Front Lines Rules...READ OR BE BANNED

Table of Contents:
1. General Battle Rules
2. Voting Related Rules
3. How to Set Up a Battle
4. Definition of Terms
5. Stupidity
6. Where do I arrange battles?
7. Complaints of rule breaking?


Breaking most of these rules is bannable or DQable or both. The rules found in this thread apply to this and other battle forums (where appropriate), and override conflicting rules.

General Battle Rules
1. No ghostwriting. If someone else writes lines for you, you are banned. Ghostwriting is plagiarism. Penalty: Lifetime ban.
2. No Biting. Biting is stealing lines from other people. This is also plagiarism. Penalty: Lifetime ban.
3. NO SWAYING. Swaying is making comments about your opponent's verse, or bitching about votes. Penalty: DQ and maybe Ban.
4. No Freeposting. Freeposting is any post which isn't a check in, a verse, your 5 up's, or a vote. Penalty: ban.
5. Five up's are allowed. If you up your battle more than 5 times you are banned. If you post more than twice (counting check in's) before both verses are posted, we will count that as an up.
6. Saying "Return the favor" and other similar comments are not going to be tolerated. After your vote include your link at the end, with no other comments. Penalty: Bannable
7. Voting rings = banned for life. If you have a group of "AIM buddies" or "PM Pals" that you ask and get votes from, you are banned and they are banned.
8. If you post a link without voting, mods will follow the link and DQ you. Possibly Ban as well.
9. Do not ask anyone to vote on your battle, except by providing them with a link at the end of your vote. Do not PM, AIM, or otherwise ask anyone to vote on your battle. That is unfair
10. Do not do anything that would provide you with an unfair advantage. Penalty: Banning.
11. Don't vote on no showed battles. Penalty: banned

Voting Related Rules
1. No unexplained votes are allowed. If your vote is not at least three lines long, and the full length of the posting space, then it is not explained well enough. And our mods aren't stupid, if we see a vote which was bullshitted with filler such as "you both had good flow but I feel that since only one person can win a battle, and obviously McGunitSoldier was that one person here, although this was a decent battle and was pretty close, I am giving him my vote" that contains absolutely no feedback on the battle verses, we will ban you and DQ your vote. Also, if you quote the voters "good lines" that is ok to do, but that does not count as feedback. An explanation is necessary, if you just quote lines, or say "punches - XXX, flow -XXX, etc" then your vote will be DQ'ed and you might be banned. You can do those things but you must also explain your vote. Penalty: DQ and possible ban.
2. No crew votes are permitted. If you are in someone's crew, you are not allowed to vote on their battle. Penalty: DQ and possible ban.
3. After you vote just leave a link to your battle with no comment. Do not make a separate post and leave the link in that post, you will be banned for freeposting.
4. Do not post a vote on one name, come back, quote the vote, say you are that person, and poll the vote on another name. Penalty: Banning.
5. Do not after leaving your feedback on a battle leave your link and say "I will poll my vote after you hit this" or anything along those lines... After feedback you poll your vote... Penalty: You Will Be DQ'ed In Your Battle

How to set up a battle

1. You must have a proper thread title when you post a new thread. (Example: The End vs. alldig)
2. In order to vote on polls you must have 100 posts or more or the system will not let you (to prevent cheating).
3. Here is how the script works. You go into Front Lines or any battle forum, type in the thread name, remember, it must be: Name vs. Name. Scroll to the bottom where you normally click "Submit New Thread", and check "Yes, Record it!". Click Submit New Thread. The board will then take you to start a new poll. Your name will be in Option #2, But, in the first option you must put your opponent's EXACT NAME (copy and paste it if you have to). Then, Hit submit.. and the board will take you to the thread.
4. All Battle Record will be updated automatically after one of the battlers reaches 5 votes.

NOTE:

After you click "start a battle" when you make a new thread remember to:
1. KEEP the poll timeout set to the default option "0 days".
2. KEEP the "Allow multiple choice" UNCHECKED. If you check the box then the battle system will not recognize your battle poll.
3. I have seen people complaining that their poll closed early...that's because they set the poll timeout to 2 days or 3 days (DON'T MESS WITH THIS OPTION)

*IMPORTANT* If you use AOL..

If you use the AOL browser you may not be able to poll vote or "start a battle". You must use Internet Explorer instead (you can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ ). If you still have problems PM me.

Definition of Terms
1. An "Up" aka "Upping" aka a "Bump" = when a battler posts in his own thread with the intent of moving it to the top of the forum ater he posts. Any post other than a verse or a check in which is made by a battler in his own battle is considered an "up" .
2. Check in / Checking = A check in is a post someone makes in their own battle to verify that they agree with the battle rules, and that they are there for the battle.

Stupidity

If you only post your check in's, your verses, no more than 5 up's (without swaying), votes on other people's battles with a link but without any comments on the link, and don't freepost, you won't get yourself banned.

Where do I arrange Battles?

You can arrange to battle someone either by PMing them or by posting a call out thread in "Bitch Slapped (the forum above this one)." Agree on battle rules in Bitch Slapped as well. Then, one of the people in the battle has to post the battle thread in Front Lines (this forum), and include the rules you agreed on. For information on how to set up the battle thread, see "How to set up a Battle."

If you have complaints of rule breaking, post those complaints in the appropriate thread in Investigative Reports. Do not PM moderators.

http://www.rapbattles.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=127

If you don't, you are banned. An explained vote is 3 lines of solid feedback. If you post three lines with ANY bullshit in it, you will get banned. So your best bet is to give around 5 lines of good, useful feedback. It only takes a minute to do & I will ban you if you don't. For further reference, reread FL rules. Quoting lines doesn't count as feedback. Saying

Punches - XXX
Flow - XXX
Personals - YYY
Metaphors - XXX

vote - XXX

Does not count as feedback either. You can do both of those things, but if you do not also include 3 lines of solid feedback, you will be banned. Period. No exceptions - If you are in LLL, if you know me, if you are a top 10 text head on this site - I will ban you. This may seem harsh to some of you, but it is necessary. If we continue DQ'ing bad votes, we cannot stop people from giving them. The only way to deter rule-breaking is to punish it in some way; and since DQing votes isn't sufficient (people just keep giving more and more invalid votes), we have resorted to banning people. Do NOT break the rules and you won't be banned. Ban times can be anywhere from 1 day to 3 months. If you're banned for more than 3 months for an unexplained vote, let me know (with link) and it will be changed.

If you don't vote right, you are banned. An explained vote is 3 lines of solid feedback. If you post three lines with ANY bullshit in it, you will get banned.

whats so hard to get about that

If I see ANY battles setup without polls...they will be deleted...most of you already know that a battle doesnt matter unless it is a poll battle....and to anyone who wants to have a fun match and not blemish your pretty records...tough luck.....if your going to show why you are the best of the best...then you are battling every battle as a battle that counts


If you dont have any credits...that means you should go vote on battles to get more...this thread will be merged with the Front Lines rules after 2 weeks



Newly added topical rule:
Any topical battle where as both topical battlers have dropped...after one week of them dropping has surpassed...the battle can then be PMed or reported in IR if it has not yet closed...a win will be given to the poet or topical battler that has the majority of votes...NO MATTER that amount of votes.