Rules & Guidelines Draft - Plese Read - Writers Forum

Chrispian · 10-05-2003, 12:26 PM

Below I am posting the rules and guidelines draft. Please post corrections, additions, objections etc. Let's try to ratify this by, say Wednesday so we can post the rules and move on to the Moderator selection process.

--- Begin Rules & Guidelines ---

Introduction

We like to keep things pretty simple here at Writing Forums, but like any community it would fail without rules and guidelines to protect all of our hard work. Below are our rules and guidelines. Rules are aggressively enforced and usually very strict. Guidelines generally are more relaxed and are intended to give you a basic idea how we would like for you to conduct yourself.

Everyone makes mistakes so we aren't going to just throw you out on your ear if you break the rules. We will give you a notice that you have broken a rule and either correct it for you or give you the chance to correct it depending on the type of violation. Chronic abuse of the rules and guidelines will result in banning, though we hope we never have to resort to that. These rules are here to help ensure that everyone has a safe place to meet and share ideas.

Rules

- Subject lines for all posts must be PG.

- Signatures and Forum Handles will not contain any obscene or unsuitable material.

- No Adult or Erotic materials will be allowed.

- Flaming will not be tolerated. This is a writing forum and critiques are expected, however, this is not a free pass to assault a member for any reason. If you don't like the writing the tell it like it is but this does not include making personal judgements of the writer nor attacking them on a personal level. Any such violations will be deleted.

- Advertising of any kind is prohibited. You are allowed to link to your site in your signature and if you have something to promote you may do so in the "Advertisements & Links" forum, but only if it is writing related. Anything else will be considered spam and deleted.

- Multiple accounts are not permitted. Do not sign up for more than one account or it will be deleted. If you share your computer with a room mate or partner, please inform us or we may suspect you of having duplicate accounts.

- Duplicate posts are not allowed. Pick the most appropriate forum and post your item there. If there is not a forum for your post feel free to suggest one in the "Suggestion Box". No cross posting, spamming or any kind of multiple posts will be allowed. We will delete all but one of any duplicate posts.

- Do not post links to warez, warez sites or sites with pornographic or objectionable content. Only link to sites that are for family viewing only.

- Message content. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages.

- Do not post personal real life information such as names, phone numbers, home addresses of any members. You will be banned immediately.

Guidelines

- Signatures must be limited to 4 lines. No excessive font use (like a million colors or 4 point fonts etc). Images in signatures are not allowed.

- Profanity is allowed as long as it's reasonable. A poem that is 40% profanity is not allowed. A 1500 word story that uses 20 words would most likely be allowed. We are the final judge on what is acceptable and what is not.

- If your post is potentially offensive to others, for example using profanity, or excessive violence or adult themes etc, please put a disclaimer before your work begins. We've created a special bbcode for you to use so your disclaimer is easily noticed: [disc:06aa71b0e2]Put your disclaimer here[/disc:06aa71b0e2] , which will make your disclaimer stand out. Moderators who find a work potentially offensive may add a disclaimer if you have not done so.

- Quoting is encouraged, but please don't quote 5 paragraphs and reply with one line. Quote enough material to show what you are replying to.

- Excessively short posts and one-liners are discouraged. We realize at times these are appropriate, but please use good judgement.

- No Cap Locks. Please do not post messages with the subject or post all in capital letters, or your message will be deleted.

Kitten Courna · 10-05-2003, 12:56 PM

The only thing I don't understand is the images in the signatures. I rather like Fantasia's signature, and isn't it an image? All the rest I think are sensible except for the caps lock. I believe Beatrice posts some titles in caps, and it doesn't peeve me terribly. Messages in all caps, yes, that should probably be inappropriate. Ithink you've done an excellent job of drawing up the rules.

-Kitten

Spudley · 10-05-2003, 02:03 PM

Looks good Chris. One typo ("Quote the enough material..."), but apart from that I agree with what you've written, and more importantly the way it's written - even though you're laying down the law, it reads in a very friendly manner, especially the introduction. Good stuff.

Rage2Fury · 10-05-2003, 02:06 PM

Great job Chris. I would say that it looks all fine and dandy to me. No problems here.

Chrispian · 10-05-2003, 02:32 PM

Quote:

The only thing I don't understand is the images in the signatures. I rather like Fantasia's signature, and isn't it an image? All the rest I think are sensible except for the caps lock.

