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Offline xasop

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Forum rules: Draft 1
« on: December 15, 2013, 06:54:55 PM »
This took longer than I'd intended to get around to. Sorry, work has been fairly busy lately. I'd also like to thank Supertails for coming up with an initial draft of this stuff, which I've then edited somewhat to produce the below.

I'm trying to keep these minimal. We can add more rules as we come across situations that highlight the need for them, but I'd rather not start with rules covering every possible circumstance under the Sun, as nobody is going to read them and they will be difficult to enforce. Let's start with some obvious ones and go from there.

Please post any comments or suggestions regarding these rules. I don't want to implement rules that aren't going to be for the benefit of the community, so feedback is definitely something you should err on the side of giving more rather than less of.



No personal attacks.

The Flat Earth boards are a place for debate, and debate is often heated and tense, but don't handle this situation by lashing out at others. Keep your posts civil and to the point, and don't begin insulting others. If you have run out of valid arguments, simply do not post. The exception to this rule is in Complete Nonsense and Angry Ranting, where personal attacks are par for the course. If you do not like this, then don't post in those fora.

Anyone seen personally attacking another member will be immediately warned. After two warnings, a ban with length determined by moderator discretion will be issued.


Stay on topic.

If what you're discussing isn't related to the thread's opening topic or a natural progression thereof, it's off-topic. Minor derailments will be handled by splitting the off-topic posts into another thread (possibly in another forum); repeat offenders will receive a warning. Depending on the frequency and severity of derailments, a short ban or restriction from specific subfora may be imposed after at least three warnings.


Do not disclose personal information.

Do not post any personal information relating another member without their express consent. Any post containing such information will be deleted immediately and a warning issued. A second offence will result in a ban, the length of which is up to moderator discretion.


Post in the appropriate forum.

Read each forum's description and ask yourself if your thread fits. Have a question about Flat Earth Theory? Post it in Flat Earth Q&A. Want to talk about Breaking Bad? That goes in Arts & Entertainment. Have casual discussion in The Lounge and rant about how your day went in Angry Ranting. If you have a suggestion or a concern to do with the forum, such as possible improvements or bugs, post it in Suggestions & Concerns—we'd appreciate it! See? That wasn't so hard.

For the purpose of handling offenders, this rule will be treated as a special case of the "stay on topic" rule.


Keep alternate accounts within reason.

We will be taking a very relaxed policy towards alternate accounts ("alts"), provided that people do not force us to take a stricter stance by abusing this policy. Alts are allowed, and will be permitted free reign across all fora, provided that they follow the rules for the forum they are posting in. FES has a history of alts that contribute to discussions in addition to the usual complement of spamming and trolling alts, and it would be a shame to try to restrict this.

There are two exceptions to this policy: one, an alt that is used for the purpose of furthering a main or another alt's argument without itself contributing a unique point of view on the situation ("sockpuppetting") will be immediately banned; two, an alt that is intended to impersonate a member either here or on the old FES will be immediately banned, and deleted if it is occupying the username of an old FES member, as otherwise it would bar them from registering here.

An alt breaking any rule that would ordinarily result in a warning can (at moderator discretion) be handled by immediately banning the alt account, and instead warning the main account of the person controlling it.


Use appropriate channels for seeking help.

If you have concerns about a member, a thread or specific posts, you have a few options. You can use the report post feature to alert the moderation staff to your issue; you can PM a moderator directly if you'd rather have a discussion with someone about the problem; or you can create a thread in Suggestions & Concerns if you'd rather open the situation to public discussion.

Posting complaints directly into the thread in question is only going to escalate the situation, and this will be treated as off-topic posting.
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Offline Blanko

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2013, 07:37:10 PM »
These look like guidelines, not rules.

Happy?

