Updated NVG Rules made simple:

• Don't be ignorant, don't be rude, don't troll, don't flame, don't insult people.
• No memes, stupid levels that hijack threads, or other no-content posts.
• If you aren't adding something positive to the thread, don't post.
• Don't violate the basic site-wide rules.

For more information, read the rest of the rules sticky.

Note that there are now 16 mods and counting here, so we will be able to enforce these rules more diligently. So start reporting more posts so we all have something to do.

This is the highest-traffic forum on 2+2, making it a very visible forum, so let's try to keep things civil and not reflect poorly on the 2+2 community or 2+2 Publishing. All this traffic leads to a low signal-to-noise ratio. In order to keep things running as smoothly as possible, please follow a few simple posting rules. Posts that violate these rules will be deleted, and you may receive infraction points* (see below), temporary bans, or even permanent bans for repeated or particularly flagrant infractions.

Cliffs Notes

• Keep your posts respectful and don’t insult/attack/threaten/flame other posters or poker players
• Post in the correct forum
• Do not derail serious threads; avoid making low/no-content posts
• Do not post about deleted posts, locked threads or other moderation concerns anywhere in NVG--PM a mod
• Do not bypass profanity filter in text or images. Do not go around the filter by posting words that are spelled wrong or have characters inserted in them.
• No inline NSFW, no linked NSFW stuff without the link being tagged NSFW, no linked porn even with NSFW tag
• No spam or begging
• No links to your own blog or website in posts or urls in your location or avatar

1. Keep Your Posts Respectful

• Racist/sexists/homophobic etc. posts are not acceptable. If you are unsure if something is racist or sexist or homophobic, err on the safe side.
• Do not make posts that insult, attack or threaten someone. Disagreeing with another poster is fine; threatening them, telling them to *****, STFU, insulting them, calling them names and other ad hominem attacks is not.
• Avoid flaming people and arguing back-and-forth, repeating the same points over and over. Save yourself (and us) the headache and just block the poster and your problems will disappear.
• Do not troll.

Use some common sense and treat people with respect and you will have no problems. Posts along the lines of “X is a ****ing retard/douchebag/gay/bitch etc.” will be deleted and result in warnings/infractions/bans. These rules also apply to posting about well-known players. Criticize them if you want, but do it with some respect.

Many threads about women quickly degrade into rude and sexist comments. Please refrain from making insulting posts about someone’s appearance, or sharing with us whether or not you would like to engage in certain acts with them, whether you would "hit" them, "tap" them, or anything else like that.

2. Post in the Correct Forum
Save us the hassle of moving your post by posting it in the correct forum. Topics related to online poker rooms belong in the ZOO (Internet Poker). That’s where to put topics such as “Site X ripped me off,” “Is Site Y down for anyone else?” “OMG online poker is rigged,” “What is the best site to play on?” etc. Better still, you won’t even need to start a new thread on most of these topics, and can just post in one of the dozens of threads in the zoo that already cover those subjects. There is also a forum for posts about televised poker, conveniently called Televised Poker.

If you want to post about something that has nothing to do with poker, but is a comment on the forums (i.e. "Why are so many threads locked?" "View: NVG is full of **** threads;" "Mods suck;" etc, these do not belong in NVG. NVG is for threads about Poker. Threads about NVG belong in About the Forums.

3. Do Not Derail Threads and Avoid No-Content Posts
Threads do not need to be cluttered up with off-topic or no-content posts. If you don't have anything to add, don't just say "wat," “awesome,” “first,” “ban,” “epic,” “in on the ground floor,” etc. or repeat the latest meme of the week. These posts are not funny and clutter up the threads making them huge and mostly unreadable, which ruins it for everyone else. These types of posts will be deleted, and will lead to warnings or infractions. Also, please do not bump threads unless you have something new to contribute. Don't bump a thread when all you are adding is a no-content comment like "bum" or “lol.”

4. What To Do If You Are Upset That A Thread Was Locked, A Post Was Deleted, You Received a Warning, Infraction, Ban, etc.

• PM the mod who did it (or if that is unclear, PM one of the NVG mods) and voice your concerns to them.
  
• If this does not resolve the issue and you are still upset and think the mod is being unreasonable, do not ask why it was deleted in NVG, do not ask why it was deleted in the thread from which it was deleted, do not repost it, and do not make a new thread about it or complain about it in NVG. There is a forum for making posts about the forums, conveniently called About The Forums. If you really need to post about your locked or deleted thread after discussing it with a mod, do it there.
  
• If you are banned and want to know what to do if you need to complain, follow these instructions.

Cliffs Notes: Deal with these issues via PM, and if that fails, try About The Forums. If you post about this in NVG, your post will be deleted and you will get an infraction.


5. Various Other Site-Wide Rules

• Do not bypass profanity filter in text or images
• No spam or begging
• No inline NSFW** (see below if you are no sure what is NSFW) stuff without the thread being tagged NSFW
• No linked NSFW stuff without the link being tagged NSFW
• No linked porn even with NSFW tag
• No filesharing discussion
• No discussion of methods to break laws, encouragement to break laws, etc.
• No plagiarism
• etc.

