Sonic Stadium Community Rules

Last Updated: 10 July, 2023

We want you to have a great time making friends and interacting with the latest news and community chat on the Sonic Stadium. In order to make this a pleasant experience for everyone, we have a list of Rules that all Sonic Stadium account members must follow.

• The following Rules apply ‘Globally’ - to ALL CONTENT and all sections on the Sonic Stadium where Members can interact or create content. That includes, but is not limited to; SSMB Forums, Clubs, Status Updates, Direct Messages, Sonic News Comments, User Reviews and the Events Calendar.
   
• Some areas of the Sonic Stadium may have additional rules (called ‘Sub-Rules’) applied. Please make sure you read and adhere to any Sub-Rules, in addition to the following Global Rules.
   
• Some user-generated areas of the Sonic Stadium, such as Clubs, may also have additional sub-community rules applied by the Members who create or own them. Although these are not official Rules that are proactively actioned by the Sonic Stadium Moderation Team, we recommend adhering to them in order to maintain the community peace. You may be ejected from a Club if you disrupt their sub-community.
   
• No sub-community rules (within user-generated areas such as Clubs) made or enforced by non-Moderator/Admin Members can overrule, negate or otherwise ‘loophole’ any of the Global Rules outlined below, and any sub-community rules can be subject to change or removal from the Sonic Stadium Moderation Team at any time, for any reason.
   
• The Rules factor in the following prerequisites of having a Sonic Stadium Account:
  1. Members must be over the age of 13 years old.
  2. In order to post content on the site, Members must be able to understand and communicate in fluent English language.

Global Rules

These rules are subject to change at any time; please make sure you check this page regularly so you are always on top of any newly-introduced guidelines.

1. Be respectful of others at all times

Disagree on a subject, sure, but insulting, trolling and aggressively addressing users (either directly or via subtext) will not be tolerated. Specifics may be further outlined in other Rules below.

2. This is a socially progressive space; inappropriate or offensive material will not be tolerated

We have a Zero Tolerance policy on content that harms or demeans others - including but not limited to: conspiracy theories, political propaganda, regressive/offensive attitudes towards protected and minority groups, and discrimination towards those groups of any kind.

• Individuals - be they public figures or otherwise - have the right to privacy. Absolutely no doxxing (posting of someone’s personal information), or any organised ‘dogpiling’ of any persons is allowed.
   
• Genuine, good-faith criticism of a public persons’ activity must be limited to one central place of discussion, must be relevant / related to real and established facts, and must not include ad hominem attacks.
   
• This is not a space for political discourse (we recommend you seek a community specially tailored for this kind of conversation), but we do allow some political discussion as long as it reflects our socially progressive environment and community. Such discussion must be limited to the General Discussion forum, and may be heavily moderated - content deemed inappropriate by the Moderation Team will be removed.

3. Posting or linking to any adult or illegal content is forbidden

Any such content, including but not limited to: porn, malware, abuse, ROMs or torrents, viruses and IP grabbers; may result in severe warnings or an outright ban depending on severity and repeated offences.

• Any illegal content posted may be subject to having that content and user information passed on to the relevant authorities for further investigation.

4. No Spamming. Make meaningful content; don’t disrupt things for others

Constantly posting short, low-quality content severely undermines the community environment, makes discussion look cheap and generally isn’t allowed here. Make sure you put effort into your posts, and that your point is understandable (in clear, well-written English language).

Making the odd typo is fine (it’s a fact of life), but we recommend you check grammar and punctuation from time to time so that you can be sure your content will be easily understood.

• If your Sonic Stadium account is in the ‘Newbie’ phase, your initial posts/content will be subject to screening/approval by the Moderation Team before it can be seen publicly. If your attempted post is removed, it means that we are trying to guide you to put more effort into your contributions, and we encourage you to try again.
   
• Short posts/comments and image reactions are okay, as long as it is strictly relevant to the discussion (for example, making a short witty joke) and isn’t seen as entirely random or disruptive/derailing. If the size of your intended comment amounts to the length of a decent tweet/social media post, you are generally fine to post it in a topic or News Comment.
   
• Be mindful of potential spoiler content and how you post this on our community. Always wrap any material or information related to newly-released or unreleased media within a “Spoiler” tag to avoid ruining things for others. Topics intended for spoiler discussion should be marked ‘Spoilers Inside’ or similar within the Topic title.
   
