Message Board Conduct

As the Official Star Wars Galaxies Forums are part of the Station, posting on these forums is bound by the Station's Terms of Service that can be found in their entirety at http://sonyonline.com/tos/tos.jsp . In addition to these terms of service, we have a few supplemental rules that apply to the Star Wars Galaxies Forums.

In general, you may post any material written in a courteous and mature manner, providing that it is on-topic for the forum to which you are posting. This includes material that disagrees with the way that we, the developers, operate the game. We will not interfere with the communication of thoughts and ideas as long as the presentation is constructive and appropriate for all those capable of reading the forum. 

You may NOT post or place in a signature any material that:

• Attacks or insults others on the board. Feel free to debate the idea, but do not turn your disagreement into an attack upon the poster or any person or group.
  
  
• Engages in name-calling, harassment, or threats.
  
  
• Contains obscenity, vulgarity, profanity or is sexually explicit . Though we do have a filter in place to catch unintentional obscenity from time to time, this is not a license to abuse it. Bypassing the obscenity filter by using letter, number, or character combinations that allow the obscene or inappropriate word to appear is unacceptable as well.
  
  
• Disparages any religion, race, nation, gender, or sexual orientation.
  
  
• Is considered inappropriate for children 13 or over as governed by general standards of decency in the United States of America.
  
  
• Infringes upon anyone's privacy rights.
  
  
• Is off-topic for the forum. These Forums are provided to enable members to help each other in sharing their passion for the game. There is a forum called General Any Topic for topics that don't relate directly to Star Wars Galaxies gameplay. However, be aware that the Rules of Conduct will still be enforced. Do not assume it is a board that welcomes every discussion; debating religion, arguing politics, looking for romantic partners, and attacking other games or companies are all examples of topics better suited for other boards and websites.
  

Furthermore, you may NOT :

• Make multiple posts on the same subject for the purpose of getting attention paid to your issue.
  
  
• Post comments in threads for the purpose of drawing attention to another thread on a different subject.
  
  
• "Bump" or “/sign” threads.
  
  
• Cross-post the same topic to multiple forums or the same message to multiple threads.
  
  
• Make replies to posts that do not pertain to or are irrelevant to the original topic, such as: In before the Lock, "first," or posting messages to reserve a reply spot with the intention of posting to it later.
  
  
• Troll the forums. "Trolling" is defined as: Posting with the intent of stirring up trouble or to incite disruption. An example of trolling would be posting to a thread without the intent to provide constructive suggestions or comments and instead making disruptive comments.
  
  
• Post topics addressed directly to another player. The Official Star Wars Galaxies forums have a private messaging system for conversations between two players. If you want to contact someone directly, use the private messaging system.
  
  
• Use the official forums to debate private issues. The official forums are for all Star Wars Galaxies players. If you have an issue with other players or groups, deal with it outside of the public forums in a private space.
  
  
• Solicit for guild membership on the general discussion boards. Please use the forums that were set up for this purpose or head over to the server-specific forums.
  
  
• Use the official forums as a staging ground for creating general unrest within the game or forums, such as sit-ins, polls, petitions, etc.
  
  
• Post exploits, cheats, hacks, or links to websites or domains that contain such material. If you wish to make the team aware of these issues, please send us a private message.
  
  
• Use the official forums as a place to advertise the sale of Star Wars Galaxies characters or items in exchange for real-world money. This rule does not apply to any Station Exchange forums.
  
  
• Advertise websites with content that violates these rules, the Star Wars Galaxies EULA, or the Station Terms of Service.
  
  
• Advertise products or websites that are not related to Star Wars Galaxies or Sony Online Entertainment products.
  
  
• Make posts seeking or giving feedback about Customer Service resolutions. All requests and feedback about Customer Service issues should be handled through petitions or emails using the Knowledge Base ( www.station.sony.com/kb ) and selecting Email Support .
  

All of these rules apply to the forums as well as to the private message system.

Please note that these rules also apply for communication to any SOE employees. This includes emails.

Action that we might take in regard to a post in violation of these rules on the Star Wars Galaxies Name Forums will vary depending upon the transgression. It may include any number of the following (in order of severity):

• Editing of the post or signature.
  
  
• Removal of the ability to have a signature or Link and image posting privileges.
  
  
• Deletion of the post/thread.
  
  
• Closing of the thread.
  
  
• A Warning that is attached to a player's account. Warnings are given for less severe message board infractions. Any player that receives three warnings for message board conduct will have their account banned.
  
