Ask Red

[Guts]

This really depends on what they're asking to boost. If they're asking people to join matchmaking or custom game lobbies to boost rank, XP or commendation, then while that's against the spirit of gaming it's not breaking any rules, and so those are fine. Of course, if people are advertising boosting lobbies in exchange for payment, or are offering hacks or cheats, then those would be against the rules as we don't encourage breaking the rules of Xbox LIVE in any way, shape or form.

 

On the forums, creating or participating in threads for the sole purpose of boosting posts or likes is against the rules, as we want to encourage people to make good quality posts and to contribute to discussions, rather than just posting lots of small, inconsequential things in order to get to higher usergroups. This is a big part of the reason why content posted to either the Offbeat or Clan forums no longer contributes to total post count, as the former tends to have less serious topics where lots of low-content replies are made, while the latter's discussions tend to be fairly insular.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry, I don't understand, can you rephrase that?

 

 

 

 

 

I believe it's a holdover from the early days of the site, where all non-moderation staff shared a single usergroup colour. Over time, most of them got their own usergroup colour, but for some reason Event Management and the Art Department never made the change. For the most part, those two departments don't really have that much overlap on the forums so it's not a big deal, but it's something I'll get around to correcting eventually.

 

Part of what's stopping it is that the 'hot' colours (yellow, red, orange) are reserved for senior staff and legendary members, so that we're immediately identifiable: this is why most of the staff groups are shades of blue and green. White and black are used for bots and the Banned group respectively, and silver is already taken by Dedicated members, which essentially rules out the monochrome groups. Community Moderators, Trusted and Members then take up the darker shades of blue, purple and green, and so there are actually surprisingly few options for new, distinct usergroups.

Basically it shows new members in new content rather than posts and I have to change it to show posts again

[RedStarRocket91]

How much does a Predator tank cost?

 

1100 credits, for which you could also get an APC and a Missile Squad, so it's best to mix in a few of the latter with your tanks in order to allow you to counter enemy infantry. This is especially important when dealing with the Scrin, whose Disintegrators can't simply be run over by your tanks as they explode and inflict damage when crushed. Ignoring tanks altogether and focusing on Missile APCs can also make for a very effective early game rush by targeting enemy Harvesters and then running away if you're outmatched. Just remember to scout with a Pitbull in case they're playing Nod, otherwise you'll be reducing to force firing and hoping for the best.

 

Basically it shows new members in new content rather than posts and I have to change it to show posts again

 

If it's defaulting to new members rather than new posts, it's likely a browser issue - try clearing your cache and deleting cookies, and that should probably resolve it.

[BeckoningZebra1]

Basically it shows new members in new content rather than posts and I have to change it to show posts again

I don't mean to intrude on Red's topic, but I do understand completely what you're talking about. It defaults based off what page you're visiting from I believe. For example, if I'm on a member's profile, and then click the 'View New Content' tab the page will load new members. Whereas visiting the tab from inside a thread will load new threads.

[Is not JL]

What is the exact reason we have the link rules highlighted in red below? And, at the same time, why does it feel like certain sites that don't necessarily fit in with these rules are still allowed?

 

• You may link off-site in order to give credit to the original source of your material when writing news articles
• You may link off-site to any content on official 343i.org-administered platforms such as our Facebook page, Twitter feed, and YouTube channel
• You may link off-site to any content on official 343i.org affiliates-administered platforms such as HaloCustoms, THFE, or Forge Cafe
• You may link off-site to images and videos, provided that:
  • You link directly to the image or video in question, not just the web page it is on, and
  • 
    
  • The image or video in question does not violate any other forum rules. Mild swearing is acceptable in videos, provided it is clearly labelled as such
  • 
    
• You may link off-site to clan websites such as Enjin, however is only permissible from within threads in our dedicated clan recruitment subforum
• You may link to forum threads containing off-site links via the shoutbox or status updates
• You may not link to any content which contains adult themes such as nudity, bigotry, substance abuse or realistic violence, whether in image or in video form
• You may not link to any content designed to harm members, their accounts, or their devices
• You may not link to any content of a religious or political nature
• You may not link to discussions on other forums or websites
• You may not link to other websites, including personal websites, YouTube channels or blogs, in lieu of post content or for the purposes of generating pageviews, subcribers or ad revenue:
  • Any links should be fully supported by textual descriptions so that members know what they're about without needing to follow them
  • Links to YouTube must include a summary of all key points made throughout the video, so as not to disadvantage members with low bandwidth connections

