Shadowfaith
Shinigami...
Okay the club rules haven’t been revised in a while and though there have been no problems and the rules seem to cover everything I thought I would give it a little re-vamp along with who exactly your moderators and so on so forth. So…
1. Please follow the Main Forum Rules
The Main forum rules can be found here: SPPF forum rules, please read them as they apply to clubs too.
2. Club Help Section
Please post all questions in the Club FAQ/Help Thread so to avoid unnecessary clutter. You will also find answers to common questions there.
3. Making A Club
A. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before you make a new thread.
- Is there already a club like it?
- Will there be a decent amount of members who will also join?
- Will it be active?
- What will the other members and I do in it?
- What’s the purpose of the club?
- Will I have time for my own Club?
- Does my Club follow the forum and Clubs rules?
- Does the club have enough for the members to talk about?
If there already is a club like it, or if it doesn't satisfy the other questions, the club will be UNAPPROVED/REMOVED by a Club moderator.
B. The search feature
The search feature is located in the main forum tool bar (along with the user CP and others). This feature is useful when it comes to making sure the club you plan on making has not already been made. Simply click the search button and click Advanced Search, this will take you to another page where it will ask you to input some details on what you are searching for, simply:
- Type any keywords you would like to search for in to the ‘keywords’ box. For example if your looking for a Sonic club then you would input ‘Sonic’
- Choose ‘Show results as Threads’
- Choose ‘clubs’ from the forum search section.
- Click ‘Search now’
This will then bring up any threads in the club section that have discussed the keyword ‘Sonic’ making it easier for you to track down whether the club has been made or not.
4. Club Submission
A. Submit your thread ONCE and it will be sent to the moderation queue, where it will be either approved or disapproved by a Clubs moderator. Know that it could take up to at most an entire day (or even two) to approve/disapprove your Club, because the moderators are busy with other things too, you know, so DO NOT submit multiple threads wondering why your thread isn't showing up.
B. To know whether your club has been approved/disapproved, please check the ‘Club Approval/Disapproval’ thread sticky in the main club section. This is to spare the moderators the agonizing and tiring ’Why wasn’t my club approved’ PM’s.
C. More information about the moderation queue:
As a summary, it's been the way to deal with which Clubs are acceptable and which aren't, as to prevent spam and repeated threads from appearing. You just submit a new thread and it will be sent to the moderation queue, until a moderator will come and validate it (or remove/disapprove it). Just post the thread as you would normally in any of the forum and it will be sent automatically. Don't worry if the thread doesn't show up immediately, it just means it hasn't been approved. But if the thread doesn't appear within a day, it's most likely it was removed for various reasons already listed above. There's a slight chance it was skipped over, but that'd be fixed up in at most two to three days. So remember, there is NO need to send any kind of request PMs to the moderators or even to ask if your Club idea is good enough or not. Just read the rules here and post your thread, but only post if it's descriptive and not used already.
D. Bumping
Only club owners (and their staff) are allowed to bump clubs, however they may only do so for the following reasons:
- If your club is approved late and has found itself not on the first page of the club then the owner may bump it once in order to get it on the first page.
- If there is significant new relevant to your clubs topic. (i.e. surprise release of a new game/album/season/flavor, death of an actor/CEO/etc)
- If the owner/staff member was the last poster, but they also need to post the results of a tournament or contest.
Any other bumps and you will be warned/infracted and your club may be closed. DO NOT use this as a means to bump your club whenever you feel the need to.
5. Club introduction
A. Don't make a Club with only one sentence for the introduction, only saying the rules but nothing else about the fandom your Club is supposed to be on about, or it will be disapproved for lack of information/introduction. (If you make a club like the above (meaning a one sentence club with nothing but the rules your club has), it'll be locked. And if you continue to make similar type club threads, you will receive a warning/infraction for spamming.)
The following thread re-iterates this: https://forums.serebii.net/threads/one-liners-are-not-allowed.591994/
An introduction could/should include:
- What the club is about.
- A brief explanation of the history/subject of the club
- Rules members are expected to follow (you may wish to include a link to the forum rules as well).
