SITE TIPS FOR NEWCOMERS

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Firstly, welcome all!

Check out the links and information in this thread for more information about how to conduct yourselves in an appropriate manner for the site! We look forward to having you all spend a long, happy time here with little-to-no fuss, so please avail yourselves to the rules and tips below!

Links of interest:
Code of Conduct - The general code of conduct expected of RMN members.
Terms of Service - The site's terms of service.
Privacy Policy - Our policies on your rights when it comes to privacy.
About RMN - A bit of back-history about the site and how it came in to being.
Contacts - Note that this is a little out of date. Currently Liberty is in charge of Game Submissions so any questions about that should be sent in her direction.

Forum Rules - General posting rules for the forums.
Submission Rules - General rules about Submissions to the site.
New to RMN? - A helpful guide filled with useful information for new folk.
What is MakerScore? - A guide on what Makerscore is, why it's important and how to get it. One of the most useful articles ever published in the history of the world.


All of the above links can be found at any time in the footer of the page.

It can be confusing knowing where to post what topic, so here's a helpful run-down of the current forums and what to expect in them.


GAME DEVELOPMENT
This area of the forum is centred around the development of games.

What's Happening in Game Make and RMN is focussed on announcements by either staff or members. Information about game development tools, events, and anything else useful to developers and designers and to the community can be put here. The staff will also post pertinent information about site updates and policies here. You can also find Let's Play/Review threads here.

Game Design and Development
focuses on threads about ideas, questions about aspects in game creation and and just talking about the development process, interesting gameplay mechanics and the like. There's tips/tricks/informative threads and a lot of discussion goes on about different gameplay ideas. You'll usually find people asking for feedback about game ideas and there's a section at the top that shows the newest blogs currently posted on game pages.

Help Me! is a forum for people to ask about general game help. This is usually only for event help and small asks (like a character recolour or help finding a kind of sound effect). You'll find general help topics, a few helpful threads pinned with tips and tricks for engines, as well as a small area dedicated to Help Blogs. When posting a help topic in this forum remember to include the name of the engine in your topic title (there are tags included when creating a topic for ease of doing).

The Job Board is for people seeking either help or to help with projects. Those who want to help post their skills and offers of aid. Those who want someone to work with for whatever reason, post their asks for aid. Rules need to be followed and can be found in a pinned thread. You'll find here recruitment threads, commission threads and everything in-between the two.

Programming and Plug-ins is for those who want help with scripts, programming and, well, plug-ins. Any script help threads should be posted here, as well as any threads that require help with more programming-based tasks. It's pretty self-explanatory - if the script isn't on the site (in the script section) then ask here about it if you have a bug. You may also post script requests here.

COMMUNITY
This is a more discussion-based area of the forums, dedicated to non-game talk (though talking about games is still allowed).

General Discussion is a board for any topic that doesn't fit in the other categories and is more serious than not. You can discuss anything here, as long as it doesn't break site rules or isn't completely stupid and asinine. Topics such as "What games are you playing?", "RIP famous actor" and "What do you think about x?" are what you'll find here.

Videogames is, oddly enough, a forum board focused on discussing various video games that have come out. Whether it be old or new, they're welcome to talk about. It is not for advertising your own games, however. That's what game pages are for.

Creative Corner is a place for you to showcase your own works of art and garner feedback. You'll usually find topics for people to post their artwork in for feedback or just to share with the world. You may also find art that includes nudity and the like - we ask that if you do have NSFW art, to use hide tags and mark it as such as many look through the forums while at work.

Welp, Welp! board is the only one where you can break most forum rules (though ones like pornography and flaming are still in effect). It is the only place you may multipost and use image macros and is basically the mess-around board. Here you'll find forum games, funny topics and silliness aplenty.

Introductions board is where you'll find this thread as well as people saying hello or goodbye. It's an area for welcoming new people to the site and wishing fond farewells to those leaving. Please be polite and welcoming to those who post here!

SITE
This area of the forums is where staff announcements, information about the site and reports of bugs and the like are found.

Announcements is the board where staff will announce different things - from competitions to rule changes/additions and the like. Really, that's basically all it is for.

User Feedback is a board where you can report site issues, give ideas for new site features and join in the choosing/nomination for front page game spotlights like Featured Game and Picture of the Moment.

Archives are where all bad topics go to die. Most of the time when a topic stops being interesting we'll leave them to quietly fall into the darkness of the abyss that is pages beyond the first (we never delete anything, btw) but sometimes when a topic is too stupid to be allowed a slow death, we lock'em and send'em away to the Archives. Also a place where we put spam topics that have been dealt with and any other topics that are bad.


Now a bit of general site information that has been gathered to help new folk. Some parts are a bit tongue in cheek.


- Square bracket html tags are usable. We do have the handy-dandy shortcut bar for each post, but you're not limited to the stuff there.