1. "You may link off-site to images and videos, provided that:

• You link directly to the image or video in question, not just the web page it is on"

Why are we not allowed to link to the webpage directly? A direct image is possible, but many people tend not to link it that way in favor or simply copying the URL of the page they find the image on. As for a video, well, so rarely are their videos out there that are actually the only thing on the page. Not only that, but doesn't this cause many video links to be in violation of the rules? Take youtube. Probably above 90% of all videos linked (Not embedded - that's a different story) are from Youtube, and when one clicks a youtube link we go to:

 

a) The video

The youtube comment section which, on any video with many views, tend to have many discussions, some of which are highly controversial and completely out of what is allowed on this site [including words that are filtered and offensive, religious, drug political discussions etc.], and also many singular comments that, too, would not be allowed

c) Adverts that can gain revenue off of our visit

 

This also applies to other videos - such as, for example, Twitch.tv is a prime example. Yet, despite the way that these sites violate the rules that have been set right now, they are consistently linked by members with no repercussions whatsoever. 

 

2. "You may not link to discussions on other forums or websites"

 

Affiliate sites, staff approved links etc. are obviously exempt from this, but I've seen sites being linked (Most often on the shoutbox) that don't seem to have a mod around saying 'This is approved', many times being links to other forums or websites which feature discussions. For example - a staff member had told me (not named) had told me that reddit was a website that could be linked - but it's a site that features a lot of content that, like youtube, violates site rules (With xxx/NSFW materials, political/drug/religious discussions etc.), and, most of all, was specifically created with 'discussions' in mind. 

 

Other examples I've seen include links to Halo Waypoint, and gaming news sites.

 

What is the reason why mods don't seem to be shooting down these types of links? I can understand Youtube and, to an extent, twitch - after all, they're excruciatingly common tools that the average internet-goer knows and us gamers will certainly use, and I wouldn't be surprised that certain tools like those have been given the go-ahead by the mods already and are free to be linked to - but then if so, aren't the rules written up a little bit badly then?  Shouldn't there be extra clarification?

[Unease Peanut]

Why can't us regular staff members have profile music? :3

[Ranger Intel]

 

I believe it's a holdover from the early days of the site, where all non-moderation staff shared a single usergroup colour. Over time, most of them got their own usergroup colour, but for some reason Event Management and the Art Department never made the change. For the most part, those two departments don't really have that much overlap on the forums so it's not a big deal, but it's something I'll get around to correcting eventually.

 

Part of what's stopping it is that the 'hot' colours (yellow, red, orange) are reserved for senior staff and legendary members, so that we're immediately identifiable: this is why most of the staff groups are shades of blue and green. White and black are used for bots and the Banned group respectively, and silver is already taken by Dedicated members, which essentially rules out the monochrome groups. Community Moderators, Trusted and Members then take up the darker shades of blue, purple and green, and so there are actually surprisingly few options for new, distinct usergroups.

 

 

I understand and it's good to hear that this will eventually be changed. How about Lime?

[rrhuntington]

What is that devilishly great song that you get with a 404 error on the site? Did you guys make that error page special or what's the story behind it?

[I_Make_Big_Boom]

Were there (or are there currently) any plans relating to an Instagram 343i.org Page?

[Mr Biggles]

@RSR

When was this plan for world domination using this site you were talking about starting?

Edited August 23, 2014 by Mr.Biggles

[Caboose The Ace]

In the Directors backseat moderating thread one of the things it sais to not to is....

Member A is swearing at people in the shoutbox. He is being rude, abrasive, and flaming members left and right.

You do NOT:

1. Tell Member A to stop or else you'll report him.
 
 
I would just like to ask, why is this?
 
 
A lot of the time doing that usually makes the member stop and the situation above is clearly against the site rules.

 

 

Caboose out....

Edited August 23, 2014 by Caboose The Ace

[RedStarRocket91]

What is the exact reason we have the link rules highlighted in red below? And, at the same time, why does it feel like certain sites that don't necessarily fit in with these rules are still allowed?

