Muscle&Strength Rules - Revised

[Damien]

All members and people who are thinking of joining should read the following rules. Updated on 9th Jan 2008.

Being a member of Muscle&Strength.

Muscle&Strength is not just a forum, not just a website. It's a home. It's your home. It's a place you can come to discuss what you love doing with like-minded people who share your passion. The passion to get big, look good and reach your goals. Being a member of Muscle&Strength has responsibilities. First, we have a responsibility to reach our goals. Second, we have a responsibility to help other M&S members reach their goals. And finally, we have the responsibility of showing each other respect. We're all equals here, we all have our own goals, we come together to talk about what we love doing and share the knowledge we have. Education + motivation = results.

Infractions & Banning.

If you break any of the rules below you'll receive an infraction. Infractions work like points on a drivers license. If you get a certain number of infractions in a certain time, you'll be banned from Muscle&Strength. However, some more serious posts will result in an instant banning. This will be left to the discretion of the moderators.

Reporting (or flagging) posts.

You'll notice on the bottom left hand side of each post there is a yellow triangle with an ! in it. This is called a flag. If someone posts something that breaks any of the rules below you can click that icon and one of the moderators or admin staff will be notified.

The reputation system.

Muscle&Strength uses a reputation system. When someone posts some useful information, tool or gives out some good advice you can leave them positive rep. The more positive rep is left for a particular member, the more reputation they get. Good posters who give out good advice and post valuable information get a solid reputation for being knowledgeable around these forums.

The rep system is not in place to be abused. If you post negative rep to someone for no good reason, you will receive an infraction (see above). The same goes for members who rep each other, for the sake of building each others rep. It will be at the moderators/admins digression to decide whether negative rep was given without good reason. For continuous misuse of the rep system, you will be banned.

6 Rules:

1. Check your ego at the door...
Here at Muscle&Strength, we don't have room for attitudes and egos. We don't need to know how much weight you can lift, we don't want to know how hardcore you are or why you're more hardcore than me. There is always someone bigger and stronger than you. Here at Muscle&Strength we expect respect. Respect for each other, respect for someone having different goals than you, respect for new lifters etc. You get the picture. The only one you should be trying to impress is yourself.

2. A debate vs. an argument.
Muscle&Strength is not your average bodybuilding forum. We're a group of like-minded individuals who are serious about achieving their goals and support one another with solid information and motivation. We know that everyone is different. What works for you, might now work for me and vice versa. We know that there are different ways people train and different nutrition plans. That being said, Muscle&Strength members need to recognize this and know that your way is not necessarily the right way. We expect there to be debates, where individuals can put their point of view across on certain matters. What we don't expect is slaying matches. Name calling. Posting just for the sake of winning an argument etc. Who cares who wins? Remember what it is to be a member here, it's not about you. It's about furthering the knowledge of the community as a whole so we can all reach our goals.

3. A note for spammers & forum trolls...
Muscle&Strength was not created for you to advertise your services and products, whether they're free or otherwise. No one is permitted to advertise on the forum, PMs, signatures or anywhere else without permission from me (Damien). These people effect the quality of information and the community as a whole. Anyone discovered to be doing this will be banned without notice.

4. Some topics are off limits.
While we like to promote free discussions here at Muscle&Strength, there are some topics that are simply not suitable, useful and have no relevance to muscle building or fitness. While you can talk about almost anything, the follow topics are officially off limits...

• Steriods
• Religion
• Politics
• Sex/sexual lifestyles
• Illegal drugs

5. Steriods
Muscle&Strength promotes 100% drug free natural bodybuilding. If you want to discuss and/or recommend taking steroids (or related products), there are plenty of other bodybuilding forums around for you. Simple as that. Taking steroids to increase your size is cheating, that's how we see it.

6. Posting information from other sites/books/forums.
If you've got some good information, great, post it up. All Muscle&Strength members can benefit from you sharing good information. That's how we learn more, and get bigger. But simply copying information from other websites or sources and claiming it as your own is not allowed. Not only can it get us (Muscle&Strength) in trouble with copyright, but it's dishonest. It goes back to what we said at the top of this page...you have nothing to prove to us, only to yourself. So if you find some good info, post it in your own words or quote it, don't claim it as your own.