- Moderation Level 1 - Warning, Possible Time Out


• Begging: Begging for Mumbo Tokens (which I will explain in a bit) is not allowed, it's just plain stupid. That means everyone. I and many other members are sick of wading through all the token begging topics in SH&S, and it won't be tolerated. Forcing will not be tolerated either.
  
  
• Secret Splooging: Giving away secrets locations, even if they're fake / as a joke. Secrets are supposed to give a little bit of a fun factor to the site, and you're ruining it by telling people about their location (and in the case of secret-secrets, what they actually are. I don't even know what the Secret-Secrets are). Honestly, spoiling the fun of the forums is a bit low. Spoiling the locations of jinjos also comes under this heading. Asking for advice about the secrets is also a no no because all it will do is either earn you some unfavourable responses, or potentially provoke some members to think they can get away with letting some info slip, thereby breaking the rules. In short, talking about secrets is not on. This includes talking about it on other sites. Trust us, you will get found out. The whole point of this is to not spoil the fun for others. The enjoyment is in the searching ... don't ruin it.
  
  
• Complaining to Moderators: We don't take too kindly to this since Moderators try their hardest to make this site great for everyone. It's really annoying when a member starts complaining about how a moderator does his job or how a certain rule was enforced. If you have a problem, people post it in a respective, calm, civilized manner. Anything other than that will get you Timed Out or perhaps even Frozen.
  
  
• Asking Why a Member Was Banned: If a member is Timed Out, Frozen, Banned, whatever, it's none of your business to be asking why he or she was. We don't need members asking why "So and so" was banned. It's simply none of your business.
  
  
• Oversized Signatures: Outlined below, but basically, having overly large signatures stretches the page. Vertically isn't as bad but horizontally breaks up the HTML somewhat; still, having to read 10% post and 90% signature is very off-putting. You won't be punished for having large sigs the first time, you'll just be warned and possibly have certain privileges revoked.
  
  
• Animated HTML and Media Players: Due to the excessively large amounts of lag these have caused many people on the site, animated HTML signatures (eg BlingyBlob countdowns), eSnips/other media players (especially those configured to automatically play) and YouTube embedded videos are now restricted. They may be embedded in your signature ONLY if there is no / minimal animation and NO AUTOPLAY FOR YOUTUBE AND E-SNIPS/OTHER MEDIA PLAYERS. You may have them in your profile, however. Animated .gifs are still allowed, but don't make them too large. This includes posting them in the Who's Online page, only post the links.
  
  
• Site Advertisements: Continuously advertising your site by creating a topic or posting on Who's Online is not allowed.
  
  
• Breaking of the Who's Online page: Why anyone would even bother trying to break the Who's Online chat page is beyond me, but basically if it's done, you'll get a warning, then a time out, then a ban. Just don't do it. This includes testing of html, even if you know what you're doing. We don't want scrolling marquees or supersized text everywhere please; it isn't fun, it just looks stupid.
  
  
• Coarse Language:
  A lot of members have the idea that Spiral Mountain is somewhere that you can swear and shout profanities all over the place, but this is not the case. Our forums are open to everyone ages 13 and up, however this does not mean the community needs to be adjusted for a 13+ age group, as we still get younger users, parents and other people who aren't tolerant of this behaviour visiting the forums; and not just from time to time either. We've received more than a few emails on this issue, and we'd like this number to drop. Any coarse language caught in the forums will be censored out and the user will be given a warning and perhaps even a time out; but any language in signatures, who's online or blogs may have that user's privileges removed. This includes say sexual slang / jokes.
  
  If you're not sure whether the censor will pick up on your words, censor them completely anyway, just by posting [bleep] in place of them. Censoring one or two letters of a word isn't going to cut it, we're afraid.
  
  
• Blog Spamming: Any "My first blog!" blogs or really short blogs will be filed under spam and deleted. Blogs are a privilege and take up valuable server space so please learn how to use them wisely.
  
