tMP Rules and Guidelines

(a) Subjects which have already been discussed numerous times.
(b) When promoting your own www site, business or interest - please keep your promotional posts in the same thread. You may open new threads if the subject is considerably different to any existing threads however, please ensure that you do not continually update threads to remain at the top of the page [which is considered 'bumping'], or that you do not create new threads that cover;

1. the same www site
2. a similar business promotion or proposition
3. similar subject matter or content.

The Administration/Moderating team of theMouthPiece.com reserve the right to restrict/remove Threads and/or Posts by any individual or organisation which they deem to be:

1. Using the forum for excessive advertising
2. Causing disruption to the forum
3. Bumping Threads
4. Spamming

If a restriction which has been implemented is broken, then a ban will be imposed on the member's account.

(c) Flames directed towards other users (these will be locked on sight, possibly with a temporary ban)
(d) References/links to the illegal downloading from P2P applications - we are not a file sharing service
(e) Derogatory or offensive comments about tMP members & non tMP members
(f) Anything not relating to the original subject of the topic (although General Chat is flexible);Continuous ignoring of this rule, or the ignoring of any 'on-topic' messages by the Mods will result in off-topic posts being deleted on sight. If any member is found to be repeatedly breaking this rule - further action will be taken. Please note however, this rule will be relaxed slightly for the 'Random Chat' category!
(g) Comments that could be deemed inappropriate or unfair regarding any person, band, contest or competition. i.e. own choice test pieces, pre-drawn contests, closed own choice adjudications etc common sense prevails
(h) Images linked from other sites without their permission (simply giving a URL is much more polite);
(i) Any derogatory comments based on age, gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity or nationality (which will be met with a swift ban!);
(j) Do not post personal contact details publically, unless you can provide confirmation that the person in question has given you permission to post his/her details. Such details, however, can be sent via PM.
(k) When posting in tMP's free Classified Advertisements forum category, only 2 New Threads per month are permitted. If you have a requirement for your band to advertise further within any month, please contact one of the tMP team. To protect everyones interest and to avoid bumping, replies to ones own threads within this category are moderated.
(l) Only the smilies/emoticons supplied by tMP can be used - this is to safeguard against the malicious spyware that some smilie sites use.
(j) Thread titles must not be misleading and must, in all cases, be relevant to subject of the thread

(a) Spam includes content deemed inappropriate or illegal, and flooding of the boards via mass e-mail, membership or PM, incessant posting;
(b) Spammers will receive a swift kick in the ass - we don't want them at all, as well as a possible lengthy ban.
(c) Posts/threads soliciting gaming/gambling are not allowed and will be removed on sight.

(a) Emoticons
(b) the "quote" function
(c) Line breaks or ALL-CAPS
(d) Swearing or derogatory terms
(e) "txt" Speak - which is very hard to read and quite frustrating
(f) Smilies

(a) Signature Rules:(b) Does not contain links to inappropriate www sites - a ban may be enforced if this is not adhered to
(c) Does not contain links to unauthorised or unapproved content from other www sites - this is considered bandwidth theft and tMP does not support such activity. You will be asked to remove or amend your avatar if this is spotted. Refusal to do so will involve further action.
(d) Profile picture must not contain excessively large images or annoying animations; 15K Maximum file size.
(e) Follows all the rules applying to posts themselves.
(f) Signatures are not to be used for blatant advertising. Weblinks and information are allowed (as long as they fall within the current guidelines for signatures), but the use of signatures will be monitored and action will be taken if we think they are being mis-used.

(a) does not contain "annoying" animations. Anims are OK, so long as they don't distract!
(b) Does not contain links to inappropriate www sites or inappropriate images - a ban may be enforced if this is not adhered to
(c) Size: please try to limit the file size to around 8KB
(d) Dimensions: up to around 80*80 pixels

(a) If any theMouthPiece.com Team Member asks you to comply with one of these rules, you must comply
(b) If you argue the rules with a Team Member, you'll be warned, and all members of theMouthPiece.com Teams will be notified;
(c) Keep it up, and you'll receive a ban.

(a) If you need to *bump* a topic because of a serious need (i.e. player deputy et al) then this is OK but generally, please can you kindly refrain from *bumping* topics
(b) Do not post replies simply to increase your post count
(c) Do not bump posts in the free Classified Advertisements category.

(a) It is explicitly not tMP Policy to monitor Private Messages (PMs) between forum members. However the tMP Private Message system should not be automatically assumed to be private. It is a condition of use of the tMP Private Message system that you consent to such access being monitored by authorised tMP Staff in the following exceptional circumstances:

• Investigations into alleged or suspected unlawful behaviour, criminal or civil action and for the purpose of grievances.
• Where required by regulatory or investigatory bodies empowered to request such monitoring.
• For court or other legal proceedings.
• Where there is an urgent tMP need to retrieve a message sent to a Private Message Inbox in the absence of the owner.
• For system diagnostic/debugging purposes.

(b) Private messages are called "private" because the sender of the message often wants to keep the content private between himself and the receiver. In these cases, we ask the recipients of PMs to respect this, and to not publish the content of PMs on public forums without the consent of the sender.

In the case where content of private messages are quoted on the public forums, the tMP moderating team withholds the right to remove these quotes if one of the parties involved asks to do so.

(c) All rules that apply to public posts also apply to private messages. If the receiver of a PM feels that the sender has broken these rules, he or she is asked to report this by forwarding the PM to a member of the tMP moderating team, and not by quoting the PM on the public forums.

The complaints will be dealt with in confidence, so forwarding the PM to a moderator will not be considered making the PM public.