Welcome to the Australian section of the Official Xbox forums.
Whether you are new to Interent forums in general or simply new to the Xbox.com forums please read the following before you start posting here. It will likely save you from confusion/problems when you begin contributing to this community.
Guidelines.
When you signed up here you accepted the Terms of Use and Code of Conduct. In addition to this we ask that you read and abide by Major Nelson's Xbox Forum Guidelines. If you haven't already, please take the time now, before you post, to read these three documents and understand just what is expected of you by this community. Some of the information contained within will be expanded upon below.
Other considerations.
Once you've read the guideline there are a few of other things to consider before you post.
1. Has your question, news, statement been asked already? Check the first couple of pages before you post. There is a good chance that someone may have already asked the same question (and had it answered) that you are intending to ask. It's it's news about a new game, etc the same thing applies. If it's already been posted reposting the information in a new thread is not nessasary. Simply add your comments to the already existing thread. If you can't see what your looking for in the first few pages try a search. You'll find the the "search" button in the upper right hand conner of every page on these forums.
You can serach these forums by "keyword" or by "user name" and you can search "All forums" or a "Selected forum". Once you've entered your search words and selected the forum you want to search (i.e. Australian General Discussion), click the "search" button with you mouse pointer (hitting the enter/return key at this point will do nothing). If your search returns "no results" move on to the next step. If you get results, what you looking for maybe already there. If it isn't, simply post your comments/question on the appropriate thread and it will be bought back to the first page. The place it is most likely to be seen by other users.
2. Will your post add anything to these forums? If what you want to say fits into Major Nelson's Guidelines you should be ok. Single word posts, "LOL" or short phrases, "I agree" do not add anything of value. Please avoid.
3. Lastly are you posting in the appropriate forum? There are currently three forums in the Australian forum group.
Australian General Discussion - this is for all discussion relating to Xbox and Xbox 360. Sometimes you may see other platforms discussed, but overall Xbox is why we are here.
Friends forum for Australia and New Zealand - use this thread to find local Xbox Live players, LAN gamers in your area or Clans looking for members or challenges.
Xbox Live Australia - Anything about Xbox Live in Australia. Trouble shoot your connection, discuss the best ISP's, etc.
If you consider these three points before you post you should be fine.
Some expansion.
Mod chips - Any discussion involving "Mod chips", Modding your console, "soft mods", software piracy is strictly prohibited from these forums. We don't want details or even hints about any of the above. Posting such information will likely get you banned. "Academic" discussion about the changing legal situation regarding mod chips in Australia is ok - just. Past experience shows that these threads usually end up discussing the perviously mention prohibited topics. It's a thin line and is better avoided. Regardless of the current or future legal state of Mod chips in Australia, it is unlikely they will ever be allowed as a topic of discussion on these forums.
Selling/trading - again this is not permitted on these forums. There are legal reason behind this to do with liability.
Game and subscription codes - Posts offering (or asking for) to sell, trade or give away game activation codes (UNO, etc) or Live subscriptions (48 hour trial, 1 month, 3 month, etc) are not permitted on these forums. Best advice if you have spare codes is to offer them to your friends.
The Report button -
The important thing with reporting is to make sure you click the "report" button on the individual post your complaining about. If it's the whole thread that is a problem, use the first post in that thread. Keep you title simple, "User spamming" and then provide a brief description. You don't need to provide links or anything the system takes care of that. Once you post, your message is sent to a forum that all moderators can see. Basically they are dealt with on an individual basis from there.
Your other option is to send myself (or one of the other local moderators) a private message.
This guide is a first draft and will likely be added to in future. Thanks to CouthSloth for suggesting it and for contributions by General Nero and XboxOZ360.
This FAQ covers some frequently asked questions about formating, posting, icons and other items specific to these forums.