We are here for serious hockey

The site staff have the exclusive right and discretion to delete any posts they deem to be against to any of the below rules and guidelines, and subsequently ban or suspend repeat offenders, as necessary.

If you see a post which concerns you, feel free to send a PM or email to MJ (the site's owner / moderator), or use the "Report Message to Moderator" feature of the forum. Any of these methods will get MJ's attention.

Multiple forums

If you post to the Oilers forum, it better be about the Oilers. There is an NHL forum to announce any transactions that are not Oiler-related. If you think you have news, do take consideration as to where it belongs so you do not create a duplicate thread.

Trades that are completed are not rumours. Announcing a trade on the Rumours forum makes no sense.

Posting a message

You will write in a form that is understandable and coherent. Using capital letters, punctuation and paragraphs is a fine start. This is not English 101 class, but at the same time, this is not a children's chatroom. Lack of coherency will soon get many board members and eventually the moderators against you. If you think "you" is spelled "u", don't even bother signing up.

If you are a new user and post in such a manner that does not match the rest of the community, your account will be permanently suspended within 3 illiterate messages. This is a community of mature and intelligent hockey fans and expect new users will be of the same kind. There are many other Oilers forums that will not be so stringent and will welcome you with open arms within our Site links.

Posting a message just to say "I agree" or post a smilie is poor etiquette on this forum. This site is visited by many lurkers and members alike and no one cares to read that you agree. If you don't have anything to add of value, it is better not to post.

Respect others. Argue their ideas, tear em apart, but keep the insults to yourself. It is oftentimes too easy to start insulting those with different viewpoints and get carried away.

Posting a thread

If you start a thread or a message, have some content. Posting a new thread to the Oilers Forum with simply a link is rarely anything of use to read. At least give the gist of why you're posting this news and what's so significant without forcing the entire site to view the link to see what you're talking about.

Bumping your thread to keep it at the top of the forum is just poor etiquette. If you start a thread and do not get responses to it, don't worry: chances are you just didn't get something out that provoked conversation. It is not anyone's fault at this site that you did not receive enough attention as a child. Bumped threads will be removed.

Posting fake or misleading news headlines is not allowed. They will be edited or removed and the poster will be suspended for a short period of time. If at the end of the suspension, the user is caught doing it again the ban will be increased.

Trolling

Fans from other teams are more than welcome to visit and post. Trolling is not welcome. If your intent is to incite a verbal fight, or to belittle or damage a person’s reputation, you are certainly a troll. We encourage discussion on players and teams, but endlessly bashing, insulting, or belittling is not only tiresome, but it is not welcome. Civil discussions about abilities of a team or player is encouraged, but again, an intent of endless bashing is not. Oilers fans bash their own team more than enough, fans of other teams with no intent other than bashing are not needed.

Common sense that isn't so common

Vulgarity/profanity has no place on the OilFans.com public forums. This includes using symbols in place of the actual curse words. This is not an adult-restricted site and we will all respect these terms.

In addition to vulgarity/profanity on the site, any crude or disrespectful nicknames for players, management, media or other posters will not be tolerated. If you wish to talk about any of the above, you can do so without the inherent disrespect. Previous examples have lead the site into situations involving slander/libel threats against us if we could not solve such situations. With such a large number of sports fans from all faiths, ages and beliefs, there is no need to embarrass oneself and others with crudeness and disrespect.

Racism and sexism will be deleted immediately and the offender will be suspended or banned.

Profitting from OilFans.com

Scalping is absolutely forbidden on the Ticket Exchange. If you are looking for more than face value for your tickets, you will be banned immediately.

Advertising your site or product is not tolerated. If you are a regular poster and consider yourself a member of our community and wish to share something new on your own site or blog, this is perfectly acceptable. Members who sign in for the purpose of advertising their own sites will be removed immediately.

The OT Forum is for members-use only and as such is subject to a much more relaxed atmosphere. Enjoy.

A lighter look at it all: Flash movie.