*Infraction Points: The vBulletin system has a system of infraction points. This is an extra warning before we have to start handing out temp-bans. If you get 100 points you will be perma-banned so be careful.

**NSFW = not safe for work. Because people work in a variety of places, this can include bikini shots and such. Anything beyond is definitely NSFW.

NVG has never been known for it's high-quality content, but lately things have really gone downhill. Before you start a new thread, please put some thought into it.

Cliffs

• Not every "View" needs a thread
• Put some effort into thread titles and OPs: Titles should reflect what a thread is about, and OP should provide some context and tell us why we should care
• Before starting a new thread, check if there is already a thread on the same topic
• Threads about internet poker sites and anything to do with internet poker sites do not belong in NVG; they go in the Internet Poker forum

Not Every View Needs A Thread
Sure this is News, Views and Gossip, but not every View anybody has is worthy of a thread. Someone much smarter than me (Kevmath, I think) once noted that threads whose titles begin with "View:" are almost universally bad. Just because you had a thought, or read something, or heard something somewhere doesn't mean you need to start a thread about it. At least ask yourself whether there is any reason anyone but you would care before making a thread about it.

Put Some Effort Into Your Thread Titles and OPs
Threads that start with a post (OP) that is merely a link with no comment are not going to get much response, nor are threads with a title followed by a post that is merely "discuss," "wtf," "lol," etc. Please put some effort in your OPs. Also, please put some effort into your thread titles. Using thread titles that give no indication about that a thread is about is not good practice. Do not start threads with titles such as "Discuss," "Epic," "I can't believe this," "Stupidest thing ever." People get annoyed when they can't tell what a thread is going to be about by reading the title. If you want people to respond to your thread and show interest in it, start things off with a title that is reflective of the thread's content, and an OP that lays out what the thread is supposed to be about and why we should care.

Is There Already A Thread About This?
Try searching before you start a new thread. At the very least use the "Search this forum" tool, do a google search that includes site:forumserver.twoplustwo.com and a keyword or two, and scroll through the first few pages of NVG to see if there is already a thread about what you want to post about.

Every month has a dedicated "September/October/etc. High Stakes thread." This is where discussion of high stakes games go. Do not start new threads to post hand histories, they go in this thread. Also, most chat from High Stakes sessions can go in this thread. It is rare that chat will be so epic as to warrant it's own thread. Since these High Stakes threads get so huge, please show some restraint with making low-content posts, and limit the amount strategic tips you offer, since some of the regular high stakes players may actually have a more thorough understanding of poker strategy in these games than you, and your criticism of their play will generally be wrong and met with lots of derision by other posters, further cluttering up these huge threads.

Do Not Start Threads About Internet Poker Sites in NVG
If your thread title contains the name of a poker site like "Full Tilt" or "Poker Stars," then NVG is almost never the correct place to post it. If your thread title contains words or phrases like "down," "rigged," "ripped me off," "stole my money," "collusion," etc., then NVG is almost never the correct place to post it. If your thread is about payment processors, depositing, or withdrawing, then it does not belong in NVG. Threads about internet poker sites and anything to do with internet poker sites go in the Internet Poker forum.

Some tips on posting in existing threads
If someone has started a horrible thread or is making incredibly stupid posts, do not give them any attention. Rather than insulting these posters in a thread, report their posts or notify a mod. If a thread is terrible, do not bump it with a comment telling us it is terrible, let it fall off the front page and die.

Also, please avoid making the following sorts of posts:

• one-word and other low-/no-content posts
• posting overused memes
• posting random photos, even if they are of hot women (those can go in BBV or BBV4L)
• posting your thoughts about whether or not someone is worth having sex with or similar comments about sexual practice

Please stop byp4ss1ng teh pr0fan1ty filt*r by writ-ing wor.ds like this. It is a pain in the ass for mods to have manually filter out everything you make the auto-filter miss. Let the filter do its job. I don't bother manually filtering stuff anymore; I just delete posts that bypass the filter.

For some reason, some people have come to the misguided conclusion that RickRolls are still funny. They are not. Nobody like them anymore. Nobody will like you if you post them. It's true.

Do not post RickRolls or you will get infraction points and get at least temp-banned.

Hey, quit making those stupid "first," "frist, "f1rst" and "wat" and other no content meme posts. I know it says this already in the first post in this sticky, but nobody reads stickies, and I'm tired of having to delete that crap multiple times a day, so I'm posting this again.

If you do make one of those stupid one-word-meme posts (or similar no-content memes like "in B4 lock/ban/whatever," it will be deleted, I will be sad you wasted my time making me delete it and that you didn't read the sticky (or did read it but made your post anyway), and I will warn or infract you.

And stop trolling threads that you think suck. They wind up sucking even more when the first 6 replies are stupid troll comments. If you think OP sucks, keep it to yourself. There is no need to make posts about how bad you think a thread is, or tl;dr, or make non-sensical posts to mock OP and up your post count. These useless posts are becoming more and more frequent, and will also be deleted and result in warnings/infractions.

Just so you don't whine that it's unfair when it happens.

I think today has set a record for most crap no-content threads ever in NVG. Now that we have a new record, it's okay to stop. We don't need any more for now.