Welcome to Support Forums

[Sam]

Welcome fellow members,

In this thread I'm going to try and explain everything you need to know about Support Forums, it's mainly designed for the new members of our community but I hope it helps everyone.

Index:

[1] Introduction - About us
[2] Rules & Policies
[3] How to conduct yourself as a member
[4] Asking for support
[5] Reputations
[6] Awards
[7] Groups
[8] Staff, warnings & reports
[9] Important information and threads

[1] Introduction - About us

First off, on behalf of SF I'd like to welcome you to Support Forums. I hope that you've had a pleasant first impression and that you feel like you'd like to stay and become more active within our community. If you haven't already then why not post an introduction thread? It's a great way for us to welcome you and for you to get to know us.

I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you a little more about the forum you've just joined. In my own words I would describe Support Forums as a thriving, high quality and mature community that strives to assist, share and support members any way they can. We're all here to support each other and have a great time at the same time!

[2] Rules & Policies

Support Forums has become the place is has today by the cooperation from members regarding our rules and policies. Our community is mature and our posts are high quality and that's the way we all want it to stay, that's why it's important for new members to familiarize themselves with our rules, just so you know what's expected of you to avoid getting warnings or worse further down the line.

If you are not sure if something is acceptable then please PM any staff member that is online, they'll gladly give their input on the situation. Don't be afraid to ask!

[3] How to conduct yourself as a member

This is an interesting subject as everyone is different and not everyone will act the way perhaps you will. But if you're wondering how to conduct yourself around the forum in-order to gain respect and to be seen as a quality member then please try to adapt the things listed below.

• Here on SF the majority of our members post high quality and meaningful posts. When posting around the forums it's important to think about what you're going to say, try to take everyone's views into consideration and give you're own valid input on threads. Putting your own points and opinions across well in posts is a sure fire way to keep your posting high quality. There is no point in one word replies and/or meaningless posts.
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• Being friendly goes without saying really, if you're kind and respectful to members around the forums then you're going to get it back. It's not hard to avoid flaming members, even if they're in the wrong. Showing that you've got the maturity and foresight to rise above flaming and arguments by showing respect really says allot about a persons character.
  

[4] Asking for support

Support Forums is all about just that, Support so by all means please don't hesitate to post anything that you need help or support with no matter how personal or mediocre. As long as we've got a section for it then we're going to try our best to help you with it.

We deal with sensitive issues on SF quite frequently, from members contemplating suicide to personal sexual questions. If you feel uncomfortable with sharing this then you can always post as a "Guest" in the Emotional Support section, this way your identity remains hidden but you can still get the help you need. On a side note, no member will ever ridicule or flame you for any genuine problem you may be facing.

If your question is site related then you can contact staff members via PM, use the contact form or post a thread in the OSHIT area where members will gladly point you in the right direction.

[5] Reputations

Here on SF our reputation system may differ from one you are used too. In the past we had an issue with negative reputation abuse and for that reason the negative reputations were removed to remedy the problem.

You must have at least 100 posts to give reputation and please note that you can't rate the same user more the once, you can however update your previous reputation with a new comment or delete a previous reputation you have given.

[6] Awards

Here on Support Forums we have a great award system to offer our members! You can view the current list here.

If you're aiming to earn an award then do not PM any staff member for it, if you feel you deserve an award then you can post a nomination for yourself in this thread. Once in a while the posts are reviewed and if you have achieved it then you'll be rewarded it by Omniscient, other staff members cannot give awards.

Or maybe you'll receive an award because you've just be noticed, just look out for new ones. Our latest award is the 'Graphic Artist' !

[7] Groups

Support Forums offers the ability for members to create and join groups. Below are the information threads for SF's group section:

• Site Groups Forum
  
• Group Information
  
• Group FAQ
  

We currently have two official member created groups, the Emotional Helpers & the Geek Squad

[8] Staff, warnings & reports

Support Forums like all forums has a team of staff members, they can be found on the Forum Team page.

On Support Forums we have a warning system that is used by staff to give members a reminder or a nudge on the rules, it's not supposed to make you a bad member and we don't get annoyed with you, it's simply just to remind you that rules need to be followed. Currently members can be warned for.

• Advertising (+10 points)
  
• Cross Posting (+5 points)
  
• Flaming (+5 points)
  
• Illegal Activity (+15 points)
  
• Leeching Without Credit (+5 points)
  
• Low Quality Posting (+5 points)
  
• Off Topic Posting (+5 points)
  
• Signature Limit (+5 points)
  

If you are warned then you'll see an increase of percentage in your warning level and also it will appear at the bottom of your User CP. Take note of the reason why you were warned and try not to break the rules again, the warning will expire soon enough.

The ability to report a post is fantastic, it means that you're helping keep the forum free from rule breaking. If you see a post that you think breaks our forum rules then please click the "Report" button in the bottom right of the post window. This will get sent to staff to deal with.

[9] Important information and threads

Here is a compilation of some important forum threads.

• - Forum Rules
  
• - Moderator Applications
  
• - Site Groups Information
  
• - What to do when infected?
  

Thanks for reading! Please post below comments/suggestions/reviews

[eXpLiiCiT™]

This is really nice...This will stop all of the new members from breaking rules...and post LQ posts, etc. Thanks for this man. This should really help a lot of people out.

[Hustler]

Nice and very detailed thread. How long did this take you to make?

[Sam]

Close to an hour I believe.

[Industrialized™]

Very nice thread. Also very well formatted should definitely help newer members navigate and go about browsing much easier.

[Sam]

Thank you for your comments.

[Botted]

This post can't get any higher quality (:
haven't talked to you in awhile sam (;

[Sam]

Thanks Jesse. Good to see you again.

[C4Vendetta]

So much text.
But it is kind of helpful.

What's up with all the colours though?

[Sam]

I felt colorful Otherwise it would be a plain wall of text.