Talk CSI is here to provide the best place for CSI fans to discuss the show with other fans. With all large communities it is necessary for all members of the board to follow a number of rules. This document lists the rules you will be expected to follow while a member of this community. Continuing to post on the BBS signifies your acceptance of these rules and your consent to follow them. You should also read the board FAQ in addition to these rules.
As long as you don't violate the rules below, you're welcome to discuss any topic that you like - there's an appropriate forum for every topic that you could think of. As there's sometimes a bit of confusion over certain kinds of topics, here are a few notes on these:
| Type | Comments |
| Multiple Threads | If everyone who wanted to comment on the latest episode had to do so in one thread, no one would be able to access this thread anymore. The amount of threads on a certain topic is regulated by supply and demand, and multiple threads on the same subject will only be closed if they really are absolutely identical to another thread. |
| Show Criticism | It's fine to say a certain aspect of CSI is bad, as long as you don't insult the people who think otherwise, and as long as you actually back up what you say. Jumping in and shouting "Willows sucks!" is not an acceptable form of constructive criticism. |
Most of the things that you cannot do on the board are pretty obvious. However, it is inevitable that mistakes will happen. For reference, here is a list of the things you cannot do, together with notes on what will happen if you do it anyway.
| Type | Definition | Effects | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Account Sharing | You should not give out your password to anyone, or allow your member account to be used by another member. You should also not post any messages on behalf of another member. | The moderator may decide to edit out the content. The moderator may decide to give you a warning. Adult Content | In order to protect those posters who are minors, you cannot post NC-17 or R-Rated material anywhere on the BBS, or link to such material. | The material that you posted will be edited out by a moderator. | The moderator may decide to give you a warning. Flames | Obviously, you cannot insult other people. You may disagree with someone's opinion, but you may not attack the person themselves for posting that opinion. Don't respond to a flame with a flame. You cannot flame people and then claim to have been just defending yourself. If you have a complaint, notify a moderator rather than responding yourself. | The flame that you posted may be edited out by a moderator. | The moderator may decide to give you a warning. Illegal Content | You can't post material that contains death threats, or invades a person's privacy, or is posted without permission of the owner. Obviously. Illegal content cannot be posted anywhere on the BBS. | Don't expect any moderators to be lenient over this. Your material will be edited out, and the moderator may decide to give you a warning - depending on the severity of what you posted, you may even get two. | Images | When posting images, please make sure you do not post more than 50-60kb worth of photos, as a courtesy to those with slower connections. Also, you should only include an inline images from web space that you own, or with the permission from the web master on which the image is located to avoid what results in costly bandwidth theft to the originating site owner. Instead, please post a link to the image. | If you do post images you don't have the right to, or if they are too large, the moderator may replace the actual image with a link. | If you persist, the moderator may decide to give you a warning. Intellectual Property | As a fan site for a television show, intellectual property is an important topic for us. We cannot legally or morally condone tape-trading in episodes or downloading episodes online, and do not allow discussions on this matter. Any other copyright violations will also not be allowed. | The content you posted will be edited out. | The moderator may decide to give you a warning. Multiple Accounts | In order to prevent abuse, you may register only one user name at Talk CSI. Should you want to change to a different user name, email an admin and they will lock your old account. | If you are posting with a second account, the second account will be closed. The moderator may decide to give you a warning, and any warnings you received while posting with the second account will be added to your own account. | Privacy | On the internet, a person's privacy is very valuable. Unless a poster has made it clear they don't mind, you can't post any details of their real-life identity on the board. You also cannot post material such as chat logs, emails, private messages or messages from other message boards - without the consent of all involved parties. | The material you posted may be edited out. | The moderator may decide to give you a warning. Spamming | You can't post the same thing multiple times on the board, or post the