  
  
  
  - Moderation Level 2 - Time Out and Warning
  
  
• Flaming / Insults: Flaming, the general term for any non-constructive negative comments directed at other people (eg, 'you suck') and insults in general are not allowed. Bit of a no-brainer, I know, but you'd be surprised how many people don't understand this. Flaming and / or insulting someone else will earn you a time out, with the length of this ban being at the moderator's or admin's discretion. Repeated performances will get you a permanent freeze.
  
  
• Trolling / Extreme Negativity: Rather than actually flaming someone, you act in a manner where you're basically asking to be flamed by another member. Trolling or extreme sarcasm or negative behavior will earn you a ban, the length of which will be at the discretion of the mods or admin. Again, repeating this will be a full ban.
  
  
• Responding to Flaming / Trolling: This one's a little harder to put into action ... but responding to people who are flaming or trolling is also not allowed. Telling people to calm down never works if they're purposely trying to cause mayhem - if you want to stop them, ignore them. Alternatively, e-mail the admin who will deal with it.
  
  
• Spamming: Further to that note, posting useless/stupid/SNS/accomplishments, etc. topics are very annoying. I for one am not interested in how there's a hole in your back yard, the thousand-and-one ways Blackeye is related to SNS, if you've beaten Vile for the very first time or whatever... it's great, but there's no point to it.
  
  
• Whining: Adding to the spam point, complaining about how much shops/blogs/whatever cost, how the site runs or whatever will get you a suspension. Shops and blogs are supposed to cost as much as they do so that the database isn't clogged with people's underused shops (speaking of which I should probably do something with my shop, which I haven't touched in about two months). If you've only been here a week, don't start whining about how you don't have a shop - there are people here who've been here a year and still not collected the tokens to buy one.
  
  
• Gravedigging: Simply, posting in an extremely old, dead and useless topic for no reason. Not quite as applicable as it was before the purge was implemented, but basically don't go hunting for topics on the last page unless you really want to add to it...
  
  
• Shop Plagiarism: Don't steal images, edit them slightly and put them in your shop. Also, taking items from other peoples' shops means you could end up banned completely if you continue. That and the owner of the images would probably be annoyed. This also applies to hotlinking to images, explained below.
  
  
• Breaking HTML: Well, not really a rule, but seeing as this site has full compatibility with HTML, making code that damages the site or alters pages in a similar manner is not only idiotic but also bannable.
  
  
• Disruptive Posting: Posting topics solemnly made to annoying a certain person or a group of people will get you moderated. Please keep your "thoughts" to yourself. We need to respect opinions but bashing people in the process isn't cool.
  
  
• Chat widgets within your profile: Yes, yes, we know why you've got them, and we know that for the most part there isn't a problem. However, in the interests of all, having a chat widget (basically having an embedded chat program) on your profile is not allowed. If anyone is caught having an embedded chat widget on their profile they're going to get a Time Out.
  
  
• Posting RPs: Sadly RPs are not allowed here at Spiral Mountain, for the simple reason that they take up a lot of space, and also make the site very slow and laggy to navigate. We are currently working on a new database that will eliminate this problem, and when the time comes where we can introduce this new database we may allow RPs to return, but until then ... sorry guys.
  
  
• "I'm leaving!" blogs and topics: Anyone caught posting these will earn themselves a time out. They serve no purpose, other than to stroke the ego of the writer as they watch the 'please don't go, I love you!' comments roll in. If you feel compelled to leave Spiral Mountain, amend your profile to explain why so that any members who want to find out why you are absent can do so. Do not post blogs or topics in the forums as they will only get deleted, and earn you a time out in the process!
  
  - Moderation Level 3 - Frozen
  
  
• Alternate Accounts: Alternate accounts are accounts made by the same person and are not allowed here at Spiral Mountain. This also includes getting hold of another member's password and logging on to their account (whether it is with their permission or not). Long story short, if you have an alt account or are logging in to someone else's account, whatever your intentions may be, the SM staff will automatically assume that you are doing it to deceive someone and it will not be tolerated.
  
  If you have a family member or a friend who wishes to join the site and is using a computer connected to the same network as yours (or using the same computer), please e-mail an admin when they register their username. IP addresses play a role in identifying users when we run out of other information, and if we find two accounts with the same IP address without reasoning (i.e. two siblings with different usernames) we may freeze both accounts. You have been warned.
  
  If you are banned from the site, do not create another account. Simple as that. We try to keep the forums as clean and friendly as possible, and if a member is banned it certainly isn't done without good reason. Access to the forums is a privilege, and if you can't abide by the rules, you will be banned. Do not try and get around this by creating an alt.
  
  
• Direct Links to Inappropriate Content: Posting links to pornography, hentai, 2girls1cup, BME Pain Olympics, etc. will get you banned without any warning. Want to post porn? Go do it elsewhere. You don't need to share it with everyone else over here.
  
  
• Impersonation Impersonation, or pretending to be another member on the site, gets you an instant ban. Do not joke about this subject either - anyone pretending to be someone else is likely to get banned just as easily.
  
  
• Glitches/Exploits:Spiral Mountain is a unique site in that the entire forum was coded from the ground up. Given that, some of our features aren't completely glitch free as you may expect from other pre-made forums.
  
  Glitches in the coding should generally be reported to a moderator or administrator straight away - never to be exploited for personal gain. This is especially true in the case of mumbo tokens (however it's not limited to that)- basically, any glitches or exploits used for your own benefit will result in a ban. If you find one accidentally, report it to a mod; don't just abuse the glitch until you get found out.
  
  
• Dangerous and Malicious Links: DO NOT link to dangerous or malicious sites. Any site which gives lots of pop-ups, resizes or moves the browser window or contains spyware, adware and/or viruses should never be linked to, even if your intentions were only to joke. Make sure you check what you're linking to before posting that link for all to see.

• Ranks: This is the most-asked-about site function... ranks are based on how long you've been here.
  As far as I know, the ranks are as follows:
  
  • Colliwobble: <25 days
    
  • Grublin: 25-49 days
    
  • Gruntling: 50-149 days
    
  • Sir Slush: 150-199 days
    
  • Jinxy: 200-499 days
    
  • Ancient One: 500-999 days
    
  • Legend: 1000+ days
  
  
• Secrets: On your surfing of the site you may come across a SNS egg or ice key. If you do, click on it! This earns you that secret and ultimately mumbo tokens - but if you sell them, keep at least one of each for yourself so you can keep the "I've got the Secrets" trophy displayed in the forums. :D
  
  • Secret Secrets: It's rumoured that Stop 'n' Swop wasn't limited to the six eggs and icekey, and that a few super secret items were left out of the games. Only a few people have ever come across the 'secret secrets' - if you happen to be lucky enough to find one, keep it to yourself. Please don't ruin the myth for other members. ;D
  
  
• Mumbo Tokens: The currency of Spiral Mountain, earned by finding and selling secrets. You can donate them, or after earning a lot, you can buy a shop and sell your own merchandise for more tokens.
  
  
• Blogs and Videos: One of SM's special features is the ability to buy certain sections to add to your profile - basically, a personal blog and video section. Each costs upwards of 10,000 tokens, so you'll have to start saving up if you want one. Blogs are just places to post your musings, ramblings, or whatever you please. Video Sections can be used to display your own videos, or your favourites from Youtube.
  
  
• Jiggies: It is said that if one visits The Temple and gets through its doors, then they will be subjected to one of Master Jiggywiggy's tricky tasks. Complete it and they may walk away with a golden trinket for display next to their posts in the forums. If you manage to solve the riddle within, don't spoil it for others. ;D
  
  
• Notes: Under Construction.
  
  
• Jinjos: Found in the same way as secrets. These will be publicly displayed with all your messages instead.
  
  
• Red Flags: These flags next to topic titles simply mean that the topic creator has flagged the topic in question for deletion.
  
  
• Green Flags: These flags next to topic titles mean a mod has tagged the topic so that it won't be deleted in the Deadwood purge.

I've noticed some forum posters are continuously "hotlinking" images from various websites. Usually I don't ramble, but I thought this needed a mention.