- A member list (if you want)
- Ranks (If your club has any)
- Credit to anyone you used the pictures/banners ect of
- Any ideas/competitions you may have in store for the club
Examples of a good introduction Club: http://www.serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?t=285617
6. Do’s and Don’ts
Below are a list of the club rules, what we expect of you and what is plain wrong:
A. No Single Pokémon Clubs/Single Video Game character clubs
For example, you can’t make an Oddish club.However you could make one for Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, and Bellossom.
B. No Pokemon Family Clubs
You are no longer aloud to make Family Pokemon club, i.e The Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard club or the Sandshrew and Sandslash Club, these can easily be discussed in Pokemon type clubs such as the Fire Pokemon club or the Ground Pokemon club.
There is an exception for the Legendary Pokemon club because legendary Pokemon are basically a type of Pokemon.
C. No Team ABC Clubs
This does not apply to those Team Rocket/Magma/Aqua/Snagem/Galatic/etc Clubs. You just can't make a random team that was from your fanfiction or something, where nobody will have heard of your club
D. No Limited Subject clubs (NEW!)
When making a club please THINK to yourself: Is this a club that people will always have something to talk about? I mean if you go and make a club about Chocolate Biscuits then people aren't going to have enough to talk about other than: "I LOVE CHOC BICCIES!". So my advice to you is to widen the subject, instead of just chocolate biscuits widen it to all types of biscuits for example.
E. Give Credit
For any banners or images you use, please make sure you have permission to use them and if so then give that user/website credit. This also goes for any members who use the club’s banners in they’re sigs, you must give credit to the creator as you would anyway. Be aware that if your club/sig does not give credit then it can end it sig removal, club closure and infractions. Art theft anyone?
F. Post Your Thread Once
Press the "Submit" button ONLY ONCE. It will take at most 24 hours for the thread to be approved, but if it does not, give it another day, and if it still doesn't, there's a high chance that was disapproved.
G. Read the first post
ALWAYS read the first post before asking to join. Some clubs might require you to PM a Club Leader or the Owner before you begin to post, so make sure you've read the rules there.
H. No one liners
Please refrain from posting one liners such as ‘Can I join’ or ‘I like Ash’. These will be classed as spam and can lead to warning > Infraction > Ban. Make your post count.
I. Do not PM/VM members to join your club
This will be classed as intent to annoy others and can lead to Warning > Infraction > Ban. You may advertise in your sig but nothing more. If you catch anyone doing this then please report it to a moderator immediately, either through using the report system or PMing a mod.
J. Do not topic drift
Remember that the club you join is dedicated to a certain subject. Please try to stay on topic of that is which your club is dedicated to and if you do stray then please make your posts count.
K. No Shiny Pokémon/Shiny Hunting Clubs [NEW]
At the moment, making a club to discuss shiny Pokémon or your shiny Pokémon hunting is banned due to constant drama in the past. I apologize if you were expecting fun in the last club after getting kicked out of Social Groups and what not but don't try to make a club for this because it will be automatically deleted. It may be open to members in the future but it all depends on your actions. By the way, do not send messages asking when it will be available again.
7. Clubs with an Inactive Owner
If the club owner hasn't been on the forums for a while (at least a month) without warning, you may request to have their club closed so you can restarted on the basis that you reached consensus with the majority of the active members in the club. If the club owner is still around the forums but hasn't been participating and updating the club for AT LEAST two weeks, you may try to reach a consensus with the active members on restarting the thread and whom to be the new owner.
8. Reporting A Club
A. How To Report
Use the report button (
) that's located conveniently at the top right of every post and type your message, which will contain what the problematic member is doing.
Or PM one of the Clubs moderators: [Tiffany ;421; VampirateMace ;169;]
B. Report PMs
If you going to report through PM (Private Messages), use this form instead:
Club Name:
Club Link:
Problem/Issue/Etc.:
C. False Reports
If you submit a False/Prank report you will be warned > infracted > banned. Please be sure that what you are reporting is in fact against the rules.
D. Mini-modding
Mini-modding is forbidden anywhere on the forum, so if you see someone you think is mini-modding in the club, REPORT THE POST! Don't reply it, because you'll only start up something worse if you hadn't, and plus, you'd be also mini-modding by replying and telling them what they should've done. This includes posting in a club just to ask/say that a club shouldn't have been approved or something. If the latter has occurred, just report the first post and leave it alone. Chances are, we are humans too and we can make mistakes sometimes.
