Forum rules

Introduction
This is a public forum, open to anyone, including children. As such, there are both general online forum etiquette and our own rules to consider before posting.
Many of these rules are designed to give a friendly place to visit, ask for help, and enter into discussions regarding our shared interest in flightsim.

The rules
1. No swearing, and no attempting to bypass the swearing filters by letter substitution;
2. Respect all other members and visitors to the forum -- no personal attacks, insults or derogatory comments;
3. Do not denigrate other parties; for example other forums, virtual airlines, addon developers or Microsoft;
4. No illegal material or content, including but not limited to: piracy, hacking, cracks, breach of copyright, impersonating other members of the forum (including administrators and moderators), racism or defamation;
5. No pornography or sexual content;
6. Don't post in anger. Yes, this is a rule;
7. If you are subject to suspension or membership cancellation, do not attempt to bypass the process by signing up with a different account;
8. Having more than one active account needs to be authorised by the administration.

These rules apply to posts within the forum as well as messages via the private message system within the forum.

What happens when you break these rules?
Your posting may be deleted or amended by a moderator, with or without an explanation.
You may receive a warning.
You may be suspended from forum membership for a set time.
You may have your membership cancelled. Cancellation may be permanent.

What can I do if I have a complaint about the way I've been treated by another member, a moderator or administrator?
You may email the administrators -- nzff@nzff.org. The administrators will consider your complaint, take whatever action is necessary, and advise you of the outcome. The administrator's majority decision will be final.



Guidelines to help you post
These guidelines are designed to give a good balance of readability, flexibility, ease of use, and access speed (bandwidth).

New posts:
Before posting, check to see if your issue has been covered already. Look back in the most likely sub-forums, and see if your question has been asked before. If there is a recent thread (within two weeks) which is relevant, but you still have further questions, then use that thread. However don't revive an older thread, start a fresh one.

Think about the subject line -- it should give a good indication of your posting -- for instance, 'I need help' may be true, but it doesn't tell anything about your problem. "I need help to access multiplayer sessions' is more meaningful.

If it makes a difference, put the simulator version in the subject line. For example, 'How do I change the landclass around my town (FSX)' will speed up the reply process, since nobody will need to ask which version.

Post in the correct sub-forum. If your post could go in more than one forum, think about which is more relevant. Take care to check which sub-forum you are in before beginning a new post.

Anything not related to flightsim belongs in one of the 'Non flightsim related' subforums. The 'off-topic' forum is, by definition, for anything and everything, but the forum rules still apply. For instance, jokes are great, but not racist or sexual humour.


Adding to a current thread
Trim your post or reply so that only the relevant details are left.

Use Quote carefully. There are some quite useful forum tools to quote previous posts, but these should be used sparingly. Don't just press the 'quote' button without reviewing what you are quoting ,and trimming it carefully. Remove images from quotes, as there is no reason to repeat an image in a single post. Don't leave previous quotes in your own quote -- your quotation should only point to one specific relevant point, to distinguish it from other points in the same thread. Of course if your reply adds to the entire thread, then there is no need to quote.

Topics may evolve away from the original post, and short off-topic excursions within a topic are inevitable, but don't 'hijack' a topic -- start a new one. Check that your main point still relates to the subject line. Don't be surprised if your off-topic posts are moved or deleted by a moderator.

All posts
Try to limit images in forums other than the Screenshot or Real World Aviation forums to one per post. If you need to post more images, consider posting in one of the 'image-friendly' sub-forums -- Screenshots or Real World Aviation.

If you forget to add something to your posting or reply, or wish to add something later, 'Edit' your posting rather than add another reply. It is considered poor etiquette to submit more than one reply to a thread in a short period. The forum may automatically combine multiple posts made within a certain time.

Use normal sentence structure and punctuation. Break long posts into paragraphs, and consider an extra line-break between paragraphs. Preview your posts for readability.

Check your spelling before posting -- either by rereading what you have posted, or if you are a poor speller by checking your spelling either using a spelling utility or a dictionary.