Rules

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Contents

General Rules

  1. Do not defy staff's expressed wishes.
  2. Selling bitGAMER invites, selling upload credit, or trading upload credit for purchased items is strictly prohibited.
  3. Do not upload .torrent files from bitGAMER to other trackers. (See the FAQ for details.)
  4. Disruptive behaviour will likely result in a warning (Image:Warned.gif).

Downloading rules

  1. Low ratios will result in severe consequences. Users with a ratio of 0.3 or less who have downloaded over 5GB will be demoted to Peasant, and banned after 28 days. If you are demoted to Peasant and download an additional 10GB then you will be banned instantly! (See the FAQ for details).
  2. You must have legal rights to the file you are downloading.
  3. Please only comment on torrents that you are downloading, have downloaded, intend to download, or have something constructive to say.

Upload Rules

General Upload Rules

  1. All games (whether CD-rips or full CD images) must be compressed using standard methods, such as .rar, .zip, or .7z. We recommend you use high compression settings with the archiving program of your choice.
  2. Self-extracting archives are not allowed. A compressed installer such as setup.exe, however is ok.
  3. Password protected archives are not allowed.
  4. Do not post serials or cd-keys on the site (such as posting them in a torrent description or comment). Instead, include a .txt file or a keygen within the torrent.
  5. Torrents must be well-seeded for at least 24 of the first 48 hours, or until there are 2 additional seeders.

Duplication

  1. Duplicates of live torrents are not allowed, except as noted below.
  2. Various scene releases are allowed to coexist without being considered duplicates. Changing tags, repacking the archive, missing .nfo, etc means it's no longer a scene release, and may be subject to removal if there's a reasonable alternative on the site already. Conversely, one home rip, or other non-scene version may be uploaded if one doesn't exist already.

Torrent Description

  1. All uploads must include a proper Description.
  2. Scene releases include .nfo files with information on the release. Here are some guidelines if you choose to include this information in the torrent's description:
    • The .nfo file should not be considered an automatic substitute for a proper description. Some .nfo files provide a great deal of information while others provide next to none.
    • Remove any portions of the .nfo that aren't being displayed as originally intended, such as ASCII art. This is especially annoying when using the RSS feeds.
    • Remove lengthy unrelated information. This includes release lists, group bashing, and recruitment messages. The full .nfo should be available in the torrent for those who want this information.
  3. Do not "tag" uploads with your user name, or another such display of vanity. Likewise, remove spam files such as "Torrent Downloaded From ***.txt" before uploading. Appending the group name of a scene release, however, is allowed and encouraged.
  4. Collections should be dated with the year of the first item in the collection (in the case of complete rom sets, this is the year of the console's release).
  5. If you are uploading a rip of a game as opposed to a full image, the description and title must state that it is a rip, and preferably state exactly what is missing from the game.
  6. If you are uploading a demo, you must state that it is a demo in the description and title.

Allowed Content

  1. The allowed consoles are GameCube, PS2, XBOX, GBA, XBox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, and NDS.
  2. PC games are allowed, but must be dated no earlier than January 1st 2000, except as noted below.
  3. An older PC release (pre 2000) released on new media (e.g. 3 CD's turned into 1 DVD) is allowed.
  4. GoG and Impulse games are allowed (These are older games that have been made to work on modern systems).
  5. Staff may allow exceptions for older PC Games when they are used to make a collection complete (like a complete collection of Grand Theft Auto, from GTA to GTAIII San Andreas). The general rule of thumb is that at least 50% of the pack should be dated 2000+, but final say goes to the Staff.
  6. Linux and Mac games follow the same rules as PC.
  7. Emulators are safe, but they must also conform to the above rules (no emulators for content not on the safe list).
  8. No injected VCs or old (unsafe) console emulators for new consoles. For PSX games on PSP, only official Sony releases are allowed.
  9. Rapelay and Gang Rape Club are not allowed.

iPhone, iPod, iPad, & Android Games

  1. Only games for the iPhone, iPod Touch, & iPad are allowed in the iPhone\iPod\iPad category.
  2. Only games for phones running the Android OS are allowed in the Android category.
  3. Must specifically be a game or strongly gaming-related (emulators, for example).
  4. No adult material and no fart simulators.

Books, Manuals, and other Documents

  1. Magazines, manual scans and official walkthroughs of games are allowed; publicly available user-created walkthroughs are not.
  2. Comics, art books and other printed media pertaining to safe games are allowed.
  3. IGN e-guide pdfs and other such paid e-guides follow the same rules and printed media.

Video

  1. Only video (movies, TV, DVD, etc.) directly related to video games or directly documenting the history of video games will be allowed (ie: review shows, publisher bonus content, game franchise videos). Any video based on an allowed game is also allowed (if the video is based on a game that is not allowed, the video isn't allowed either). Videos that just happen to have video games in them, are only video game themed, or only utilize "gaming culture" are not allowed. When in doubt ask the Staff, or post in our Safe Content Forum.

Audio

  1. OST and other music is allowed but must relate to content available on this site (meaning we don't want a bunch of 8-bit Mario music). We may allow exceptions for the sake of a large collection, for example, a huge collection of Mario music dating from the 8-bit generation up to Mario Galaxy.
  2. A standard sound compression format must be used, such as mp3, ogg, or flac.
  3. Individual tracks must be be named appropriately and uniformly (song name at minimum), collected into a single folder, and must NOT be archived (.zip, .rar, .7z, etc).
  4. Albums must not contain multiple tracks in a single file (even if a .cue is present). A suitable bittorrent client should have access to download tracks individually.

Applications

  1. Only applications that can be useful for ripping, copying and backing up of games are allowed.

Request Rules

  1. Requests are allowed only in the requests section, and are only available to Power Users and above with a ratio of .5 with at least 10GB uploaded. Do not attempt to circumvent this system.
  2. Search before requesting (including the torrents section) to ensure that you are not creating a duplicate entry.
  3. Do not request anything that would violate the rules.
  4. Requests must be specific (Game, region, version) and targeted toward an individual torrent. Requests for multiple unrelated games will most likely be ignored and possibly deleted.

Forums

  1. No aggressive behaviour or flaming in the forums.
  2. No prejudice. This includes pejoratives related to race, religion, politics, nationality, etc.
  3. No trashing of other peoples topics (i.e. SPAM).
  4. No language other than English in the forums except for in the International Hub forum.
  5. No bumping.
  6. No images larger than 800x600, and preferably web-optimised. If you must post a larger image please link to it externally (not least so people can view it properly, as larger images will be auto-resized).
  7. Search before posting. Please do not ask questions already answered in the Rules and FAQ.
  8. Please make sure questions are posted in the correct section.
  9. Do not post links to warez sites such as Rapidshare or Mediafire.
  10. Do not post serials/cd-keys in the forums.

Avatars

  1. Avatars must be .gif, .jpg or .png formats.
  2. Avatars must be "safe for work". Do not use potentially offensive material involving porn, religious material, animal / human cruelty or ideologically charged images. Staff members have wide discretion on what is acceptable. If in doubt, PM one.
  3. Be considerate. Resize your images to a width of 150 px and a size of no more than 150 KB. (Browsers will rescale them anyway: smaller images will be expanded and will not look good; larger images will just waste bandwidth and CPU cycles.) For now this is just a guideline but it will be automatically enforced in the near future.

IRC Chat

  1. Treat the IRC Ops, Half-Ops, and Admins with respect. If you've been told to stop, then stop. Arguing is a waste of their time and yours.
  2. Read the channel topic before asking questions.
  3. Do not PM anyone without permission, especially staff.
  4. If you require assistance, provide some information. Simply asking "Are there any staff around?" will be ignored.
  5. No trolling, no flooding / flood chatting, no spam.
  6. Keep decorative text formatting to a minimum, including ALL CAPS, 1337 SP33K, and color codes.
  7. Requesting or offering invites is allowed in #bginvites only and may only offer/request an invite to BitGAMER. No selling or trading of invites anywhere on IRC.
  8. Warn before posting anything NSFW. Also, no misleading about the content.
  9. No Impersonation of other members, especially staff or irc bots.
  10. No prejudice. Includes pejoratives related to religion, politics, nationality, etc.
  11. Only English is allowed in the main channels.
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