9. Have Fun
Clubs are for people who share a common interest to gather around and talk about it, or just to know there are other people who likes that same thing. So go make some new friends and enjoy yourself!
Credit to Angeling for the most part of the rules and other club moderators for their input.
1. Please follow the Main Forum Rules
The Main forum rules can be found here: SPPF forum rules, please read them as they apply to clubs too.
2. Club Help Section
Please post all questions in the Club FAQ/Help Thread so to avoid unnecessary clutter. You will also find answers to common questions there.
3. Making A Club
A. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before you make a new thread.
- Is there already a club like it?
- Will there be a decent amount of members who will also join?
- Will it be active?
- What will the other members and I do in it?
- What’s the purpose of the club?
- Will I have time for my own Club?
- Does my Club follow the forum and Clubs rules?
- Does the club have enough for the members to talk about?
If there already is a club like it, or if it doesn't satisfy the other questions, the club will be UNAPPROVED/REMOVED by a Club moderator.
B. The search feature
The search feature is located in the main forum tool bar (along with the user CP and others). This feature is useful when it comes to making sure the club you plan on making has not already been made. Simply click the search button and click Advanced Search, this will take you to another page where it will ask you to input some details on what you are searching for, simply:
- Type any keywords you would like to search for in to the ‘keywords’ box. For example if your looking for a Sonic club then you would input ‘Sonic’
- Choose ‘Show results as Threads’
- Choose ‘clubs’ from the forum search section.
- Click ‘Search now’
This will then bring up any threads in the club section that have discussed the keyword ‘Sonic’ making it easier for you to track down whether the club has been made or not.
4. Club Submission
A. Submit your thread ONCE and it will be sent to the moderation queue, where it will be either approved or disapproved by a Clubs moderator. Know that it could take up to at most an entire day (or even two) to approve/disapprove your Club, because the moderators are busy with other things too, you know, so DO NOT submit multiple threads wondering why your thread isn't showing up.
B. To know whether your club has been approved/disapproved, please check the ‘Club Approval/Disapproval’ thread sticky in the main club section. This is to spare the moderators the agonizing and tiring ’Why wasn’t my club approved’ PM’s.
C. More information about the moderation queue:
As a summary, it's been the way to deal with which Clubs are acceptable and which aren't, as to prevent spam and repeated threads from appearing. You just submit a new thread and it will be sent to the moderation queue, until a moderator will come and validate it (or remove/disapprove it). Just post the thread as you would normally in any of the forum and it will be sent automatically. Don't worry if the thread doesn't show up immediately, it just means it hasn't been approved. But if the thread doesn't appear within a day, it's most likely it was removed for various reasons already listed above. There's a slight chance it was skipped over, but that'd be fixed up in at most two to three days. So remember, there is NO need to send any kind of request PMs to the moderators or even to ask if your Club idea is good enough or not. Just read the rules here and post your thread, but only post if it's descriptive and not used already.
D. Bumping
Only club owners (and their staff) are allowed to bump clubs, however they may only do so for the following reasons:
- If your club is approved late and has found itself not on the first page of the club then the owner may bump it once in order to get it on the first page.
- If there is significant new relevant to your clubs topic. (i.e. surprise release of a new game/album/season/flavor, death of an actor/CEO/etc)
- If the owner/staff member was the last poster, but they also need to post the results of a tournament or contest.
Any other bumps and you will be warned/infracted and your club may be closed. DO NOT use this as a means to bump your club whenever you feel the need to.
5. Club introduction
A. Don't make a Club with only one sentence for the introduction, only saying the rules but nothing else about the fandom your Club is supposed to be on about, or it will be disapproved for lack of information/introduction. (If you make a club like the above (meaning a one sentence club with nothing but the rules your club has), it'll be locked. And if you continue to make similar type club threads, you will receive a warning/infraction for spamming.)
The following thread re-iterates this: https://forums.serebii.net/threads/one-liners-are-not-allowed.591994/
An introduction could/should include:
- What the club is about.
- A brief explanation of the history/subject of the club
- Rules members are expected to follow (you may wish to include a link to the forum rules as well).
- A member list (if you want)
- Ranks (If your club has any)
- Credit to anyone you used the pictures/banners ect of
- Any ideas/competitions you may have in store for the club
Examples of a good introduction Club: http://www.serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?t=285617
6. Do’s and Don’ts
Below are a list of the club rules, what we expect of you and what is plain wrong:
A. No Single Pokémon Clubs/Single Video Game character clubs
For example, you can’t make an Oddish club.