same thing over and over in a certain thread or forum, or continuously make posts that have no real content or relevance to what is being discussed. Spamming can even just be posting too much - as a general rule, don't post more than two or three threads in a forum within a reasonable length of time. | The extra threads that you posted may be deleted or locked by the moderator. | The moderator may decide to give you a warning. Spoilers | While many people want to discuss upcoming episodes, there's also a sizable group of people who don't want to know details about an episode before it airs. Until an episode has aired in the United States, do not post plot info in the subject title of your thread, but only include things like the episode title and very general information. You can, for instance, ask about the "romance plot in [episode name]," but not about "the Willows/Grissom kiss in [episode name]." If you want to discuss plot details, include a warning that the post may contain spoilers and several blank lines before the post as a courtesy to other users. | The moderator may edit out spoilers from the thread title and add a spoiler warning. The moderator may edit spoiler space. | If you persist, the moderator may decide to give you a warning. Trolling | Trolling is an internet term that means you're not posting to actually start or participate in a good discussion, but simply to anger another member or group of members. Posting in order to bait other users, moderators or administrators will not be tolerated. | The message may be edited out by the moderator. | The moderator may decide to give you a warning. |
Of course, the above doesn't mean that if you meet the definitions of any of the above infractions you will immediately get a warning. The best general guideline can be summed up in one phrase: use common sense when you post. You'll be given little sympathy if asked not to do something by a member of staff, you do it anyway, receive a warning and then complain afterwards.
Users who the board ownership believes participate on the Talk CSI to troll, irritate, upset or harm the general BBS population its staff or the board itself may have their accounts locked without prior notice or announcement in order to protect the BBS and its participants.
If a moderator decides to give you a warning, they will mention this in the thread in question. It will also be recorded in a thread in the private moderator's forum. In addition to mentioning that you received a warning, the moderator will also explain why they did this. The warning, and indeed any kind of administrative action, should only ever be discussed in the Questions, Suggestions and Feedback forum - otherwise threads would immediately get off-topic and it would not be possible to talk about the original discussion topic anymore.
Warnings are not bans. They are, as the name suggests, a warning that the conduct you displayed in a post is not acceptable under the board rules. Warnings should never be given out in order to ban a user, and more than one should never be issued for the same offense. You need to be warned twice - commit two infractions against the board rules - before you will be banned.
Here is what will happen to you if you have reached a certain number of warnings within a certain amount of time:
| Number | Time | Consequences |
| 2 Warnings | Within one week | You will be banned for one day. |
| 4 Warnings | Within one month | You will be banned for one week. |
| 6 Warnings | Within three months | You will be banned for one month. |
One-month bans are given out very rarely at Talk CSI, and really mean that someone has seriously disrupted the atmosphere on the board. When someone gets back from a one-month ban, we really expect them to be on their best behaviour. Therefore, after someone has received 6 warnings the following ban structure will apply to them for the next three months:
| Number | Time | Consequences |
| 2 Warnings | Within one month | You will be banned for an additional week. |
| 4 Warnings | Within three months | You will be banned for an additional month. |
If a user reaches the end of this cycle, it will be left to the discretion of the board owners whether they will be allowed to return to participate on the forums.
Private Messages are just that - PRIVATE. The admin and mod staff does not have access to your private messages. As a result, they are not moderated in the same manner as posts made on the board. Users are expected to manage the feature themselves, making use of the DELETE function to get rid of offensive content. If a user persistently abuses you via PM, don't read any more of the messages they send you.
Users who abuse the system, including spamming other users and sending offensive content, may find themselves issued a warning and their ability to use the function disabled.
The same rules that apply to posts on the BBS apply to avatars. If you use an offensive or otherwise inappropriate avatar, you may be issued a warning. If you do not alter an avatar at the request of a member of staff, the avatar will be edited out from your profile.
