Topic: Forum Rules and Posting Guidelines for DriverPacks.net

Welcome to the DriverPacks.net forums!

Below are a list of guidelines we have provided in order to help ensure everyone has a favorable visit here at DriverPacks.net.

Remember … we have only one "rule":

Less is more: no extensive rules. Simply act responsible.
~
Wim Leers

This is how the team interprets 'responsible':

Forum Rules

0. Read this before posting a request for our help.

1. This is not a warez site! Links to or requests for warez and/or illegal material (OS discs, porn, cracks, serials, etc.) will not be tolerated. Discussion of circumventing WGA/activation/timebombs/keygens or any other illegal activity will not be tolerated. Advertising is also forbidden. If you violate any of the aforementioned you will be banned from this site without further notice.
Consider this the one and only warning for the above list of egregious items
  1a.  We do not support warez or pirated installs.  Our definition of this is:  Did you obtain your license from Microsoft or an authorized OEM vendor?  Do you have a legal hologram-ed disc?  If the answers to both of those questions is "Yes", please continue.  Otherwise, go legit or go home.  Warez is a support nightmare for the DriverPacks staff.  99% of the DriverPacks failures are caused by the idiot who modified/released the pirated OS source in the first place because they didn't know what they were doing. 

2. Topics devoted to political or religious debate, unless technology related, are prohibited. DriverPacks.net is a driver support forum and political debates are just too far off topic. Political links in signatures, and any polite and courteous comments, in otherwise non-political topics are allowed, but we will not allow and may remove any topics where the content is solely a debate of politics.

3. No user shall by any means of the forum: sell, trade or give away; hardware, software, or any other non consumer or electronic related material. DriverPacks.net does not support any type of trade, sale or gifting, and shall not be held accountable.

4. Please do not post large screenshots within threads. (exceeding 300x200 px in resolution and/or 150 KB in size.) Provide a link to any large images and please host on your own web space if possible. If you do not have personal web space try imageshack.us or tinypic.com.

5. Spamming will not be tolerated. [Duh] We have provided an "Other" section for those members who wish to share their personal websites or off topic discussions, but not commercial ones. Please use that section only. We do log all IP traffic on this site and will simply block you, so don't even bother trying.

6. Images in signatures should NOT exceed a total of 260x80 px and 80 KB in size. Flash and animated sigs are discouraged. You can enter max 5 lines of text and 650 characters in a signature or signature image. Advertising and/or affiliates are not allowed in signatures nor avatars. (With the exception of one small link in addition to your signature, just NO overt advertising). If your signature link leads to a site with a shopping cart it will be deleted. If your avatar or signature seems to us to have exceeded the above guidelines it will be edited without any additional notice required from us. Members with slow connection can disable other members signatures when reading posts by going to: Profile -> Display -> Set options.

7. If you need to attach something, it'd be great if you could find a host for the file. Please only email something if you absolutely have no other option.

8. You are expected to be mature when discussing in threads. Racism, pornography, threatening, profanity, personal attacks, or excessive vulgarity are not tolerated. You will be promptly banned … or worse. No exceptions. This community is built upon mutual respect. You are not allowed to wage personal attacks against other members. People who do not respect personal opinions and/or personal work will be warned in first instance. If you ignore the warning and keep on flaming, you will be banned (or worse) without any notice.

9. Has the thread you started or participated in been moved, closed or deleted? We might have just been bored. Check with the forum moderator via forum email. Under no circumstances should a thread be started asking why other threads were moderated. Forum moderation is not up for public debate, such threads will be deleted and the thread starter warned. DriverPacks.net reserves the right to edit, delete or move posts made on this site. The previous also goes for signatures that have been modified or removed. All decisions of the DriverPacks team are final and non negotiable. So say we all...

10. We do not encourage the raising of post counts or creating threads that state you have reached a post count milestone, unlike other forums that do. Please remember there's no prizes in store for those with a very high number of posts! (except for the coveted DriverPacks Maniac title we will award for  the first one reaching 1 million posts wink - LOL)

11. Please refrain from using CAPITALIZATION in the topic title or when participating in threads because they will not attract attention - instead it will annoy many of DriverPacks.net members.  POSTING IN ALL CAPS is equivalent to shouting.  Please don't, it hurts our ears.

12. Please do not bash old topics when a member has made it active again, it's been made active for a good reason; to answer an unanswered question, or to bring new information. It does not need to be closed or deleted. In fact we like it when our users can find related material to their issue. We encourage this behavior.

13. (see rule 0) Use some common sense. Don't post your question under multiple forums. Remember to engage brain first, then post. Take a minute and be thoughtful when creating the topic title for a new thread. People do judge a book by its cover. When posting, have something to say, not just "My First post!" or "Cool site!!!" We already know it's your first post and sort of have the idea how this site looks by now :-). Poor judgment when posting will result in a demerit, and we wouldn't want that would we? wink

14. (see rule 0) Very often we see meaningless subjects in topic title giving absolutely no clue what the post / thread is about.

