Participation Guidelines

The following guidelines have been established to maintain the quality of the Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo web site. By participating or registering in the Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo Message Board and Web Site, all users agree to the following guidelines, which apply to all content and material on or submitted to this site, including, but not limited to, message board posts, Fan Fiction, downloads, Quizzes, profile information, avatars, and signatures. These guidelines are subject to change at any time without notification of users.

We hope you will enjoy your time at Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo and be a long standing member of our community. We are glad to have you here!

General Guidelines

One of the goals of Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo is to promote mature and friendly discussion among members. As such, we ask that you do not post material that is abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually explicit, adult, otherwise inappropriate, that may violate any applicable laws, or that may invite others to post such material. The Phantasy Star games are generally rated no higher than T (Teen) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Posted material should be kept within the general spirit of this rating.
There are automated systems in place to prevent some material that violates General Guideline 1 from being posted or to obscure such material if it should be posted. Bypassing these systems in any way is not allowed. This includes "self censoring" by replacing portions of the material with other symbols or numbers. An example of self censoring in this manner would be changing "damn" to "d*mn" or "d4mn" (note: "damn" itself is a permitted word; this is just an example). If you make a submission that triggers one of the automated systems, you should edit your submission to remove the inappropriate content.
Please use the English language. English is the language of this site and we require that posted content use English so it can be understood and monitored by site staff. Given the nature of the subjects this site covers, many of which are products released in other languages, the occasional use of other languages is acceptable. The majority of posted content should be in English, however.
Posting the same information in multiple forums or topics on this site, also known as cross posting, is not permitted. Please post only once in the most appropriate location.
Do not post advertisements or unsolicited messages created specifically to promote an entity (such as a business, product, service, web site). Exceptions may be allowed on a case-by-case basis, if the content is relevant to current discussion, the topic at hand, or the overall purpose of Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo.
Do not post an excessive number of links to a web site.
Do not post any links to a web page that contains material which violates General Guideline 1. Linking to a page of a web site that contains such material on other pages is permitted under the following conditions:
1. No such material is displayed on the specific page accessed from the link.
2. The main purpose of the web site is not to provide such material (for example, sites with the sole purpose of providing illegal copies of software).
In some cases, a member may post a link to a site that has sections with content that changes over time, such as a block of recent or featured articles. As it is unreasonable to expect the member to monitor the link for inappropriate material in such a situation, staff will not hold a member responsible if the content of a link should change without the member's intervention.
Discussion of video game emulation and related topics is permitted, with the exception of requesting or providing of ROMs or ISOs of commercial games. Distribution of ROMs or ISOs without authorization from the legal copyright holder of a game is illegal and not permitted at this site.
1. Links to purchase any official game releases which may contain or provide a ROM are an exception to this guideline. Those are authorized distribution and therefore not illegal. Examples would include Wii Virtual Console releases and game collections such as Sega Smash Pack or Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection.
2. We believe that emulation or the distribution of related material other than ROMs or ISOs (including but not limited to save games, patches, and emulators) is not illegal, so this is permitted. To the best of our knowledge, such items have never been ruled as illegal in a court of law.
Please do not post personally identifying information, of yourself or other persons, such as phone numbers and addresses.
Show respect to all members of the community. Refrain from posting comments that may be inflammatory, insulting, disrespectful, or taunting. This is a friendly discussion community.
1. If you disagree with someone's opinion and choose to state this and give your own opinion, do so respectfully. Remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion.
2. Do not make uninvited remarks about posting styles, typos, duplicate posts, grammar mistakes, etc. Accidents happen to everyone, whether they be a person's mistake in hitting a wrong key or an internet hiccup resubmitting a posting form. When reviewing fan fiction or other works, remarks of this nature are expected in critiques; please provide them in a respectful and positive manner.
Do not post works by others that you do not have permission to reproduce or distribute. Fair Use legal clauses, though interpreted in different manners on a case by case basis, generally allow for reproduction or distribution of small portions of works. For most works, you may post a small portion (usually no more than one-fifth) of the work, while also providing the source (including a link, if it is online).
All members must be over or exactly 13 years of age. Persons under 13 years of age are not allowed to register. If it is discovered that an account belongs to someone under 13 years of age, the account will be terminated.
While the staff of this site will attempt to remove any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to this web site express the views and opinions of the author and not the site staff (except for posts by these people) and hence they will not be held liable.
If you find content submitted by another member that violates these Guidelines or needs attention, please contact a member of the site staff with a link to the content and a brief description of what you believe needs to be corrected. Do not respond to a situation personally if your response might aggravate the situation or lead you to violating the Guidelines yourself. Each Message Board post features a link for reporting a problem post to site staff, located near the content of the post. Other issues can be reported by private message or the Contact form.
You agree that the staff of this site have the right to review, remove, edit, move or close any content on the site at any time should they see fit.
As a user, you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. While private profile or registration information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent (unless required by law), the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.
The administrator and moderators have the final say on any decisions related to this site. If you feel a mistake has been made or have questions about a decision, please contact a staff member privately. Do not create topics or posts to question administrative decisions.
Please be aware of the Legal Disclaimers. The "Copyrights of the Web Site" and "Publishing Rights Statement" sections are considered part of these Guidelines.
Also, please be aware of the privacy policy. While it is not considered part of these Guidelines, you should look at it at least once anyway.

Fan Fiction Guidelines

The following additional guidelines apply to content posted in Fan Fiction. All of the General Guidelines listed above apply to Fan Fiction content, but are supplemented by these guidelines.

For the purposes of the Guidelines, any Message Board topics dedicated to conducting roleplaying games on the Message Board are considered Fan Fiction and are governed by these Fan Fiction Guidelines.
The content restrictions of General Guideline 1 are more lenient for Fan Fiction. We recognize that conflict and character personality are an important parts of story telling and we do not wish to impede usage of these writing elements, but certain restrictions must be applied. We ask that you do not post material that is obscene, vulgar, sexually explicit, adult, otherwise inappropriate, or that may violate any applicable laws.

Stories may include abusive, slanderous, hateful, threatening or violent material for interaction between characters. The Phantasy Star games are generally rated no higher than T (Teen) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and Fan Fiction posted here should be kept within the general spirit of this rating.
Bypassing the automated censoring systems by using self censoring, as outlined in General Guideline 2 is permitted for some language that may be considered lightly vulgar. "Lightly vulgar," for this purpose, excludes any language that is highly obscene or sexually and/or anatomically explicit.
Fan Fiction should not be used for the purpose of addressing, attacking, or otherwise referencing non-fictional persons such as political figures.
The use of languages other than English is permitted as demanded by the telling of the story. You may not post a story written entirely in another language, but characters may speak in other languages.

Enforcement Policies

Any posted content that violates the above guidelines may be removed at the discretion of the staff. Staff generally will not edit posts unless there is an issue arising from the content that affects the display of the Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo web site. It is our policy to remove content that violates these guidelines rather than edit such content.

If a member continually violates these guidelines or shows disrespect for the site and/or staff, their membership may be terminated. Any membership terminations are permanent; attempts to bypass such terminations may result in stronger action.