 

1. "You may link off-site to images and videos, provided that:

• You link directly to the image or video in question, not just the web page it is on"

Why are we not allowed to link to the webpage directly? A direct image is possible, but many people tend not to link it that way in favor or simply copying the URL of the page they find the image on. As for a video, well, so rarely are their videos out there that are actually the only thing on the page. Not only that, but doesn't this cause many video links to be in violation of the rules? Take youtube. Probably above 90% of all videos linked (Not embedded - that's a different story) are from Youtube, and when one clicks a youtube link we go to:

 

a) The video

The youtube comment section which, on any video with many views, tend to have many discussions, some of which are highly controversial and completely out of what is allowed on this site [including words that are filtered and offensive, religious, drug political discussions etc.], and also many singular comments that, too, would not be allowed

c) Adverts that can gain revenue off of our visit

 

This also applies to other videos - such as, for example, Twitch.tv is a prime example. Yet, despite the way that these sites violate the rules that have been set right now, they are consistently linked by members with no repercussions whatsoever. 

 

2. "You may not link to discussions on other forums or websites"

 

Affiliate sites, staff approved links etc. are obviously exempt from this, but I've seen sites being linked (Most often on the shoutbox) that don't seem to have a mod around saying 'This is approved', many times being links to other forums or websites which feature discussions. For example - a staff member had told me (not named) had told me that reddit was a website that could be linked - but it's a site that features a lot of content that, like youtube, violates site rules (With xxx/NSFW materials, political/drug/religious discussions etc.), and, most of all, was specifically created with 'discussions' in mind. 

 

Other examples I've seen include links to Halo Waypoint, and gaming news sites.

 

What is the reason why mods don't seem to be shooting down these types of links? I can understand Youtube and, to an extent, twitch - after all, they're excruciatingly common tools that the average internet-goer knows and us gamers will certainly use, and I wouldn't be surprised that certain tools like those have been given the go-ahead by the mods already and are free to be linked to - but then if so, aren't the rules written up a little bit badly then?  Shouldn't there be extra clarification?

 

We prefer that people link directly to images and videos because we can't control things like comment sections, other page content, or adverts, which of course can range anywhere from completely harmless and even useful to, as you've said yourself, the garbage that makes up most comment sections on YouTube: this is why we prefer people embed video links into posts rather than just posting them in the shoutbox. The shoutbox has always been a little different in terms of rules - for example, you can just post an image link, whereas a post or thread with nothing but an image would be deleted due to low content - and because you can't embed links there, it wouldn't be fair to force someone to create a thread just to share a video to a discussion ongoing in the shoutbox, or if they're streaming. I concede that's not clearly stated in the rules though, so I'll look into amending that.

 

For the second point: if you see this happening, please report it. This rule is very much in effect, and unfortunately that staff member was mistaken. You can link to another website as a source for something if you're writing a news article or referencing something, but other than that, all links need moderator approval. Right now, we remove any links we find that don't fit our auto-approval criteria and PM the member letting them know, so if you find anything which needs to be approved or doesn't fit the rules, please report it. It's not a case of the rules willingly not being enforced, it's a case of it slipping through the gaps in moderation, and so letting us know when you see it is a big help.

 

Why can't us regular staff members have profile music? :3

 

Mainly it's just a bandwidth thing. For people who have data caps (which I gather are quite common in the USA), profile music can chew up a fair amount of data, and of course it slows down page loading times for those on weaker connections. This isn't such a big issue when it's only active on around 10 profiles, but if we extended it beyond that, it could potentially cause problems for data capped users.

 

On a personal level, I also just kind of don't like autoplay, which is why I don't use it on my own profile. If any members want to share some of the music they enjoy, then I'd encourage them to do the same thing I do and just put a link to it from their own profile for people to follow at their own leisure.

 

Were there (or are there currently) any plans relating to an Instagram 343i.org Page?

 

Right now, Instagram isn't something we're really looking into, as it's still predominantly an image-sharing medium rather than a true social network - and we already have our own Gallery in the File Share for hosting images, in any case. If Instagram continues to expand and becomes a bigger social platform then you can expect to see us on there in the future, but for now it would mean a whole new page to administrate and moderate for very little gain, and so for the immediate future there are no plans to expand there.

 

In the Directors backseat moderating thread one of the things it sais to not to is....

 

Member A is swearing at people in the shoutbox. He is being rude, abrasive, and flaming members left and right.

 

You do NOT:

 

1. Tell Member A to stop or else you'll report him.

 

 

I would just like to ask, why is this?

 

 

A lot of the time doing that usually makes the member stop and the situation above is clearly against the site rules.

 

 

Caboose out....

