The Three Commandments of BHW

Hi there! Welcome to BlackHatWorld. It's nice to see another new member looking to join the community. Whether you're a newcomer to IM and SEO, or are just looking to learn more knowledge, I'm sure you'll find somethi-

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OK, OK, fine... Let's move along.

Before we properly get into this thread, you should know that this isn't an extensive covering of all of our rules. I'm only listing regularly disputed rules that come up often. You should take a good read through the forum's terms prior to getting involved in our site.

Go ahead, read through the rules. I'll wait.

.....

Seriously... read the rules.

If you take one look at the rules and go "TL;DR", then we can't help it if you receive an infraction at some point down the line.

What's important to know is that our rules for new members essentially boil down to three basic principles:

1) Don't sell

2) Don't spam

3) Don't be a dick

You should probably be able to guess whether or not you are breaking the rules by asking yourself regularly if you are following these three simple points.

If you're really not sure, here's a quick and basic run down of what we expect from newbies.

— Don’t sell —

Newbie members are not allowed to sell on Black Hat World. Full stop.

We want to see you putting time and effort into the forum before you start using us as a platform for selling. If you are interested in selling your own services on BHW, these are the ways to do this:

Upgrade your account to either Jr. VIP or Marketplace Seller membership and create a Marketplace Thread where you can sell your services.

Upgrade your account to Premium membership and put a link to your service or website in your signature. Jr. VIPs and Marketplace Sellers can also create signatures.

Contact our advertising support to start promoting through banners and category advertising

Upgrade your account to Premium, Jr. VIP or Marketplace Seller membership to respond to Want To Buy and Hire A Freelancer requests. You should read the rules for both of these sections here and here respectively.

As you can see, these options aren't really available to you right off the bat. The reason is that we need to see you contributing to BHW in order for us to feel better about letting you use us as a platform for selling your services.

Here's a thread where you can learn more about what you are allowed to do at your member level.

Don't try to get around the rules by selling to other members through PMs or using any other forum sections (Media Buying, Dropshipping, etc.)

— Don’t spam —

Come on. Don't pretend you don't know what spam is.

OK, fine. To be more specific, this list should cover almost all of the cases of what is considered to be spam on BHW:

Short summaries of articles linking to third party sites.

Short posts with links to your own site.

Short "thank you" posts (you can use the 'thanks' button for that).

Irrelevant or off topic replies.

Duplicate content copied from elsewhere.

Multiple similar posts and comments (such as “sounds interesting” or “good luck”).

Multiple similar comments and/or short replies to promote your signature.

Multiple threads started on the same topic.

Necrobumping (posting on threads that are obviously out of date and irrelevant).

Anything along the lines of “PM me for details”.

Constantly making posts on sales threads asking for samples or review copies.

Posts in 'Dispute Resolution' threads that aren’t directly related to the situation and don't provide any new information.

Constantly posting short "welcome" messages in the Introductions section.

Posts in 'My Journey Discussions' threads along the lines of "Great Journey", "Following", and "Good Luck".

Posts in "Downloads" threads along the lines of "Thanks for the share".

Posts that aren't written in English.

When you decide to post a thread, the first thing to do is check that you are posting it in the right place. Each of our sub-forums have their own set of rules for posting there - these are written out in sticky posts in each section. You should also keep an eye out for any new rules posted in these these sticky threads, as we will update them from time to time.

Read through the sticky threads first before you start posting - there are a number of sections that newbies aren't allowed to post in (the Marketplace sections, Joint Ventures and Service Reviews & Beta Testers)

Don't start posting threads that say something along the lines of "how do I make $X per day?" - this is against the rules and isn't likely to get you anything more than a few sarcastic responses. If you have a specific question to ask, we suggest using the search function at the top right of our forum to see if a similar question has been asked before.

This introduction thread has a very helpful list of places to get started in the Making Money section

— Don’t be a dick —

This is fairly self-explanatory. We expect users to have a basic level of respect for the forum, our moderators and other BHW members.

That being said, we have a very relaxed atmosphere on BHW - members here tend to swear and make fun of each other. This isn't necessarily hateful or bullying. Poking at each other is part of the banter, and we prefer it when our members don't take themselves too seriously and can have a bit of a laugh.

We will warn members for being malicious and abusive to other members, or if they take trolling too far.

Inappropriate Content

Fraudulent/illegal activity such as negative SEO, hacking, etc. are not permitted on the forum - read the TOU for more detail on what is considered inappropriate content. We are pretty flexible in this area, provided that you are not discussing anything illegal. There are other prohibited topics of discussion that are not posted in the forum's official rules. These are listed in various stickies of the sections that they are relevant to. To clear up any confusion, here is a thread which has compiled these topics into one.

Trolling Marketplace threads

We've had a number of issues with members trolling sales threads in the Marketplace sections. To clear things up, you can only post in someone else's sales thread if you are 1) a customer or 2) posting a genuine sales query. You can't keep commenting with posts like "This service looks sketchy..."

If you have actually had a negative experience with a sales thread, you are permitted to leave ONE negative review on the sales thread that is factual and not abusive - issues with the seller that need to be resolved should go to the Dispute Resolution section.

Dispute Resolution

Any problems between a buyer and seller on the forum that can’t be resolved on their own are posted in the Dispute Resolution section. Before posting in this sub-forum, make sure you have read the rules for it, one of which has already been covered in this thread - do not post in a Dispute Resolution thread if you are not directly involved or offering information directly related.

To help you avoid getting scammed and ending up in a Dispute Resolution, try reading this thread.

Receiving an infraction

In the case that you do break the rules and get an infraction for it, it's important to know this isn't the end of the world. Only yourself and BHW mods can see these warnings - they are there as a reminder to you of the rules. It's important that you take this warning on board and be aware of how you broke the rules so you know not to do it again. A lot of members here have gotten infractions, the key is learning from them and moving on.

If you aren’t sure what you are being warned for, or if you don’t think the infraction is fair, you are allowed to query by responding politely to the mod. Don't be rude or get angry at the moderator, as that is only going to get you another infraction for abuse of mods.

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As a few final points, here are some extra things you should remember:

If you are unsure of whether or not you are allowed to do something, or you want to post a thread and aren't sure if it is against the rules, you are free to contact support at any point asking for advice.

If you aren't sure how to do something on the forum, make sure to read through the Newbie section and take a look at the forum suggestions section to see if anyone else has asked the same question before. You might be able to find the answer you need a lot faster.

If you see anything on the forum that you know or think is against the rules, you should report it. Moderators are human, and can miss things if we aren't told about them. We need helpful users around the forum to point things out to us when they can in order to keep things running smoothly.

BHW Guide: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/the-three-commandments-of-bhw.950872/