The Dames

Well, there's a big black link at the top of every page, which should be enough. Dames

Another excellent column, Nik. I love your caption idea and you utilize the picture functions better than anyone on TSM so far. Dames

I'm not sure how many there were, but more than triple what we're used to banning in a week's time. Dames

In the past few days, it's been almost 10 trolls/idiots who have come here and caused me to reveal the fact that I've been PMSing. Dames

The Rules are now up in Site Feedback. Your opinions are wanted. Dames

This has been a long time coming. Hopefully now, there won't be any confusion as to what the rules are. 1. Blatant racism, bigotry and sexism are not allowed and are grounds for an automatic ban. 2. Trolls will be automatically banned. Trolling is defined as the consistent posting of useless material with the intention of getting off-topic and specifically eliciting and inciting undesirable responses from users reading the thread. 3. We don't care what you know or what you don't...as long as you can convey your point like a person who speaks English at a somewhat coherent and intelligent level. I'm not asking for perfection when it comes to spelling, grammar and punctuation, but it comes a long way in allowing the rest of us to understand what you're saying. If this becomes an issue, you can be banned due to mod’s discretion. This is a place where people come to unwind, have fun, and/or debate about certain topics. We don't come here to spend precious time translating posts from Stupid-to-English. 4. Gimmicks are discouraged, but not disallowed. If a poster makes a gimmick and it ends up banned, the poster will be permanently banned should he come up with a second gimmick that ends up banned as well. 5. Flaming is allowed in No Holds Barred and is discouraged everywhere else. If you have a problem with someone, take it to NHB. Depending on mod’s discretion, flaming outside of NHB can be subject to a one-time warning. Absolutely TASTELESS comments are subject to ban via mod’s discretion regardless of the forum. Keep in mind, though, that a stranger calling you a name on the internet is just that: a stranger calling you a name on the internet. It's really not that important in the grand scheme of the forums. Many problems with "flaming" can be overcome by simply ignoring the other party. 6. Spamming is grounds for an automatic ban. Spamming is defined as posting solely for the sake of advertising a site, a message board or anything else without contributing to any discussions at all. The occasional “Hey, read my review on this” is fine, but if every single one of your posts are nothing but constant plugs without regard for the discussion, then it is spamming. This also applies to Private Messages as spamming via PM is grounds for a banning. There is but one exception to this and this is the Tape Trading Folder, which allows advertising…solely for the purpose of trading, selling or purchasing wrestling tapes and/or DVD’s. 7. If you've been banned before, you will NOT be allowed back. Simple as that. Second chances are NOT given, so tread lightly. 8. Flame-Baiting. If you consistently attempt to engage someone in a flame war, you are subject to a one-time warning. Remember, if you have a problem with someone, take it to NHB. There's a quote button for a reason. 9. Obey the Mods. Yes, they are posters just like the rest of us. We’ve not against you speaking your mind and disagreeing if you feel that we’ve made a poor judgment call whatsoever. However, they are the police of TSM and just like the real police, disobeying is a crime. If you're warned by one of them for whatever reason and you don't comply, you WILL be banned. 10. Posting pictures containing nudity or grotesque images can merit you a one-time warning, followed by a ban if the rule is violated again. You may use links to other sites or pictures ONLY, but you MUST include a warning if it contains nudity or grotesque images. Nudity (or suggestive photos in general) will not be allowed in sigs as well as in avatars. As for what is suggestive, Torrie Wilson in a bikini isn't necessarily suggestive, but some hottie in a flimsy wet T-shirt and barely-there thong is. If you were looking at the forums at work and your boss passed by, would you be embarrassed that said image is on your screen? Once again, what is suggestive is also up to a mod's discretion. Also, this may sound odd, but I am arachnaphobic. VERY fucking arachnaphobic...so pictures of spiders counts as a grotesque image to me, so the links rule applies to it. 11. Signatures should not be too big. Based on the 1024 x 768 resolution, it should not exceed one half of a page vertically. Any sigs that cause the screen to stretch is too wide and will be required to be resized. If you do not know how to resize pictures, I’m sure that people would be willing to help in the Graphics & Testing Grounds folder. Moderators are fully authorized to use their own discretion when dealing with any situation they encounter, and to mete out any penalties they see fit. If you legitimately feel you were treated unfairly, you're free to email or PM me about the situation. There are no promises being offered for a favorable resolution: our moderators are fully supported by the Administrators, and have never been known to act too hastily and administer unfair penalties. Those who have been in violation of these rules in the past will not be banned for those offenses, but the rules apply as of now, so be wary. We encourage feedback in order to make sure that the rules benefit the TSM community. Dames