- The black bar at the very top of the page is OMG helpful. Hovering over each thing there will show more options. Explore~

- Games/Development/Events/Community/Store headers all have drop-down menus but clicking on each will take you to their respective areas which have a lot of information too.

- You can change your thread headings using the button at the bottom of the page.

- When you post you'll see buttons on your and other peoples' posts. Edit allows you to change your post (a lot of people miss that for some reason), Save allows you to keep posts in your subscription area (something like a Favourite Posts option), Quote will quote posts and you can quote more than one post at a time just by hitting the button on all the posts you want to quote. Report is for when someone breaks the rules. It will send a report to mods/admin and they'll take care of it.

- RMN is pretty laid-back when it comes to bickering. We take the approach that most here are of a mature enough age to be able to discuss things without getting over-heated. Swearing is allowed, for instance. Personal attacks, hate-speech and being a jerk aren't, however, and such things should be reported.

- Most of the time disciplinary action will be as follows: If it was your first time doing something and the infraction isn't a big no-no, you'll be pulled up by a mod or admin. This might be done in the thread in which you broke the rule/caused an issue or via PM. In this case you might just get a verbal warning and be sent on your way, as long as what you didn't wasn't too bad.
After this, if you continue to break rules/persue an action you've been told not to/got in trouble for something a bit major, you'll receive a warning. At this point dialogue is still an option - you can reply back to the warning via PM and talk it out with the staff and work it out.
If you still persist and act badly, you will either continue to get warns (which, if enough are gained, will automatically give you a ban) or be banned, depending on the escalation and what rules you broke. Do note that bans are not forever most of the time. Depending on the severity of the issue it might be a ban for a few weeks, up to a year or, if bad enough, forever.
In the case that you are banned, it's probably a good idea to calm down, think about what you did wrong and, when the ban is up, resolve not to do it again. Please note that creating an alternate account to ban evade will see you banned again and, if you continue to press the issue, may see your ban time extended.
Do note that we will try to talk to you before a banning occurs and resolve the issue. The only case in which we don't is in the case of spambots.

- Check out the links in the footer for extra information about what is what.

- Makerscore (MS) is everything. We don't have post counts - the M under your name denotes the amount of MS you have which can only be gained by adding to the site. There's an article in the footer about it.

- To upload a game you hover over Submissions on the black bar at the top of the page and choose Submit Game. Read the instructions and fill in the 'form'. Don't forget three separate images~ Once that is done and you've submitted, it will go to the Submission Queue and get checked over to make sure it meets site standards (which are pretty easy to get past - you should have no issue there, just pick good screenshots). The mod there will either Accept or Deny. If accepted you can then add a file and mess around with the page, adding more images (well, you can already add more images from the get-go anyway), adding blogs, pages, media and the like. If it is denied you'll get a notice and be told what needs fixing for it to get past the queue. Just resubmit once it's fixed and it'll go back into the queue.

- Sorry if this is getting long.

- Admin and Mods have different name colours so they're easy to pick out.

- Events will pop up. (There may be one on now~) Joining them can help you garner MS and get your name known a bit more.

- Locker! Can't believe I forgot to mention locker! Under your name in the top bar there's a link to your locker, which is a place where you can upload any files that you need. You don't need to host game files or game images there (bar css stuff) as RMN will host them automatically when you upload (for game files, up to 400MB). Locker has a limit but you can increase that by getting more MS - the more MS you have the bigger your locker. Also, the little briefcase icon on the html bar in posts will open your locker so you can put an image there and then access it while posting. Neato~

- Status's exist but don't spam them. You can find them on the Community page (click Community). We have a help board so please don't use them to ask for help. Make a topic instead so people can actually help you and know where to look to do so.

- We have a tumblr, facebook and twitter account.

- Any questions, just ask. People are happy to answer.

- Screenshot thread is in the Game Discussion & Development forum.

- No memes and idiotic images outside of the Welp Forum. The Welp forum is great for just messing around in.

- We're not too hard on people when it comes to necroposting unless it's like, really old and you're not adding to whatever topic it was.

- Don't run with scissors. Seriously. I almost stabbed my brother doing that.

- We don't have signatures because they're rather obnoxious. Instead, you have a profile which you can tart up as you like (as long as there's nothing rule breaking like pornography). Some people put up images, some add stuff about their games, others show off neat quotes they've collected around the place. Personally I like those best~ You can find your profile if you hover over your name in the black bar at the top of the page and click on Edit Profile.

- Multiple posting in a row is frowned on unless there's a good reason for it. We allow it in certain topics like Mafia games and the like, but outside of the Welp forum it's a no-no. The only cases where it's allowed is if you've posted a help thread and haven't received an answer/reply for a few days or if you're updating an information/resource thread with a substantial update (but again, it's usually best to wait a day or two there as well).

