where to put custom rules?

[Jamie Pratt]

Ok, i cant' seem to figure this out - what file(s) would I put custom 
rules into? I tried local.cf and user_prefs, but I get debug errors 
(can't parse blah, blah)...

sorry if this a dumb question, but I just can't seem to figure out where 
I would put them?

thanks to all as always,
jamie