Game Rankings Message Board Terms of Service
Acceptance of Terms
Game Rankings provides the services to you, the visitor, based on its Terms of Service (TOS) outlined here. When using the services provided by Game Rankings, you are subject to these posted terms. Usage of the services on this site denotes acceptance of these terms. The TOS may be changed at any time and without direct notice to individual visitors, so it is recommended that you check back with this page at any time you have questions or concerns.

The legality of the TOS is centered on the CNET Networks, Inc. Terms of Use, the Terms of Use all users of CNET Networks, Inc. websites (which includes, but is not limited to Game Rankings) must comply with. Rule 6 (six) states, "We have the right, but not the obligation, to take any of the following actions in our sole discretion at any time and for any reason without giving you any prior notice: Establish general practices and limits concerning use of our sites." Any further questions concerning the legality of the TOS can be forwarded through the "Contacts" link.
TOS Updates
Game Rankings reserves the right to change the rules set here in the TOS at any time without prior public notice. Game Rankings has no obligation to inform you of any and all changes made.
Registration Requirements
In order to post messages on the message board and use other advanced services, you must register with Game Rankings. Game Rankings does not require you to use your real name or other identification that can be easily traced to you, but the email address you provide will be public when you make a message board post. In order to register on Game Rankings, registrants must be 13 years of age or older. Game Rankings does not knowingly collect any information from any users under 13 years, and if it is found that an underage user has fraudulently registered, their account will immediately be terminated.
Content Notice
By viewing the site content, you agree that all content on the Game Rankings Message Board is the responsibility of the person from which the content originated. You agree that neither Game Rankings nor its sponsors or affiliates are responsible for all content that you personally post or upload. Game Rankings does not directly control any content posted on the message board, and does not guarantee the truthfulness or quality of any content. You agree that while using the Game Rankings message board, you may be exposed to content that is offensive or objectionable, and that you will in no way hold Game Rankings nor its sponsors or affiliates liable in any way, shape, or form for any harm or loss that may come to you or others as a result of viewing this content. Game Rankings is not responsible for screening content before it is posted, although an offensive language filter is installed on the system that will reject certain posts that may contain certain words deemed offensive or used most often in an offensive way. Game Rankings Moderators will attempt, as best they can, to remove posts that may be seen as offensive or objectionable according to their own judgment.
Account Responsibility
Users are solely responsible for protecting their accounts from access by others. You are strongly encouraged to select a hard-to-guess password and not re-use that password on any other sites where it may be read by the owners or adminstrators of that site.

If the TOS is violated severely enough to warrant the banning of one account, all known accounts shared between a single or multiple users who use the same computer may also be banned for the actions of the violating account at the discretion of the judging Game Rankings Editor.

Because of this rule, it is highly recommended that message board users do not share their computers used to access the site with others, as the actions of some other person could easily directly impact all known shared message board accounts.
Privacy and Release of Information
Under normal circumstances, Game Rankings will never release your provided information to any third party without a court order requiring us to do so. However, in cases of certain severe and/or repeated TOS violations or illegal activities, we reserve the right to forward any and all known information about you and your accounts to any parties requesting the information.
Offensive Posting
Posts of a patently offensive nature are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Using vulgar, profane, or sexually explicit language
  • Using race, religion, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, handicap, nationality, or gender as a means of insult
  • Using sexual preference terms as a term of insult in any way, shape, or form
  • Using threatening, harassing, defamatory, hate-speech, or libelous language
  • Posting or requesting links to or material from pornographic, obscene, or hate-speech web sites
  • Posting links to web sites with potentially offensive content without a clear warning
  • Descriptions or details about any sexual act or sexual organs
  • Any threads/posts deemed to be of sexual nature in any way will be deleted. Absolutely no thread/post is exempt from this rule. This includes all type of innuendos. Take it where it belongs---PM's!
Censor Bypassing
The Game Rankings message board is programmed with a list of words that are considered vulgar under any context, and these words are not allowed to be posted. Attempting to bypass the censor by bolding the letter to make the full word is not allowed. Just use an asterisk where needed instead.
Flaming (Insulting Other Users)
Posts clearly insulting other board members, individually or as a group, directly or indirectly, are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Name-calling ("You’re an idiot", "You moron")
  • Direct insults ("Screw you")
  • Offensive orders ("Go kill yourself")
  • Insinuations ("Are you stupid or something?") or insults towards family ("Your mom...")
Trolling (Inciting Flames)
Posts intended solely to annoy and/or offend other posters by going against the clear nature of a board or topic are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Provoking other users to respond with flames
  • Provoking fans of a particular system or game, especially in threads dedicated to that system or game
  • Making misleading topic titles
  • Asking obviously useless questions
  • Posting false information as fact
Illegal Activities
Posts that violate or incite others to violate the law are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, asking for or providing, in any way, shape, or form:
  • Illegal copies of copyrighted software (ROMs, Warez)
  • Methods of circumventing copyright protection (Cracks, No-CD Patches, CD Keys, mod chips)
  • Illegal copies of copyrighted music (MP3s), movies, videos, or any other type of media
  • Reprints of free material from other web sites without crediting the source
  • Reprints of pay-for material from other web sites
  • Methods of cheating in online games
Copyrighted or Trademarked Materials
It is illegal to post any content that is copyrighted or trademarked, unless you hold the copyright or trademark. Any material protected by copyright may not be posted on the Message Board without the expressed permission of the author or owner of the copyright on that material. This includes reproducing the full text of news stories, articles, etc. It is acceptable to provide a link to copyrighted material, to post brief excerpts, or to paraphrase other works, though we do strongly encourage you to cite the original source whenever possible.
Spamming
Posts that clearly advertise a service or product requiring payment are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Unsolicited commercial or personal web site advertisements
  • "Make Money Fast" scams, chain letters, and pyramid schemes
  • Game Purchase Suggestion Threads (a.k.a. "What Game Should I Buy?" Threads)
Sites listed in signatures and/or the Advertising thread may not be commercial web sites, but rather must be personal web sites. Sites listed in signatures and/or the Advertising thread must conform fully to the Game Rankings Message Board Terms of Service, or you may be asked to remove the link.
Off-Topic Posting
The main purpose of the Game Rankings Message Board is to provide discussion forums on various subjects, especially various video and computer games and their systems. Topicality is expected and will be enforced on all subjects. In these threads, topics designed to get hundreds of posts with little or no content or topics that have nothing to do with the thread’s category/subject are not allowed.
Spoilers without Warning
Posting "spoilers" (critical plot details) about games, movies, time-delayed broadcast events, or other media in the title of a topic or in a message without advance warning is prohibited.

To discuss such information in a topic, users should leave the title of the topic as vague as possible and include a warning (e.g. "SPOILER") in the topic title.

In a message post in a non-marked topic, users should match the color of the text with the color of the background to signify a spoiler, allowing for the user to highlight the text to see what it contains.
Disruptive Posting
Posts that disrupt the message boards for other users, intentional or not, are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited, to:
  • Message posts or topic titles that force browsers to scroll horizontally
  • Large blank or content-free posts
  • "Bumping" multiple older topics (posting in them well after the last post)
  • Posting multiple identical or near-identical messages or topics, including "fad" topics
  • Intentionally hard-to-read topic titles (e.g. ALL CAPS, AlTeRnAtE cApS, no spaces, no or excessive punctuation, 1337 speak, et cetera)
  • Posting multiple hard-to-read or nonsensical messages in a single or multiple topics
  • Posting large ASCII art
Flooding, Invading, and Board Wars
Users will be immediately banned (along with any associated accounts) for:
  • Flooding the message board with multiple disruptive topics or posts
  • Announcing or inciting a "war" or any conflict with the regular members of the message board
Impersonation
Users will be immediately banned (along with any associated accounts) for impersonating other boards users by creating and/or using a message board account with a name clearly intended to impersonate, mock, or antagonize another user or his clan, or otherwise falsely claiming to be another message board member or member of another clan.
Harassment/Stalking/Privacy
Continual harassing behavior directed towards a certain individual or group with the intent of creating an intimidating, offensive, or hostile environment on the message board, with or without use of explicit or implicit threats is strictly prohibited. Posting private information without permission is also prohibited.
Unauthorized Access
Accessing or attempting to access any Game Rankings user account not belonging to the user in question, with or without permission, is prohibited. Accessing another user’s account in this manner is grounds for immediate loss of all known accounts.
Bugs and Exploits
Using exploits or tricks in the Game Rankings code to gain privileges, access, or abilities not clearly intended by the board design is prohibited. While you are more than welcome to try and find any exploits away from the public eye, making them public or using them for personal benefit is grounds for immediate loss of all known accounts. Exploits or tricks deemed harmless (e.g. text below the avatar) may be allowed with the permission of a Game Rankings Moderator or Editor.
User Names and Profiles
Violation of the TOS with any part of the user profile (user name, signature, avatar, email address, etc.) is considered a severe violation.
Robots and Automated Programs
Message board users are not allowed to run a robot or any other automated browsing or posting programs on any message board server at any time. Most of these robots use huge amounts of server resources for the benefit of a single person. Users caught running robots may have all of their known accounts revoked.
Private Messaging
The TOS does apply to Private Messages (PMs). All rules that are broken in PMs will be dealt with in the same fashion as if they were posted on the message board itself. No PMs sent to you are to be posted publically on the message board unless you are given permission to do so by the author of the PM. If you would like to file a grievance concerning a violation of the TOS in a PM, save the message and send an email through the "Contacts" link.
Unwanted Pop-Ups and Spyware
Links to sites that make multiple/infinite pop-ups or interfere with the natural workings of a user’s hardware will be deleted. This includes links to sites which embed spyware onto computer hardware.
Embedded Music and Video
Posts that play music, video, or any other media automatically will result in deletion. A simple, easy-to-load and easy-to-use playing device may be included in the thread, as long as the media does not play automatically.
Game-Specific Threads
Game Rankings and its Moderators and Editors realize that not everyone knows how to make a proper game-specific thread in its correct folder. Therefore, Game Rankings Moderators and Editors will be available to assist in the learning process. However, if a user is told how to create game-specific threads in the proper folders, and the user fails to comply to proper thread-making etiquette, any improperly made game-specific thread will be deleted.

