Happily, this community is growing every day.  However, with that growth comes the need for some rules and guidelines for playing nice with each other. Please read and please abide by the rules outlined below.  If you do so, you will greatly improve the NESB experience for both yourself and your peers.  Unless otherwise noted, all of the following apply to every aspect of this site, including but not limited to the forums, commentary on the front page, private messages, and the NESB chat rooms.

At all times:

• Respect each other at all times. There is no need for name-calling or harassment of any poster. This includes behavior in all areas of NESB, including forum posts, blog comments and personal messages. While we encourage lively debate there is no reason for anyone to disrespect a fellow poster's ideas.
• Keep all commentary civil, and be courteous to all. Constructive criticism is welcome, but insults directed towards other users or the site staff will not be tolerated. Coarse/insulting language is not allowed under any circumstances.  This prohibition also extends to any off color or inappropriate remarks. Sarcasm can be misinterpreted, so be very careful when using it in a post.
• Do not “lure” or “bait” others towards rule-breaking behavior.  This prohibition applies site-wide.  Responding to such “bait” in a manner that violates NESB rules is equally inappropriate, and is subject to the same level of punishment.
• No “trolling”.  Commenting in a thread in a manner that is likely to provoke an angry response from others is not permitted.   Posters should appreciate that in many instances, commentary that would otherwise be appropriate may not be appropriate in a specific thread (i.e., bringing up rumors of alleged cocaine use by a beloved player in a tribute thread dedicated to the memory of that player.)
• No swearing! There is absolutely no need for swearing in any post. If you can't find another way to express your opinion, buy a thesaurus. Any forum post, blog comment or personal message with profanity, masked profanity, abbreviations referring to profanity, or allusions to profanity (i.e., **** or @#$#, etc.), whether or not caught by the blog filter, will be deleted.
• Disparaging comments made in relation to another’s race, gender, ethnicity, or sexual preference are not permitted.  The use of racial slurs and similar language will result in an immediate suspension and/or ban.
• Suggestive content or innuendo, no matter how mild, is not allowed.  Do not start posts related to the sexual desirability and/or attractiveness of actors, celebrities, sportscasters, or other public figures.  Do not post images or videos that tend to objectify persons, especially on the basis of their gender or physical characteristics. Any post dealing with such content will be deleted.
• Overall try to keep the maturity level of posts up, and keep in mind that this should be a place you want to come back to daily and want to tell your friends about.  Crude, sexist, racist or offensive humor is not allowed.
• If you feel a post violates any of these rules, do not resort to "self help"; please use the "report to moderator" link to notify the staff to any violation.

Posting Guidelines:

• Keep all posts and comments on-topic.
• Do not publish images or video that contain adult content, sexually oriented material, or might otherwise be considered offensive. If linking or posting a video that contains profanity, please clearly note so in your post.  Any post containing  inappropriate material as noted above will be deleted, with the poster being subject to a warning and/or action against their account.
• Do not discuss illegal activities. Our server is hosted in the USA and so is subject to US law. Please do not expose us to any unnecessary legal liability.
• When quoting from material that is not made freely available (i.e., ESPN.com "Insider" content, etc.), do not quote the entirety of the material.  Posting brief snippets and summaries of the material is appropriate; posting lengthy quotations is not.  Please post a link whenever citing to online material, whether insider content or otherwise.
• Try not to get excessive with caps/punctuation in your posts such as "Greg Kite IS the best CELTIC of All-Time!!!!!!!" This is not necessary, no matter how much you may like Greg Kite.
• No useless posts or comments, i.e., one liners/thread bumping, drive-bys, etc., etc.
• Make sure you have read the parent article/post completely before posting a reply.
• Use your own words. If you wish to use the words of somebody else, quote them, citing the source. Plagiarism is unethical and is illegal in many countries.
• All forum posts must be in English, unless posted in a specific international forum. If posting in a international forum, please use the language of that forum, and not English.
• No commercial advertising is permitted. Any posts or personal message deemed to be self promotion, advertising, or spam can and will be removed. NO SPAM - NO ADVERTISING.  If you have a website or blog you would like to promote on NESB, please send Matt or I a link to the site, and a brief description of the content thereof.  Do not post any links to such site until permission has been received.
• This is not the place to settle a commercial disagreement or to be a 'wall of shame'. Any posts deemed to be of this nature will be removed. Settle your disputes in private please.
• Post your comment/question to the most appropriate place. Any posts deemed to be in the wrong forum will be moved.  Do not cross-post the same question in multiple places.
• Check that your question has not been answered anywhere else on the site. Use the main site search feature or that of the forums.
• Include as much information as you can when seeking help. This may include logs and command line output. Nobody will be able to help you if you don't give sufficient detail.
• Ask questions the smart way.
• Thank those who help you. Acknowledgment of a helpful suggestion not only placates those who helped you, it may also help others with a similar problem. All those who have been helped on this forum are invited to help other users by responding to their questions when they know the answer and/or to consider donating to the project.

Links:

• You may insert web, mail and/or ftp links into any post, blog comment or personal message.  However, inserting links with the intention of leading somebody to spam, warez, crackz, phishing schemes or any other illegal activity. is absolutely prohibited.  Doing so will get you banned from this website and possibly reported to authorities.
• Do not link to any site that contains adult content, sexually oriented material, or might otherwise be considered offensive. Any post containing an inappropriate link will be deleted and the poster will receive a warning and/or adverse action to their account.
• Do not link or cite to sites that allow illegal file-sharing or broadcasting of copyrighted material.

Starting New Threads:

• Before creating a new topic, please check to make sure it is not posted elsewhere. If a pre-existing thread already exists, feel free to reopen that discussion by posting your opinion. This also includes new topics that are relevant to threads that already exist. (i.e., All game comments belong in the game thread.)
• All new forum threads should be worthy of their own topic. Meaningless/irrelevant threads will be locked or deleted by a moderator.
• Please use descriptive thread titles.  Members of the blog should be able to have a general idea about the content of a thread before clicking on it.  Try to summarize the topic briefly in the title, and elaborate in the message itself.  Do not add false or misleading information just to get attention.  An example of a bad subject would be "HELP ME". A good subject might be, "Foo rashes when I do bar".  Misleading and/or non-descriptive thread titles will be edited and/or deleted.
• Posting misleading thread titles for the purpose of eliciting a negative reaction from NE sports fans fans (i.e., KG tore his ACL!!!) is inappropriate, and will result in an automatic suspension and/or ban.  This rule will be relaxed from 12:00am until 12:00pm EST on April 1 of each year.  On such date, each poster may make a maximum of one "April Fools" post.
• Thread titles that use excessive capitalization or punctuation are not allowed.  Thread titles that are in all-caps will be locked and/or deleted.  There will be no exceptions to this rule.
• If a previous thread has been locked, use discretion in starting a new thread on the same topic.  If the thread was locked for reasons other than its content, starting a new discussion is generally appropriate.  If the reason for the lock was directly related to discussion of inappropriate or inflammatory material, do not start a new thread on the subject.  If you have any questions about the propriety of reopening a thread, please contact a member of the staff.
• If you have a trade/draft idea you wish to share, please note it as such in the thread title.
• If you wish to post a rumor, please note it as such in the thread heading. Also please provide a source in the heading and a link (if available) in the message.
• All reports of "insiders" and "sources" posted in the forums should be taken with a grain of salt.  While such posts are worthy of discussion strictly as trade ideas, it is not appropriate for "insiders" to use this forum to feed their own ego-driven agendas.  If the staff determines, in its sole discretion, that a thread has been posted for an improper purpose, that thread will be locked and/or deleted.

The Off Topic Forum:

• NESB has an “Off Topic” forum, where discussion of topics unrelated to the sports forums are permitted.  Please keep all such discussions confined to this forum to the extent possible.  It is not necessary and/or appropriate for posters to enter the Off Topic forum and tell others to confine their discussion to baseball, basketball, football or hockey.
• While the NESB staff encourages discussion of a wide variety of topics, threads related to certain topics may be locked or deleted at any time because the staff deems them to be of a contentious, inflammatory, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate nature.  Decisions related to such threads will solely be in the staff’s discretion.
• Discussion of politics, religion, and related topics are not permitted.  Please do not start topics on such issues; all such threads will be locked.  If you have a question about whether a borderline thread is acceptable, please PM a member of the staff to get their specific permission before posting any new thread.
• Due to the sensitive nature of many of the topics in this forum, please pay extra attention to keeping all commentary civil.  Do not use disparaging nicknames for public figures or entities, and do not caricature the arguments of others.  Such conduct only serves to inflame discussion, rather than add to it, and is accordingly inappropriate.

Signatures:

• Must be setup in your Profile (link up the top, next to logout), and not manually added to your messages.
• May contain one image such as a banner, but ONLY if the image used is no larger than 460x100 pixels and 20KB in file size.
• May not contain any pricing, sales, product, etc. details.
• May contain a maximum of two smilies, or one animated smiley.
• May include two clickable links, URL's or mailto:
• Only exact URLs are allowed, i.e., not < a href="/www.domain.com">LOOK HERE
• May include up to two colors. Hyperlink color is set by the forum and is not counted as a color.
• Maximum font size cannot be larger than normal.
• Must be kept to a maximum of four lines (at 1024 resolution).
• May not contain links to other threads or posts.  Linking to an outside website is only appropriate with the permission of the staff.
• Your signature is your signature. It is not for sale or rent.
• Any signature or avatar that is offensive or insulting to the NESB staff or members of the blog is prohibited.
• We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your avatar or signature at any time, for any reason.

Avatars:

• The maximum allowed size of an avatar is 80x80 pixels. The maximum file size is 20KB. Anything larger will be removed.

Images, media and other file attachments:

• You may include one image in a post as long as that image is no larger than 460x460 pixels and 20KB in file size.
• You may provide links to off-site media files, but you may ONLY embed one into a post if it is NOT autoplay.
• Allowed file types: doc, gif, jpg, mpg, pdf, png, txt, zip. Maximum attachment size allowed: 128 KB, per post: 4.
• The inclusion of any malicious media files, scripts or links in a post will bring the gravest of consequences upon you. You have our Webmaster's word on this.

NESB Accounts:

• Participation on NESB is on an invitation basis only.  All users on NESB agree to abide by the site rules, the Terms of Use, and the NESB registration agreement (see below).  The NESB staff may revoke a user’s posting privileges at any time, on a temporary or permanent basis.
• Only one account per person is permitted. The only people authorized to have multiple accounts here are administrators and moderators who will use those for testing purposes. Anyone else found to be using multiple accounts will be banned from this website if they persist in using such multiple accounts.
• It is not appropriate to open a new account because you have lost your password or because you no longer like your screen name.  If you have lost your password, please email a member of the administration, and you can be given a new password.
• Do not Astroturf or pretend to be/represent somebody else. Your account will be deleted if found to be in breach of this rule.

Conspiracy Toward Damage:

• No site members or visitors are allowed, either individually or collectively, to use NESB to conspire to launch unauthorized (as in, without formal approval from NESB and its staff) and/or illegal collaborations, gatherings, demonstrations, protests and other equivalent activities. This includes activities that potentially might result in physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, domestic, organizational, civic, cultural or other injuries and/or losses to other individuals or groups.
• NESB and its staff retain all rights available to them to notify potential targets of such behavior and authorities relevant to the offenses perceived by NESB and its staff. NESB and its staff also retain all rights available to them to seek both civil and criminal prosecution toward individuals, groups or organizations in such matters as may be pertinent on behalf of parties perceived to have been damaged (including NESB itself and its staff) as result of the behaviors defined in this statement.

Interactions with NESB Staff:

• Respect and obey moderators and administrators at all times.
• If a member of the staff asks you to do something that you find objectionable, the proper course of action is to comply, and then write either that staff member or another member of the staff a private message indicating your disagreement, and the basis thereof.
• NESB rules, and the application thereof, can be discussed in the dedicated thread stickied at the top of the Comments / Suggestions forum.  All such commentary should be confined to that thread; it is inappropriate to start a new thread for purposes of “calling out” the staff, either by name or collectively.
• No matter what you may believe to the contrary, it is highly unlikely that anything done on this blog is violating your First Amendment rights.  The full text of the First Amendment can be found here.  Nothing in such Amendment applies to the restriction of speech by non-government entities or actors, including the staff of this blog.
• Please use the “alert a moderator” button to alert the staff to any inappropriate content or discussion.  If you have a question related to the blog or the blog rules, or have a general comment about a thread, it is more appropriate to reach out to a member of the staff via private message rather than via the "alert a moderator" function.

Failure to abide by these rules may result in the editing, negative moderation or deletion of your post, comment or PM. We reserve the right to suspend and/or ban abusers from the site without prior warning. We reserve the right to change these rules at any time, without notice.