Welcome to the Microsoft Software Forum Network! You have chosen to join one of the best and fast-growing forums on the Internet dealing with everything related to Microsoft. We started as a small group back in Aug. of 2001 and have grown to be one of the most knowledgeable forums around. We hope you stay a while and share your XPeriences with others as we have.

Below are some guidelines that will keep you out of trouble here.

» Posting Guidelines

1. This is not a warez site! Links/Requests to warez and/or illegal material (porn, cracks, serials, etc..) will not be tolerated. Discussion of circumventing WGA/activation/timebombs/keygens or any other illegal activity will also not be tolerated. You will be banned without notice.

2.a Use some common sense. Don't post your question under multiple topics. Think before posting and choose the right topic for you question or answer. When posting, have something to say, not just "My First post!" or "Cool site!!!" We sort of have the idea by now :-).

2.b Topics devoted to political debate, unless technology related, are prohibited. MSFN is a technology forum and political debates have caused many problems and distractions in the past. Political links in signatures and polite, courteous comments in non-political topics are allowed, but we cannot allow any topics in which the sole purpose is to debate political issues.

2.c Requesting help with academic material, such as assignments, is not permitted on MSFN. Receiving such help is often viewed as plagiarism in many schools, and therefore cannot be allowed. This is for your own protection in your academic career.

3. Please do not post screenshots within threads that exceed 300x200 in resolution and 150kb in size. Provide a link to the image and host it on your own web space if possible. Always keep in mind we have several members on 56k and loading a thread with a few large screenshots can be quite slow for them.

4. Spamming will not be tolerated. We have provided a section for those who wish to share your personal websites, not commercial ones. Please use these sections only. We do keep a log of all IP traffic that comes in and out of this site. We will report spamming to your ISP!

5. Images in signatures shall NOT exceed a total of 300x100 and 80kb. Flash and animated signatures and avatars are not permitted. You can enter max 4 lines of text in signature or signature image. Advertising and/or affiliates are not allowed in signatures nor avatars. Avatars are to be a maximum of 100x100 pixels. If your avatar or signature goes above these guidelines they will be taken off without notice. Any signatures found to be attached to a thread and used as a signature host is not allowed on MSFN and will be removed. Members with slow connection can disable other members signatures when reading posts by going to: My Control - Options - Board Settings.

6. If you need to attach something, it'd be great if you could find a host for the file. Please only attach something if you absolutely have no other option. This will help keep the size of the database down and keep MSFN running smoothly for our members.

7.a You are expected to be mature when discussing in threads. Racism, pornography, threatening, profanity, or excessive vulgarity is not tolerated. You will be promptly banned. No Exceptions.

7.b This community is built upon mutual respect. You are not allowed to flame other members. People who do not respect personal opinions and/or personal work will be warned in first instance. If you ignore the warning and keep on flaming, you will be banned without notice.

8. Has the thread you started or participated in been moved, closed or deleted? Check with the forum moderator via PM. Under no circumstances start threads asking why other threads were moderated. Forum moderation is not up for public debate, such threads will be deleted and the thread starter warned. MSFN reserves the right to edit, delete or move posts made on this site.

9. Please do not bash old topics when a member has made it active again, it's been made active for a good reason; to answer an unanswered question, or to bring new information. It does not need to be closed or deleted.

10. We do not encourage the raising of post counts or creating threads that state you have reached a post count milestone, unlike other forums that do. Please remember there's no prizes in store for those with a very high number of posts!

11. Please refrain from using CAPITALIZATIONS in the topic title or when participating in threads because they will not attract attention - instead it will annoy many of MSFN's members.

12. Very often we see meaningless subjects in topic title. They give no clue of what the posts are all about. For example:

- Oh no!
- Help
- I'm mad
- Please help
- Question
- I need your help
- Hmmmm ....

This should be avoided. Users should enter something more specific in topic title so that it is easier for others to help.

A few good examples:

- Strange problem with DirectX9b redist
- RunOnceEx install problem (double installation)
- Change Internet Explorer's Icon back to default

13. No user shall by any means of the forum: sell, trade or give away hardware, software, or any other non consumer electronic related material. MSFN does not support any type of trade and shall not be held accountable.

With that out of the way, we hope that you enjoy your stay at MSFN!

» The MSFN Team

Last Updated: 12th June 2007