To create a game-specific thread in its proper folder, use the Search Engine to find the webpage of the game you are looking for. Click on the Forum tab, and then click on "Post a new message". You may now create your thread, as it will be in the correct game folder.
JavaScripting
The following rules are in place concerning JavaScripting:
  • JavaScripting is allowed in message board posts, but it cannot affect any user’s ability to navigate any part of Game Rankings.
  • JavaApplets are allowed in message board posts, but they cannot affect other users’ abilities to navigate any parts of Game Rankings, and they may only be used in message board clan page designs.
  • JavaScripting that affects the layout of Game Rankings, besides being in your own post and/or a message board clan page design, is not allowed.
Competitor Websites
Game Rankings has no policy against the members of other websites promoting such websites, including any such that may be considered in a similar mold and purpose as Game Rankings. While it would be appreciated to not direct traffic from Game Rankings to such competitor websites, Game Rankings will not punish users if they still attempt to do this in a respectful manner.

When members of other competitor websites, however, conduct in illegal or immoral conduct in order to increase traffic to the competitor website or decrease Game Rankings traffic (e.g. violating the TOS), Game Rankings reserves the right to permanently ban any members of the competitor website, including the complete staff of the competitive website for promoting, acknowledging, or not taking action to prevent or condone such conduct. Only staff and specifically mentioned non-staff members of such a website are subject to this permanent ban. Staff not specifically mentioned are still subject to this ban.
Polls
Bump polls are fine but after a thread fills or after enough results come in that the user please disable it and lock the thread. To disable it you leave the question but delete the answers and hit submit. This way we don't have polls from a year ago getting bumped for the hell of it.
Signatures
Signature images may be no larger than 500 pixels wide and 100 pixels high

Posts (including signatures) containing JavaScript must be in proper working order, in order to prevent massive thread slowdown. Users with JavaScript in posts that are not working will be asked to either correct the problem or remove the JavaScript commands from any posts found, temporarily or permanently as needed. Refusal to comply will lead to the deletion of the posts in question in order to negate the thread slowdown that occurs.
Terms Violations
Topics and posts that violate the TOS will be deleted from the boards, and addtional penalties may be applied at the Moderator’s discretion. Re-posting deleted violations (yours or those of others) without a Moderator’s permission is also considered a violation.

Messages and topics may be removed at any time and for any reason at the sole discretion of Game Rankings and its designated Moderators. User accounts may be warned, suspended, or revoked at any time and for any reason at the sole discretion of Game Rankings and its designated Moderators. All determinations of what is "acceptable" and "unacceptable" content will be determined solely by Game Rankings and whomever it designates as Moderators. You agree that the decisions of Moderators and Editors are final, and you may not legally contest their rulings. Intentional, repeated, or severe violations are cause for the banning of your account.
Chain Games
Chain Games are hereby banned as a form of spam for boosting post counts. All existing threads need to be locked by the appropriate thread starter effective immediately or will be deleted.
Special thanks to Jaycube who came up with 99.9% of what is contained within!