 

This is for the protection of our members. Members and even non-moderation staff don't have any authority or ability to moderate other members' accounts, and so anyone causing trouble isn't compelled to listen to you if you try to control them or reign in poor behaviour. Essentially, this could make you a target for that member's behaviour, and lead to flaming, confusion, or a situation where we need to issue warnings and bans to multiple people rather than just the troublemaker: it could also lead to accusations of favouritism, special protection, or persecution by moderators, and it puts an expectation on us to reveal any action taken, which is against our moderating rules.

 

Reports are also important as it gives us a case file of information to use when making decisions. If a user enters the shoutbox every day for a week and breaks rules, but is only reported on Sunday night, then unless it's been directly witnessed by a moderator we only have one instance to make a decision on, meaning we're less likely to be able to act quickly and with the correct course of action. Of course, if we get reports every time that member causes trouble, we can track what they're doing better and so moderate that much more efficiently.

[Ranger Intel]

Look at the colours

 

I took this from a post DarkAngel made, thanks DarkAngel. It shows a good variety of different shades that may not have been used yet.

[Helix Amell]

Look at the colours

 

I took this from a post DarkAngel made, thanks DarkAngel. It shows a good variety of different shades that may not have been used yet.

I agree. Variety is good.

 

 

 Also why is MoM always the colour pink? I've always wondered about that.

[Ranger Intel]

Event Management received their own colour.

[BerriesBoo]

Do every staff have their own right corner thingy you have like " Moderator " " MOM " " Community Moderator " ?

[EnderWolf]

So, how does one post in the shoutbox?

[Composite Armour]

You need to make 5 posts in sections that are not offbeat or introductions.

[RedStarRocket91]

So, how does one post in the shoutbox?

 

There are two main reasons as to why a member may be unable to access the shoutbox: the first is having received a deliberate shoutbox ban from a moderator, which will be accompanied by either an explanatory PM or a warning point, or by being part of the 'New Members' usergroup, which is inherently restricted from using the shoutbox as a spam prevention feature. Shoutbox bans normally expire over time, with duration depending on the nature and severity of the behaviour which warranted their issue, and upon reaching five posts a 'New Member' will be automatically promoted to a 'Member', which allows access to the shoutbox.

 

Our Offbeat, Introductions, and Clan Recruitment forums do not add to a user's total posts: however in all other forums, any topics created or replies to existing topics will contribute to a member's total post count for the purposes of promotion.

[Akali]

How come some members are trusted when they have less than 60 posts?

[zulu23100]

Why does 343 industries take years to make such an easy story telling game?

It is 2015 and we still have not seen halo 5 guardians story line yet?? Where is the game 343 industries promised?

everyone knows cortana dies in halo 4 why are we still waiting for a game to come out

why do we have to wait for 343 industries?

why can't it be a public halo online game?

[Unease Peanut]

Why does 343 industries take years to make such an easy story telling game?

It is 2015 and we still have not seen halo 5 guardians story line yet?? Where is the game 343 industries promised?

everyone knows cortana dies in halo 4 why are we still waiting for a game to come out

why do we have to wait for 343 industries?

why can't it be a public halo online game?

 

They're slowly releasing bits and pieces of the game to create hype. Telling us all about what Halo 5 will be all about now will spoil just about everything and drop sales dramaticly.

If you want to know what there's is to know at this time just Google it. There's already a ton of info on the game out there.

[PHIL0S0PHY]

When was this site created?

[Melody]

When was this site created?

Twam's join date is 13 Jun 2011. Since he's the administrator this means he's the oldest member on the site, thus the site was founded on 13 Jun 2011.

 

 

EDIT: Waybackmachine has it recorded as of May, 5th 2011. It's the earliest recorded event of this site's history.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Melody

[RedStarRocket91]

Twam's join date is 13 Jun 2011. Since he's the administrator this means he's the oldest member on the site, thus the site was founded on 13 Jun 2011.

 

 

EDIT: Waybackmachine has it recorded as of May, 5th 2011. It's the earliest recorded event of this site's history.

 

The site has actually been around a bit longer than Twam's profile would suggest, as fairly early in the site's history we changed the software it was running: as a result, Twam appears to have 'joined' later than he actually did (this is also, for those curious, why he's isn't member number one).

[Melody]

The site has actually been around a bit longer than Twam's profile would suggest, as fairly early in the site's history we changed the software it was running: as a result, Twam appears to have 'joined' later than he actually did (this is also, for those curious, why he's isn't member number one).

That's really interesting! Thanks for the clarification Red! Learn something new everyday~