There's a certain amount of trust involved when you let anyone contribute to your website. Members are expected and required to follow these rules and guidelines when submitting reviews and release information. Those who don't will immediately lose their posting privileges. Things aren't quite as strict in the discussion sections, but some of these rules apply there as well.

In addition, it's worth noting that only staff members will be able to update the release list. That's because the way that list is maintained means anyone with access can edit/delete the entire thing, including the information submitted by others. Instead of leaving ourselves open to having one bad egg fuck up the entire picnic basket, we control the situation with an approval system where someone on the staff will have to vouch for you before you can contribute to that section.

Here are some specific do's and dont's you should take note of:

1st commandment:
When you're submitting info to the site sections, you're basically acting as a staff writer. We're a serious site and take pride in our presentation, so here's some stuff you need to do. Use proper English. Use proper punctuation. Write full sentences and use proper capitalization at the start of each one. Don't type in l33t, Singlish or SMS text message shortform. AnD StAy AwAy fROm wAcKy cApItAlIzAtiON, tOo.

2nd commandment:
Pay attention to any formatting templates that should be used when posting, like this one for posting reviews.

3rd commandment:
Don't embed images wider than 430 pixels in your posts using the [img] BBcode tag, because this makes a mess of the page layout. Either re-size the image or link to it using the [url] BBcode tag.

4th commandment:
Don't post links to high quality audio and video files of stuff that's commercially available. Samples are acceptable as long as the quality is low. That may sound stupid, but it's part of our anti-piracy stance. Many people download files to sample stuff they're not exposed to through other channels in order to make a purchasing decision and that's fine. All of us here probably do that to some extent. However, some people download as an alternative to buying the real thing and that's something we don't like. We can't control how and for what purpose any files posted are used, so we have to simply not offer the high quality stuff in the first place.

5th commandment:
Don't promote pirated material and bootlegs as acceptable substitutes for official releases. That goes for "professional" bootleg discs from places like China and Taiwan as well as the CD-R burns peddled on eBay.

6th commandment:
Don't put any images in your forum signature. I know some of you love them, but we've decided we like the forum better without them. You can still put text and links in yous sigs but don't overdo it, m'kay? Try to keep it to, say, 4 lines maximum. And if you miss this rule, the administrator will remove the image. We used to ask people to remove it themselves since we felt that was more polite and respectful, but some users don't check in very often and so to avoid someone thinking it's allowed, they get removed as soon as possible. Thanks for understanding.

7th commandment:
You should be aware that we have some forum-specific rules and stuff outlined in a text file here. It basically outlines some things you may want to know about the forum and some specific guidelines for creating signatures and avatars.