Rules and moderation

Site rules

Moderators look at context, not just wording: a joke between friends is not harassment, a heated reply is not a crime, and a story is not real violence. Nobody gets a strike for an honest mistake.

Friendly discussion

This is the spirit of conversation here. If something slips, a moderator will usually just remind you or tidy the post up — a strike is only for something that keeps happening.

1. Be kind to each other

   Arguing about the best faction or the strongest hero is half the fun. Disagree with ideas rather than with people, and leave insults and mockery out of it.

   Usually a friendly reminder. Personal insults that keep coming can earn a strike.

2. Keep it civil

   Strong opinions are welcome. Swearing at people and a deliberately hostile tone are not.

   A reminder or a small edit; a strike only if it keeps happening.

3. Leave politics and religion at the door

   HeroesWorld is a place to talk about games and take a break from the news. Please keep current political and religious conflicts out of game threads — they rarely end well and are never about Heroes. Off-topic areas may have their own rules.

   Usually the thread is tidied or closed. Persistent debates can earn a strike.

4. Help threads stay readable

   Try to keep replies close to the thread's subject; if a side conversation grows, a new topic helps people find it later. Casual chatter is always welcome in the entertainment section.

   A moderator may move or tidy posts. No penalty for drifting off topic; repeated flooding can earn a small strike.

5. Share your work, not ads

   Show off your maps, mods, stories, videos and streams — that's what the community is here for. Unrelated ads, referral links and link-dropping aren't.

   Stray ads are removed. Accounts that exist only to advertise are blocked.

Not allowed

As the Terms of use say, anything in this group is removed as soon as a moderator sees it, and the account can be suspended while the case is reviewed.

1. No harassment

   Don't follow a member around the site, gang up on them or threaten them — and never publish someone's private details (doxxing).

   Serious strike — 3 points

2. No hate speech or incitement

   No attacks on people for their nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability, and no calls to violence against anyone.

   Critical strike — 5 points, never expires

3. No piracy or malware

   Don't share cracks or standalone copies of the games, or links to anything that installs malware. Mods are very welcome, as long as they need a legitimate copy of the game to work.

   Critical strike — 5 points, never expires

4. No adult or shocking content

   No pornography, gore or shock images — including in avatars and signatures.

   Extreme strike — 10 points, never expires

5. Don't attack the site

   No hacking, exploiting or disrupting the site, no attempts to break into other members' accounts, and no phishing. Deliberately working around the site's rate limits counts as an attack too.

   Permanent ban

6. Nothing illegal

   Follow the law. Child sexual abuse material and terrorist content are never tolerated.

   Removed at once and the account blocked; child abuse material is reported to the authorities

7. Don't pretend to be someone else

   Don't pose as another member, a moderator or the games' developers.

   Removed; Serious strike — 3 points

Fiction and role-play: violence and dark themes that belong to a story are fine on fiction boards and in threads marked as role-play. How members treat each other is still covered by the rules above.

How violations are handled

Most things end with a friendly word or a small edit. When more is needed, a moderator can hide part of a post, remove a post, or issue a strike; when part of your post is hidden or you get a strike, you are told why. A strike carries points by severity and expires after a set time:

Strike severities

• Minor: systematic flooding or off-topic in on-topic sections — never in the entertainment section (1 point, 90 days)
• Mild: Profanity, minor toxicity (1 point, 90 days)
• Moderate: Insults, political/religious debates (2 points, 180 days)
• Serious: Systematic harassment, bullying (3 points, 365 days)
• Critical: Hate speech, malware/warez links (5 points, permanent)
• Extreme: Pornography, hacking, commercial spam (10 points, permanent)

Sanctions follow automatically from your active points: 5 points is a 7-day lockout, 8 points a 30-day lockout, and 10 points a permanent lockout. As strikes expire, your points go down.

Accounts that exist only to advertise or to dodge a sanction are blocked outright, without strikes.

Disagree with a decision? Appeal it within six months, using the link in the notification or on your moderation standing page. Another moderator reviews it and can restore your text or reduce or lift the strike. Please appeal rather than argue about a decision in the topic itself.

Your strikes, points and any lockout are listed on your moderation standing page. Open my moderation standing

What moderators do

Moderators are volunteers from the community who look after the whole site — there are no moderators of a single section. Their main job is to help, not to police every word. The site helps them notice problems: an automatic check, partly done by an AI, flags posts that look like spam or break the rules, and a new member's first posts that contain links. A flag only draws a moderator's attention — it never removes a post or punishes anyone; a person decides, and the reason is recorded for the team.

What moderators can do

• In every forum section: edit, move and delete posts, rename, pin, close and restore topics, and remove attachments that break the rules.
• Handle reports and automatic hints in the moderation hub, issue strikes, block spam accounts and review appeals.
• Write and edit news on the main page, and turn members' news ideas into articles.
• Keep the Library in order: move entries between sections and edit their descriptions and pictures.
• Look after the wiki: edit, lock, revert or delete pages and organise its categories.
• Review and verify Knowledge Base changes, and approve award proposals.

Rules for moderators

1. Apply the rules on this page, not personal taste: every strike names the rule it is for.
2. Assume good faith — most problems are misunderstandings. Start with a friendly word or a small edit; a strike is for what keeps happening or does real harm, and a block is for accounts that exist only to cause trouble.
3. Always write the reason. The member reads it, and so does the next moderator.
4. Don't moderate an argument you are part of — ask another moderator.
5. Treat automatic flags as hints: read the post yourself before acting.
6. Keep moderation private: never reveal who reported a post, and don't discuss cases outside the moderation team.
7. Set an example: the site rules apply to moderators as much as to anyone, and moderator tools are never used in your own arguments.
8. Moderators cannot act on each other. A problem with a moderator goes to an administrator.

Becoming a moderator

Applications are posted as replies in the moderator applications topic. Before you apply:

• Read this whole page. By applying you agree to follow it as a moderator.
• Moderators look after the whole site, not a single section, so it helps to be a regular here who already knows the community.
• In your reply, say a little about yourself: how long you have been around, which games and parts of the site you know best, which languages you write in, and roughly how much time you can give. Moderating experience elsewhere is welcome but not required.