The rules of the forum

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The forum is primarily an assembler language forum and it will be a friendly place, it will only allow legal topics and technical data and it will not be used for trolling or proselytizing for any other language. The rules do not pretend to be a legally exhaustive set of definitions but will be enforced on the basis of the stated intent.

Purpose
1. The forum is first and foremost an assembler language forum and its primary focus will remain assembler language programming. Many assembler programmers also work in other languages and others have the need to interface with assembler language programming which is normal programming usage but the main focus will remain assembler language programming. The emphasis will remain on x86 assembler programming for the win 32 and Win 64 platforms.

Respect For Members
2. The basis of the rules in the forum is respect for other members. Respect for new members who are struggling with assembler, respect for experienced members who are here to help and respect for differences between members. This cannot be done by rigid compliance to stated rules and is based on intent. Please remember that every person who posts in the forum is another human being and deserves to be treated like one.

Legality of content
3. Legality of content is not a negotiable matter in the forum. Assembler programming is mainstream programming and is primarily used by professional programmers who require the performance in specialised areas. Low level coding is both allowed and encouraged but there will be no viral or trojan technology allowed including technical data under the guise of AV technology, no cracking and similar activities in the guise of "Reverse Engineering", no hacking techniques or related technology and no support or help with or reference to pirated software.
All posters are responsible for the legality of their code posted here (either in source or in executable form). In cases where it is evident that illegal code has been posted (i.e., "hacked" code that violates copyright laws or malicious code intended for use as malware), the site administrator will remove those posts from this site, and if deemed necessary, ban the person who posted it from this site.
There will also be no links to pages that support or display any of these or any other illegal areas of coding.

No Abuse
4. There will be no abuse or insults towards other members. While it is normal for people to disagree over different things, any differences will be handled with good manners and respect for other members. With only a minor tolerance allowed here for idiomatic variation, profanities are not allowed in the forum as they can offend other members. Nuisance postings, pontifications and lecturing are considered as abuse and will not be tolerated.

Special Rules
5. Special rules apply to the "Campus Forum" and the "HLA Forum". It is designed to be a comfortable place for programmers who are learning assembler where they are not subject to criticism and will receive help as they require it. Experienced programmers are invited to help with answering questions for learners keeping in mind that the learner may not understand more complex options and will need to have the answers tailored to what can be more easily understood. This forum will not allow argument or extended discussion on the suitability of answers as it is of no assistance to the person asking the question. This forum will not allow talking heads, script kiddies or any other form of influence peddling.

Attachments
6. The forum has the capacity to upload ZIP files so that other members can access files that have been posted. The capacity is for programming material only, no other type of material will be allowed, no malicious or illegal code may be attached and any material that does not conform to these guidelines will be deleted.

Member contributed code.
7. The forum administration holds the view that code posted by members for the use and assistance of other members is and will remain the property of the member who posted the code if it was their code in the first place. The policy of the forum is that no form of code harvesting is allowed whatsoever. When a member posts their own code in the forum, they do so to help other members and have made their code available to them for that purpose.

        To protect its members, the forum specifically prohibits any copying of any of the forum content without the permission of,
            (a) The author of the code that has been posted.
            (b) The administration of this forum for any other content.

Members who are collecting technical data for the assistance of other programmers are welcome to make enquiries with the forum administration.
Commercial packages and related software, services and similar facilities should contact the author to arrange royalties.

Signatures
8. Members are welcome to put a URL in the signature of their profile that refers to their own site for software they have written themselves. The content of the site at the URL must not have any illegal content and no blatant commercial exploitation of this facility is allowed. The facility is for members to display their own URL so that other members can access the software on their site. The rule will be enforced on an intent basis as determined by the administration team.

The NO HOMEWORK Rule.
9. The forum is a technical help forum for assembler language programmers, it will not be used as a location for grovelling to get someone to do your homework. Members who are learning assembler programming at school or similar are welcome but they must do their own work. In this context they will receive assistance if they need it but any dumping of problems in the forum will be removed.

16 Bit Code
Also note that 16 bit DOS code will be moved to the 16 bit DOS forum as this forum is primarily a 32 and 64 bit Windows assembler forum.

The NO HELP DESK Rule.
10. This forum is a forum of members, it is not a help desk and should not be treated as one. The high quality of assistance in the MASM Forum over many years is based on the goodwill of other members who have made their time available to help other members and it should be treated in this manner.
Also DO NOT; Delete the content of a post once it has been answered, as other members have made the effort to answer the post and their effort is retained for others to read.
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