- You can add CSS to your game profile, allowing for various different aesthetic changes. That said, you may not mess with the general graphical components (for example, changing the star rating to show only 5 stars - that is a bannable offence). There is a handy article about CSS here.

- No advertising your game in the forums unless asked to do so in a topic. We have game pages for this.

- Always credit graphics used to prettify your gamepage. Always. Not doing so will result in beings asked to do so and failure to comply (or repeated removal of credits) will result in your gamepage being taken down until the images not-credited either receive their proper credit or are removed from the page. To credit you just need to put either the name of the original creator and/or a link to their blog/page/art/whatever somewhere on the page it is shown. So, for a piece used as concept art in the image area, either in a comment or as the title for that piece. For a banner, in the description or on a dedicated Credits page.

- Titles are under your avatar. You'll notice some people have them. They can be unlocked by donating to the site, however that's not the only way to get one. If you make a funny/silly post and kentona notices it, he'll grant you that as a title. It's considered something of a small honour to get one like that.

- kentona is boss, just an fyi. Probably best not to argue with him too much.

- The Holy Lord Aremen sees all you do and judges accordingly. Fear Him. Love Him.

- Have fun!


And lastly, a few links to useful topics in the forums.

Screenshot Thread - Show off screenshots to get feedback from your fellow creators, and leave feedback on others' work too. Only for screenshots and small videos.

Let's Work on Your Game Descriptions Thread - A thread for those who are having trouble making a good game description. Whether it be adding more information or worrying that your English isn't quite up to snuff, the people here will help you out.

IRC Topic - Teaches you how to join us on the site's IRC channel. Join in the real time chat!

RPG Maker Helpful Things topic - A topic filled with useful hints, tips and links if you're using one of the RPG Maker engines.

What are you Thinking About? Game Dev thread - Share your current thoughts about game dev. A good thread for sounding off ideas, talking about what you're thinking of, doing, thinking of doing and just getting feedback on your thoughts.

Rare/Obscure Games thread - Played a game years ago that you just can't find again? It's not on the site, it's not on any sites and you've been hitting dead ends all over? Ask about it here and see if your fellow game hoarders collectors have it stashed away somewhere.

Whatchu Working On? Tell Us! thread - A thread to talk about what you're working on game-wise. Ask for some feedback on sprites or anything that isn't map-based (that's what the Screenshot thread is for) and give feedback on others' work too!

What Video Games are you Playing Right Now? - Just shoot the breeze and talk about what games you're currently playing.

WIP Thread - A thread devoted to posting up your WIP art.

RMN v3.4 Bugs - Did the site do something hinky? Report it here so we know what we need to fix!

What are you Thinking About Right Now? thread - So... what are you thinking about? Tell us!

There are, of course, many more interesting threads to check out so explore the forums a bit and see if you find a niche for yourself~

(If there's a piece of information you think should be included here, PM Liberty with it. Any extra questions just ask in the comment area below and I'll see about answering and compiling a FAQ.)
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Lol don't worry, TL;DR: We love you and we want you to succeed but use common sense, and if in doubt, just ask!
It's not that long...
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
Oh and tell them not to use statues to ask for help.
Good call.

I'm open to more suggestions.
author=Liberty
Forum Rules - General posting rules for the forums.

Wait we have a forum?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I feel like this advice is important:

-Do not expect your gamepage to be accepted immediately! It goes into a queue, and is looked over my a moderator in his or her spare time. If you must complain about your gamepage taking too long to be accepted, send a PM to Liberty rather than make a complaint-thread in User Feedback.

Though, the contact page suggests to contact Deckiller in regards to game submissions, but, uh yeah.
charblar
"wait you made this a career?"
3574
Maybe we could create a topic for creating a simple CSS stuff for your game page? Like at least changing the background color or using a tiling image perhaps? Otherwise it's a pretty good list great work as always Libby!
Added under general tips. Also included a link to the CSS article since it's got a lot of great info in it. ^.^)b
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
Not sure about the behind the scene work it would involve, but does every new member get automatically directed to this topic. Like an automated, "Hello welcome to the site" PM with a link to this? Because they should, it's got a wealth of information that can help, and whilst they may not read it all right away, it will be a useful resource for both new and old members.

Sorry, missed seeing this! (how ironic)

New members are automatically directed to the New to RMN? article, actually.


In fact, Liberty should probably incorporate the information posted here into that article.
Can I do that? If I'd known I could do that I wouldn't have bothered with this and gone straight to that instead.
/me goes off to explore and edit shit~



e: holy shit I can do that! :DDD
author=Liberty
Can I do that? If I'd known I could do that I wouldn't have bothered with this and gone straight to that instead.
/me goes off to explore and edit shit~



e: holy shit I can do that! :DDD

Hello all,
Im a new guy lol Just wanted to say hello.
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