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2013, 09:29:17 PM »
I'd like to see a rule about excessive use of BBCode outside of CN/AR. EJ-like spamming of quotes should be explicitly prohibited.
Read the FAQ before asking your question - chances are we already addressed it.
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Offline Blanko

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2013, 09:31:52 PM »
I'd like to see a rule about excessive use of BBCode outside of CN/AR. EJ-like spamming of quotes should be explicitly prohibited.

I dunno, I think it's pretty admirable how much effort he puts into responding to absolutely everyone everywhere. What's the harm in it, anyway?

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Offline Tau

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2013, 09:40:02 PM »
I'd like to see a rule about excessive use of BBCode outside of CN/AR. EJ-like spamming of quotes should be explicitly prohibited.

I dunno, I think it's pretty admirable how much effort he puts into responding to absolutely everyone everywhere. What's the harm in it, anyway?

It's incredibly bothersome. I can see allowing it in the lower fora, but in the Flat Earth - boards it's just unprofessional. But it might be better to err on the side of free speech.

___

I suggest a rule against blatant discrimination. It should be worded better than in the other forum, but it should still exist. Although the whole thing with The Forbidden Word was ridiculous, we should still have some rules about profanity and general PC'ness. At the very least, in the upper fora.
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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2013, 09:58:03 PM »
I dunno, I think it's pretty admirable how much effort he puts into responding to absolutely everyone everywhere. What's the harm in it, anyway?
Responding to everyone everywhere is fine, if done responsibly. Quoting long-ish posts to respond with a one-liner is annoying (and often deliberately so). It gets even worse when other people then quote an entire EJ-esque post and also respond with a one-liner (granted, they are as guilty as EJ in that case). Excessive use of BBC can easily make a thread unreadable.
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Offline Tau

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2013, 10:00:29 PM »
How about just making a rule against obnoxious posting habits? Seems to cover everything.
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Offline jroa

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2013, 10:11:09 PM »
Actually, the "don't be a dick" rule pretty much covers this. 

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2013, 10:12:47 PM »
How about just making a rule against obnoxious posting habits? Seems to cover everything.
I think we need to aim for something specific. We're trying to avoid giving staff too much discretion. In an ideal world, we should always be able to make a clear call on whether or not something violates the rules. Different people will find very different things to be obnoxious.
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Offline Blanko

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2013, 10:14:14 PM »
Well, I don't think limiting how people can post is the way to go. It's pretty much the same thing as banning typos.

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Offline Tau

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2013, 10:20:40 PM »
How about just making a rule against obnoxious posting habits? Seems to cover everything.
I think we need to aim for something specific. We're trying to avoid giving staff too much discretion. In an ideal world, we should always be able to make a clear call on whether or not something violates the rules. Different people will find very different things to be obnoxious.

The problem is that we're trying to make something subjective, objective. Trying to solve that by getting too specific doesn't really fix the problem, I think, because it just results in rules that don't cover all of the bases.

I think the best way to do it would be to have rules with room for interpretation, but strict moderation guidelines. I suggest a publicly displayed moderation policy separate from the rules, detailing what steps moderators are allowed to take and when. This would have the added benefit of avoiding moderators like how I was a few years back.
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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2013, 10:21:45 PM »
Well, I don't think limiting how people can post is the way to go. It's pretty much the same thing as banning typos.
Oh, I was planning to set up a filter that spell-checks every post made (using a British English dictionary, of course) and automatically issues a full 100-day bammywham for each red squiggle...

On a more serious note, I do see your point. It would be difficult to find the right balance between freedom of speech and not letting people kill threads. I don't think it would be completely impossible.

I suppose another way to approach this could be to modify the forum so that quotes are not fully expanded by default. Something along the lines of:

It's incredibly bothersome. I can see allowing it in the lower fora, but in the Flat Earth - boards it's just unprofessional.
(see more)
(except actually working lol)

However, I would also propose that quoting an entire post when you're only responding to part of it could count as... uh, off-topic posting? The quote sets the context for the rest of your post, after all. If your post isn't very relevant to the quote, something's wrong.
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Offline Blanko

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #12 on: December 15, 2013, 10:31:32 PM »
Maybe you should make this an issue when there's more than literally one person (who also happens to be a troll) doing it.

Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #13 on: December 16, 2013, 01:39:27 AM »
I like the alts rule. Some people can make a flat alt and a round alt. I have not done this myself but had been tempted before. I can help debate, just dont argue with yourselves ya weirdos!

Long quotes dont bother me as much as the people that keep quoting and quoting. Or what botheres me even more (but shouldnt be a rule anyway) is when people quote strait after the post they are replying to! Especially when it is so obvious who they are speaking to.

A lenient stance on swearing is good too, most posters are adults and we swear in our vocabulary. But people should just respect peoples wishes if they feel the language is too much.

Maybe another set of secret mod rules would be good too. Perhaps they have to be more civil to other posters? They should set the example at least.

Saddam Hussein

Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2013, 04:51:15 AM »
There's nothing about prohibiting NSFW content in the rules.  Was that meant to be included?  I could be wrong, but I suspect that most of us would be in favor of keeping that rule.  I certainly am.  I don't want to have to brace myself for potential goatse every time I open a thread in CN.

Also, I agree with Tausami that we don't want to be too specific with what the rules address.  That can lead to people gaming the rules, as the old forum sometimes showed.  I'm reminded in particular of permanoobs like The Knowledge dancing around the letter of the rules while doing their best to discourage new posters from staying and being as unpleasant as possible to everyone.  We should try to think in broader terms about the kinds of behavior we don't want here.

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Offline xasop

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #15 on: December 16, 2013, 04:54:16 AM »
Saddam is on the money here.

As for NSFW content; no, the exclusion of that was not intentional. My sleep cycle has been literally faggots in gravy the past week, and I'm not thinking as clearly as usual, so I'm hardly surprised if there are some glaring omissions.
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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #16 on: December 16, 2013, 01:37:21 PM »
I have never heard if that term before lol. Make mine one giant faggot too.

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Offline Tau

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #17 on: December 16, 2013, 01:51:23 PM »
Maybe we could have a process to ban members who haven't explicitly broken rules? Like, they could be nominated for bamhammeration by the council and there could be a vote among the moderators or something like that. Maybe there would have to be better checks and balances than that.
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Offline xasop

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #18 on: December 16, 2013, 03:42:14 PM »
Maybe we could have a process to ban members who haven't explicitly broken rules? Like, they could be nominated for bamhammeration by the council and there could be a vote among the moderators or something like that. Maybe there would have to be better checks and balances than that.

No, I don't think that's fair to anyone. People should know if they can be banned for something before they make the decision whether to take the action or not.

A better way of doing this is to simply add new rules as we discover behaviours that are undesirable. That way, the new rule applies equally to everyone. I intend to revise the Manifesto to formalise the process of adding new rules once we have a finalised set of rules.
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Offline Tau

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Re: Forum rules: Draft 1
« Reply #19 on: December 16, 2013, 07:25:23 PM »
Maybe we could have a process to ban members who haven't explicitly broken rules? Like, they could be nominated for bamhammeration by the council and there could be a vote among the moderators or something like that. Maybe there would have to be better checks and balances than that.

No, I don't think that's fair to anyone. People should know if they can be banned for something before they make the decision whether to take the action or not.

A better way of doing this is to simply add new rules as we discover behaviours that are undesirable. That way, the new rule applies equally to everyone. I intend to revise the Manifesto to formalise the process of adding new rules once we have a finalised set of rules.

Well, I mean it for situations like TK. When a poster is taking advantage of the rules, there should be some way to stop them. There are going to be loopholes in whatever we come up with, and angry noobs will abuse those loopholes to no end unless we have a method to deter them from doing so. It would of course only be able to be used in extreme circumstances.
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