Hotlinking is basically when someone copies a file from a website (e.g. Nintendo) and then puts it somewhere else (i.e. these forums). This is illegal and will waste the webmaster's bandwidth you've stole the file from (e.g. an image).

Bandwidth is the amount of communication that can carry across a network. Each website has a certain amount of bandwidth. Each time someone copies and pastes something from their site onto another website this wastes their bandwidth as you're consuming it by using it elsewhere.

Unless you have authorised permission I would advise you not to "hotlink". Hotlinking is illegal and webhosts can see where their images are hotlinked to. If serious, this can result in legal action against the site with the hotlinked files. I've seen it happen before.

Don't worry. This doesn't apply to things like YouTube of course as you have authorised access. However it includes any files that you do not have any permission to use that are on someone else's site. For example, hotlinking an avatar from a website that tells you to save the image to your own webspace would be considered illegal.

Please stop hotlinking without authorized permission. Thankyou for reading. I've left the topic open in case anyone has any questions about the matter.

Quote: Goombs

Due to members posting the same questions over and over again. I decided to compile a simple guide what all members can just read.


Paint.NET is the best FREE graphic editing software available. Click here to visit their website and download the software. Their forum has plenty tutorials and plugins such as glow effect and cutting tools. Click here to go there.

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How do I upload an image?

I've found an image; how do I find it's URL?

How do I put on an avatar

Why is my avatar/signature broken?

What is the avatar size?

What is the maximum signature size?

How do I make my own avatar or signature?

How do make the image size correct?

How do I make Skins?

I haven't got enough money to buy a shop!

No one buys anything from my shop. Why?

What are these white bits around my image?

Any tips on creating graphics?

How do I put an image in my signature?

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How do I upload an image?
First you need to register an account on PhotoBucket. This is a website which allows registered users to upload images for free.

Once you've registered just follow the instructions. To upload a file just select the "image from my PC" option. Click Browse and file the image file in your computer. Then click upload.

If you wish to upload an image from another website (please respect copyright issues). Right-click the image and click "Properties". A website URL like "http:...." will be shown. Copy that URL and paste it into the "web url" tab in PhotoBucket then click upload.

I've found an image; how do I find it's URL?
Right-Click the image. Click "Properties" and you'll see its URL.

Firefox users can simply click "View Image" and the URL will appear in the browser. Or just click "Copy Link Location".

How do I put on an avatar
Go to "My Avatar" on the right underneath your current avatar. Select one available, or copy the URL of the image and paste it into the "Avatar URL" field.

PhotoBucket users can find their URL located underneath a thumbnail of the image. It's in the field box next to "URL Link". Clicking inside it once automatically copies it. Then just paste it into the "Avatar URL" field on Spiral Mountain and click submit.

Why is my avatar/signature broken?
Firstly, check the URL you entered. Copy this URL into your browser and search for it. If it doesn't come up, obviously the image has either been deleted or moved OR you have entered the URL incorrectly. Pay particular attention to .gif and .GIF extensions. They won't display unless you use the correct case.

What is the avatar size?
The avatar size is 80 x 80. If you put an image over that size it is automatically resized to meet the requirements.

What is the maximum signature size?
To keep forums tidy a signature recommendation size has been created. I recommended 500 x 90. Not too big; not too small. However the maximum signature size is 500 x 150.

How do I make my own avatar or signature?
If you have not got PhotoShop I would recommended downloading "Paint.NET" from here, as this is the best FREE alternative.

For Avatars: Images are usually copied from a game renders website. I recommend GameHiker's Gallery and then resized to fit the best part of the image inside the 80 x 80 avatar.

For Signatures: A simple blend of co-ordinated colours usually makes a nice signature. Always have an image or shade in the background and a foreground (character render?), hopefully with a text message. Don't make your signature pointless make it mean something.

How do make the image size correct?
When you click choose to create a new file you are asked what sizes to use.

If you cannot be bothered to do that, just resize the canvas to as small as possible by dragging the corners. Then copy an image from the website that has the required size and you will be asked if you want to stretch the size. Click "Yes" and the canvas size will be the size you want it. Just don't use the image you copied OK.

