Rules

“Install Base is therefore created with the aim of being a welcoming and healthy place, where people can contribute and learn through the members’ insights and the vast amount of data at their disposal. This cannot be achieved without providing a safe place.”

1. THINK before you post:
   • Is it True?
   • Is it Helpful?
   • Is it Inspiring?
   • Is it Necessary?
   • Is it Kind?
2. Please support your claims on certain market conditions with data. There is a lot of data available, including third-party resources, such as Game Data Library.
3. Respect the time invested by a member into elaboration of their argument by doing the same in return when you post.
4. Do not start console wars. Do not troll, post drive-by messages, or derail threads. Port-begging is being frowned upon.
5. Do not spread racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, xenophobia, ableism, body shaming, or use any other harmful words that any sane person would not say to their mom or a stranger face to face.
6. Treat other members with respect. Be thoughtful with your posts. Do not bully, stalk, post in bad faith, call people names, or attack members in any other way.
7. Do not link to NSFW content. This includes embeds (images, media, etc.).
8. Do not link to websites that host illegal content.
9. Circumventing bans with an alt account will not be tolerated and results in a permanent ban for all accounts involved.
10. Moderators use verbal warnings (DMs to members or red text in threads), formal warnings, thread-bans, temporary bans, and, in extreme cases, permanent bans as a means to protect the community from bad actors and keep the discussion on the website healthy. You can appeal moderation decisions. If you are not banned, you can also share your thoughts and concerns in the Community Discussion And Moderation Feedback thread.

In order to enforce these general and thread guidelines, Install Base will have a team of moderators coming from within the community. These moderators will be appointed for a mandate of 1 year which can be extended after a community’s confirmation vote.

Moderators focus on dialogue, warnings, thread-bans and read-only bans for minor infractions within a progression-based ban system. At the same time, moderation will deal severely with major infractions like stigmatization and discrimination. Banned members will have access to an appeal which will be judged by different people than the ones that made the initial ban. Moderators can be reported just like any other member.

For more transparency in the way actions will escalate, we built the following moderation ladder

Regular members

1. First level: Warning
2. Second level: 3 days-ban
3. Third level: 1-month
4. Fourth level: Permaban

Junior members

1. First level: Warning
2. Second level: 1-week ban
3. Third level: Permaban

Trailing period: 1 year

This ladder has been introduced on October 2nd, 2022 and will be used from there. Obviously, for members with more warnings than the limit under that rule, they won't be banned straigth away. However, that doesn't mean that everyone's records will be blank, at everyone's next infraction, the sanction will reflect the last 12 months.

Added 24th Februray 2023

• Discussion on controversial games will not be banned.
• Discussion pertaining controversial creators will not be banned.
• Zero tolerance against dismissing of issues raised pertaining to human rights, as well as against attempts to degradation of such rights.
• The existence of threads relating to sales is not an act of celebration. Users are free to convey emotions, positive or negative, to the success or failure of a game's sales so long as it's respectful to other users.
• Blanket generalizations of an audience for a product is not allowed

We ask everyone on this site to stay respectful. If you do not have anything constructive to add to a sensitive topic that doesn't also conflict with the above then please do not engage.

• By being vetted by a non-Junior member
• By providing a free or paid email and answering the following question “Why do you want to join Install Base?” (>50 words)

We decided to extend the pool of potential members to the ones that don’t have a paid mail and added a question for the new potential members to answer. This is a measure to prevent trolls or bots from registering with multiple accounts. This will also give us an idea of what the new members are looking forward to the most. All new accounts undergo manual screening before activation. Accounts that are registered via VPN or with suspected domains, for example a company that does not have a functioning website, could be rejected. In case of rejection, you are always welcome to try to register again.

One of the key mechanics of the user registration will be vetting, which we allow full members to vouch for an upcoming new user. We trust our community’s judgement regarding potential additions to the forum.

Every full member can vet two new users at a time. As soon as at least one of these users is promoted to full member, they can vet again other user(s) with a limited number of two (2) vetted users in Junior phase at the same time.

However, if a vetted user is banned during its Junior phase, the full member will lose its ability to vet for a whole year.

The Archivists are members of Install Base who actively participate in collecting and archiving data. They are the contributors to the Database and have been part of our sales community for many years.

How do I become one?

Every single full Member can become an Archivist. Over time, you need to contribute to the collective effort by creating and updating (when possible) a thread aggregating sales data on the topic of your choice.

• game sales charts and milestones
• market research and coverage
• financial reports
• industry trends
• games industry stocks
• news on corporate activity, like mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations
• game and corporate announcements
• industry events, such as E3 and The Game Awards
• sales prediction leagues
• opinions and editorials related to the games industry
• interviews with key figures in the games industry
• other game business news
• retro sales

If you have any doubts whether the thread you want to create fits one of these categories, you can reach out to the Staff (Admin or Mod) to be sure. Prediction threads outside of the prediction leagues can be created but the comparison needs to make sense, especially for those pitting games against each other, i.e. the games need to share a lot of similarities.

