Welcome to .hack//INFO!
Before you register with or post at this site, you must read and understand all of the following information.
What is this site?
This site contains a number of forums for the discussion of the .hack anime, games, manga (comics), and novels. It is run by fans, and is no way endorsed by or affiliated with Bandai Entertainment, Cyberconnect, or the other creators and distributors of .hack products and media. (The official U.S. Web site for .hack can be found at http://www.dothack.com/.) This site is not a game, a part of any games, or a role-playing forum!
Why the long, complicated list of rules?
We're sorry! Unfortunately, it's not easy to manage a forum site that has nearly 1,000 users. All of these rules are written to either make managing the site easier, or to keep the site's quality level high. This is extremely difficult to do for forums that involve gaming. We don't mean to act like control freaks, but on this site, we would prefer an environment of excessive control and valuable information over a free, open environment with many arguments and little useful content.
What happens if I don't read the rules, or break the rules?
It all depends on what you do. If you have obviously not read the rules, we might delete your account and invite you to re-register. If you're deliberately ignoring or breaking the rules, and causing more than a small amount of trouble for us or for other users, you will be banned.
But that's only if you're causing major problems, which is unlikely. Most often, we'll PM (Private Message) or e-mail you a polite request or warning, asking you to be more careful in the future. Warnings may be less or more strict, depending on the infraction and on the moderator.
The Rules
Advertising
This rule may sound harsher than normal, but this is a spammy world.
We do not allow any advertisements for items or services that are not directly related to .hack. All advertisements of any kind must first be run by a moderator for approval.
"Items or services" includes anything that makes money, or has a potential to. If you link to your site, and it has banner ads, it's borderline (not to mention a violation of fansite etiquette). But most importantly:
Don't you dare link to sites that offer prizes and/or increased status to those users who get other people to visit the site using a personalized link. We don't object to the sites themselves, but they are both completely off-topic for this board and against this policy.
Regarding PMs: If we find out that you've been PMing advertisements to people, things will go very badly for you, your Internet access, and your e-mail account. We will complain to ISPs regarding any mass PM advertising.
Amateur moderation
We appreciate the effort and meaning behind it, but please do not take it upon yourself to chastise users who break these rules. Doing so is not conducive to a friendly environment, and will only serve to irritate the actual moderators. Our rules may be strict, but we try to be newbie-friendly, and being mean to people who don't quite have a handle on the site isn't going to help them learn.
If you notice a thread that's in violation of the rules, please politely PM a moderator to have it taken care of.
Avatars
Many new users ask questions about avatars. Read this section. To start using an avatar - that is, a picture next to your posts - simply click on the "Profile" link at the top of any page on the site. It's up to you to find an image to use for your avatar; it will need to be in JPEG or GIF format, with dimensions no larger than 100x100 pixels, and a file size no larger than 6K. You can create such an image file using most any basic graphics software.
Do not borrow avatars from other users without first getting their permission. If you have the same icon as someone else, it also makes it difficult for moderators to identify people based on their avatar, so we don't recommend using someone else's avatar anyway.
Please do not ask where to get a picture for your avatar; learn to use Google or another search engine. It's a vital skill anyway.
Avatar linking
Avatars on this board are stored on our server. It's all right to use the same image on many boards, but it is not all right to directly link to the image on one board from another.
With some boards, if you provide a Web address to an avatar from here rather than uploading it as a file, then every time your avatar is seen on that site, it will actually be loaded from ours. This wastes our bandwidth, which is not free.
We understand that this can happen unintentionally, as it may not be clear how another site will handle avatars. If we find out that you are directly linking to an avatar on our site, we will politely ask you to stop once, and will change the avatar image to a polite warning immediately.
If the avatar on the other board is then changed to another one hosted here, and it is obvious that the offending user on the other board is also the owner of an account here on .hack//INFO, it will result in a ban.
If another board requires that you load your avatar from another site, and you don't have anywhere else to host your avatar, let Bear know; basic avatar hosting can be done for a very nominal fee (e.g. $4.00/year for a typical amount of traffic).
Bans
If you're banned, you can't come back. You may read the board as a non-registered user, but do not try to register again. Among the moderators and staff are computer security and forensics experts. If we catch a banned user coming back, we will ban their new account and issue a complaint to their Internet access and/or e-mail account providers.
Board topics
Each section of this site is for a specific topic. Please do not post topics in sections where they don't belong. If you can't figure out which section a topic belongs in, try General Discussion - but if it's not related to .hack, it doesn't belong on the site at all. Posts related to the site itself should probably be PMed or e-mailed to a moderator, not posted to a forum.
All boards are for .hack-related material only!
General Discussion: Topics that cover or could cover more than one of the other boards, but don't contain major spoilers.
Fan Works: Fan-created art, fiction, cosplay, etc.
.hack Novels: .hack//AI Busters and related. These are Japanese novels, with no English translation available or planned.
.hack//SIGN: The first anime series.
.hack//Liminality and Games: Covering all four .hack games, as well as the .hack//ENEMY card game. Game help is not permitted in the Liminality and Games forum - only discussion of the plot.
.hack//Dusk (Legend of the Twilight): The manga and the second anime series, also known as Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu (UdeDen for short).
Serious Discussion: Like General Discussion, but for topics that do or could contain major spoilers.
Bootlegs
If you're trying to obtain .hack merchandise, or are helping someone here who is looking for it, please be careful of bootlegs. They are illegal in most countries (including the U.S. and Canada), and none of the money from their sale goes to the original creators. For more information, please see The Pirate Anime FAQ.
Character names
All character and monster names from the .hack series are reserved, as are names based on them (e.g. "Tsukasa23"). Most of the base names have been automatically reserved, and you will not be able to register them. If you do register a name that isn't permitted under this rule, we will either delete or rename your account and ask you to pick a new name.
This is mainly for fairness. It wouldn't be fair if someone took the name of your favorite character based only on "first come, first served." Please don't try to evade this rule; we will catch it.
A few users do have account names which contain the names of characters. These people have been "grandfathered in" from when this policy was not quite so strict, but it's too late now. Sorry.
Content
Do not post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, or sexually oriented material, or any other material which is in violation of any applicable laws. If you do, you may be warned or banned, depending on the material and whether we might have legal liability.
Disclaimer
While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore, you acknowledge that all posts made to this site express the views and opinions of the author, and that these views do not necessarily correspond with those of the administrators, moderators, or providers of this site, who will therefore not be held liable.
The administrators, moderators, and providers of this forum have the right to remove, edit, or close any topic at any time, should they see fit.
Discouraged topics
The following topics are strongly discouraged, as they have been discussed many times before, and there is little or no useful information to be gained by bringing them up again. These topics will probably be locked when we notice them.
- "Who/what is your favorite X?"
- "It'd be great if they made a .hack MMORPG for the PC!"
- "Hi, I'm new!"
Double posting
If you've just replied to a post and think of something else to add, don't make another reply right after your first. This is what the "Edit" button is for - please use it. If you accidentally make a post twice, that's what the "X" button is for.
Moderator abuse
If you think that a moderator is being unfair or abusing their position, send a PM to Bear, or e-mail bear@dothack.info. Do note, though, that we choose our moderators carefully, and we have had no cases of abuse so far.
Moderatorship
Please do not ask us whether you can become a moderator. We might, at some point in the future, consider offering moderator positions to a very few of our long-time, most helpful contributors. Asking us about becoming a moderator will automatically disqualify you!
Old threads
When you go to reply to a thread that's not right at the top of a board, please look at the date of the last reply. If it's more than a week or two ago, please think twice about replying. If you reply anyway, and don't contribute anything informative nor add any promising questions, we'll lock the thread.
This rule is to keep dozens of three-month-old threads from popping up again and again with replies like "I agree!"
Plagiarism
If another site or source has useful information about .hack, we welcome a link to it or a copy of it. However, if you copy and paste the information without crediting the original source, we will get very angry. Just don't do it.
Political/moral beliefs
We do our best to avoid pushing our political and similar beliefs on anyone. That said, we are running an open discussion forum, welcoming all with an open mind who want to discuss .hack itself. Please accept that there may be things in the show which disagree with your personal political, moral, or religious beliefs, but which may not conflict with someone else's. Posts about how something is "so wrong" from a moral, political, philosophical, or similar angle will be locked and the posters furthering it possibly punished.
Privacy
Any information which you enter on this site, along with your IP (Internet Protocol) address(es), will be stored in a central database. Some of this information will be available to the public; to see what is made public, simply click on the "Profile" link once you have logged in to the board. Your e-mail address will be available in your profile, but we will not otherwise disclose it, and we will never sell it.
While the information in our database will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, we cannot be held responsible for any breach of security that may lead to the data being compromised.
Our forum software uses cookies to store information on your computer. These cookies serve only to allow you to remain logged in. Despite what you may have heard, cookies are not inherently evil, and are vital for keeping track of who is logged in to which account.
