Official Rules Posted! - Writers Forum

Chrispian · 10-09-2003, 10:02 PM

Writing Forums now has official rules and guidelines posted. Please take a moment to get familiar with them. These rules and guidelines are subject to change as needed. Read them here.

kerpoe · 11-17-2004, 11:49 PM

good i like them

americanwriter · 01-24-2005, 01:20 PM

Well said. They seem fair and generally agreeable.

Wyndstar · 02-15-2005, 12:09 PM

I bow to the rule makers.

No netspeak.
Some of us are having problems with english as it is...

Thank you.

Hyperion · 05-19-2005, 01:08 AM

Thanks for posting them here. I had to review them.

Mitch Baldwin · 08-30-2005, 02:29 AM

Great rules to live by.

Great site!

Chrispian · 09-27-2005, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starrwriter

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrispian

Writing Forums now has official rules and guidelines posted. Please take a moment to get familiar with them. These rules and guidelines are subject to change as needed. Read them here.

If you intend to enforce the rule below, you will definitely have to ban a few members:

"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."

The members I refer to have made vague bomb threats against me, called me derogatory names, said I was racist and/or prejudiced, ridiculed my age, described me as stupid, etc. -- and have made these personal attacks repeatedly. Yet none of them were banned and I was told actual banning never really happened. But then a girl was banned after she defended herself in kind from personal attacks. If you play favorites, these rules mean absolutely nothing.

We don't play favorites. We don't see everything though, and we rely on members to help point out these kinds of troubles. I looked through my private messages and I didn't find a single one about any of the issues you've had. I'm pretty quick to respond to PM's, as are other staff members and we take action pretty quickly. So if you have an issue, you don't help it if you keep quiet. Use the PM system to send a message to staff or to me privately and we'll be ALL OVER IT. We want everyone to have fun here and we'll take action against anyone trying to ruin the fun.

As for banning, we ban as a last resort. We try to work with people to correct their behavior, but obviously some people are here just to start trouble. We've grown to the point where I think more strict banning may be needed, much to my regret. But, these are the growing pains we'll have to face and I'll do it gladly if it will help out the community.

woodman · 09-27-2005, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starrwriter

If you intend to enforce the rule below, you will definitely have to ban a few members:

"Flaming will not be tolerated.... "

The members I refer to have made vague bomb threats against me, called me derogatory names, said I was racist and/or prejudiced, ridiculed my age, described me as stupid, etc...

LOL, I agree.

Silly Kids!
Ya can't just shoot 'em,
...and there never seems to be a greedy child slave profiteer around when you need one.

Please tell me who they are (screen names) so that I can keep an eye out for them?

I'm a moderator in another forum and whenever a member submits a flaming post, they're usually banned the same day. So you're right, standards here are rather loose.

Woodman

valeca · 09-27-2005, 12:33 PM

We aren't exactly loose. We like to ty to work things out in a civilized manner, as adults, and not throw temper tantrums, banning people left, right and center.

Generally speaking, it works well. 9 times out of 10 the problem is taken care of. There are, of course, those for whom this doesn't work. But really, you're going to find those people everywhere (here and in life).

It'd help if members remembered that in signing up, they've effectively agreed to abide by the rules set out. But like I said, there's always going to be the ones who behave poorly regardless.

It'd be a shame to ban a good member who's had a bad day and made a bad call in posting. Usually all it takes is a PM from staff to fix things up.

And at 5000+ members, I think we do pretty well!

Chrispian · 09-27-2005, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by valeca

We aren't exactly loose. We like to ty to work things out in a civilized manner, as adults, and not throw temper tantrums, banning people left, right and center.

Generally speaking, it works well. 9 times out of 10 the problem is taken care of. There are, of course, those for whom this doesn't work. But really, you're going to find those people everywhere (here and in life).

It'd help if members remembered that in signing up, they've effectively agreed to abide by the rules set out. But like I said, there's always going to be the ones who behave poorly regardless.

It'd be a shame to ban a good member who's had a bad day and made a bad call in posting. Usually all it takes is a PM from staff to fix things up.

And at 5000+ members, I think we do pretty well!

Very well said!

mammamaia · 09-28-2005, 11:15 AM

i ditto that!

cmorris · 01-28-2007, 02:51 PM

I guess I should have read these before I made my signature. Oh well, I'll go fix it now.

Mysour · 03-27-2007, 09:05 AM

What exactly do you mean by PG? I think its movie related but want to double check.

And also our storys can have bad language, and adult themes if we put the disclaimer right that says that it includes these things?

Othelo1 · 03-27-2007, 10:32 AM

No Adult or Erotic materials will be allowed.

Is it possible to create an Adults only section to accommodate people's work that may be sexual in nature but not necessarily classified as "erotic." So much of my writing is centered around relationships, which often leads to discussion of or acting upon erotic impulses. I know there are forums dedicated to this genre but they often get bogged down by it and the subject tends often to cloud the literature aspect.

Its fine if this is an impossibility, it won't make or break my involvement here, I like the community and the structure, just wondering what exactly is permissible and probable.

Thanks much.

Selorian · 03-27-2007, 10:56 AM

PG is indeed movie related, and the same rating it implies for film is what it means in the rules here at WF.

Adult material (encompassing violence, language, and sexual concepts) is allowable, provided there is a disclaimer at the beginning warning anyone who may be offended by such material. This, however, does not allow any gratuitous violence or graphic sexual discription, nor the excessive use of adult language.

An Adult Section has been brought up for discussion before, and it was decided that such a forum and the problems it could entail aren't needed here at WF. When a piece of work adheres to the above guidelines, it is perfectly acceptable to post in any of the existing forums. If in doubt as to what is or isn't acceptable, contact a member of staff and get their opinion.

Hope that helps clear things up.