[quote] 1. What are private groups for? What good private goods are there? Private groups are made by community members. They can serve any purpose you want, wether that be a place to post art or host clan discussions. Recently the site went through a major overhaul, so Private Groups lost a lot of features that should return in the future. These include Private Group ranks and Private Group Moderator. As for good Private Groups, I'd suggest Art&Stuff if you want to see Destiny Fan art. It's new, but it's doing very well. Then their is The Community Carnage, which is pretty much the central hub for planning most game nights for this community. Take a look around, maybe underneath the popular groups list. Their are MANY Private Groups. 2. Is the OffTopic forum allowing content of all types? I'm seeing lots of hate speech and discussion about US politics, not sure what's up with that. Recently the site went through a MAJOR update. We had a forum called "The Flood", which essentially was the Off Topic and Gaming Forum combined, except a million times better. It didn't allow discussion of Politics or Religion. With the new update, their are new rules. Politics and Religion can now be talked about. Avoid these discussions at all costs. They just drag you into unnecessary conflicts, mostly because of the trolls. Personally, I think they should have never been "legalized" in the first place. Off Topic is for anything that doesn't fit in any other forum. Expect to see news stories, random threads, and other various weird stuff there. 3. What's the difference between the Bungie forum and Community forum? With the recent site update, the Community Forum was split. So now we have the Community Forum and the Bungie Forum. The Bungie Forum is for things pertaining to the company itself, its employees, etc. The Community Forum is for Community based posts. You might see posts about Game-nights there, topics about the community in general, and DeeJ will post Mail Sacks there. 4. How do I get a custom avatar here? You don't. Only the Ninja's (Moderators) and Employees get custom avatars. Some users here (myself included) have a pseudo-custom avatar because before Bungie dropped support for Halo, you could use your in game symbol as your Avatar here. It was limited to what you could make in game, unlike Ninjas and Employees, who could get just about anything. Bungie dropped support for Halo, and with them Halo Custom Avatars, so whatever one was linked to one of your game histories is now the only one you have an option too, aside from your Spartan Character (Similar situation to Symbols) and the default Avatars. Maybe Destiny will give you the ability to do the same thing once it comes out. 5. How do hashtags work? I've never used Twitter before. Do they go across individual forums or what? Hashtags are not specific to Forums. Each hashtag forms their own mini-forum when it is created, and where other threads with the same hashtag are placed. 6. Any general tips on things I should avoid doing? -Don't get into a Religious or Political Argument. They almost always end badly. -Be respectful. People can mute you, and your posts will be forever invisible to them unless they un-mute you. Enough mutes will give you a global mute, and you will be hidden from everybody temporarily. -Mail Sack Question Threads are on Mondays, look for them in the Community Forum. Post your question there, and theirs a chance it will get answered by Bungie Employees. The Answers are published every Friday. This news posting is called the "Mail Sack". A post with a link to the Blog post can be found in the Bungie Forum on Fridays. -Breaking In Articles are posted in the Bungie Forum every Tuesday or Wednesday. It is an Interview with a new-ish Bungie Employee. -The guys with the Orange Tag next to their name with the word "Ninja" on it are Ninjas AKA Moderators. They are Community Members like myself. They are not payed for this. NEVER ask to be made a Ninja. Only the most dedicated members can become Ninjas. Experience and being a Veteran to the site are big parts of it too. -The guys with the Blue tag next to their name with Employee written on it are Bungie Employees. Most of the ones who are here are either members of the Webteam or Community Guys. The names to know are: 1. DeeJ- Assistant Community Manager- He's been doing most of the actual Community Managing lately because his boss Urk is too busy being awesome. 2. Urk-Community Manager- He still pops in from time to time, but he leaves most of the stuff up to DeeJ. He's also been doing some writing for Bungie. 3. Achronos-Head of the Webteam-His word on the site is pretty much law here. Don't be a dick to him in particular. -Their is a TON of Bungie and Bungie Community Lore here. You can find more out about it at Bungiepedia. -Try not to let the Trolls get to you. -Have Fun, don't be a dick, and this Soffish Do Not Eat. [/quote] Welcome to B.net.