The Official Sythe.org Rules

The Official Sythe.org Rules

Punishment System

• Users will be given infractions when minor rules are broken.
  • Infractions expire after 1 month.
  • A user with 5 active infractions will receive a 3 day ban, 7 active infractions will result in a 7 day ban.
• Users that break major rules will receive harsher punishment that varies based on the rule that was broken.
  • Punishments can include a longer temporary ban, a TWC or DNT rank, and in rare cases, a permanent ban. Repeat offenses will carry progressively more severe punishments as well.
    
  • A TWC (Trade With Caution) is a rank that displays on a users profile and posts, warning users to use caution when dealing with them.
  • A DNT (Do Not Trade) is a rank that displays on a users profile and posts, it also restricts a users access to the market and other features of Sythe. For more information see this thread.
• If a user commits any unconscionable act not explicitly in the rules, or has repeatedly broken rules, the staff reserves the right to punish the user in any way.

Minor Rules

• Spamming:
  • Posting short and unhelpful comments, free bumps on other users' threads, and posting for the sake of increasing post count are all classified as spamming.
  • Creating multiple threads advertising the same thing, or having multiple threads in the same market section (unless allowed) also constitute spam.
• Flaming, Harassment, Trolling:
  • Using excessive profanity, insults, or derogatory comments towards another user.
  • Deceiving members or staff for fun, humor, or to cause drama.
  • Posting purposely to anger or to elicit a negative response from others for fun, humor, or to cause drama.
• Excessive Bumping: No double posting or bumping in threads within 4 hours of your last post in a given thread. See this thread for the full bumping rules.
• Bogus Posting or Bumping: All posts and bumps in market/trading sections of the site must relate to real trades. You may not bump your sales thread if you are not legitimately ready to trade at the time of bumping, or if only doing so for the sole purpose of increasing post count. Punishments will be the same as false advertising.
• Accusing Someone of Scamming Without Proof: Posting on someone's thread accusing them of scamming without appropriate proof (chat logs do not count as proof). To report a scammer, visit the Report a Scammer section.
  • Genuine negative feedback about a negative experience with user that does not accuse them of scamming is allowed on a relevant market thread with proof.
• Begging: Asking to receive anything for free.
• Thread Hijacking: Offering your services/sales on someone else's services or sales thread.
• Trying to Sell Something that is Free: You may not sell anything on the forum that may be found freely elsewhere.
  
• Giving away accounts: We do not allow accounts to be given away; it's a scam as they will be recovered later on.
• Signature Violations: Maximum of 350 pixels in height including all quotes/text/pictures in it and a maximum of 650 pixels in width with all text/quotes/pictures.
• Referrals: Posting referral links anywhere other than in your signature or user title.
• Grave Digging: If a thread hasn't had a post in several weeks or months, do not post in it (except in the spam forum and some other forums/threads).
• Requiring Vouches: You may not promise/require a vouch in the market. No one is obligated to vouch for anyone under any circumstances.
• Exploiting Site Glitches: Blank posting and other things that exploit glitches in XenForo/Sythe.org/the User Center are not allowed and punishment will be handled on a case by case basis. Use of unicode to blank post in the Spam Forum is the only exemption to this rule.
• Porn/Gore: Posting pictures, videos, or links to websites related to porn/extreme gore, etc, is not permitted. Staff will decide what constitutes porn or gore. Repeat offenses may result in additional punishment.
• Circumventing Staff Decisions or Wasting Staff Time: Ignoring staff orders, recreating locked or deleted threads or posts, evading censors, etc. May result in additional punishment on a case by case basis.
• Posting links to "Screamer/Shock" Sites: Misleading links that lead to "screamer" or "shock" type sites are prohibited. Repeat offenses may result in additional punishment.
• Unban Services: Selling an unbanning service for any game is not allowed.
• False or Misleading Advertising:
  • Your market threads must be accurate and updated promptly to reflect your actual prices/offers. Advertising an offer significantly different to your actual prices is false advertising. For more information on this rule please see this thread.
    
