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Pirate Legend
Original rules, superceded by Notice - Welcome and Forum Rules! when @Pieter Boelen took over community ownership from @Keith:
Welcome to PiratesAhoy! 
Please take a moment to read our rules and guidelines, and if you're interested, read on for a bit of background behind our community.
First and foremost, a bit of housekeeping:
Forum Rules and Guidelines
We are usually fairly lax when it comes to our guidelines, however, we will strictly enforce the few that we have. In addition to the Terms of Service and Rules agreement that you agree to when you sign up for an account on this forum, we have a few guidelines that we ask you to follow:
1. Please use proper forum etiquette
We expect posts on these forums to conform to normal forum protocols. That includes, but is not limited to:
- Treating any and all forum members with respect at all times, both in public and in private. No exceptions will be tolerated on this rule and not following this will lead to consequences.
- Use of punctuation, or at least a reasonable attempt at doing so.
- Making all posts clearly formatted and easy to read.
2. Make proper use of the public area of the forum
If you are unsure of where to post, please do so in whatever spot you think best.
You are welcome to start new threads for your subjects if you cannot find a related one.
A Forum Moderator can later move your posts to a more appropriate area if necessary.
We do not mind doing this for you.
However, be sure to post any questions ONLY ONCE and IN PUBLIC!
That is a "win" situation for everybody involved, because:
- Deliberate "double posting" can only possibly annoy people and serves no other purpose
- Anyone and everyone can respond, which means you will probably get a quicker reply than using the Private Messaging (PM) system
- It will be visible for future visitors that may have the same question
Please avoid contacting people in private if not required!
Do not be surprised if you receive no response on a question asked through PM that could have been asked in public.
2.1. Regarding Website Concerns
If you have any queries or concerns regarding general forum management or personal issues, you may contact the PiratesAhoy! Staff through the Private Messaging system when necessary.
3. Please make all posts in English
Although we are an international community, the general consensus is that posts made on the forum should be in English unless otherwise specified.
If you have trouble communicating in English, please say so and, if necessary, post both in your native language AND in English using a service such as Google Translate to assist you.
Your English does not need to be perfect!
4. Do not post spam
This includes but is not limited to:
- Unauthorised advertising
- Excessive use of ALL-CAPS
- Posting multiple/repeated threads covering the same topic
- Starting personal conversations with questions that can be asked on the forum
- Deliberately making use of multiple accounts is not acceptable. Such double accounts are subject to being banned and/or deleted without warning.
Content deemed to be spam will be promptly deleted.
5. Do not post trolling or inflammatory content
Trolling is vile and disruptive. Nobody likes it, so don't do it. We will not tolerate trolling of any kind, period.
If a post is deemed to be inflammatory, we reserve the right to lock the containing thread or move it to another locked thread.
Additionally, should a member be at risk of "feeding the trolls", they will be advised by an admin not to respond.
Below is a list of topics that have been known to lead to inflammatory discussions on this forum:
- The circumstances as described in this Statement Regarding PiratesAhoy! Policy | PiratesAhoy!
- The Age of Pirates 2: Eras mod
- Pirates Odyssey: For Each His Own
- Naval Action!
If you see anyone who may be deliberately trying to cause unrest on any of these topics, please do not respond to these posts.
Peaceful discussion on these topics will be welcome as always.
6. Original Content and Plagiarism
Any text, images, videos or other creative works that you post on the forum must be either your own original work or clearly attributed to its original author(s).
Any form of plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Forum Moderation Policies
The following policies are used by the site moderators to deal with posts and individuals that break any of the rules above.
Content Deletion
Certain circumstances may lead to individual posts or threads being removed from public view or deleted altogether. These include:
- Double posts (either accidental or deliberate)
- Spam and unauthorised advertising
- Explicit or violent content
- Highly offensive language
Reporting
If you notice any post that may be in violation of our policies, please do not respond to these posts directly.
Instead, please use the "Report" button located in the bottom left of the post in question, or PM a Moderator or Admin about the post.
Warning and Banning
If you are found to be violating any of these terms, you will be given an official warning by a member of staff, which may come with consequences.
We have a strict "three strikes" warning policy for user discipline, as follows:
- First Warning: official warning (no action)
- Second Warning: 24-hour ban
- Final Warning: one week ban
If a user commits a further offence after a Final Warning, they will be permanently banned from our forums. This decision is final.
When a user gets permanently banned, it means that:
- The person is banned, not just the forum account. Any subsequent accounts made by the same user are considered subject to the same ban.
- All rights extended to that person under these rules are considered forfeited.
NOTE: Depending on the severity of the offence, a staff member may choose to bypass any tier of the warning system and issue bans manually.
IP bans may also occur if necessary.
If you are unsure of the kind of behaviour that is considered unacceptable,
refer to the examples included in this Statement Regarding PiratesAhoy! Policy | PiratesAhoy! .
Thank you for your cooperation.
About PiratesAhoy!
PiratesAhoy! is a community dedicated to the historical Age of Sail and all of its aspects, with a special focus on pirates, pirate history and specifically the Golden Age! We are also dedicated to computer games in this genre, and also books, music and films, both fictional and based on history. As such, we intend to provide news coverage on anything related, as well as provide limited support for various pirate games. If you would like to know a bit more about our history, you can read my Decade of Modding and Mayhem post.
Looking for help?
If you are looking for technical help or advise, having issues with your game, computer hardware, or our mods, we will be glad to help! We just need some information first! We are not mind readers, we do not know what hardware or software you are using unless you tell us! When you post questions asking for help, pleas provide the following in your post :
Our staff is all volunteer, we are not professionals, we are hobbyists. Please keep this in mind when you post looking for technical help. We do this because we want to, not because we have to! We are not affiliated with any software or game company, and we receive no funding or support from anyone.
We welcome anyone and everyone from all over the world who shares this interest and is willing to positively contribute to our efforts. As a community, we focus on fun, respect and openness in an environment where everybody is welcome without any obligations on anyone to detract from having fun.
Additionally, we are engaged in game development and modding with the final goal to create a pirate/seafaring game experience that is as satisfying and as complete as possible. As such, we have worked on many different games, most notably the following projects:
Games that we have worked on in the past, but are not in active development, include:
Please take a moment to read our rules and guidelines, and if you're interested, read on for a bit of background behind our community.
First and foremost, a bit of housekeeping:
Forum Rules and Guidelines
We are usually fairly lax when it comes to our guidelines, however, we will strictly enforce the few that we have. In addition to the Terms of Service and Rules agreement that you agree to when you sign up for an account on this forum, we have a few guidelines that we ask you to follow:
1. Please use proper forum etiquette
We expect posts on these forums to conform to normal forum protocols. That includes, but is not limited to:
- Treating any and all forum members with respect at all times, both in public and in private. No exceptions will be tolerated on this rule and not following this will lead to consequences.
- Use of punctuation, or at least a reasonable attempt at doing so.
- Making all posts clearly formatted and easy to read.
2. Make proper use of the public area of the forum
If you are unsure of where to post, please do so in whatever spot you think best.
You are welcome to start new threads for your subjects if you cannot find a related one.
A Forum Moderator can later move your posts to a more appropriate area if necessary.
We do not mind doing this for you.
However, be sure to post any questions ONLY ONCE and IN PUBLIC!
That is a "win" situation for everybody involved, because:
- Deliberate "double posting" can only possibly annoy people and serves no other purpose
- Anyone and everyone can respond, which means you will probably get a quicker reply than using the Private Messaging (PM) system
- It will be visible for future visitors that may have the same question
Please avoid contacting people in private if not required!
Do not be surprised if you receive no response on a question asked through PM that could have been asked in public.
2.1. Regarding Website Concerns
If you have any queries or concerns regarding general forum management or personal issues, you may contact the PiratesAhoy! Staff through the Private Messaging system when necessary.
3. Please make all posts in English
Although we are an international community, the general consensus is that posts made on the forum should be in English unless otherwise specified.
If you have trouble communicating in English, please say so and, if necessary, post both in your native language AND in English using a service such as Google Translate to assist you.
Your English does not need to be perfect!
4. Do not post spam
This includes but is not limited to:
- Unauthorised advertising
- Excessive use of ALL-CAPS
- Posting multiple/repeated threads covering the same topic
- Starting personal conversations with questions that can be asked on the forum
- Deliberately making use of multiple accounts is not acceptable. Such double accounts are subject to being banned and/or deleted without warning.
Content deemed to be spam will be promptly deleted.
5. Do not post trolling or inflammatory content
Trolling is vile and disruptive. Nobody likes it, so don't do it. We will not tolerate trolling of any kind, period.
If a post is deemed to be inflammatory, we reserve the right to lock the containing thread or move it to another locked thread.
Additionally, should a member be at risk of "feeding the trolls", they will be advised by an admin not to respond.