Kitten,

Good points. My concern with signatures is they tend to distract a bit and when a user leaves or doesn't maintain the image we get broken images. I'm not apposed to the idea, I personally rather like them. If the majority think they are okay with images then I'm fine with that. We'll set some guidelines to make sure signatures are fair. For example, you shouldn't get a signature that has an image that is 4 lines high + 4 lines of text. I want the entire signature area to be around 4 lines high. If everyone is okay with images we'll set these guidelines now too.

As for all caps, as a general rule, there is no need for them even in a title. Obviously, the occasion piece will be able to break the rules. All caps are hard to read online. They are used in formatting to indicted yelling or emphasis, which makes the point moot if your entire title is in all caps. I would allow all caps if the the title was like this "DIE SCUM!" .. I can tell that you meant it that way. However, this does not seem appropriate to me: "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SOME STRANGE GUY". There is no logical explination for all caps in this case.

Quote:

Looks good Chris. One typo ("Quote the enough material..."), but apart from that I agree with what you've written, and more importantly the way it's written - even though you're laying down the law, it reads in a very friendly manner, especially the introduction. Good stuff.

Spudley,

Thank for catching the typo. Sentence editing that went horribly wrong

And thanks for the compliment. I hate heavy handed rules as much as the next person so I wanted to make sure I made it as pleasant as possible. Just because they are rules doesn't mean we can't be nice

Quote:

Great job Chris. I would say that it looks all fine and dandy to me. No problems here.

Rage,

Thanks!

rcallaci · 10-05-2003, 02:48 PM

A very intelligent and moderate set of rules and guilelines. One that I would be happy to follow. Good job chris.

Warmest Regards,
Bob

AdamR · 10-05-2003, 02:57 PM

Chris,
Laid out very well, just like Spudley said. I'm in perfect agreement with everything so far.

Capulet · 10-05-2003, 03:07 PM

Well thought out. I'm not a big fan of pictures in the signatures just because of the bandwidth they use and disk space they eat up. We have avatars, pictures in the signatures just seems redundant.

I like the disclaimer option. I tend to lean towards writing that challenges established thought, or have some edge to it. Writing that reflects real life also appeals to me. Real life is full of profanity or "politically incorrect" behaviour and thought, so moderating it with a disclaimer rather than censorship is the solution I'd advocate as well.

My biggest concern is that, considering SOMEONE will be offended by pretty much any opinion piece, the moderating staff can avoid bowing to censorship as a solution for conflict. I'd much rather see both parties invited to write a piece in response to each other than just remove a post.

I'm excited to have the opportunity to participate in these forums, and it looks like great things are going to happen here! Let me know if you need moderators (though I'm sure everyone has volunteered already heh heh).

Cheers

Lily · 10-05-2003, 04:01 PM

Excellent job! =D>

Lily · 10-05-2003, 04:31 PM

Oh yeah . . . so are we having moderators?

I hope I didn't skip the part in the guidelines that said we would . . .

By the way, maybe we should be putting the guidelines in the 'Introduce Yourself' section, or somewhere where newbies would be sure to read it?

Chrispian · 10-05-2003, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lily

Oh yeah . . . so are we having moderators?

I hope I didn't skip the part in the guidelines that said we would . . .

By the way, maybe we should be putting the guidelines in the 'Introduce Yourself' section, or somewhere where newbies would be sure to read it?

We will indeed be having Moderators. I've already written a first draft of the moderators guidelines and I'll post them before we get started selecting mods, which we will soon as the member guidelines are finalized.

That's a great idea about posting the guidelines in the introduction forum. They'll aso be in the sign up process and linked from the top of the page.

Beatrice Boyle · 10-06-2003, 12:38 AM

Good Job Chris...Solomon would be proud! =D>

P.S. Sorry about the title caps...that's how we did it
back in that one room schoolhouse!

Washer · 10-06-2003, 03:37 AM

You should include a subject to change clause, in the instance that something comes up. Just stating that the rules will be subject to change, following a general notice. Just tossing it out there.

Fantasia · 10-06-2003, 04:14 PM

That's a good idea Washer.

But all in all, I think you did a great job, Chris. If indeed, images aren't allowed in the sig, I'll remove it until further notice, ne?

hollyoake · 10-08-2003, 02:34 AM

does my sig cause offence to these rules?