“The usual rules for a civilized society apply at TWD Zone."

We are all adults here; we won't bore you with long-winded pages of rules. Not our style.

1) TWD Zone is an English-speaking forum and all posts should be made in English & be on-topic except in the International Board. Posts should add something to a topic; if you simply agree, "like" the post rather than posting an emoticon just to bump post counts. Likes are unlimited here. Spoilers sometimes arrive in other languages; we will do our best to provide an English & original version for review. Some members do not speak English as a first language; we admire multilingual individuals with great respect.

2) Sock puppet accounts do not live at TWD Zone. Each member gets 1 account, accessible from home, work & mobile networks. If you lose your password, contact the Admins for help first instead of creating another account. If someone else in your home or office wants an account, fantastic! Just contact us first. Sock puppet accounts result in all accounts being perma-banned after we lock you in with Dr Jenner at the CDC.

3) No spamming, even if you have the world's best deal on discounted phones, sunglasses or something else. Spamming = instant perma-ban. If you want to set up a topic touting a t-shirt your friend designed, check with staff before posting or the thread will be deleted after Merle forces you into the Woodbury Arena for the Friday Night Fights.

4) Self-Promotion: Our members are creative, smart folks whom we support & want to succeed. Yes, you can reasonably promote your blog, YouTube Channel or other projects as long as it is not disruptive. Please contact staff with any questions.

5) Fund-raising projects: We understand that members of the TWD Zone community occasionally ask for fund-raising help for special circumstances. While we are sympathetic & realize special circumstances arise, fund-raising is not the purpose of TWD Zone. We will, however, consider any such requests on a case by case basis. Please do not post a fund-raising thread without seeking prior Admin permission and waiting for their recommendation, or we will have no other choice but to delete the thread. If you have questions about this policy, please contact one of the site Administrators.

6) Sharing account info: Any member allowing another person to use their login/password to access the site will be perma-banned after we tie you to a tree in the middle of the night and leave you for the walkers.

7) Hate speech is not acceptable at TWD Zone. While we value free speech and everyone’s right to his/her opinion, this is a privately owned site, so the hate-speech issue is not up for debate. TWD Zone will not be considered a hate site. “Hate speech” is defined as speech designed to offend, threaten or insult groups based upon race, color, religion, national origin, native language, sexual orientation, disability or other traits. If you’d find the term offensive when applied to you, don’t use it towards others. There will be one warning given for violation of this rule. If the warning is ignored, the member will be thrown into the Screamer Pits and perma-banned.

8) Self-Moderate: If you dislike a character or ship, simply avoid threads with subjects you know will anger you. We have no current plans to add Bethyl or Jessick ship boards. Disagreeing is fine, always; disagree with respect towards other members. Attack discussion points, not each other. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself doing Andrea’s share of kitchen & laundry duty at the farm (not worth it). If you get an infraction, discuss it via PM with staff, rather than posting on the site.

9) Staff members are all subject-matter experts (SME) chosen to support and improve the site. Our staff has 30+ years of modding experience; our goal is helping members plus promoting discussion & fun. We don't believe in public or private shaming of anyone & will protect your privacy as carefully as our own. Always feel free to contact Moderators or the Admins with feedback.

10) No pornography, hentai, bestiality, or sexuality involving minors under 16. Any NSFW images posted in ship areas should be cleared through an area moderator before posting, and titled as such before being posted in specific threads.

11) Snark is fine, witty snark is great; being ugly or hateful towards others for its own sake is not. Trolling, including revenge-posting, results in banning.

12) Other sites: We don’t care what happens at other sites, or feuds between folks on Tumblr, Twitter, fan sites or Facebook. Please leave those situations elsewhere. We believe fans should enjoy all the sites.

13) “Outing Members”: Don’t share any member’s personal information without their prior knowledge & permission. Think carefully before choosing what personal info you share anywhere online, always. We don’t want TWD Zone being the cause of ruin in someone’s real life. Instant perma-ban.

14) Impersonating TWD Zone staff anywhere on the Internet results in an instant perma-ban. Using TWD Zone spoilers without credit and for money, or claiming Zone spoilers as your own results in an instant perma-ban.

15) Malicious software: Don’t post malicious software, spamming, phishing, illegal streaming, Warez or file-sharing links. Instant perma-ban after we feed you to walker-Mary.

16) We ask that members always reasonably credit sources of info, images & fan art posted. It doesn’t matter where it comes from frankly. “Linda from TSDF posted this" is fine along with "X on STD said..." or "Angelia seems to have made the connection first", even “I don’t know who made this but I found it on tumblr blog/Facebook,”. We prefer the hard work of others in the fandom be credited fairly, always. In the case of secret or private closed groups, the group name should be used to identify as sources.

17) Photos of non-cast children: We prefer blurred faces in photos of children meeting the cast in post-filming photos. Easy to do with Imgur, tinypics & many other free apps with an X or black-spot. The Judith twins & other cast children do not need photo-blurring.

18) Copyright protection: For copyright reasons, members should be posting maximum 4 paragraphs total of any article and then linking the source (EW.com, the Newnan Times-Herald). That means only 3 paragraphs get posted, not that the OP posts 3 paragraphs, followed by another 3 until the whole piece is copied. An exception would be if a piece is hard-copy only (TV Guide article) with the piece unavailable online so it could be posted with no link.

19) Plagiarism: If you quote the Wiki, a tumblr blog or someone’s thoughts, own it. We’ve all seen fandom people who pass off the TWD Wiki’s prose or other fans' theories as their own. Just don’t do it, or we’ll send you to Grady Hospital for a checkup.

20) Spoilers: There is no need to tag comic or show spoilers anywhere on the site. We love it when you do tag spoilers though. Those who prefer being unspoiled may simply avoid the Spoilers or Comics areas. If you need to protect yourself (or others) but have spoilers, please PM a Spoilers Moderator with that info so we can reasonably verify it independently. We always protect sources, so are happy to post the info (by request) to give you anonymity.

21) Posting criticisms of the show or characters is fine, as long as it is not just a senseless, hate-filled rant. TWD Zone won't be hosting "Hate" threads or boards.

22) Since Pro-Boards software doesn't accrue points and we find the current PB badges "lacking", we will not be opening a shop for the first few months of operation. Members who want to create banners or possibly badges in future are welcome to do so then.

23) TWD Zone is a privately-owned, unofficial fan web site with no affiliation with AMC or Image Comics. We uphold all copyright protection & anti-piracy laws. All content posted are the opinions of TWD Zone members; the owners are not responsible in any way for content posted by members. If you are the legal copyright of material posted on TWD Zone that has not been authorized nor distributed by others previously via the Internet, we ask that you let us know, as we may have mistakenly published some material. Please contact an Administrator with any questions.

24) Active recruiting of members to other fan sites results in an automatic permanban.

tl;dr: Play nicely with others and you’ll be fine."