I'm a bit in the dark about this boards early days, what did SK do? This is taken from the "Eliminate The Post Counts?" thread in Site Feedback. Sassquatch tells us of the Dark Age: "As someone who's really only been around since this place became TheSmartMarks instead of TheSmarks, someone want to explain the whole situation? From what I gather, there were moderating abuses, people left and formed WDI in protest, and then it became TSM." The Porno and Flaming folders at the old Smarks EZ Board were where most of the posters that make up WDI and SNKT all hung out. They were like these two giant General Chat folders where everyone had a good time. But there was a poster there named Maurizcio C who was supposedly from Italy and typed of his posts with a bad "a" after almost every word. He had bad blood with many of the posters in the Flaming folder as well as almost everyone else on the board who ever encountered him. One day Maurizcio C complained to Don Becker that the cliques in the Flaming folder and Porno folder (namely the Inner Circle which was the first clique to kick off the clique wars) were getting out of hand as well as taking their frustrations out on him in the other folders (which was over exaggerated by Murizcio). Don Becker then made the famous comment "posting cliques are gay" which spawned the gPc or gay Posting clique. This comment created a monster as cliques on the board sprung almost over night with one of the most notable being Team Havoc which was led by the genius who was a legendary troll at both the Smarks EZ Board as well as WDI who has not been seen since being banned at WDI over a year ago. Time went on and for the most part, things were good at the board. But soon post whoring at the board had reached ridiculous levels of utter tripe. Maurizcio had managed to post 250 times in a single day which led to many people complaining about how Maurizcio was ruining the board. But Maurizcio struck back in time before anything punishment could be handed out and accused the posters in the Flaming folders of being the people who were ruining the board. Both sides tangled with one another until 12/07/01 came: Jeremy Botter, the board’s website admin and designer, took away post counts and customized avatar settings which Keith had told him to do in response to the bickering amongst the posters. This announcement made by Keith opened a can of worms that probably wishes he to this day he would have never opened. Keith told anyone who asked why the settings were removed or ask for them back would be banned. The first causality in this mess was a poster by the name of Witty Banter. In the thread that Keith had made his announcement in, Witty Banter made a remark that had nothing to do with the post counts or what was going on and he was quickly banned from the board. The sheer dictatorial fashion in which he banned Witty Banter set off everyone who was involved in the matter as well as the way that Keith coldly made a major change to the board without any other poster's inputs which many felt was made in an unfair and domineering manner. Shortly after Witty was banned, pictures of both Keith and Becker popped up on the boards in the General Chat folder along with the Flaming folders. The most notable and often remembered pictures of Becker and Keith were with their heads copied and pasted into various pictures of Nazi's and Sailor Moon girls. This went on for a couple of hours until Keith had Botter delete the Flaming folder. The group of posters was furious and in response to this action, they opened up a site called WDI which is still up today. In one of the funnier moments of WDI's infancy, Jeremy Botter made a post at the board shortly after it went up saying that he heard that the WDI posters were going to invade the board and threatened to have the board deleted by friends of his who knew how to do that kind of thing. An invasion never happened and WDI went on with its business. WDI was created as a "fuck you" to Keith and the other admins at the Smarks who had shown no regard or care for the posters and this perception stuck with the board long after the "war" had ended between Keith and his friends. When the squabble finally ended is anyone's guess but more than likely people would point to Dames buying the board and becoming the owner as the day that the disdain ended for both sides. Over the last year, WDI has grown out of it's old shadow as not just a board that was created in spite of another board's actions, but as a message board that has no goal of bringing down the Smarks but rather just posting and generally having a good time. And there you have it. Of course I might have missed some things in there (timeline wise) but that's the meat of the matter. Dames

Hey Bass... If you don't have anything to contribute to the topic, you're trolling. Do it again and you shall feel my wrath. Dames

Whats with the date? AS is more like Sonny Dames

Trust me, the LAST thing I want to do is be another SK. I want to avoid that type of a situation as much as possible. Dames

It's not a grammar crackdown. It's a crackdown against STUPIDITY. Go read anything that Jimmy Beard or Hulkamania Fan have written in the past two days. Dames Does this mean that Hulkamania Fan is on his way out too? Most likely. I have to get home though. I'll be back on later. Dames

It's not a grammar crackdown. It's a crackdown against STUPIDITY. Go read anything that Jimmy Beard or Hulkamania Fan have written in the past two days. Dames

Yes, they will, Barron...as long as they make SENSE!!!!! Dames

Notice CheeseBurgers' IP address matched someone I banned yesterday Dames

You mean someone like...Choken One??? Dames

AS, I'm not looking for any new mods right now. The mods aren't the problem, the ambiguity of the rules are. I'm going to end that soon. Dames

In the Movies/DVD/TV folder. Dames

I'm going to see if a script can be made where the Rules will be something that must be read prior to registration. Dames

You'd ban anyone who hates Kurt Angle. Although RoboSault DOES sound cool. Dames

I'll consider it. Oh, but it won't be just stupidity. It's the Declaration of Fucking WAR against all trolls, previously banned posters, BAD fucking gimmicks and all that is evil on TSM. .... and the WWE Folder. Dames

Don't worry AngleSault. Your level of stupidity is protected by the fact that you actually make sense most of the time Some of these cats act like they've never passed the 3rd grade. Tom, it is for a good cause....this Crusade of ours. Dames

I don't see how this is a discussion on WWF/E anyway. This is about SK....and mostly bashing him. Off to NHB you go! Dames

I don't disagree with that. Thanks. Dames

Hey, I never said I was the best. I'm still very new at this you know. I'm constantly trying to improve as well. In all honesty, I don't think I'm that good at all. Dames

...1 down. Check the "best triology of films" thread in DVD. Dames