Forums

The Forum Rules

Posting guidelines Posting guidelines

The RuneScape forums are among the busiest forums in the entire world! While that’s fantastic in its own right, it does also mean that we have a lot of players posting here and that it easily becomes cluttered.

In order to make sure that our forums remain an enjoyable place for our community to hang out, we’ve laid out some general guidelines and rules for posting. These specify what kind of posting is okay and what is not okay. If you stick to these guidelines and rules, the forum will be easier to use and enjoyable for everyone.

Before you post a new thread, ask yourself the following question: “Will other players find this thread interesting or entertaining to read?” If you can answer with a resounding “Yes!” then please go ahead and post. The same goes for replying to a thread; remember that someone put time and thought into creating the thread, so ask yourself before posting: “Will my reply offer any advice, help or otherwise contribute to the discussion?”

When you’re perusing the forums, you might bump into a poster with a green (forum moderator) or yellow (Jagex moderator) background. These are the moderators of the forum, and they help to keep them free from rule-breaking posts and help users find their way if they’re lost. If you happen to come across a post that is breaking the rules, there’s a button called “highlight” on the left side which alerts Jagex moderators to the post.

The most important thing to remember is that we are a games company and we want you to have fun. If you can stick to some very simple forum guidelines, then we are confident that you will find the forums a very entertaining place to be! See you there!

General forum posting guide General forum posting guide

When creating a thread, consider what you want to achieve and what type of discussion you wish to lead. For example, if you want to discuss the various benefits of combat equipment, it’s best to be clear about that rather than saying “Who likes killing stuff?” Bear in mind that the first post on your thread is what will drive the entire success of the discussion – in our experience, clear and well–thought-out threads receive many more responses than threads which are vague.

When choosing a title for your thread, try to use something that will immediately identify what the thread is about – most people will ignore threads with titles like “I have an idea” or “Read this”. So, try to capture the essence of the thread in the title and you will have more success.

Try to invest some time creating your thread to make sure that it’s easy to read and offers your opinion in a constructive manner. It helps readers if you break long blocks of text into paragraphs. As with most internet forums, we are not fans of posts written entirely in UPPERCASE – it’s hard to read and makes us sad!

Remember that the RuneScape forums, aside from the localised communities, are English forums. We ask that you only post in English or in the localised language of each forum.

Rules of conduct Rules of conduct

All the rules of RuneScape still apply within the forums. You will find them here: http://services.runescape.com/m=rswiki/en/Rules%20of%20RuneScape

Please be aware that all of the following offences carry the possibility of a temporary or permanent forum ban, depending on the severity of the act and history of the forum user. Severe forum offences may carry over to in-game characters and alternative accounts.

These rules are not exhaustive and only serve as guidelines for the forums. We always judge any incident on a case-by-case basis and apply offences as such.

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Spamming

Always try to ensure that your posts are constructive and interesting. Posting without contributing to the discussion is not wanted.

Offences in this category include:
  • Adding multiple posts with the same content several times over.
  • Adding multiple threads with the same content several times over.
  • Adding posts which are devoid of meaningful content.
  • Posting to ask for items or gold (begging).
  • Posting threads with a misleading title.
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Text abuse

Text is the basis of all forum activity and, as such, it’s important not to misuse it to cause disruption in the forums.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting in all-caps (uppercase).
  • Excessive use of line breaks or post-stretching.
  • Posting ASCII-art outside of designated threads.
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Trolling and flaming

Do not post with the sole intent of upsetting other players. If you want to leave criticism, consider your post and word it constructively.

Offences in this category include:
  • Creating threads or posts with the intent of causing unrest on the forums.
  • Posting to offend, insult, taunt or aggravate other forum users.
  • Continuous posting to defame or discredit Jagex or its products.
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Memes and fads

Memes* and fads are very common around the internet and may seem funny the first time you see them. However, with a forum the size of RuneScape's, they can become old and tiresome very quickly. We ask that you do not post any memes or fads in a derisive manner on our forums, in order to keep them clean and avoid spam.

* Not to be confused with common abbreviations.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting meme or fad expressions such as Inb4, trololo, madbro etc. in a derisive manner
  • Posting mocking copies of moderators’ or other players’ posts.
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Duplicate threads

Before posting, search the forums to check that there isn’t a similar active thread already covering the subject. If there is a similar thread, consider posting there instead.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting a new topic when the discussion point has already been raised in other recent threads.
  • Posting the same thread across several forums.
  • Plagiarising another thread.
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Stay on topic

To keep threads from derailing into discussions about something completely different, we ask that you stay on topic in each thread. If you have something different you wish to discuss, create a new topic yourself.