Below is a list of topics that have been known to lead to inflammatory discussions on this forum:
- The circumstances as described in this Statement Regarding PiratesAhoy! Policy | PiratesAhoy!
- The Age of Pirates 2: Eras mod
- Pirates Odyssey: For Each His Own
- Naval Action!
If you see anyone who may be deliberately trying to cause unrest on any of these topics, please do not respond to these posts.
Peaceful discussion on these topics will be welcome as always.
6. Original Content and Plagiarism
Any text, images, videos or other creative works that you post on the forum must be either your own original work or clearly attributed to its original author(s).
Any form of plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Forum Moderation Policies
The following policies are used by the site moderators to deal with posts and individuals that break any of the rules above.
Content Deletion
Certain circumstances may lead to individual posts or threads being removed from public view or deleted altogether. These include:
- Double posts (either accidental or deliberate)
- Spam and unauthorised advertising
- Explicit or violent content
- Highly offensive language
Reporting
If you notice any post that may be in violation of our policies, please do not respond to these posts directly.
Instead, please use the "Report" button located in the bottom left of the post in question, or PM a Moderator or Admin about the post.
Warning and Banning
If you are found to be violating any of these terms, you will be given an official warning by a member of staff, which may come with consequences.
We have a strict "three strikes" warning policy for user discipline, as follows:
- First Warning: official warning (no action)
- Second Warning: 24-hour ban
- Final Warning: one week ban
If a user commits a further offence after a Final Warning, they will be permanently banned from our forums. This decision is final.
When a user gets permanently banned, it means that:
- The person is banned, not just the forum account. Any subsequent accounts made by the same user are considered subject to the same ban.
- All rights extended to that person under these rules are considered forfeited.
NOTE: Depending on the severity of the offence, a staff member may choose to bypass any tier of the warning system and issue bans manually.
IP bans may also occur if necessary.
If you are unsure of the kind of behaviour that is considered unacceptable,
refer to the examples included in this Statement Regarding PiratesAhoy! Policy | PiratesAhoy! .
Thank you for your cooperation.
About PiratesAhoy!
PiratesAhoy! is a community dedicated to the historical Age of Sail and all of its aspects, with a special focus on pirates, pirate history and specifically the Golden Age! We are also dedicated to computer games in this genre, and also books, music and films, both fictional and based on history. As such, we intend to provide news coverage on anything related, as well as provide limited support for various pirate games. If you would like to know a bit more about our history, you can read my Decade of Modding and Mayhem post.
Looking for help?
If you are looking for technical help or advise, having issues with your game, computer hardware, or our mods, we will be glad to help! We just need some information first! We are not mind readers, we do not know what hardware or software you are using unless you tell us! When you post questions asking for help, pleas provide the following in your post :
- What mods are you using?(please include version number!)
- What is your computer hardware?
- Operating System?
Our staff is all volunteer, we are not professionals, we are hobbyists. Please keep this in mind when you post looking for technical help. We do this because we want to, not because we have to! We are not affiliated with any software or game company, and we receive no funding or support from anyone.
We welcome anyone and everyone from all over the world who shares this interest and is willing to positively contribute to our efforts. As a community, we focus on fun, respect and openness in an environment where everybody is welcome without any obligations on anyone to detract from having fun.
Additionally, we are engaged in game development and modding with the final goal to create a pirate/seafaring game experience that is as satisfying and as complete as possible. As such, we have worked on many different games, most notably the following projects:
New Horizons Remastered
A standalone game that brings content from the New Horizons mod to the Unity engine, and the spiritual successor to Hearts of Oak.
Pirates of the Caribbean: New Horizons (also known as the Build Mod)
A mod of epic proportions for the PC version of Akella's 2003 game Pirates of the Caribbean, and the mod for which PA! is perhaps best known.
It has been in development since the game's release and is still being worked on today.
Read more: Pirates of the Caribbean: New Horizons mod
Age of Pirates II: Gentlemen of Fortune (previously known as the Combined Modpack)
A fun and extensive mod for the 2009 Akella game Age of Pirates II: City of Abandoned Ships.
We are no longer actively working on GoF.
Read more: Age of Pirates 2: Gentlemen of Fortune mod
Games that we have worked on in the past, but are not in active development, include:
- Sea Dogs
- Age of Pirates
- Port Royale I & II
- Sid Meier's Pirates!
Thanks for reading! These rules may be updated occasionally as circumstances demand, so be sure and check back occasionally. We hope you enjoy your time on our site!
- The PA! administrative team
Last edited by a moderator:
