Common questions the administrators, forum moderators, and posters receive are listed below.
Last updated: 15 July 2002

Q: Who are the forum moderators?
A: See the Contact page for a list of the forum administrators and/or moderators.

Q: What time zone is the forum using? The time doesn't match with my computer.
A: The forum uses GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). You'll need to convert your local time zone from that. For example, Battle.Net time, which is Pacific Time in the USA, is 8 hours behind GMT. Subtracting 8 hours from the forum time would give you Battle.Net time.

Q: Why do you require an email address to register? Will it ever be sold?
A: Your email address is required as an extra annoyance to spammers/jerks who can't take a hint and leave the forum when they're not wanted. It forces them to create new email accounts as we ban them. Your email address is necessary because the forum script mails you your initial password. Your email address can be private to everyone but the forum administrators if you wish by setting that in your forum profile. Your email address will never be sold, given out, rented, said out loud, or flattened into boxes. That also goes for any other personal information you decide to add to your profile (although the only thing you NEED to enter is your email address).

Q: How do you keep jerks off the forum?
A: Along with the annoyance of having to create many email addresses, we monitor all account creations and we ban by IP ranges. Your IP address(es) is only visible to forum administrators.

Q: Hey, there was nothing wrong with my post and it's gone!!?!
A: It may have been moved. If a post is deemed to be misplaced (in other words, it belongs more in a different forum), forum administrators can move it to that forum. When doing so, they will follow up that message with a "moved to ... from ..." post in the thread to let that forum's readers know where the post came from.

Q: Why is the off-topic forum (the Lounge) not archived?
A: Two reasons: first, to conserve server space due to the fact that off-topic forums are generally the most-used on any site. Secondly, because generally, off-topic forums have nothing worth archiving. :)

Q: What's this about an "Expand Threads" option?
A: Up at the top left corner of the forum layout is a small plus or minus sign in a white box. This controls the Expand Threads view. In Expand Threads mode, each thread's sub-posts will be displayed on the forum index when it loads. The advantage to this is that you can quickly see who has added what to a thread every time you visit. The downside to this is that a forum index page will take significantly longer to load, for it may need to generate hundreds of links to each post in all threads vs. listing 20 links to the 20 threads shown on each forum index page. The forum defaults to an unexpanded view, so depending on how you prefer it, you may want to switch. We recommend not using Expand Threads view to dial-up modem users for it can take a long time to load a forum index page if some threads have a large number of posts in them.

Q: What was that tag in the title of your post?
A: There are several little tags posters put into the titles of their posts. Most of these, such as (rant), are fairly self explanatory. However, some of them are abbreviations and as such may need a little explanation. (nt) = No Text; there is no message apart from the title. (vlt) = Very Little Text; this message may only contain a sentence or two.

Q: How come you don't have a trading forum here?
A: The administration at the Lurker Lounge feels that trading forums bring in the wrong kind of clientele. This site is about strategy and game mechanics, not about game items. Posters come here to learn about the game, and trading forums do not facilitate that. We'll leave the trading forums and auctions to other fansites.

Q: Why do pictures not show up in my posts?
A: The most likely reason for this is that you have your pictures hosted by a free server. Geocities will not allow linking of any picture types, while Angelfire blocks jpeg format pictures but not gif format. If you use Angelfire, rename your picture to .gif; otherwise, you might like to try another server such as Free Pic Hosting.

Q: Hey (forum administrator), that other forum administrator/moderator banned me/deleted my post unfairly! Do something about it!
A: Trying to play forum moderators off on each other is the oldest trick in the book. It doesn't work here. Each administrator/moderator has been hand-picked by Bolty for their fairness, level-headedness, and desire to keep the forum a healthy one. The highest level of trust has been imparted to them and any action taken by one mod or admin is an action taken by all. In other words, tough luck.

Q: This post doesn't belong on the forum or is offensive. How do I tell an admin/moderator?
A: Use the Alert feature. At the bottom of each post you'll find an "Alert" button, which you can use to point out a bad post to an admin/mod. It will send a link to the registered moderators for that specific forum along with your short description of what's wrong with the post. With a large forum, it's difficult for moderators and admins to read every last post, so we really appreciate your help in catching inappropriate posts. Thanks!

Q: You have no right to delete or censor my post! This is a free country!
A: Wrong. Free speech is not applicable on Internet forums. This is a private forum run by Bolty and the Lurker Lounge administrators. When you come here and violate the posting rules, it's equivalent to running over to Bolty's backyard and setting fire to the bushes. You are on private property when you post here, and as such you agree to respect that property. Bolty is providing you with a service for free, so don't be a jerk and wreck it - and if you ARE banned, stay off the property.

Q: Why was my post/thread deleted/edited out?
A: Probably because you didn't read this FAQ or rules and thus violated them. If you don't take the time to read the rules, we won't take the time to explain what you did wrong. Common reasons for post/thread removal are listed below:

1. Your post/thread is spam. What constitutes spam here, besides the normal definition, is creating multiple threads about the same topic. For instance, whenever a major patch comes out for a game covered at the Lurker Lounge, the posting count goes WAY up as we all start discussing the patch and its ramifications. In order to rise above the noise, many posters feel that their thoughts or opinions are far too important to let them just create a post under a current thread about the patch, so they create a new thread instead. What follows is dozens of new threads in just a matter of hours about the SAME EXACT THING. This is spam, and the extraneous threads will be removed. Why? Because when new threads are created, they push old threads off the front page of a forum. It's one thing to have separate threads for different aspects of a patch (for instance, how a patch affects character classes, or item changes, etc); it's quite another to have 30-40 new threads started that amount to little more than people saying "yay, a patch is out!"
2. Your post/thread contains offensive material. This is a PG-13 website, and so is its forum. Common four-letter words are blanked out by the forum script, and we expect users to utilize common sense and decency when posting. A higher level of maturity is expected for the posters here, and trash-talking is not allowed.
3. Your post/thread detailed methods for cheating or linked to a website that supports or promotes it. Cheating in any form is not allowed here. That includes the use of maphack in Diablo II. USING MAPHACK IS CHEATING (no arguments to the contrary are accepted). If you use cheats in multiplayer games, you are not welcome at the Lurker Lounge, and its administrators and posters would appreciate it if you respected our opinion and moved to another website with less stringent attitudes about cheaters. Any posters found admitting that they use cheats will be banned on sight.
4. Your post/thread was deemed to be an attack (flame) on another poster. Flame wars are not permitted on this forum. Posters are expected to take personal arguments to email and will be reminded to do so by forum moderators when things get too hot. Debate is expected and encouraged here about all subjects; however, personal attacks are not. You might write a 10 page thesis as a reply to a post, but if it has just one line that is a personal attack, the entire post will be erased. Moderators do not edit posts to remove pieces of content, because users then can never be sure that there were no "edits" made to their writings behind their back. Thus, moderators must remove an entire post when it requires censoring. Remember: attack the SUBJECT, not the PERSON. There's an old Internet adage which simply states that the first person to resort to personal attacks in an argument online is the loser. Don't be one.