Rules Questions

[Brandon D. Lade]

Well, my thread from yesterday evening about the full versions of Perditions's Gate and Hell To Pay appears to have been removed, after I removed the links beforehand. I can't even the find the thread in Post Hell; maybe it went to Losers. Maybe it was just deemed as junk and deleted off the forums entirely. Makes me curious, but I don't really care what happened to it. If someone who knows what happened to it comes along, they can feel free to tell me if they want to. I'm just glad that I don't appear to have been banned or losered.

Either way, I still have this question: I read the FAQ and the warez rule was indeed there, and while I am fully willing to obey the rules, I do wonder a couple of things. Firstly, why do the forums prohibit linking to leaked commercial software downloads or warez, even if the game in question appears to no longer actually be able to be purchased commercially and the company that made it doesn't even exist on the internet anymore? It's not that I'm not willing to obey this rule; it's just that I'm curious why it is so strictly and without exceptions enforced.

Secondly, if posting links to or requesting leaked commercial files/warez is prohibited by the forums, then why did someone request the full version of these wads a couple of months ago? Were they also breaking the rules? According the the FAQ, it sounds like they were, even by just requesting the files, but I don't remember anyone pointing out to them that it was a rules break. That made me, who hadn't read the FAQ yet (but I did this morning), think that posting links to these full versions, i.e. answering that person's old question in a different thread was appropriate. I guess that other people break the rules sometimes, too. Is that the most likely case?

Please post your thought to these questions; I am just trying to determine precisely what got me into making this illegal post last evening so I make sure I don't do it again and follow the rules without failure from now on. Thank you.

[40oz]

To be brutally honest, Perdition's Gate and Hell to Pay really should be an exception to posting warez.

But I don't think doomworld wants to be liable for being a marketplace of people exchanging commercial stuff for free. So I kinda see it both ways.

[Maes]

Sounds more like a classical case of posting the Wrong Thing at the Wrong Time with the Wrong Person. In such cases, you will see your thread magically disappearing without even a warning or the "honour" of Post Hell. Just don't ask.

[Brandon D. Lade]

This morning, I received a PM from myk (assumably a moderator) regarding the warez post. It is actually more than 10 hours old, but I wasn't aware of it until just now. He told me that the warez thread was indeed deleted entirely and that any further warez post, providing a link or even giving a suggestion on where to obtain an illegal download, will lead to a ban. But as I had expected, considering that I can still post today, I have received a warning and not been banned yet. I am sorry once again for breaking the forum rules, and I thank the mod for giving me a warning and a second chance before resorting to a ban. I plan to be sure I follow the rules in the FAQ (which I read this morning) in the future. Once again, thanks (to the moderator) for giving me a warning and not banning me.