  • Note that this is intended for legitimate customer complaints, you may not report direct market competition for violating this rule.
  • If a user claims to have "X" number of vouches, then the user will be required to list and count them on their actual vouch thread, or have that many vouches in your actual vouch thread. Failure to meet either one of these requirements is false advertising.
• Copyright Infringement: Posting direct links to files that infringe others' copyright is against the rules. However indirect links are not covered by this rule.
• Ignoring section's stickies: Failure to follow section rules from stickies will lead to an infraction.
• Posting on Behalf of Banned Users: This is strictly prohibited.

Major Rules

• TWC Rank Evasion: If your account has been given a TWC and you use another account to evade the rank all accounts used in the evasion will receive a 1 week ban as well as a TWC. Subsequent offenses will result in a permanent DNT on all accounts.
• Attempting to trade while having the DNT rank: Only the user(s) with the DNT rank will be punished. Will result in a 1 week ban.
  • This rule only applies to trading on Sythe and the official Discord servers.
  • You also may not middleman a trade for a DNT'd user.
• Attempting to Bribe Staff in Any Way: Self explanatory, 1 week ban.
• Advertising of Trading Platforms: A trading platform is defined as a Discord/forum/Facebook page/etc with open trading channels where anyone may advertise. Results in a 1 week ban.
  • A Discord with closed trading channels where only the owner of the Discord or their workers may advertise is permitted.
• Autobumping: Using a tool to automatically bump your threads is not allowed, manual assistance tools are permitted. Results in a 1 week ban.
  • An exception exists for $300+ donors who have had an IP whitelisted in the user center. These users may whitelist one IP address for an autobumper that bumps only their own threads. Normal bumping rules still apply.
• Self/Fake Vouching: Faking, stealing, or in any way attempting to pass off illegitimate vouches as legitimate will result in a 2 week ban and a TWC. Subsequent offenses will result in a permanent DNT.
  • Off-site vouches are not honoured on Sythe, but may be included ONLY in the body of a thread.
• Interacting on Two or More Accounts/Sharing Accounts: You are strongly advised not to create more than one account on Sythe. If you do, ensure that the accounts do not interact with each other. Results in a 2 week ban.
  • Using a secondary account SOLELY to bump your threads threads is permitted. Normal bump rules still apply.
    
  • Sharing accounts is not allowed, however a company may have its own Sythe account, distinct from its members/shareholders, provided it complies with the other rules.
• Plagiarism: Plagiarism (websites, ToS, discord servers and other significant content but not trivial things like thread titles) results in a 1 month ban.
• Disclosure of Others' Personal Information: Posting someone's information such as private emails, private social media accounts, addresses, phone numbers, private photos, etc. without explicit consent from that person will result in a 1 month ban and a DNT.
  • This rule still applies if the information is publicly available or was posted by its owner on Sythe/Discord.
  • Disclosure of a staff member's or acquantence of a staff member's personal information will result in a 6 month ban, a 6 month spam forum ban, and a DNT.
    • To clarify, an acquaintance of a staff member is a family member or close friend who is only associated with Sythe through a staff member, if at all.
• Tweeting, emailing, and/or contacting any company to leak another users in-game name(s): Punishment is a 1 month ban and a TWC.
• Scamming: Scamming and any suspicious behavior including attempting to scam results in a temporary ban based on the severity of the offense and a DNT.
  • This includes luring, or using Sythe as a means of finding other luring partners. However, luring done without the use of Sythe is fine.
  • This includes impersonating other members of Sythe or other sites, both on-site and off-site.
  • This includes name sniping.
• Malicious Off-site Activities: If you are found to have committed offenses elsewhere (on other sites) which would constitute a ban or DNT here on Sythe had they been committed here, we may use these offenses as an indicator of your character and choose to DNT you on Sythe.
• Returning After a Ban/Ban Evading: If one of your accounts has been banned and you return under another account, that account will also be banned. Frequent ban evasion will result in an IP ban. Evading a temporary ban will result in both accounts being banned for the length of your current ban plus an additional week.
• Selling your Sythe account: Results in a 3 month ban and a DNT.
• Blackhat/Malicious Activities: Using software tools for deceptive, malicious, or harmful intent directly or indirectly affecting Sythe users. Will result in a temporary ban and a DNT.
• Attempting To Bypass the 1 Thread per Market Section Limit: You may only have one thread per market section advertising your goods, services, or platform (Discord server/website, etc) unless otherwise specified. Attempts to circumvent this limit will result in a 1 month ban and possibly a DNT in severe cases.