Threads not fitting any of these categories shouldn’t be created and will be locked. Install Base is dedicated to discussing sales and business-related topics about the games industry. If you believe additional topics should be included in the future, we urge you to share your ideas in the Suggestions section and in the community surveys.

• general game, company, and platform discussions
• tech and gaming tech discussions
• reviews, previews, and hype threads
• game, company, and community OTs
• news, opinions, and editorials not related to the games industry
• threads with no specific purpose
• personal, social, and political issues
• other sales or business topics not related to the games industry

In general, please do not leak recent, non-public sales data onto Install Base. Do not ask for leaked data or talk about leak sources. Do not directly or indirectly quote any newly-leaked data. Analysis and discussion of leaks are fine, but spreading leaks anywhere is not allowed. Additionally, please do not create threads in The Market using leaked data.

Posting rumors and leaks from external sources is allowed, but proper sourcing is key.

Post rumors only if they originated from a reputable outlet or a known journalist. Rumors coming from unknown Twitter accounts or 4chan cannot be published until they are corroborated by more serious sources. Also, these threads will have to be clearly labeled as such in the thread title and the OP.

If you post any recent off-site sales leaks, please also include a link to their original external source. If you do not include a source, someone may assist by providing one for you in a subsequent post. If a source cannot be found, the post may be deleted.

Moderators will delete attempts to circumvent these policies. If you have any comments on the matter, please proactively reach out to a Moderator who can discuss it with you further.

The threads need to be created with a lot of care and sourced whenever it is possible. For threads aimed at initiating a whole discussion (op-eds or predictions), we urge the original poster (OP) to provide enough data and context. It will only make the discussion better.

Furthermore, the first part of your thread that anyone will see is the title. It is the first impression and therefore should be written with a lot of care. The framing of the thread is important and it needs to be as unbiased as possible when you report news or make a poll. If you need to change the thread title, you can reach out to the moderation by reporting your own post and specifying the new thread title you wish to have.

As such, if you create a thread based on an article, don’t copy-paste the entire thing, don’t forget to properly source it and don’t misrepresent it. Keep in mind that if your OP is based around a video, several members won’t be able to watch it directly. A summary of the video’s content is therefore good practice.

Not only the creator of a thread has a responsibility; all readers and contributors do. Reading the OP is mandatory before answering. The answers provided need to be as thorough as possible if they contradict a sourced and detailed argument. We expect our members to respect the time invested by a member into elaboration of their argument by doing the same in return.

This brings us to the following point: trolling, drive-by posts, bad faith arguments and thread derailing will not be tolerated. The quality and readability of the threads are Install Base's main concerns and we will monitor this aspect very carefully with the help of the OPs of the threads.

Double posts are not allowed and will be merged.

OPs have a central role into making Install Base a healthy environment to discuss sales. The regular OPs, those who create threads on weekly/monthly returning main topics of the website (such as the Media Create and NPD threads), have an open discussion channel with the moderation team to make sure everything is going smoothly and to share their wishes for the forum’s development. They are the backbones of the sales community and we feel they should be consulted regularly.

The Admins have the role to develop and manage the forum to their very best. They are responsible for impulsing new initiatives, gathering community feedback, managing the moderation team and making sure the guidelines are always striving to make Install Base a place true to its funding principles. That’s not to say that they are shackled by it but if new initiatives are threatening the very raison d’être of Install Base, they can limit or stop them.

One very important aspect is to keep the powers as separated as possible, it is therefore Install Base’s aim to have admin and mod powers separated. Under extraordinary circumstances an Admin could fill in for a Mod, but it needs to be only temporary.

One of the founding principles on which Install Base is built is transparency and continuous communication with the community. We believe the structure we have put in place should allow for less centralized powers, better accountability and a healthier environment. You can check out the Community Discussion And Moderation Feedback thread, for example.

However, to ensure this will always be the case, we will hold Community surveys like the one we used to build these founding guidelines, in order to hear what the Install Base community has to say. If we notice a decline in satisfaction from our members, actions will be taken swiftly.

In addition, you can freely provide feedback to the staff via the tickets function with the correct category.

The Database is the part of The Library, one of the two main sections of Install Base. It is an invaluable pool of sales and financial resources, made possible thanks to the efforts of Archivists.

The Database can be used as a resource when constructing an argument, writing an article, or simply learning fascinating things about the gaming industry. Within the Database, only the Archivists can create threads, but everyone can post and contribute to the discussion. Through discussion, we often find new ways to complete the data over time.

Therefore, it is very much encouraged to participate in these threads or give "Thanks!" for their efforts.

The forum has a certain number of costs associated with it, such as server costs and software license fees. After consulting the community, we decided to monetise through advertisements. Since Install Base was launched only very recently, we also ask for donations from members. In 2022, we hope to have enough data to start a fairly priced subscription service to remove advertisements from a member’s experience on the forum. We will stop asking for donations at that time.

If you need to contact a member of the moderation or admin staff, use the tickets function with the correct category.