Hello and welcome to the Arsenal-Mania.com Forums!
We hope that you enjoy your time on our forums and to help you make yourself at home we would be grateful if you would take a few moments to read the following guidelines.
For your convenience we will answer the most commonly asked questions about the site. Are you sitting comfortably? Let's begin:
First off the bat, who are we?
We are the Arsenal-Mania.com Team. To take at look at our profiles go here
http://www.arsenal-mania.com/about/
So what are the roles of a Forum Moderator
The Moderators keep control of the various forums. They can edit posts, edit User Accounts, ban members, move / delete / lock or unlock topics - as they see fit or if those topics or users contravene the forum guidelines.
Moderators are there to ensure that a member doesn't misbehave whilst he or she is on the forum, ensuring a comfortable and pleasant environment for the other members.
Sounds cool! So can I be a Moderator?
Whoa, slow down dude! You gotta learn to crawl before you run! See if you become a Favoured or Trusted Member first before plotting plans for forum domination!
Favoured and Trusted Members? What are they?
If the Admins / Mods think that a member has regulary contributed to the forum in a positive way they will nominate them for election to the above statuses. If agreed by the current Trusted Members the nominated members will become either "Favoured" or "Trusted", depending on what they were nominated for. In addition to the normal forum features the following are available to them:
Favoured Members:
Access to the Random Chatting Board.
Trusted Members:
All of the above.
A chance to play Fantasy Football with the other TM's.
Their own designated Help Section.
Also for the start of the 2003/04 season, we introduced the "Trusted Member Gold" status.
TM Gold members get access to:
All of the above
Exclusive Arsenal Mania player and team content
A chance to elect new Trusted Members
and much much more!
So if I make loads of posts I will work up through the ranks right?
Possibly. However when considering someone for election we look more at the QUALITY of the member's post NOT the quanity. We would much rather make someone who made 500 informative and entertaining posts a Favoured or Trusted Member than someone with 1000 posts of which 90% were 'I agree'. Being elected is a reward as we are thanking you for your contribution to the site. Best thing to do is to be yourself and keep posting as normal. If you are deserving of election you will get it eventually.
But what if I'm sure I'm nomination material?
If you think you have a strong case then you can send a PM to a Moderator explaining why and your request will be considered. However, please accept our decision as final. If we subsequently change our mind you will be the first to know! This said please do not post your case on the forums or repeatedly bombard Moderators with requests. With the recent increase in size of the forums we simply do not have time to deal with such rudeness and it will result in you being placed at the bottom of the pile when it comes to allocating new nominees. Oh and we will change your username to Emile Heskey's Bitch. Permanently.
Are opposition fans welcome on the forum?
It depends. If you support a team apart from Arsenal and you want to discuss football and interact with our members in a friendly and community spirited way then you are more than welcome. Please note however we will be stricter with your choice of avatar and/or signature and your posts may be scrutinised more closely.
If however you are here soley on the wind up then don't even bother posting as:
a) We will ban you
and
b) Before we ban you we will make you look like a complete idiot. In fact you will look so stupid that you will be a laughing stock on these boards for years to come. Try us and we WILL make you famous! You have been warned.
So you guys are really strict then?
Not at all. While we are happy to help with any queries, ideally we don't want to have to tellpeople off and sort out disputes and problems. We would much rather talk about the club we love. But if action has to be taken then we will do so. Its not for our egos, it is for the sake of the forum community.
But if I am being flamed what should I do?!
First and foremost please DO NOT flame the person back. If we cannot determine who started the flaming then BOTH members will be held responsible and dealt with accordingly. The best thing to do is to contact a Moderator by Personal Message or by using the Report Post function. We will then deal with this accordingly. In the mean time just ignore the idiot.
So what is your policy on banning?
There is no set policy on banning as such, its more on a case by case basis. If you annoy an admin then you are running the risk of a ban. How many posts it takes you get there is down to how much of an arsehole you want to be!
So are there any other rules we need to know about?
Yes there are and here they are in all your glory:
No racist posts will be tolerated
We at Arsenal Mania are a multi cultural community. In fact, one of the things which makes us such a diverse and popular forum is the wide ranging nationalities of our supporters. As a result no racist comments, whether directed towards other forum members or in general are acceptable and repeat offenders will be banned.
Advertising of any sorts without prior permission from the team is strictly prohibited
If you want to advertise anything, be it another site or a service, it is only common curteousy to ask first. If we say we are happy with you doing so then you may post the relevant advert thread, but any done without our consent will be deleted and the poster dealt with accordingly.
What about match tickets? Can I advertise them?
No sorry afraid not, not even at face value. If we allow tickets to be advertised we run the risk of Arsenal taking legal action against us and shutting us down. Any posts regarding their sale will be amended/deleted accordingly.
No posts regarding obtaining online goal clips are allowed
All Arsenal goal or match clips are copyright and sole property of Arsenal and Granada and their trading without prior permission from either of those two is illegal. Arsenal Mania does not have nor is seeking to obtain such permission and as a result does not condone the trading or downloading of these clips. Any posts regarding them will be deleted and the user dealt with accordingly. Besides you can get goal clips for Arsenal matches by going to Arsenal.com and joining Arsenal Plus. Is £3.99 a month really so expensive?
General Chatter Forums
As we experienced in the past, having a general forum open to the entire forum is out of the question. In the past it was swamped with the most inane and idiotic topics such as "what is your favourite colour?", so we feel by restricting access to it to the Favoured Members and above it will be put to better use. Once you have been made an FM then you can use it, and the picture gallery, as much as you like.
There is no use in arguing that there should be one because our position on this matter is not up for debate.
I see there is a title by my name? What is that all about?
As you make more and more posts your title will change accordingly until eventually you are an "Arsenal God".
Iz txt lnguge allwd?
Pardon?
Sorry I meant, "Is text language allowed?"
No, I am afraid not. This is a multi-national forum and as a result some posters will not have English as their first language. This means that while you may "get" text language they probably will not so for their sake please do not use it. Any txt language will be edited or deleted at the Arsenal-Mania's team discretion, and a ban imposed on the offender if he or she repeatedly ignored warnings.
How do I post an avatar?
Go to your profile and scroll down to the appropriate section. You can either use one of the default ones by highlighting it, or alternitavely use one of your own by ticking 'use personal picture' and entering the web address of the picture.
What if I need help on something?
If it is urgent contact one of us and we will see if we can assist you asap. If it is more a general query then it would be best to post it in the 'Help' section.
So any feedback or suggestions I have could go in the 'Suggestions' thread?
Hey you are catching on!
Anything else I need to know?
We think that is it. However, we encourage you to check out any threads which are in bold and are at the top of various sections. These are usually Forum Announcements and are generally important. Examples of these could be "What is this?" or "Forum Rules".
Other than that enjoy your time on our forums, and please remember that we are here to help make the forum run as smoothly as possible and this is for your benefit. We put a hell of a lot of effort into this place so all we ask is that you are nice to us and in return we will be nice to you
Happy chatting!
The Arsenal-Mania Forum's Team
