Forum rules and posting guidelines

[HMA Labs]

These rules are disclosed to clarify the various responsibilities of all community members here on hma-labs.com. They have been compiled and revised regularly by the HMA Labs Team and should be adhered to by everyone.

Forum Rules

1. Please read our site Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
2. Be patient and allow some time for other members to read and reply to your post.
3. Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting. Users consistently posting to the wrong forum may be given a warning (see policing below).
4. Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
5. Members are asked not to act as "backseat moderators". If members note an issue that contravenes something in this policy document, they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a member of the Community Team. Please use the "post report" feature to report posts. Do not respond to such topics yourself. Members who constantly "act" as moderators may be warned.
6. Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc., will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
7. Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or asking for information on warez, crackz, etc., or re-printing material without permission will receive a warning, and their posts will be removed.
8. Members are asked only to post in English, as this is an English-speaking community.
9. Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline ([IMG][/IMG]) image tags pointing to data stored on third-party systems for which the user has not received permission to link may be removed.
10. Members should post in a way that is consistent with "normal writing." Users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small, or colored text, etc. Similarly, users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g.,! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.
11. Members should use an appropriate, descriptive subject when posting a new topic. Examples of bad subjects include; "Help me!", "I'm stuck!", "I've got an error!" etc. Examples of good subjects include; "Getting a TABLE FULL error upon login," "Cannot restore a backup," etc.
12. Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. This includes offering hosting services (charged and free), installation services, solicitation, etc. Recruiting members for your own projects (moderators, designers, professional MOD work, etc.) is not permitted and is also considered spam. Users posting spam will be warned and their posts removed. See specific items on spam and 3rd party linking for more information.
13. Members are asked not to disclose to any 3rd party, board, or list any vulnerabilities in HMA Labs, or subprojects developed by HMA Labs before first notifying the developers. You should submit all finds to our security team or email details to support [at] hma-labs [dot] com. Time should be allowed for us, at least three working days, wherever possible, to respond.
14. The moderating, support, and other teams reserve the right to edit, remove or put any on the moderation queue any post at any time. Please note that currently, any very first post is automatically placed in the moderation queue and will be approved/disapproved according to the present Rules. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc., as noted in these points, is up to Team Members and not users.
15. This community is public. Please do NOT post sensitive information such as credit card numbers, driver's license numbers, passwords, purchase numbers... etc. To get help for such subjects, please contact us via our support email or visit https://support.hma-labs.com/
16. The above forum rules, where applicable, also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revocation of private messaging.

Signatures

1. Signatures may contain up to five lines of normal-sized text OR a single image that is no more than 60px high, 468px wide, 10KiB (10240 bytes) in size, and one line of small-sized text. The font size of signatures should be normal or small only.
2. Signatures containing an image of 30px in height may include up to two lines of normal-sized text or three lines of small-sized text. Images 15px or below in height may contain up to three lines of normal-sized text or four lines of small-sized text.
3. Content in signatures should be consistent with normal writing and abide by general forum etiquette. You may not include hidden text or links or information that suggests you offer official support for HMA Labs.
4. Links in signatures are permitted to a maximum of 5* links. You may not link to warez, pornographic, racist, or other similar extremist sites. *HMA Labs Team members and users affiliated with the development and maintenance of HMA Labs are allowed further additional links to aid support of the product.
5. Remote signature images must have consistently high availability to ensure page load times are not affected. Animated images are not permitted.
6. Users abusing these rules will be warned or have their signature privileges revoked.

Avatars

1. Avatars should be no larger than 120x120 pixels and should not exceed 20KiB (20480 bytes) in size.
2. Avatars must not contain animation or include graphics that attempt to portray the ranks or avatars of HMA Labs Team Members.
3. Remote avatars must have consistently high availability to ensure page load times are not affected.
4. Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts concerning general forum etiquette.
5. Users abusing these rules will be warned or have their avatar privileges revoked.

Policing

1. HMA Labs operates a three-strike policy (three points). Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any offenses in 10 days. If the need arises for a fourth warning, a permanent ban will be placed on the user, and he/she will no longer be able to use the community.
2. Arguing with team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes, a temporary ban will be put in place as above.
3. Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact the relevant team leader; e.g., if warned by a Community Team member, you should contact the Community Team leader. If they feel you were treated badly, they will remove a warning.
4. Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban or other moderator action will lead to a permanent ban of your account(s). Circumvention includes re-registering or using an already registered account under a non-banned username. Other examples include changing IP addresses, using a new email account, or other actions that can be taken to evade moderator action to hide your identity as the owner of the sanctioned account.
5. An exception to the three-strike rule applies when users contact team members personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.
6. Permanent bans are a last resort, and thought is given before implementing them. While HMA Labs may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time, this is a rare occurrence.

Absolutely NO SPAM