Good examples of a Bad Title:
- Oh no!
- Help
- I'm mad
- Please help
- Question
- I need your help
- Hmmmm ....
- Whoa Dude!
These and similar bad titles can and should be avoided! Simply enter something more specific and descriptive in the topic title. It's easier for us to help if you do!

A few good examples of a Good Title:
- [BUG] BSOD with DriverPack Graphics A 9.04 on ATI Radeon 9800Pro
- RunOnceEx install problem (double installation)
- [REQ]uest - add driver for Toshiba modem model xxxx
- [HELP] BASE 8.12.4 3rd party DriverPack for Game controller
- BartPE HDD not found BASE 8.12.4, MassStorage 9.03r1

15. (see rule 0.) Use the correct tags for a new topic
- Available tags for members:
[BUG] - If you are getting a Windows error message, program error message, or any other type of error.
[REQ] - Request to add a feature or driver
[HELP] - If you need help changing settings or configuring a feature.
[How-to] - If you have a guide on how to do something.
[Question] - If you have a question that doesn't fall under any of the above categories. No errors or help requests.
[Misc] - If your topic doesn't fit into anything else here.
- Additional tags for moderators:
[IMPL] - Request was implemented in current DriverPacks. 
[SLVD] - Problem/bug was solved in current DriverPacks.  Also used to indicate where a question was answered.
[CLSD] - Topic closed or locked.  Either because the issue was resolved, or because of rule violations.

We would like to make everyone's visit here a pleasant one,
and if you have observed the above guide you should be safe tongue wink


Posting Guidelines


How To Ask Questions The Smart Way is a good read for any user, especially if you think any of the following is harsh. 

Although quite easy to use, the DriverPacks and the accompanying software form a toolset that is designed for use by advanced level users. 
If you have not used the search feature of this forum, or Google. AKA, STFW
If you do not include basic details (See rule #0)
If you have not read the FAQ's or documentation BartPE Tutorial   DP_Base Tutorial
If you did not include your HWID's or DPs_BASE.log in your post

If you create a post that says "I am looking for a driver for..."
   (Especially if you have not used the DriverPacks at all.)

Then it's obvious that you failed to read this post and your welcome here may not be as warm and fuzzy as you might like. 
    The above mistakes are considered Noob like behaviors...
    We are not and have never been a noob friendly site.
    - Note to Newbies:
        The label Noob is not assigned based on a perceived level of experience,
        but rather for showing a lack of resourcefulness, (Did you try to help yourself?)
        or failing to demonstrate some effort was made to help us to help you. (omission of key details)
    You are expected to already be familiar with everything in this guide.
    http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/
    If you ask a question that is covered in that manual then you will receive a demerit. roll

If you will expect us to take our personal time to support you, then we can likewise expect:
a) You will take a minute to include good details in your post.
b) You will have already read our documentation and tutorials.

If one of the team seems to have been short with you...
Perhaps you should make sure you have been respectful / appreciative.
We are working for free.

Think to yourself: "Could I reproduce my issue with just the info I have provided in my post and title?"
This does not need to be a wordy or involved task.   In Example (IE)

Title "[BUG] Finisher - Base 8.12.4 - Sound A 9.01 & Sound B 9.01"
I used RVM to add SP3 and updates to my XP, then nLite to automate it, I run DriverPacks BASE with all packs and mass textmode, then create ISO with nLite.
Sound drivers are installed but the Control panel is not.
The relevant part of the finisher log is included below.
the HWID for the sound card is PCI/VenxxxxSubxxxRev12

LOG here

If the answer to "Could I reproduce..." is 'yes',
and you have double checked "Read BEFORE you post" (AKA rule 0.)
Then you should be welcomed with open arms - and possibly breakfast.


Enjoy your stay at DriverPacks.net!

Regards,
The DriverPacks.net Administration Team

===================================================
The original of the above guide was donated to Mr_smartepants
and once again he did most of the work editing it to work for DriverPacks…
I simply plagiarized it here and added a few lines big_smile tongue wink
It is considered to be open for review, comments and suggested edits, to the entire team.
(If you are a member... then you are part of our team too.)
Mods of course can help themselves to adding any omissions, removing, correcting, rewording for clarity etc...

Last edited by mr_smartepants (2010-03-09 01:27:11)

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Re: Forum Rules and Posting Guidelines for DriverPacks.net

added a new reference "How to Ask Questions The Smart Way" to the posting guidelines section http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

He explains it so much better than I could ever put into words.
- I should have googled it wink. it would have saved me the time of attempting to say what he has already written LOL.
I even gleened a few tips from the section on how to respond tongue.

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.