B. No Pokemon Family Clubs
You are no longer aloud to make Family Pokemon club, i.e The Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard club or the Sandshrew and Sandslash Club, these can easily be discussed in Pokemon type clubs such as the Fire Pokemon club or the Ground Pokemon club.
There is an exception for the Legendary Pokemon club because legendary Pokemon are basically a type of Pokemon.
C. No Team ABC Clubs
This does not apply to those Team Rocket/Magma/Aqua/Snagem/Galatic/etc Clubs. You just can't make a random team that was from your fanfiction or something, where nobody will have heard of your club
D. No Limited Subject clubs (NEW!)
When making a club please THINK to yourself: Is this a club that people will always have something to talk about? I mean if you go and make a club about Chocolate Biscuits then people aren't going to have enough to talk about other than: "I LOVE CHOC BICCIES!". So my advice to you is to widen the subject, instead of just chocolate biscuits widen it to all types of biscuits for example.
E. Give Credit
For any banners or images you use, please make sure you have permission to use them and if so then give that user/website credit. This also goes for any members who use the club’s banners in they’re sigs, you must give credit to the creator as you would anyway. Be aware that if your club/sig does not give credit then it can end it sig removal, club closure and infractions. Art theft anyone?
F. Post Your Thread Once
Press the "Submit" button ONLY ONCE. It will take at most 24 hours for the thread to be approved, but if it does not, give it another day, and if it still doesn't, there's a high chance that was disapproved.
G. Read the first post
ALWAYS read the first post before asking to join. Some clubs might require you to PM a Club Leader or the Owner before you begin to post, so make sure you've read the rules there.
H. No one liners
Please refrain from posting one liners such as ‘Can I join’ or ‘I like Ash’. These will be classed as spam and can lead to warning > Infraction > Ban. Make your post count.
I. Do not PM/VM members to join your club
This will be classed as intent to annoy others and can lead to Warning > Infraction > Ban. You may advertise in your sig but nothing more. If you catch anyone doing this then please report it to a moderator immediately, either through using the report system or PMing a mod.
J. Do not topic drift
Remember that the club you join is dedicated to a certain subject. Please try to stay on topic of that is which your club is dedicated to and if you do stray then please make your posts count.
K. No Shiny Pokémon/Shiny Hunting Clubs [NEW]
At the moment, making a club to discuss shiny Pokémon or your shiny Pokémon hunting is banned due to constant drama in the past. I apologize if you were expecting fun in the last club after getting kicked out of Social Groups and what not but don't try to make a club for this because it will be automatically deleted. It may be open to members in the future but it all depends on your actions. By the way, do not send messages asking when it will be available again.
7. Clubs with an Inactive Owner
If the club owner hasn't been on the forums for a while (at least a month) without warning, you may request to have their club closed so you can restarted on the basis that you reached consensus with the majority of the active members in the club. If the club owner is still around the forums but hasn't been participating and updating the club for AT LEAST two weeks, you may try to reach a consensus with the active members on restarting the thread and whom to be the new owner.
8. Reporting A Club
A. How To Report
Use the report button (
Or PM one of the Clubs moderators: [Tiffany ;421; VampirateMace ;169;]
B. Report PMs
If you going to report through PM (Private Messages), use this form instead:
Club Name:
Club Link:
Problem/Issue/Etc.:
C. False Reports
If you submit a False/Prank report you will be warned > infracted > banned. Please be sure that what you are reporting is in fact against the rules.
D. Mini-modding
Mini-modding is forbidden anywhere on the forum, so if you see someone you think is mini-modding in the club, REPORT THE POST! Don't reply it, because you'll only start up something worse if you hadn't, and plus, you'd be also mini-modding by replying and telling them what they should've done. This includes posting in a club just to ask/say that a club shouldn't have been approved or something. If the latter has occurred, just report the first post and leave it alone. Chances are, we are humans too and we can make mistakes sometimes.
9. Have Fun
Clubs are for people who share a common interest to gather around and talk about it, or just to know there are other people who likes that same thing. So go make some new friends and enjoy yourself!
Credit to Angeling for the most part of the rules and other club moderators for their input.
Last edited by a moderator: