Welcome to Siliconera. We’re a site dedicated to covering interesting video games and all things related to them. We hold our community in high regard, and try to make it a friendly, informative place for people. We achieve this by enforcing a carefully designed set of rules, and ask that you adhere to them so everyone can have a good time.
1. Be Self-Aware and Don’t Be Rude:
We do not allow harassment, antagonism, and/or picking fights. Debating is fine, as is occasionally heated language and reaction. But sustained inappropriate behavior and hostility makes a community toxic over time, and dampens the welcoming atmosphere. When we see inappropriate behavior, we won't hesitate to remove or edit comments without warning or explanation. If a community member continues to post these types of comments they will lose their posting privileges.
Hate speech, racism, and discriminatory language will not be tolerated. This applies to someone you are directing a comment to in a thread, groups of people in general, and our staff. It will result in action up to and including permanent bans. It also means statements where people who try to excuse their behavior with, “It’s okay, because I’m [insert race/gender-preference]” won’t be allowed. You don’t have to like or respect other people, but you do have to treat them with common courtesy.
Mild cursing is allowed. However, we will not allow derogatory comments, slurs, threats, or swearing directed at one another.
Similarly, comments intended solely to demean and insult will be edited or removed, even if they don't contain a recognized slur. These include personal attacks on staff or excessive hostility towards the site itself, even if couched in facially neutral language. There are ways to criticize a story without being a jerk, and you should exercise them if you want your criticisms to stay visible. You can also raise grievances directly via email, the Siliconera Discord, and the forums.
Rampant swearing and five of George Carlin’s Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV are generally not allowed in article comment threads. (“Shit” and “piss” are the two that are.)
You know yourself better than anyone else. Are you posting in good faith? Are you being unreasonable or childish? Are you being a jerk or a creep? Before you post, ask yourself: “Is what I’m posting the way a mature adult would behave?”
2. No NSFW or Illegal Content:
We do not allow nudity, underage objectification, sexual harassment, or obscene behavior in any Siliconera section. This especially applies to things like gifs and YouTube. We don’t allow theft or linking to illegal content.
If we see people abusing the privilege, then we will be forced to remove the ability to post gifs, YouTube videos, and links.
3. Stay on Topic in Articles:
For example, if an article is about a game and censorship is not mentioned, bringing up censorship there will get you a warning. Likewise, talking about things like console wars or port begging will get you a warning.
Unless an article is specifically related to platform choices or censorship, try refrain from complaining about platforms, what platform a game is on, and censorship.
No matter how much you dislike another site's readership, community, or reporting style, Siliconera's comment threads are not a place to complain about other outlets. We will edit or delete comments that do this.
4. Behave Yourselves in the Forums:
Forums are a place to discuss topics that might be considered provocative or off-topic elsewhere, like censorship or console wars, but that is still not a license to deliberately troll or antagonize others. Hate speech, trolling, and acting in bad faith are never allowed. Debates can be heated and passionate without devolving into arguments and toxicity.
5. Do your research before you post:
With the amount of rampant misinformation going around the net these days, it’s more important than ever for us to rely on facts, separate truth from fantasy, and exhibit common sense. If you can’t do this, don’t post.
6. Extreme Circumstances May Occur:
We know that a few visitors will try to skirt the rules and make things unpleasant for regular users. We reserve the right to take action to curb your behavior when we feel it’s crossing the line, even if it’s not an explicit violation of the above rules. We reserve the right to edit or delete comments without notice or explanation.
In most instances, if someone breaks a rule once, they will be warned. If a second is broken, they will be banned. In extreme circumstances, no warning will be issued and someone will be immediately banned.
…And that’s it. These aren’t difficult rules to follow. Be mature, be tolerant, and we’ll all be fine. Siliconera has always valued having a small, but productive, community over a large, out-of-control one. As such, we aren’t afraid to bring the hammer down on anyone that makes things unpleasant for others, but we would really prefer not to.
We can't capture every instance of rule-breaking or untoward behavior, so we also encourage members of the Forums, Discord, and Comment Threads to make use of available flagging tools to signal offending content for review by staff or moderators. This helps keep the community a welcoming and positive space for discussion.