If you are under 13 years of age, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires that we obtain your parents' signature on an authorization form, which our site will e-mail you. It needs to be faxed or mailed to us at the address which will be provided. We realize that this is a hassle, and we'd prefer not to have to deal with it, but it's the law.
Private Messaging
Private Messaging (PM) is a function of the board which allows you to talk directly with another user. It can be very useful, but please take a few things into account.
Please do not assume that another user is interested in randomly chatting with you over PM. PMs are more like e-mail than instant messaging, and many users (including all of the moderators) will not appreciate being PMed out of the blue for no reason. Just an etiquette-related item to keep in mind.
Harrassing or abusive PMs are not allowed, nor are PM advertisements. If you receive such a PM, please do not delete it. Let a moderator know, leave the PM in your inbox, and we will take care of it. Don't reply to an abusive PM; it will just make things worse.
See the "Advertising" section here for more on advertising in PMs. In short, don't do it, ever.
Registration
When you register, our site will ask you for some information, including your e-mail address. You need to enter a current, valid, working e-mail address; otherwise, your account will not work. Our site will automatically send you a confirmation e-mail, containing a link that you will need to click on before your account can be used.
Your e-mail address does not begin with "www.". AOL and Yahoo users, as well as anyone else whose account is set to reject e-mail from people not on a particular list: You must accept e-mail from unknown senders on the Internet in order to receive your confirmation message. If you have trouble registering because of this, we probably cannot help you if we cannot e-mail you! We do not use AOL ourselves, and rarely if ever will agree to help you over instant messaging. That said, if you experience any problems with registering, please e-mail us at forum@dothack.info.
Please keep your e-mail address up to date. The board will send you e-mail when you register, and unless you set your preferences otherwise, it will also e-mail you notifications of PMs or updates to threads that you're watching. If your e-mail address becomes invalid, we receive the bounce messages, and the last thing we need is more e-mail!
Multiple accounts are not forbidden, but we do not recommend them at all. If you're going to create more than just a few multiple accounts, please let us know beforehand.
Renaming your account
Don't create an entirely new account just because you want to change your name! This will keep your existing posts from being linked to you, and enlarge our database even more. Just tell Bear what you would like your account name changed to.
Staff
Board Administrator: Bear
Lead Moderator: Sora
Moderators: Balmung, Kite, Mireille, Tsukasa
Peanut Gallery: Moruti, Reki
.hack//INFO Hit Squad: Dark Puchiguso
Ranks
You may notice that, in each post, there is a rank listed under the poster's name. Except in some special cases (mainly moderators and banned users), this is based on the user's number of posts.
Do not make pointless posts in order to raise your post count. No one's impressed. Two well-thought-out, carefully written, informed posts are worth a thousand or more posts that are one sentence long and contribute nothing.
Sharing files
When it comes to sharing anime, manga, MP3s, etc.: don't do it.
As common as it may be, sharing copyrighted material is illegal. Even if the product hasn't been released in the U.S., and the Japanese copyright holders are not pursuing file sharing, it's still illegal. It's not our business what you do elsewhere, but we do not need legal hassles on top of all that we have to deal with to keep this site running.
Most .hack materials are licensed for U.S. release, and sharing them is even more troublesome than sharing fansubs.
Whether it's in a post or a PM, don't ask where you can get copyrighted .hack materials, and don't share any sites that have them. We will lock the thread and/or edit the post and/or remove your account!
Signatures
We do not, at present, have many automated restrictions on your signature. However, please do not use a great deal of text or any large images. Images should fit well within what would be blank space if the image were not there. If they approach or exceed that width, a moderator will ask you to resize the image and/or will remove it from your signature.
Before linking to an image in your signature, please make sure that you have permission from the site that hosts it. Please don't link to images that are hosted on very slow servers, as they may delay peoples' access to pages on our site that contain your signature.
Spoilers
The "Spoiler" tags (and button) are provided for when you're going to post something that could reveal information about a later part of one of the .hack series, which new viewers/players/readers might not know yet. They black out the selected part of your post so that it must be selected (using the mouse) in order to be read.
Please use spoiler tags when appropriate. They are not necessary in the Serious Discussion forum, which is assumed to contain spoilers.
Please do not put any information, images, etc. that are spoilers in your profile or signature.
Text colors and styles
Please do not post colored text, nor make posts in all-bold, all-italic, etc. Sure, it makes your posts "stand out" - it makes them annoying and hard to read.
Thank you for reading this far!
We appreciate it, and once again apologize for the length of these rules. If you don't understand something here, please e-mail us at forum@dothack.info before you post.
By registering for or using an account on this site, you certify that you understand and agree to the rules, terms, conditions, and policies stated above.