  
• Suspension (results in user being unable to access any Star Wars Galaxies Forum, or play Star Wars Galaxies for the duration of the suspension at the discretion of the community team. Any subsequent warnings after a suspension will result in banishment).
  
  
• Banishment (results in the user's forum posting privileges being revoked. At the discretion of the community team, your access to Star Wars Galaxies may be removed or Station account closed.
  
  
• Legal Action (I.e. contacting law enforcement personnel in regard to a threat)
  
  

Those who violate the rules of the boards may or may not receive any warning before action is taken. In the event that a warning is given, the warning will be recorded upon the game account and may result in further action should the player show a pattern of engaging in prohibited conduct. Philosophically and administratively, there is no difference between conduct in-game and conduct on the Official Forums.

Things the Community Team and Development Team WILL MOST LIKELY NOT Respond To

• Threads addressed to a “Red Name” or "devs." If we responded to them, then you would see hundreds of posts trying to get our attention this way. Threads with a name in the title will almost never see an official response.
  
  
• Private messages asking gameplay questions. When we can answer questions that are posted in discussion threads, we will. However, we will not reveal anything privately that we will not reveal in public. If you have questions, you should first read the FAQs or ask your fellow community members.
  
  
• Private Messages asking for a response to a particular thread. We read as many threads on these boards as possible and respond to those to which we feel we can best contribute. Asking us to look at or respond to a certain thread will not cause us to answer a question that we otherwise wouldn't.
  
  
• Rumors regarding internal SOE matters. Although we would love to debunk every crazy rumor that surfaces, if we start responding to that kind of post certain people will just use them to try to bait a response out of us. We are not going to play that game. The lack of a response from us is not an acknowledgment of truth, just a sign that we won't dignify such threads with a response. 
  
  
• Questions about possible employment. We'd love to help you, but we don't have anything to do with who is hired. All we can do is point you to the SOE application page .

In addition, answering Private Messages is at the discretion of the individual Developer or Community Team member.

Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Community Relations Manager

SOE provides these Forums as a service to its subscribers, to provide a friendly, positive family-oriented environment, where members can help each other and exchange ideas, tips, information, and techniques related to the game. Like any community, these Forums are most valuable when everyone obeys certain basic guidelines and rules for online behavior. These guidelines and rules are presented here so that you know what is expected of you and what you can expect from others. Please help keep the SOE Forums a clean and friendly community. And, above all else, have fun!

Rule 1: We are all Here to Help The purpose of these forums is to enable the members of the community to help each other in a constructive and positive atmosphere. If you are new to the forums and are unsure about anything, just ask! If you are an old hand and see new participants joining the forums, please welcome them and feel free to help them find their way!

Rule 2: Be Friendly and Courteous Everyone wants to have a positive experience while on the Forums - please make sure that you contribute to it. Please do not post anything harassing, threatening, abusive, lewd, or inflammatory. Flaming people, products, or organizations is never acceptable. Neither is trolling. Instead, be friendly, helpful, and supportive.

Rule 3: Be Relevant Please stay on topic. These Forums are provided to enable members to help each other in sharing their passion for the game. Please refrain from discussing personal matters, abusing any company or product, or, in general, from posting in a manner unrelated to the direct purposes expected in the Forums.

Rule 4: Be Legal Please do not post anything unlawful, libelous, defamatory, or that infringes upon any intellectual property rights. Do not conduct any activity that may be illegal, or harmful in any way, to people, to software or hardware, such as hacking, flooding scripts viruses or Trojan horses. This includes posting of any images in any form in our forums.

Rule 5: No Spam Please do not use the forums in any way to promote third party services, products, websites, or organizations. Spam is also posting repeatedly and off-topic in the forums.

Rule 6: Enforcement Your participation in the Forums is subject to modification, deletion, access limitation or ban, by moderators, at their sole discretion, without notice or appeal. While SOE does not generally monitor content, it retains the right, at its sole discretion, to edit content and limit users' access that it considers inappropriate. SOE is not responsible for any failure or delay in taking such actions

Rule 7 Limitation of Liability You understand that members like you contribute the content of these Forums, that SOE does not control and is not responsible for it, and that SOE does not in any way guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, legality or completeness of any such content. You expressly agree that you bear all the risks associated with such content and that SOE is not liable in any way for such content, for its errors and omissions, and for any losses and damage incurred as a result of accessing or using such content. These Usage Guidelines are in addition to, and not in lieu of the rights and obligations contained in SOE's Community Policies, SOE's Terms of Service, and the SOE Privacy Policy. SOE reserves the right to change its policies at any time.

By registering, and by posting in this community, you agree to these Usage Guidelines.

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