Additional Notes/Clauses

• Counter-scamming: Attempting to recover your property from a scammer is not against the rules, but attempting to scam someone who previously scammed you is. If you attempt to recover your property from a scammer, that scammer may attempt to report you on Sythe. If you have insufficient evidence to back your claims that you were indeed recovering your stolen property the staff may be forced to ban you.
  • If you find yourself in this situation, please contact a staff member to clear up any questions about how to proceed in your specific case.
• Businesses/Partnerships: Anyone running a business or partnered service implicitly agrees to share responsibility for the actions of their co-owners, as well as any workers they employ while the worker is on shift and acting on behalf of the business.
  • If a partner or worker scams, all owners of the business will be banned until the debt is repaid. Workers, however, are not liable for anyone's actions but their own.
  • If an account is owned by a joint enterprise or company then all owners/directors of the company/enterprise must either have never owned a Sythe account, or have a Sythe account in good standing.
  • Note that a DNT'd user may work for a business as an employee, provided that they have no outstanding debt on Sythe.
• Individual market and non-market sections have their own unique rules and requirements that must also be followed, these are listed in each section's "Section Rules" thread.
  
• Posting in the market on behalf of users who are banned or DNT'd is strictly prohibited. Users who are DNT'd or banned also may not have any stake in or ownership over a business, service, or product that is advertised on Sythe. Punishment will be based on the severity of the offense.
• If there is a banned account on your IP address, other accounts attached to the same IP may also be banned if a significant connection is found. Moreover, if there is any interaction between accounts associated with the same IP address, all accounts may be banned as well.
• If your Sythe account (or any other account you own) is hacked, and the hacker scams with that account, your Sythe account will be banned. You must reimburse all scammed members before the staff will consider unbanning you.
• Name changes are now available. It is a donor perk which can be found here: Name Changes
• Anyone found cheating in/manipulating competitions or other such events will given a 1 month competition ban, will be automatically disqualified from the competition, and the user will be given the "BANNED FROM COMPETITIONS" user title.
• All game account sales and services (including skilling/questing services) must include prominent and well displayed information on whether or not botting was/is used for the account/service. Further, all account sales must define an explicit refund and returns policy that the seller must ensure the buyer has read, understands and has agreed to (in writing) before the sale goes ahead. Failure to comply with this rule may result in disputes being awarded automatically to buyers.
• Anti-scamming without a staff members approval will be punished.
• You may receive a TWC for sending a poor confirmation PM if it is missing important information such as Discord Unique IDs, even if this does not result in a scam.
• You may receive a TWC for poor trading practices.
  
• Lying about being the original owner of an account you are selling will result in a DNT.
• Cryptocurrency fees must be confirmed before the trade. In the event a fee is not discussed and a transaction is in limbo due to no confirmations for extended time, the customer is owed the difference if the value of the cryptocurrency were to decrease - the inverse does not apply.
  • In the absence of fee discussion, a maximum confirmation time is applied: 2 hours. You are responsible for the difference if the confirmation time exceeds 2 hours.

All rules in order to be enforced must first be interpreted by the staff. Where the application of a rule to the facts of a case is not obvious the staff will make a best effort, by drawing from the common law, to apply the rule in question. In rare cases where there is no fitting rule, a new rule may be established by precedent. If you feel a rule has been applied incorrectly you may request an appeal in the dispute forum, however upper staff do not have to accept your appeal. In particular if you have previously had an appeal fail staff reserve the right to dismiss your appeal summarily.

 

The staff information rule has been updated as follows:

 

Made a bunch of changes to wording, cleaned up formatting, and removed some pieces no longer relevant to XenForo

 

Added rules against attempting to bribe staff

 

Added:

 

Amended the rule about sharing accounts: