Section I. Definitions

1. For the purposes of this document, "Animorphs Fan Forum" shall mean the forum website known as The Animorphs Fan Forum, a discussion forum for the purpose of bringing Animorphs fans together to discuss the Animorphs series, as well as any other topic. #
2. "Animorphs Fan Forum Staff" shall mean any Global Moderator or Administrator. #
3. "Active" shall mean having logged on to the Animorphs Fan Forum within the past month. #
4. "Spam" shall mean the posting of advertisements, or abusive or unneeded messages. #
5. "Flaming" shall mean the expression of strong, negative emotion, use of derogatory, obscene, or inappropriate language, or personal insults. #
6. "Warning" shall mean a notice of a violation of a rule issued by a member of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff to a particular member. #
7. "Banned" shall mean disallowed from logging in to the Animorphs Fan Forum for a period greater than 60 days. #
8. "Temporarily Banned" shall mean disallowed from logging in to the Animorphs Fan Forum for a period less than 60 days. #

Section II. Membership

1. Membership is freely available at the Animorphs Fan Forum. There is no membership fee or dues to be paid. #
2. Profile #
1. Members may customize all aspects of their profile. #
2. Images used as avatars shall contain only material deemed appropriate by the Animorphs Fan Forum Staff. If in-appropriate avatars are used, the user in question will receive at least three warnings. If the user does not then change or remove the avatar, he or she will be banned from the board. #
3. Signatures #
1. Shall not contain derogatory, obscene or inappropriate language. #
2. Shall not contain images deemed inappropriate by the Animorphs Fan Forum Staff. #
3. Shall not contain links to sites containing inappropriate material, except if the link in question is clearly specified as such. #
4. A member who does not comply with the above rules shall be given a minimum of three warnings, after which he or she may be banned from the board. #

Section III. Forum Conduct

1. Posting #
1. Inappropriate Content #
1. The posting of derogatory, obscene or inappropriate language is strictly prohibited. #
2. The posting of images deemed inappropriate by the Animorphs Fan Forum staff is strictly prohibited, except in cases when the image in question is contained within a spoiler box, and appropriate warnings are posted above and below the spoiler box. #
3. The posting of links to websites containing inappropriate material is strictly prohibited, except in cases when appropriate warnings are posted above and below the link. #
4. Members who do not comply with the above rules shall be given a minimum of three warnings, after which he or she may be banned from the board. #
2. Grammatical Standards #
1. The text in all posts must be easily legible. Whether or not a post is legible is at the discretion of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff. #
2. Intentional misspelling of words is not allowed. #
3. Intentional use of improper grammar is not allowed. #
4. Abbreviations are allowed, provided that they clearly convey the meaning of the words they represent. This shall be decided at the discretion of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff. #
5. A member who does not comply with the above rules shall be given a minimum of three warnings, after which he or she may be temporarily banned from the board, for a period not to exceed 7 days. #
6. The Animorphs Fan Forum recognizes that we do have members of many nationalities, some of whom may have a less than perfect understanding of the English language. We will take this into consideration, and will not issue warnings or ban members if it is apparent that the mistakes were made in ignorance, rather than intentionally. #
3. Spam #
1. Posting "spam" in any forum is strictly prohibited. #
2. Posts deemed as "spam" by the Animorphs Fan Forum staff shall be immediately deleted. #
3. A user found continually "spamming" the board shall be given a minimum of three warnings, after which he or she may be banned from the Animorphs Fan Forum. #


4. Flaming #
1. Flaming in any forum is strictly prohibited. #
2. If any member believes a post contains material that could be considered flaming, he or she must immediately report this post to the Animorphs Fan Forum staff. #
3. A member found flaming shall offer a public apology to the offended party, or face being temporarily banned from the board for a period not to exceed 30 days. #
4. A member who is found continually flaming other members shall be given a minimum of one warning, after which he or she may be banned from the Animorphs Fan Forum. #
2. Private Messages #
1. Parts A and D of the previous section apply to Private Messages in the same way that they apply to regular posting. #
2. If a member receives a private message that he or she finds offensive, the member may then forward the Private Message to any member of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff, along with a brief description of how the rules were violated. #

Section IV. Warnings, Banning, and Appeals

1. Warnings #
1. When any of the above rules are violated, warnings may be issued by any member of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff. #
2. Banning #
1. A member shall only be banned when he or she has continued to violate any rules found in any of the above sections, (excluding Section III,A,b), and has received at least three warnings for the same offense (except in cases of a violation of Section III,A,d, in which case only one warning is required). The length of the period for which the member must be banned is at the discretion of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff. #
2. Before a member may be banned, there must be unanimous agreement between all active members of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff about the said banning. #
3. Temporary banning #
1. A member shall only be banned when he or she has continued to violate any rules found in any of the above sections, and has received at least three warnings for the same offense (except in cases of a violation of Section III,A,d, in which case only one warning is required). The length of the period for which the member must be banned is at the discretion of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff. #
2. Before a member may be temporarily banned, there must be a majority vote in favor of the banning between all active members of the Animorphs Fan Forum staff. #
3. Appeals #
1. A member who feels he or she has been wrongly banned has the right to appeal his or her banning. #
2. If a member so chooses to appeal, three members of the Animorphs Fan Forum must be selected to review the supposed violations of rules and decide whether the banning was appropriate. #
1. One of the aforementioned members may be selected by the banned member. #
2. The other two members must be selected by the Animorphs Fan Forum staff. #
3. All three selected members must be approved by the Animorphs Fan Forum staff as well as the banned member. They must all be deemed as unbiased by the Animorphs Fan Forum staff as well as by the banned member. #