First off, Welcome to MLB Nation! This forum was opened up near the end of the 2006 baseball season with the goal of having the most in-depth and intelligent baseball discussion on the net. With that said, it isn't something that comes automatically. Rules must be laid out, and they must be enforced. Enjoy your time at our website and forum, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact a staff member.

Thanks for signing up, and enjoy the board!

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1. Person Insults & Flaming: There is no reason why our members and guests shouldn't feel welcome here, whether they are posting or just viewing the board. That being said, "Flaming" or any other insults will not be tolerated what-so-ever. And no, if you send a PM to a member that is disrespectful, this is no different than posting it on the board. We take this rule more seriously than any other on the board. So if you wish to continue posting here, keep your mouth shut.

2. Spamming: If you love this site so much that you make 20 or more posts each day, that is fine, I love having people like you here. However, members posting identical thread titles or nearly identical concept threads, or continuous irrelevant threads within a short amount of time will be viewed as spamming. You may be warned and then suspended a short amount of time. Try to make every post matter, post counts shouldn't be viewed as a huge deal.

3. Bi-Posting: Members are prohibited from using or registering more than one username. There is no need to register for more than one account at any time. If you wish to change your username, please send a PM to an Administrator.

4. Advertising: Advertising another message board, blog, or website is prohibited. How would you like us coming to your site and invading it with spam? We have worked hard to get where we are today, respect other's property. Please PM an Administrator if you feel like you deserve special permisson to advertise. If you would like to use a signature image that has the name of your site on it, go ahead. But you are not allowed to directly link, and the signature cannot be bigger than 400x125.

5. Signatures & Avatars:The maximum size for a signature image is 425x125 pixels, but the preferred size is 400x125 pixels. They cannot contain any nudity, or racial, ethnic, or religion based themes. The same rules apply to avatars, except the maximum size is 125x125 pixels.

6. Images & Text: Members are prohibited from posting any images, links, or posts that contain sexual content, graphic or disturbing content, racial hatred, profanity, gambling or wagering for monetary gain, any content that should not be viewed by children, discussions about illegally pirated audio or video for sale or trade, or any other inappropriate or illegal content.

7. Political Discussion: Discussion regarding politics on MLB Nation is not permitted. Political discussions in the past have caused several conflicts between MLB Nation members and some discussions regarding politics have even resulted in members leaving the forum all together. Due to these issues, MLB Nation does not allow political discussion on the forum and any member that violates this rule will be suspect to a warning, suspension, or ban.

8. Respect the Staff: If you break a board rule at any time, it is the job of a Moderator to step up and punish you. If you make a "bad" topic or post, it is their job to get rid of it and/or punish you. So there is absolutely no need to complain or start another topic asking why you were punished or your post was deleted. If you really cannot figure out why a Moderator punished you, than send him/her a PM asking about it. If you start a topic asking about something like this, it will be deleted.

Another aspect of the "Respect the Staff" rule is what the writers do here. As you are probably aware, we have recently added a writing team to put together articles and stories for our work-in-progress homepage. So why do I say "Respect the Writers"? Well, they take hours out of their week to put these pieces together, and after they work and work, don't want to see a comment like "How could you say that" or "That is ridiculous". If you disagree with what the writer is saying, make a reply in it's thread. Or if you want to add something, feel free. Our writers would love feedback and comments on their work. But keep it constructive, guys.

And finally, Be pleasant when requesting something from our Graphic Artists. If they take a little longer than expected to complete your request. Or if you are leaving feedback on what they have put together, keep it constructive. Let them know what they can do better instead of just saying "Wow, that is pretty bad". For more on Graphics Requests, including how and how often, please checkout the Request Guidelines.

9. Posting Content from other Sites: If you read a good article or find something you like from another website and want to post it here, you must leave a link or something indicating where you found it in that same post. For example, it is illegal to copy an article from MLB.com without giving credit to the writer and website it came from. Or if the article is only readable after subscription, such as an ESPNInsider Article, you could be banned for a short time. In either case, the post will be deleted.