1. Be Self-Aware and Don’t Be Rude:
We do not allow harassment, antagonism, and/or picking fights. Debating is fine, as is occasionally heated language and reaction. But sustained inappropriate behavior and hostility makes a community toxic over time, and dampens the welcoming atmosphere. When we see inappropriate behavior, we won't hesitate to remove or edit comments without warning or explanation. If a community member continues to post these types of comments they will lose their posting privileges.
Hate speech, racism, and discriminatory language will not be tolerated. This applies to someone you are directing a comment to in a thread, groups of people in general, and our staff. It will result in action up to and including permanent bans. It also means statements where people who try to excuse their behavior with, “It’s okay, because I’m [insert race/gender-preference]” won’t be allowed. You don’t have to like or respect other people, but you do have to treat them with common courtesy.
Mild cursing is allowed. However, we will not allow derogatory comments, slurs, threats, or swearing directed at one another.
Similarly, comments intended solely to demean and insult will be edited or removed, even if they don't contain a recognized slur. These include personal attacks on staff or excessive hostility towards the site itself, even if couched in facially neutral language. There are ways to criticize a story without being a jerk, and you should exercise them if you want your criticisms to stay visible. You can also raise grievances directly via email, the Siliconera Discord, and the forums.
Rampant swearing and five of George Carlin’s Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV are generally not allowed in article comment threads. (“Shit” and “piss” are the two that are.)
You know yourself better than anyone else. Are you posting in good faith? Are you being unreasonable or childish? Are you being a jerk or a creep? Before you post, ask yourself: “Is what I’m posting the way a mature adult would behave?”
2. No NSFW or Illegal Content:
We do not allow nudity, underage objectification, sexual harassment, or obscene behavior in any Siliconera section. This especially applies to things like gifs and YouTube. We don’t allow theft or linking to illegal content.
If we see people abusing the privilege, then we will be forced to remove the ability to post gifs, YouTube videos, and links.
3. Stay on Topic in Articles:
For example, if an article is about a game and censorship is not mentioned, bringing up censorship there will get you a warning. Likewise, talking about things like console wars or port begging will get you a warning.
Unless an article is specifically related to platform choices or censorship, try refrain from complaining about platforms, what platform a game is on, and censorship.
No matter how much you dislike another site's readership, community, or reporting style, Siliconera's comment threads are not a place to complain about other outlets. We will edit or delete comments that do this.
4. Behave Yourselves in the Forums:
Forums are a place to discuss topics that might be considered provocative or off-topic elsewhere, like censorship or console wars, but that is still not a license to deliberately troll or antagonize others. Hate speech, trolling, and acting in bad faith are never allowed. Debates can be heated and passionate without devolving into arguments and toxicity.
5. Do your research before you post:
With the amount of rampant misinformation going around the net these days, it’s more important than ever for us to rely on facts, separate truth from fantasy, and exhibit common sense. If you can’t do this, don’t post.
6. Extreme Circumstances May Occur:
We know that a few visitors will try to skirt the rules and make things unpleasant for regular users. We reserve the right to take action to curb your behavior when we feel it’s crossing the line, even if it’s not an explicit violation of the above rules. We reserve the right to edit or delete comments without notice or explanation.
In most instances, if someone breaks a rule once, they will be warned. If a second is broken, they will be banned. In extreme circumstances, no warning will be issued and someone will be immediately banned.
…And that’s it. These aren’t difficult rules to follow. Be mature, be tolerant, and we’ll all be fine. Siliconera has always valued having a small, but productive, community over a large, out-of-control one. As such, we aren’t afraid to bring the hammer down on anyone that makes things unpleasant for others, but we would really prefer not to.
We can't capture every instance of rule-breaking or untoward behavior, so we also encourage members of the Forums, Discord, and Comment Threads to make use of available flagging tools to signal offending content for review by staff or moderators. This helps keep the community a welcoming and positive space for discussion.
Last edited by a moderator:
