Q: Why don't I get my registration or password reset E-mail?
A: Check your spam folder. It's amazing how many people have aggressive anti-spam protection which incorrectly flags legitimate E-mail, and who never bother to check their spam folders when they're waiting for E-mails which mysterious fail to arrive.
Q: Why don't my posts show up?
A: Due to problems in the past (see invasion list), we have adopted various measures over the years to combat spam and trolls. Right now, we put new users into a "moderation queue" which means that all of their posts must be approved by a moderator before they show up. Once you've had a few posts approved, you go into the regular user group. More info here.
Q: What is a sock puppet? What's the policy on them?
A: It's a secondary account of some one already registered that's hidden from the general user popultation. Secondary accounts, both hidden and open, are generally not permitted. See Demios Anomaly (here) for the reason why. And remember, the mods know. We always know.
Q: How can I put a picture (avatar) under my username?
A: This board supports avatars but requires them to be no larger in size than 100x100 pixels and 6KB. If you have an image you wish to use for an avatar, you must first reduce it to the required pixel dimensions and compress it to be no larger than the maximum permitted file size.
Many free image resizing tools are available for most platforms. For Windows, Irfanview is a good choice. The Gimp is available for Linux. For instructions on using these programs, please see their respective documentation/help files.
Avatar images should be saved in JPEG (jpg), PNG or GIF formats. Poorly-standardized and/or uncompressed formats such as BMP and TIFF may not work.
Once you have reduced your avatar image to the required size you can upload it to the board using the avatar control panel in your user profile.
Alternately, you may select an avatar from the gallery provided.
Q: What's dressing a link? How do I dress a link?
Dressing a link is replacing the full site address with a short, linked piece of text, much like an HTML href tag. It's done like this:
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[url=http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/]SD.net[/url]Q: How do I undress a link?
That's sick.
Q: How can I include pictures in my posts?
This board allows users to include inline links to images that are on the web. It is currently not possible to attach or post an image directly from your hard drive. To put an image in a post, upload the image to a web server and include the address to the image inside a BBCode img tag. For example:
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[img]http://www.yourserver.org/yourdirectory/yourimage.jpg[/img]Q: How can I put pictures, quotes, or other text below my posts?
This feature is called a signature or sig and is accessed through your user profile. Images may be linked using the procedure outlined above for including images in ordinary posts. Sig pics must be no bigger than 100 pixels tall by 500 pixels wide. Animated sig pics should be kept under 75KB.
Also, please remember that if your signature pictures and animations are not being hosted on a reliable server or one that does not allow you to inline images on other websites, then all that is seen in every single one of your posts is a big fat X.
While putting your sig together please remember that, while we have no hard and fast rules for how large your total sig size can be, if the size of your sig takes up half the screen then it's probably too big (Darth Wong's sig is a good general guideline). If the fact that you have both a picture and text is causing this problem, placing your text to the side of your pic (which is possible because of the 500 pixel limit on the width of the picture) may solve your problem.
If this does not solve the size problem then your sig is simply too damn big and you need to cut something out of it.
Q: I was told that my sig is too tall, but I don't know how to move images to the other side to make more room! Help, help! What do I do?
A: Use the "float" tags to make images float to the left or right of other information such as text.
Q: Why has my signature picture been removed by the administration?
If your signature picture/animation violates one or more of the above rules then the administration can and will remove your picture/animation, and replace it with this helpful little reminder:
Q: How can I use different text sizes or text colors in my posts?
Use BBCode. http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/faq.php?mode=bbcode
Q: How do I make a list?
To create a list, you need to use list tags, like so:
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[list]
[*]Awesome!
[/list]- Awesome!
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[list=1][*]Awesome![/list]- Awesome!
Use the same method as you would use to use different text sizes or colors in normal posts. See the question above.
Q: Why didn't the last option to my poll show up?
You probably hit the 'Submit' button after typing the last option. You have to hit the 'Add option' button for every option, including the last one. Only then can you submit the poll.
Q: What is the maximum number of poll options?
The board has had the maximum set at ten poll options.
Q: How can I change the text under my username?
Q: How can I get a custom title?
Titles are not user-editable on this board. Custom titles are available by request only for people who have made a significant contribution to this board. This category includes moderators, usergroup leaders, notable personalities and persons with exceptionally high non-spam postcounts (>2500 posts).
Custom titles are only available to individuals who meet the above criteria. Title requests must be made to Darth Wong or the other Admins. Warning: persons who request a title without meeting the criteria may be tarred and feathered, or worse.
See this announcement for details.
Q: Why can't I edit my posts?
The editing function has been disabled in certain forums because there were certain people in the past who would go back and alter their own words to retroactively claim they had never said something when in fact they had. See this announcement for details. Please also use the PREVIEW function.
Q: How can I request that a user be banned?
Administrators and super-moderators (aka Global Moderators) can ban people, but rather than ask for a ban, it is preferred that one report their offensive behaviour to the staff by using the Report button.
Users will not be banned without extreme justification. Flaming, disagreement, holding unpopular views, or general stupidity are not generally grounds for banning. Repeated frivolous requests to ban other users may constitute grounds for banning. For more information, please see the next question.
Please refrain from posting ban-poll threads. Ban polls can only be posted at the discretion of the Admins, Supermods, Moderators and the Senate, and generally only if a user violates a board policy.
Q: Why have I been banned?!
Dalton says: There are multiple ways that users can find themselves smacked by the Ban Hammer. The best way to prevent such a fate is to tread carefully in delicate situations and try not to be a dick. Bans will be handed out for infractions like continuous or obnoxious trolling, refusal to back up an argument (you'll find that Mike hates that), threatening other members, deliberately inciting flamewars, letting others use your account or using another's account, etc. Generally it takes a lot to get banned, but a good way to find out what NOT to do is visit the Shit List thread and read up on some of our more famous banned users. Also, check out the board policies.
Minor infractions can lead to custom titling or the revocation of avatar or PM privileges, all the way up to a temporary ban.
N.B.: Do not dare an Administrator to ban you. We will immediately do so.
Q: What should I do if I have a disagreement with a moderator?
If you have a disagreement with the actions of one of the moderator staff, instead of confronting the mod in question and arguing with them you should raise the issue civilly with another moderator, supermod, the Admins or Mike himself. If the moderator in question was out of line or an issue raised that needs to be publicly debated, it will be handled in a fair manner by the rest of the staff. These issues will be dealt with fairly and honestly but things might not happen right away. Please try to stay calm and be patient in those cases.
It goes without saying that abusing this can and will have repercussions for the abuser.
Q: Can I flame moderators?
Flaming moderators in the context of a discussion or argument is permissible. Flaming moderators for the performance of their duties is not and will result in punishment (usually a banning). Also note that telling moderators how they should do their job is also frowned upon. Don't do it.
Q: What are the limits on what can be discussed?
Obviously it's a bad idea to discuss any illegal activities you might have committed. This is for your own good as well as that of the board. Use your own judgement on this one. If it's questionable, feel free to ask a moderator/supermod/admin.
Also, there is a moratorium on Israel vs Palestine threads. Breaking news is welcome but simply rehashing the issue isn't.
If you want to post a new topic, please check to see it hasn't been posted recently. Duplicate threads will be closed (however, the starter of the thread usually won't suffer any negative repercussions aside from being mercilessly hazed).
Q: What does Whiskey Tango Foxtrot mean?
It means What the Fuck.
Q: What is a "poke"?
It's a pointless ritual for new users that used to be popular on the forum when people attempted to import it from another forum. It is basically treated a lot like spam, because it's annoying and stupid to see a new user announce himself only to be answered by dozens of posts saying nothing but "poke".
Q: Where did those little gold stars above people's avatars go?
They were removed because the long-term members had been around so long, the number of stars was getting out of hand. But when they were here, they meant:
Dalton says: They are merely an indication of seniority. There is one star for every [six] months a person's been here. Thus, three stars means [eighteen] months of activity. This was added to help newbies recognize the older members since nobody ever checks when somebody registered. The stars are activated only after 100 posts and can change the amount of time they symbolize.
Q: Are there rules for what you can put in your sig?
Mike says: In the past, we have forcibly removed excessively large pictures, political statements directed against gays or racial minorities, and personal attacks on other board members from peoples' sigs. Your sig is a venue where people cannot directly respond to your comments, so the rules on sig content are much stricter than the rules on normal posting content. The purpose of a sig is to allow people to personalize the appearance of their posts for fun, not to give them a political billboard. If you have some burning desire to make a political statement, there's a forum called "News and Politics". Use it.
Crown adds: Also a note with sig pics: in the past it is has generally been accepted that sigs should only be a maximum of 500 pixels x 100 pixels (W x H), and as with posting pics please keep in mind that a lot of posters use dial up connections, so keep them to a respectable size. With the actual pic dimensions there is a +50 pixel leeway in the width; however we do request height to be kept to a minimum. It is standard board policy that any moderator can contact you and request that your sig be fixed if you violate this policy. Please cooperate fully.
Q: What are line breaks and whitespace?
Dalton says: Linebreaks are carriage returns,
like
so. Whitespace is t h i s. They are used to break up long lines of text (see the Dressing Your Links entry) so that it doesn't force text to scroll off the side of the screen. This can cause problems for some users and is also quite inconvenient for many others. Please refrain from extended-use-of-hyphenation-like-so or longchainsofwordswithoutanyspaces. Violators will have their posts thoroughly violated by the moderators and the poster will get a spank on the wrist.
Q: What is SPAM?
Dalton says: 1. a popular processed luncheon meat; 2. unsolicited bulk e-mails or usenet postings; 3. useless +1 posts. StarDestroyer.Net's moderators have a very low tolerance for SPAM; please refrain from posting any useless "me too" or "postcount +1" posts. SPAM threads and posts will be locked/deleted/sent to testing and the perpetrators will be set upon mercilessly.
Q: What's the deal with 1337 members?
1337 = LEET = Elite = "cracker" speak. There's no need to make a big deal about it each time. In fact, the thread(s) will be locked. We've reached the mark several times and probably will again as no-post accounts are purged. To repeat: No 1337 members threads as they are considered spam.
Q: Rei likes pie? What does this mean, where does it originate? I am confused (and angry).
Some time ago a board member called VF5SS placed a line in his sig which read
"The secrets of Evangelion revealed.
Rei: I like pie.
And there you have it."
Neon Genesis Evangelion being a popular anime program featuring the character Rei Ayanami. Many fans of this series found the quote highly amusing and added it to their own sigs, and it is now something of an in-joke.
Thank you for your time
~Pablo
Q: What's with the Civil War sig banners?
Dalton says: These were very popular a short time after Marvel Comics announced their Civil War storyline. Part of the advertising campaign was a pair of sig banners supporting either Iron Man's side (for superhero registrations) or Captain America's side (against superhero registrations). Most of the internet decided to come up with their own shows of support for their favorite characters/series/people, including fully 25% of SD.net. Much like the Sloganizers, they are now rare in the wild.
