Forum Guidelines!

[David E]

Telltale Games Community Forum Guidelines: for Promotion and Maintenance of a Fun and Not Lame Online Community (TTGC4umGL:4PAMOAFANLOC)

Revision 0.0.13b, September 3, 2008

So, it's come to this. Our community has grown quite a bit in the last few months, and there comes a time in the lives of many forums where some guidelines need to be codified in order to keep things a bit more sane. Keep in mind, though, that this is a guide and not a rulebook. This means that exceptions will be made based on the unique circumstances of whatever stuff is going down, and that the words written below might not cover new, exciting problems that arise down the line.

Let's get started, shall we?

I. Respect, civility, and avoiding getting your posts deleted.

It turns out that people don't always agree with each other on this great big internet of ours. If you happen to have a difference of opinion with another member of the community, don't resort to personal attacks to try and get your point across. At the very least, you'll end up looking foolish, and you could end up getting punished if it seems like you're being super-lame to people. Harassment of other members will not be tolerated.

II. Whoa, the Telltale Team posts here.

Sometimes you'll see posts by people with italicized names and the tiny Telltale Games logos by their names; those are folks that work for Telltale. A few of these people are responsible for maintaining the website and forums, and so will be more visible in the community attempting to keep the forums a sane place, so listen to them!

With Telltale folks meandering through the forums every day, there are a couple of things that you should keep in mind:

We can speak for ourselves, and (often) do!

Try to avoid posting stuff or presenting yourself in a way that might make people think you're representing Telltale in some official capacity. For people familiar with our forums, it's pretty easy to tell Telltale folks and other community members apart (see above regarding italics and mini-logos), but many posters are not regular visitors here, and it may not be immediately obvious when information is coming straight from Telltale and when it's just speculation.

Best to avoid the confusion by letting Telltale answer those questions ourselves.

What to do when someone addresses a question to Telltale staff

Sometimes, a topic will be directly addressed to the Telltale team. An example of this might be someone posting because they wanted to know how our online store works or how their purchases are stored. In these cases, it's generally best to hold off on replying, and let one of the Telltale folks answer it (even if you think you know the answer) so that the person asking the question does not get frustrated or confused.

III. Don't spam. Wait, what does that even mean?

"I want to talk about a cool free game I made! Is that okay?"

That's cool; we like to hear about that stuff. Just post it in the General Chat forum and it shouldn't be a problem at all.

"I want to talk about the Home Loans, Bank accounts in Nigeria, discounts on software, generic drugs, or something not remotely related to Telltale games. Also, give me some money."

No. Stop. Desist. Cease. Go away! Oh wait, we already banned you.

"I woke up today and felt like complaining about piracy... or talk about how much I like it... or just create a thread related to it in which I analyze the subject from an unbiased point of view."

No. Piracy talk on these forums is always completely off-limits and can get you banned without warning. This offense absolutely also includes the most nebulous of allusions to "alternative sources".

"No one replied to my awesome post. Hey, maybe they didn't see it! I'll just reply to my own post, or maybe even repost the thread so it goes back to the top."

Sometimes threads and posts don't get the reception you expect, and in those cases, it's best just to move on. Thread bumping and replying to your own posts is behavior that many people find annoying, and it's very likely that extra posts will get deleted by a saddened member of the Telltale team. In some cases, the thread might get locked as a result of non-productive posting behavior such as this.

"Oh, MAN. This guy is totally spamming. I'm going to reply to this post and call him a jerk."

Ah, and here's one of the commonly overlooked definitions of spam: When someone posts a clearly spammy topic, any replies made to that discussion thread are also considered spam. Your best bet when encountering spam topics is to keep a safe distance and allow someone from the Telltale team to come along and detonate it. However, if you would like to let us know about a specific problematic post, you can click on the little picture button that looks like a triangular road sign with a black bar down the middle; it's located at the bottom-left of the post. This button will take you to the reporting system, where you can tell us all about said jerk and their jerky post.

IV. Don't attempt to destroy a discussion because you don't think it's worth discussing.

This basically covers the times where someone spots a thread they don't think should exist, and then does whatever they can to shut down any kind of constructive discussion that might occur there. This can include (but is not limited to) overtly asking why the thread exists in said thread, being mean to the original thread poster or respondents, deliberately trying to steer discussion towards something unrelated to the original topic, posting super-negative responses without a good reason (i.e., if it doesn't match the tone of the thread), or requesting a lock/deletion publicly while others are still trying to have a discussion. This does not mean you can't get in touch with us if you have a problem with a thread.

The quality of threads on our forums will vary, but please leave it up to the Telltale Team to judge a discussion's ultimate fate, and don't try to artificially make it a bad thread through non-constructive posting. Even if the subject matter is somewhat weak, you're not doing us a favor by making the thread tank. If you don't really have anything positive or relevant to contribute to a discussion, feel free to ignore it.

V. Does this deserve its own thread?

We don't expect too much here; just use a bit of common sense when you start a new discussion. If you see a thread on the forum that's pretty much covering the exact same subject you wanted to post about, replying to that one will probably be more productive starting a brand new topic. The search tool is your friend, and can help you find out if your question or comment has been brought up recently or in the past.

Similarly, replying to threads that have been dormant for a fairly long time, especially those that have been plainly resolved can be seen as disruptive and will make us very sad. So, don't create a race of zombie threads, please.

VI. Express yourself in your posts; use flair sparingly.

It is our firm hope that you can demonstrate your individuality and personality through the content of your posts, rather than in the customizable areas that surround your post. We're especially referring to signatures, here. Some people like to make extremely lengthy signatures, or ones that use huge text, or ones that go over the top with emoticon use or ASCII art. Please don't do that here! It distracts from the content of your post and the posts around it, and will likely be edited or erased by a forum admin.

VII. I'm having problems playing a Telltale game.

"I'm stuck!"

If you need a hint, we've set up special help forums for each of our game titles, which should be located under each game's main discussion forum.

"Whoa, something doesn't work right."

If you're having issues of a more technical nature, such as sound, visual glitches, crashes, chugging, and the like, you should direct your posts to the Game Support forum and a community member or Telltale staff member will address it soon. You can also email support@telltalegames.com for assistance.

"I need help unlocking this game I bought..."

These kinds of issues go in the Shopping and Activation Support forum, and you can also email support@telltalegames.com to get help.

Hey, thanks for reading this. Hopefully it wasn't too painful or scary. Enjoy the forums!