There are two groups of people on this board who have been so kind as to spend some of their time to keep the atmosphere on the BBS friendly. Here's a short overview of who they are:
| Type | Description |
| Moderators | Each forum is assigned one or more moderators. Their names are listed on the front page, under each forum description, and appear in green when they post. In addition, their names are listed at the bottom of the thread list and the threads within their forum, which you may click to view their profiles. Moderators are the primary group of people responsible for maintaining the atmosphere in one forum. If you have a problem with something that is going on in the forum, please email one or all of the moderators of that forum. Moderators are only able to give warnings, close threads or move threads from the forum they are assigned to. |
| Admins | They are the moderators of the "Questions, Suggestions & Feedback" forum, and the legend under their name says 'Administrator' and their names are shown in yellow when they post.
Administrators function as troubleshooters, helping to maintain the atmosphere in a forum when that forum's moderators aren't there. Administrators are able to give warnings, close threads and move threads in all forums. In addition, administrators implement bans when members have reached the required number of warnings. |
| The Owners | Talk CSI is the message board of CSI Files, which is owned and run by three people. T'Bonz is in charge of running and maintaining Talk CSI. She decides what makes up the board rules and who is asked as administrator or moderator. She also serves as an administrator, but she's mostly involved in setting the overall course of the BBS, and thus questions and complaints about individual moderator actions should be taken up with the moderators in question or in the QSFforum. You might also encounter AntonyF. AntonyF looks after the server the BBS lives on, as well as maintaining the board software. |
Firstly, of course, you should just contribute your thoughts to the discussions and follow the rules outlined above.
Secondly, however, it's very important to never allow yourself to be baited by someone on the board who is breaking the rules. If you see someone in a forum who is flaming, or trolling, or spamming, or is posting under a dual user name, etc. etc., please do not respond to that on the board itself. This will only lead to a flame war or will drag the entire thread off-topic. Instead, please send an email to the appropriate moderators. Again, it is very important that you do not respond in the same way as someone breaking the rules - even if you are flamed, you should not flame someone back in return, and doing so may result in a warning.
Thirdly, we're always open to new ideas. If you think a new feature should be implemented on the BBS, or indeed if you have any suggestions for CSI Files, please post them in the Questions, Suggestions & Feedback forum. Fourthly, there are a number of rules of etiquette that we will not actively enforce, but that we would recommend you follow in order to keep discussions flowing well:
Finally, we would very strongly suggest that you read through the Mannerly Art of Disagreement Guide written for the Alt.StarTrek.Creative newsgroup.
While most of the forums at Talk CSI are fairly self-explanatory, below are a few forums that you may need to know something more about:
| Announcements | Changes to the board policy or important news concerning Talk CSI are announced here. Discussion of announcements in this forum can take place in the Questions, Suggestions & Feedback forum where appropriate. |
| Fan Fiction / Fan Art | In this forum you may post your own creations based on the CSI universe. Please note that while you may post R-rated material, you should indicate so in the thread subject. Also, if you actively post in this forum please re-read the section on "Intellectual Property" above - it is very important that you not post other people's work in these forums. |
| Miscellaneous | This forum is provided as an extra service so you can discuss issues not relating to CSI with other fans. The forum is a place to hang out with other members, but please don;t use it as a real-time chat room. Please make sure that the things you post in this forum are suitable for those of all ages. Posts made in this forum do not get added to your post count, until you've made 100 posts in the CSI-related forums. |
| Questions, Suggestions & Feedback | This forum can be used to ask about certain board features, suggest new ones, or comment on board developments. Before doing so, please make sure you have read our list of frequently asked questions. When making suggestions, please note that they may not always be implemented, and sometimes they may not actually be replied to. This is not because we don't listen to them - all suggestions are read, but sometimes it takes some time to discuss these amongst ourselves and decide whether they're a good idea or not. Sometimes a suggestion you made months ago could suddenly be implemented. |
Please note that the board ownership retains the right to suspend or modify these rules at any time where they deem it necessary and in the interests of the BBS.
Thank you for registering at Talk CSI, and have fun!