mormont

You're going to need Ran for this one, Ormond: sorry.

[mod] A final reminder: this thread is for rating the show. We're interested in your rating, NOT your opinion of other people's ratings. People are allowed to disagree with you. Respect their right to do so. DON'T call them names because they gave a different rating than you did, don't accuse them of trolling, and don't ask them why they even watch the show. Having spent the last fifteen minute deleting dozens of such posts, my patience is at an end. Don't test it further. [/mod]

[mod] Your regular reminder, people: this thread is to rate the episode, giving your opinion of that particular slice of the show. It's not the thread to give your opinions of people who rated the episode differently than you did. We don't have a thread like that. We're interested in what you thought of the episode: we're not interested in what you think of people who disagree with you. [/mod]

[mod] A little reminder that this thread is for ratings of the episode. Please don't derail it by entering into interpersonal bickering with other users. [/mod]

[mod] A friendly reminder to keep it polite, please. Disagreements are fine, but respect different opinions. [/mod]

As the show goes out, we want to be clear on our policy regarding spoilers for the benefit of all users. We understand that developments in the TV show may or may not turn out to be relevant to the plot of future books. Accordingly, they may or may not be spoilers for future books. Our policy on this is precautionary and is an extension of our existing policy on show/book discussion. Discussion of the show should go in the show forums: this includes discussion of plot points from the series, and whether they tell us anything about the future direction of the books. At the same time we recognise that there are users who are not watching the series and prefer to remain unspoiled. This may or may not prove possible in the long run, but we prefer not to make it any harder. This means that no show spoilers of any kind should be posted in the book forums. No hints, no speculation, nothing. Any breach of that rule will result in a suspension: no excuses and no exceptions.

As the show goes out, we want to be clear on our policy regarding spoilers for the benefit of all users. We understand that developments in the TV show may or may not turn out to be relevant to the plot of future books. Accordingly, they may or may not be spoilers for future books. Our policy on this is precautionary and is an extension of our existing policy on show/book discussion. Discussion of the show should go in the show forums: this includes discussion of plot points from the series, and whether they tell us anything about the future direction of the books. At the same time we recognise that there are users who are not watching the series and prefer to remain unspoiled. This may or may not prove possible in the long run, but we prefer not to make it any harder. This means that no show spoilers of any kind should be posted in the book forums. No hints, no speculation, nothing. Any breach of that rule will result in a suspension: no excuses and no exceptions.

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/132650-when-will-my-content-become-functional-again/

Sometimes we do. Sometimes we don't. Usually threads are locked for length. There's no point posting an explanation for that. Same with wrong forum threads. We more usually comment if a thread's been closed because it's gone off the rails due to misbehaviour: then, we might post a warning.

[mod] Let's get back to the topic, please. The topic is not ADWD: it's how you rate this episode. [/mod]

At present the board is in performance mode. This means that certain functions are temporarily disabled to help cope with unusually high traffic. These functions include searching, using 'View New Content' or 'My Content' (as these are functions of search) and viewing other users' profiles. Full functionality will be restored as traffic eases.

[mod] TV show discussion stays in the TV forums, please. [/mod]

New pinned topic for those looking. One simple rule applies and will be rigidly enforced - ONLY legal means of locating or reading sample material may be referenced. No links to copyright-infringing materials, or other advice that may encourage copyright infringement: anyone posting such will have their post deleted and additional measures may be taken against you.

10 seconds x the number of threads in the approval queue = no notification. Sorry. (It would take rather longer than 10 seconds anyway to provide a full explanation, then you have to factor in people disputing the decision and expecting a reply to that, and so on.)

A reminder: If your thread is not specifically about the upcoming 'World of Ice and Fire' book, it does not go in here. It will be locked. If you repeatedly ignore this warning, you may face penalties including suspension.

Please note that new topics in this forum won't show up unless and until a moderator has approved them. This forum is specifically and solely for discussion of The Winds of Winter, in particular the spoiler material available through chapter readings at conventions, etc. This means that if your thread is not specifically about The Winds of Winter it will not be approved. General discussion about the book series, including general speculation about what characters might do in future, how the series might end, etc. is best placed in the General book forum.

Why say 'not to be vulgar' when you've been nothing but? People, yes, there are explicit sex scenes. That's no excuse for talking about them as if you were eleven years old and just discovered your older brother's porn magazine collection. Class it up a bit, please, or posts will be deleted. Take that as an official mod warning.

I think you might not get that option until you have posted at least once (in a forum that actually increases your post count, which 'Help' does not).

See http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/50972-cant-view-profiles-or-send-pms/

No. The ADWD forum will remain as the main place for discussing ADWD for a while. At some point it will then become the TWOW forum, for discussion of the next book. That will depend on traffic: there's so much ADWD discussion just now that it would swamp all other topics, so it still merits its own forum. Other than that, as the announcement states - the rules have changed. We still have thread approval in place for now, but you no longer require the [ADWD Spoiler] tag in the title. Topic titles should still be non-spoilery, though we might be a bit more relaxed in the case of minor spoilers. We will allow spoilers in General if relevant to the topic and properly hidden, but threads primarily about ADWD should be in here. We still want to avoid duplicate topics. The rules for 'Still Reading' are the same, of course. Any questions, post them here.

How long it takes depends on whether there's a mod available, which is obviously going to lead to a wide variance in approval times. Sometimes it's minutes, sometimes it's hours. If it takes longer than that... it probably hasn't been approved. As for PMs, I'm afraid that's not going to happen. For one thing the board spends a lot of time in performance mode, which makes them impossible at those times, and for another it would be quite a lot of work - frequently we're deciding on five or six new threads at a time. The advice is: if you want to make sure your new thread gets approved, make sure it is properly labelled, make sure it is in line with the other board rules, and make sure it is genuinely covering substantial new ground. Not every new thought requires a new thread - sometimes they make better contributions to an existing discussion. (We're being very strict on approving new threads just now because of high traffic: once this slows a bit, you may find we're a bit more relaxed.)

Some board functions have been disabled on purpose to help reduce SQL errors. There's an easy alternative to the board search - just use Google, including 'asoiaf.westeros.org' as one of your search terms.

An important note: If you have submitted a topic and it has not appeared, please do not submit it again. It's either in the queue or it has not been approved (for whatever reason). Either way, submitting it again is just making more work for no reason.

Welcome! :)

I think it's a mix. In scale, geography, and climate, Westeros is much more like the Americas: in culture, it's more like Western Europe generally (not just Britain): in history, the closest analogies are probably with Britain.