• Some topics were made a long time ago. Please do not “necro-bump” topics that have not had any user interaction for over 1 year, unless it is for an important reason. Try making a new topic instead.
   
• You may create a “signature” that can be automatically placed underneath all of your forum posts. These should not be higher than 500px and not exceed 400kb in size.

5. No Trolling

Trolling is the act of constantly posting controversial content or opinions with the sole intention to generate a negative reaction from one or more people in the community.

This is not the same as simply expressing a contrary opinion that others may not like or agree with you on - we are talking about content deliberately made to ‘bait’ people into arguing or getting upset with you.

Trolling is not allowed in any form on the Sonic Stadium - this is not the place to tease others, and you won’t be welcome here.

6. ONE account per Member. No duplicate accounts

Your Sonic Stadium account is personal to you; we do not allow members to run more than one account at the same time. We will be able to check - offenders risk having both their duplicate/s and their real account banned and deactivated.

• If you’re Banned, you’re Banned. Anyone who has been justly punished by the Sonic Stadium Moderation Team is not allowed to engage in any activity that may circumvent those punishments. This includes, but is not limited to, creating new accounts to evade a ban or getting other members to post on your behalf (members who help in this way also risk getting their account banned - so don’t do it!).
   
• Fake, spam or bot accounts will be marked as such and banned on sight.

7. No Third Party Advertising or Affiliate/Commerce Links to Products

Only the Sonic Stadium is allowed to conduct any affiliate, commerce and other revenue-based activity on this website. It helps keep this website running, for your enjoyment. This is not a place for you to generate income from our community.

• Additionally, representatives of products or services (including those from SEGA or SEGA-affiliated licensing partners) must be publicly transparent with their position, and not use the forum solely as a means to outright sell their products to our users (with the exception of general community engagement).

8. Please follow important Mod/Admin directions

The Sonic Stadium Moderation team (Moderators and Administrators) spend a lot of their own free time making sure that this is a fun, inviting and safe space for everyone. They have to deal with a lot of spam, rule-breaking offenders, community drama and other issues on a daily basis. Please understand that they have a job to do, to keep the peace - if a Moderator or Administrator makes a decision on a particular matter, it must be followed and respected.

• No backseat moderation. If you see any content that crosses any of the Rules stated above, your duty as a Sonic Stadium Member is to use the Report function to let the Moderation Team know. They will investigate and take appropriate action.
   
• We sometimes make mistakes. If you feel that a Moderation Team decision has been unjust and not in keeping with the Community Rules, you may escalate the issue with one of the Administration staff, via Private Message. However, this should be considered a last-resort option and only used sparingly. If you waste Administrators’ time with bad-faith escalations, your account could receive further punishment.
   
• Only users assigned to the “SSMB Moderation” and “Administrators” usergroups have the appropriate authority and responsibility regarding community/membership matters. Please do not contact anyone within the “Sonic News” or any other special usergroup regarding a community issue.

9. Please seek appropriate outside help if you need it

We are a welcoming and understanding community, but unfortunately we are not appropriately equipped to deal with discussions or questions concerning serious personal issues, or issues relating to mental health. Please look after yourself and seek the right support with real-life friends, family and/or professional care.

• Similarly, please refrain from directly asking members/the community (in any medium) what they think of you, if you’re disliked, cared about, etc. This puts other members in an unreasonable position, and directly asking for validation in this way is not considered a healthy thing to do. We recommend you work through such feelings with the help of an external support network.
   
• If you need confidential advice or help related to a serious personal issue, please reach out to one of the services listed on this page (covers UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Philippines and South Africa).

10. Just Don’t Be A Dick

If you ever get stuck, take a moment and think: “What Would Sonic Do?” … Not that smarmy Fleetway Sonic though, that would be a bad example. Any of the other Sonics.

How the Staff Work

• SSMB staff are required to hand out strikes or warnings if any members break the above rules.
• If you are given two strikes you will be suspended temporarily.
• If you are striked three times you will be banned from the forums.
• Staff are here to help make sure SSMB is as pleasant a place to use as it can be, but your cooperation is required. If you are unhappy with a staff members' decision then please report your issue to an administrator.
• Moderators are given the authority and trust to decide when a member should be striked or when a topic should be locked at their own discretion, if you wish to dispute a decision you must do so politely.
• As this website is privately owned, the staff reserve the right to ban you without notice if you demonstrate yourself to be especially hostile or idiotic.