Offences in this category include:
  • Intentionally derailing a thread.
  • Discussing or raising arguments about something unrelated to the thread.
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Harassment or defamatory posting

While we recognise that discussions on the internet may sometimes become a little heated, we do not allow any type of harassment or defamatory posting. Keep all posting reasonable and do not target a specific player or player group with baseless or unconstructive criticism. Keep topics on the subject matter and do not get drawn into flame wars and personal attacks.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting to harass another player.
  • Posting to defame another player.
  • Posting with the sole intent of “breaking” another player.
  • Posting to encourage other players to quit playing RuneScape.
  • Naming another player in a negative light.
  • Stating who can and cannot post in a thread.
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Thread hijacking

Trading and recruitment are common topics on our forums, and to keep it clean we do not allow any kind of thread hijacking in order to “steal” trades or recruits from the players or clans who created the original thread.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting to redirect attention from original purpose of a thread.
  • Posting “better” offers on another player’s trading thread.
  • Posting to recruit players on another players recruitment thread.
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Intolerance of Sexual preference

We do not tolerate any form of harassment or defamatory comments with regards to sexual preference.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting of insults or harassment with regards to sexual preference.
  • Promotion of negativity and hatred based on sexual preferences.
  • Posting to promote a specific sexual preference as more valid than others.
  • Using sexual preference as an insult.
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Racism

We do not tolerate any forms of racism.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting racist slurs or comments.
  • Posting racist references or symbolism.
  • Promotion of racial or ethnic hatred.
  • Use of racist terms and / or stereotyping.
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Nationalism

We understand that most people are proud of their national identity. However, in the same vein as Racism, overt Nationalism is not tolerated on the forums.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting to promote national hatred.
  • Posting to ridicule or offend inhabitants of another nation.
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Sexism

We are very proud of having such a diverse community. We believe in equality and we do not allow any form of sexist posting.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting to belittle a gender.
  • Posting sexist remarks.
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Religious, political or otherwise sensitive discussion

As religion and politics are prone to start flame wars or cause grief, we do not allow them to be discussed in the forums. It’s also important to respect each other’s way of life and what we chose to believe in. For this reason, we ask that you do not post inflammatory comments about religious beliefs or political stances.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting threads to discuss religion.
  • Posting threads to discuss politics.
  • Posting to initiate political or religious discussion.
  • Posting to defame religious figures
  • Posting to harass followers of any particular faith.
  • Posting to ask for relationship advice.
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Profane or vulgar posting

To keep our forums free of unpleasant posting we ask that you refrain from adding posts or threads containing vulgar or profane references.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posts with obscene and / or inappropriate contents.
  • Bypassing the offensive language filter with the intent to offend or shock.
  • Inappropriate references to bodily functions.
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Discussion of moderators or disciplinary actions

Moderators are valued supporters of our forums and sometimes need to make difficult decisions. These are discussed with us and are made by following guidelines we have provided. Posting to ask for clarification regarding a rule break is fine, but arguing about it is not.

Offences in this category include:
  • Creating threads or posts to harass, discredit or defame a specific moderator.
  • Creating threads or posts to argue against a moderator’s decision.
  • Posting to flame a moderator.
  • Continuous posting to defame or discredit moderators or a specific moderator.
  • Posting to argue with a specific moderator.
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Circumventing mute or ban

When we apply a mute or a ban on someone, we intend to keep them from continuing the argument or disruption.

Offences in this category include:
  • Coming back on another account after being muted or banned to continue an argument.
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Real life information

We make a point of keeping the personal lives of our users and the RuneScape forums separate. This is important as the forums are frequented by a large number of users. We do not allow posting of personally identifiable information for the safety of everyone.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting of any personal information about a user or Jagex employee.
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Real-life threats

We do not tolerate any kind of real-life threats or indications towards hostile actions.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting of threats of real life violence.
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Releasing confidential information

Confidential information is confidential for a reason. We do not want any such material to be posted on the forums, regardless of how it arrived in the hands of a user.

Offences in this category include:
  • Posting of confidential information related to RuneScape, Jagex or any other Jagex products.
  • Posting data which is not available through the normal usage of RuneScape.
  • Posting information from internal moderator forums.
  • Posting inbox messages about bans or other disciplinary actions.
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Real-world trading

Account trading or selling, as well as trading of in-game items or gold for real life items or currency, is considered RWT and is strictly against the rules of both RuneScape and its forums.

Offences in this category include:
  • Advertising the buying or selling of accounts or in-game items, including gold.
  • Encouraging or directing other players to break any RWT rules.
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Impersonating moderators

Moderators have a very important role on these forums and users need to know that they can trust moderators to act in line with these rules.

Offences in this category include:
  • Impersonating a Jagex moderator or claiming to be a representative of Jagex.
  • Impersonating or claiming to be a forum or player moderator when you are not.
  • Stating that you or someone else is a player moderator on the forums.
  • Indicating that you own another account which is a moderator of any sort.
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Drugs and illegal activities

Discussion or references to drugs or other illegal activities are not tolerated on our forums. Moderators will use common sense in applying this rule.

Offences in this category include:
  • Discussing drugs or illegal activities.
  • Making references to drugs or other illegal activities.
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Catch-all

Our primary concern is the good of the community and we want to make it clear that these rules are not exhaustive. It may be necessary for us to take action against accounts in order to remove disruptive behaviour, even if it is not specifically mentioned in the rules. Moderators may sometimes use their personal judgement, with the overall interest of the wider community at heart, in order to curtail or remove disruptive behaviour that is not clearly covered by the rules, on a case by case basis.

When forum moderators apply this rule, the situation will always be liaised with Jmods and if necessary, clarified for future reference in the rule set.

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