How do I make Skins?
Skin banners are 800 x 100. The most important think to consider about a skin is if its usable. The skin must NOT have clashing colours. Too bright or too dark is just not right; you need a balance. Try to match the colours used.

If you choose to use a dark themed skin, use light text. If you choose a light themed skin choose dark text. If its something you'll like and are proud of, it's likely that other members will.

I haven't got enough money to buy a shop!
Don't complain or beg for money. Everyone has worked to get their shop. Just try and save your mumbos and resist the temptation to buy items (if you don't really need it). Save up!

Find secrets and sell them. Or create a topic advertising and selling avatars or signatures.

No one buys anything from my shop. Why?
Its best to create a topic for your shop in the "Creative" forum so members can see your updates or on a blog. If they don't know what you're selling they might not look.

If the price is too high they're likely not to buy. Try and be reasonable. Judge the price you think it deserves. It's best to compare your prices with other shops in the Market Square.

What are these white bits around my image?
When you copy and paste an image you have to cut out its background using the "Magic Wand" Tool. By selecting the background with it and clicking delete you'll get rid of the background.

However, if the render isn't cut properly white bits will be left around the render. The reason being is that renders have difference tolerance levels. Tolerance levels determine how much you want to cut. If you cut out a white background, no doubt white pixels will be left. If so, change the tolerance level so Paint.NET includes the white pixels.

If you're unable to get rid of them, delete them manually; or put a glow effect around the image so the white pixel dots cannot be seen; or find the render on Google, which has already been cut by someone else.

Any tips on creating graphics?
(1)When grabbing an image and putting it into your avatar or whatever DO NOT DISTORT IT. Often I see images that have been distorted just to fit in the image. If you hold the SHIFT key whilst resizing the image, it will stay the same size, but shrink or enlarge.

(2)Get rid of those annoying white pixels. If you can't, add a glow effect on them. There are plenty of mods available on the Paint.NET forum.

(3)Placing different images is important. Make sure you have a structure to the image. Usually if a banner or sig. A background (usually a gradient), a foreground (with a character render) on the left or right and then text the opposite side. If all of these components are not organized properly the image won't look structured.

(4)Be unique. Don't try and copy other images. Instead develop your own style by mixing and matching other images. You may be surprised what you come up with.

(5)Research. Often, all of the answers on how to create sigs, avatars, banners or effects are out there on the Internet. Try and search for them and use tutorials.

How do I put an image in my signature?
Put this code in but remember to get rid of the *:
<*img src="URL of image file" border="0"/>
If you want to set its size to the recommended use:
<*img src="URL of image file" width="500" height="150" border="0"/>
If you want the image to have a link use:
<*a href="website"><*img src="URL of image" border="0" /><*/a>

Quote: Goombs

• You MUST be over 13 years of age in order to sign up with a Spiral Mountain forum account; various legal issues prevent us from allowing those under this age from joining. We're sorry but we do not allow COPPA forms from underage users at this stage. SM has users joining from all over the world, so we cannot cater for all the different policies for different countries around the globe. If we find that you have signed up and are under age, then it is likely that your account will be suspended.
  
  
• Alt Accounts (as mentioned above) - Unless they have a specific purpose (eg Mumbo, Pawno, Captain Blackeye, Dear Gobi), alt accounts are NOT ALLOWED. Accounts take up large amounts of server space, and there are many glitches in SM's coding that are exploited using alternate accounts. If your IP matches more than one account on Spiral Mountain both of your accounts will be frozen at the admins' discretion.
  
  
• Account Responsibility - Do NOT share your password or account details with ANYONE. Anything that happens on your account is your responsibility; I don't care if your dog did it while you weren't looking, it's your account, and it's your job to make sure that no-one screws with it. If your account breaks the rules and you get banned, even if you yourself didn't do it, you will get no second chances.
  
  
• Changing Names - Please think carefully before choosing your username as we are not able to change it once you've registered.
  
  
• Changing Passwords - If you fear that your account has been hacked or just want a new password, you change your password at My Settings.