. Any questions or requests for help belong there and not in the parent forum. This rule will be flexible for new users but repeat offenders will face consequences.
• Stay on-topic.
  For the sake of simplicity, create a new thread if you start getting too far away from the topic of the original.
• Be specific when titling your topics.
  A topic title should give others a good idea of what your thread is about without them actually visiting it. This is often an issue with threads in the help forums; be specific as to what your issue is. Keep in mind that topic titles can be changed by their creator at any time.
• Do not stretch the page.
  Page stretching is done when someone posts an extremely large image or amount of text and it causes the page to stretch horizontally or vertically. If you have a large image, long code, or other material that may stretch the page, put it in between spoiler tags so that other members can read around it comfortably.

The Project Pokémon forums use Invision Community's warning system to keep track of users who've violated the rules and issue temporary bans when necessary.

In the infraction system, each violation of the rules is given a point value and a length of time. When a rule is violated, a moderator will select the corresponding infraction from the list below. The point value of that infraction is added to the offending user's total infraction points. After the amount of time specified, those points will be removed. Should a user accumulate 100 or more total infraction points, they will be automatically banned for two weeks. This system makes the job of a moderator much easier and ensures consistency among punishments.

Keep in mind that "custom" infractions of any point value can be issued in the event that the violation does not fit one of the infractions below. We also reserve the right to give a longer or permanent ban for repetitive or blatant violations of the rules.