MLNO Safety and Security Protocol

[Rahkshi8000]

MLNO Safety and Security Protocol

When we first made this forum, we wanted it to mostly for discussion about MLN/LEGO. We wanted it to be fun and appropriate for all ages. We wanted it to be safe for everyone.

When each and everyone of you joined, you had to agree to a Registration Agreement. This is what you agreed to when you all joined MLNO:

You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.

You agree you will not misuse staff powers in this forum, or register multiple accounts.

Note that it is impossible for the staff or the owners of this forum to confirm the validity of posts. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the posted messages, and as such, are not responsible for the content contained within. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of this forum, its staff, its subsidiaries, or this forum's owner. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this forum immediately. The staff and the owner of this forum reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, please realize that they may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.

You have the ability, as you register, to choose your username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate. With this user account you are about to register, you agree to never give your password out to another person except an administrator, for your protection and for validity reasons. You also agree to NEVER use another person's account for any reason.  We also HIGHLY recommend you use a complex and unique password for your account, to prevent account theft.

After you register and login to this forum, you will be able to fill out a detailed profile. It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice. Appropriate sanctions may be applicable.

Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement.

Also note that the software places a cookie, a text file containing bits of information (such as your username and password), in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out. The software does not collect or send any other form of information to your computer.

This Agreement is a contract between you, the member, and the MLNO community as a whole that you will follow and abide by these terms. You could call this our Constitution. We did not make it, Simple Machines Forums did. We only make amendments to it.

The last thing we want to happen to this forum is for it to become an adult material-oriented site.

You all, the members, and the staff, exist as the MLNO Community. It is a mutual relationship; one could not exist without the other. Everything that everyone does helps form the community. And in order to make this site fun and safe for everyone, it is your responsibility, everyone's responsibility, to follow the Agreement and the Forum Rules.

Criminal activity and corruption is simply not allowed here. It makes MLNO look bad, less fun, and less safe. You hurt the MLNO community, whenever you deliberately break a rule. If you accidently break a rule, we understand, we'll just explain to you what you did wrong and expect you not to do it again. However, purposefully breaking a rule is unacceptable.

For the staff, it is pretty much impossible to regulate what each and every single member does. We cannot look at the PMs you're sending and receiving. We cannot check every single forum and every single topic; no member here has legal access to all forums.

In the long run, we have to depend on you, fellow MLNO citizens, to help us weed out criminal activity. You are not a tattletale if you report someone for a good reason, you are doing your duty.

If you see something that may or is most definitely violating the Agreement or Forum Rules, report it to the Forum Moderator or an Administrator immediately. Just simply ignore it.

With your help, this forum will last for many more years to come, and many more generations of MLNers.

[Rahkshi8000]

MLNO Safety and Security Protocol, Part 2

This section mainly covers on what to do to help maintain order and peace, here at MLNO.

Table of Contents
Spamming/Mass-Spammer Attack
Flaming/Mass-Flamer Attack
Hackers

Spamming/Mass-Spammer Attack

Spamming is something we all hate, yet there is nothing that can be done to stop spamming completely. It is every moderator's job to patrol their designated jurisdiction and be on the lookout for spam, and if there is spam, delete it.

But then there are the Mass-Spammers, the ones we really hate. MLNO's seen some.

Dealing with Mass-Spammers can be easy or hard. If the mass-spammer is new to forums, then cut him or her some slack, you were new at forums one time too. Simply just stop and explain forum protocol to them, and they should be well on their way.

Usually this isn't the case though. The mass-spammer will most likely be someone who just wants to give admins and moderators more work to do.

If that's the case, swearing at and insulting him will not be very effective. Their goal is to get everyone irritated and angry, and by flaming him, you've accomplished their goal.

In the event of a mass-spammer attack you can do one of the following:

• Contact the Forum Moderator, if it's within their jurisdiction. They can take care if it themselves. If there is no Forum Moderator, then simply contact one of the administrators.
• If many areas of the forum are affected, contact both the Forum Moderator/s of the affected jurisdictions, and one of the administrators, and the mess will be cleaned up as soon as possible.

Flaming/Mass-Flamer Attack

When they come, the temperature is 76 degrees.
When they leave, the temperature rises to 115.
Their goal has been acheived, and they continue to search for their next victim.

Two words: Ignore them. Don't reply to anything they say, just simply IGNORE THEM. You're only making life easy for them and harder for you.

But mass-flamers...they will go to great limits to create chaos here. They will throw everything they've got at you. It's really up to YOU on whether they succeed or not. I'm going to use those two words again: IGNORE THEM. Act as if they don't exist, and they'll leave in frustration soon.

Like mass-spamming attacks, just contact the Forum Moderator or an administrator, or both, to clean up the mess.

Hackers

Hackers are the hardest to spot, and the hardest to identify. They work in stealth mode, thus making them very elusive.

If you're a very observative person, you'd probably be a pro at hacker catching. But here's what you can do to catch a hacker.

• Look out for someone who is acting slightly unusual, unlike their usual self. Or, if someone announced that they were leaving the forum for sometime but come on during their time of absence, that may also suggest that a hacker is in control of their account.
• If you clearly think that they have been hacked - we don't want any false accusations here - then start questioning them. Ask them things that only the real so-and-so would know.
• If they answer most of your questions wrong, then they probably are a hacker. What Axonn does is what you should do: "Subdue first, ask questions later." Immediately contact an administrator and warn them that so-and-so has been hacked.
• The admins will then be on the lookout for a certain new account attempting to join the forum (see next section for more details). If there isn't one within 48 hours, then it's just a false alarm. If there is one however, then the hacker will lose access to the account they hacked and hopefully leave the forum.

If your account was hacked, then here's what you should do:

Attempt to register a new account here, named the following:

Code:

"Your Username Here" Hacked

You will then be granted access to the forum, and will be notified when your account has been secured by the staff.

Please note that this is to be used as an alarm system. Anyone caught to have abused this system will lose reputation credit.

[Rahkshi8000]

Also please note that the staff reserves the right to test the forum on what to do in the event of any of these "emergencies" at any given time.