The Coffee House

The Coffee House - Board Guidelines


Welcome to The Coffee House - we hope you enjoy your stay here. In order to enable other members to do the same, we ask you to adhere to the following:

Adult and Prohibited content

Please do not post any of the following on this board (in roughly descending order of importance):

  1. Anything illegal (for example, anything that infringes upon copyrights or trademarks);
  2. Anything abusive, threatening, racist, supportive of terrorism, or inciteful of hatred;
  3. Anything excessively violent (beyond a PG-13 level), or anything which promotes or incites violence;
  4. Any sexual content above a PG-13 level; anything needlessly or gratuitously sexual; or any sexualisation of children (under-16s);
  5. Nudity is, in general, not allowed - although we may permit non-sexual examples, provided they are spoilered and directly relevant to the topic at hand (e.g. under these terms, a picture of the Statue of David would be allowed in a thread about classical art). However, if in doubt, it's best to ask first!
  6. Anything knowingly false, defamatory, libellous, or invasive of privacy (as outlined in our Privacy Policy);
  7. Any information on how to scam or cheat people, or otherwise commit fraud;
  8. Any viruses, or other harmful computer software;
  9. Any information on illicit drugs. (Discussing the politics surrounding their legality is allowed; posting information on how to create or obtain them is not);
  10. Any credentials (e.g. passwords or CD-keys), or any information on hacking. (This includes information provided for the purposes of "ethical hacking": there's no way we can prevent its misuse by less scrupulous individuals :( )

Spam and Advertising

Please only post if you have something to contribute. For example, if the thread is about "What animals have you seen today?", and you haven't seen any animals today, there's no point in posting to say "None". Basically: if you have nothing relevant to post, don't post.

Furthermore, do not advertise commercial products or services on here. Exceptions may be made for informal small-scale personal activities (e.g. art commissions or posting packages); however, advertising of any organised business is prohibited.

Personal websites/forums may be advertised in your profile, avatar or signature, or in "Your Sites and Forums". However, advertising elsewhere is forbidden - and in particular, unsolicited PM advertising is strictly prohibited.

Flaming and Abuse

Please don't insult, attack, or act in a provocative way towards other members (particularly in threads concerning sensitive subject matter: see the Thread Prefix Guide for more information on these ' Srs Bsns' threads).

If anyone does flame at you, don't flame back; simply send a PM to one of the admins and they will handle it.

Swearing is not prohibited, but don't curse excessively for the sake of it, as this will simply irritate other users.

Images, Avatars and Signatures

In order to save on loading times and mobile data, please observe the following:

  1. Signatures should not cause noticeable loading issues (as a guideline, we recommend your entire signature should not exceed 500KB);
  2. Any very large images in posts (5MB upwards) must be posted as links (giving a clear indication of the file size);
  3. Image-heavy topics (e.g. "Beautiful animal pics") should be marked as ' Load Warning'.

Also, any animations that will likely irritate other users (e.g. blinking effects or 'jump scares') must be put inside a spoiler tag describing the nature of the animation.

Topic titles

Because the title is the first part of a thread that most people see, please use a title that accurately describes the purpose of the topic, and sets an appropriate tone. In particular:

  1. Make the title descriptive. For example, if you need help with something, don't just say "I need help!": specify what you need help with. (The only exception, where a less descriptive title would be preferable, is to avoid spoilers; see the 'Spoilers' section below)
  2. Avoid unnecessarily polarising titles, such as "Why [Controversial activity X] is worse than genocide". Titles don't have to be completely neutral, but they should read like a starting point for discussion, and not the opening shot of a flame war.

Articles and Links

When posting news, please do not copy and paste entire articles (except translations; see the 'Foreign Languages' section). Instead, post a summary of a few lines, and link to the original article. This is for both copyright reasons and "tl;dr" reasons, as explained here.

If you're cross-posting a thread that you found on another person's site, then it's a good idea to give credit (including a link to the original thread on their board if you'd like) - but please don't do this when cross-posting from your own site, as this violates the Advertising rules.

Foreign Languages

The Coffee House is an English-speaking community. Thus, all posts must be in English (except foreign-language content whose purpose is to educate English-speakers about the language).

For similar reasons, English-language sources are preferred - and, if you must use a foreign-language source, please translate the relevant text into English.

Gravedigging

Reviving old threads is generally allowed, but;

  1. Don't revive threads that are no longer relevant (e.g. a 'Merry Christmas' thread once Christmas is over);
  2. Reviving old news threads is discouraged unless you have new updates (any that do get revived will be marked as ' Old News');
  3. If there's a currently-active thread that's similar to the one you want to revive, it's better to use that thread instead.

Spoilers

All plot spoilers from recently-released media must be posted within [spoiler] tags, until:

The 'release date' will be the US release date, unless otherwise specified (e.g. for works released later in other major markets).

Note that this policy does not cover non-plot TV related spoilers (such as sports/competition results). However, if specific sports or shows are likely to be watched on delay, these may be subject to their own rules.

Data Protection and Anonymity

Personal information that identifies the real 'you' (e.g. your full name, full date of birth) may only be posted:

  1. In the "Community Café" section of the board, in threads that are specifically about you, or;
  2. Threads specifically designated as exemptions to the above (such as the Friend Code Thread).
Furthermore, do not post another user's personal information, unless: a) it is in one of the settings describes above, and b) they have already revealed it elsewhere on TCH themselves.

Multiple accounts

Each member is allowed only one account. Any subsequent accounts will be merged into the original on discovery, and any punishments on these accounts will be carried over to the original.

Moderation

If somebody breaks one of these rules, report it to a staff member so that they can handle it. Please don't take matters into your own hands by 'backseat moderating'.

Furthermore, please don't derail threads by arguing with staff about moderator actions. If you believe you have been punished unfairly, there is an appeals process you can follow (more information in this thread).

Finally, while we strive for comprehensive rules that we can enforce consistently, we cannot anticipate every possible form of mischief (indeed, it's a bad idea to even try). So, instead of searching for loop-holes or engaging in 'malicious compliance', please exercise common sense.


Thank you for reading and following these rules - and have fun!

-The Coffee House staff team