HELP! Need to create forum rules.

#1

Ok, my wife Kitara, who is an avid bulletin board user, made an observation about the forum that bothered me. She probably represents a first time visitor very well since she is not really interested in roleplaying and just does a quick run through the board to see if anything interesting is going on.

What she observed and was turned off by all the bashing that she came upon. Now, she may of hit a few that we know about but relooking I see a few that bash and then go off topic and an answer never gets answered.

I want this to stop immediately and I think you will agree with me.

I think the admins do a good job being constructive but I believe there are too many posts that bash without helping.

I think we have too much quality here to be drowned out by babble and arguing. Too many other RP forums have deteriorated into one huge kiddy chat room and I have no intentions of letting that happen here. We have too many intelligent, and mature, people here to let the kiddies take it over.

Because of this I want to draft a good set of forum rules that will let everyone know exactly what we expect. I also don't want to be rule heavy because too many rules will create too much of a weight on newbies.

So here is my attempt. Once these are finalized I think I should put them at the top of every topic oriented forum. I still could care less what they do in those two chat room forum parts, but the rest of the site should remain as pure as possible.

Once these get finalized then I will start going through and pruning the fluff.

Forum Rules

#2

[*] Keeping threads on topic
The contents (i.e. the individual posts) of any thread should always be relevant to its title. For example a thread called "Inventing Languages" should not include a discussion about someone's hair color, whether another user is an idiot, the weather, etc! Please keep every thread relevant to its title.
[*] Users 'fighting' (aka flaming) in threads
Users should not use the forum to settle petty disputes amongst each other. The purpose of this forum is for people who enjoy roleplaying, fantasy adventures, etc. to chat and help each other - it's not a virtual boxing ring or a school yard. The site's terms of use make it clear that abusive behaviour is not welcomed or allowed on this site. If you want to have a 1-to-1 chat or heated argument then find another place to do it - or better still take a breath and relax, life is too short!
[*] Swearing and 'Masked' Swearing
The majority of swear words are not allowed on Strolen's Citadel. If you do accidentally swear then the forum software has an auto-censor which should replace your swearing with a number of *'s. Please respect the auto-censor and do not attempt to bypass it by inserting spaces or any other characters in to your swear words.
[*] Topic Titles Be descriptive!
Don't just post a title called "Help" or "Very funny" - it's annoying for everyone and no-one likes an attention seeker. Give users an idea of what your post is about. If someone wants to read your post they will, so please don't try and trick them in to reading it.
[*] Respect the minimum character limit
Each post you make on the forum should be at least 15 characters long. This is a forum NOT a chat room. All the posts you make in topic oriented threads of Strolen's Citadel should contribute something of value.

Ummm.

#3

You know of course, that our two most recent problem members are the primary offenders in this... Though we have had others, their annoyances have all been purged.

Should we just purge their every entry? Do we give them a chance to prove themselves, or should we just nuke them right from the begining?

Elfkin is turning around. If we had slammed him away for being annoying we would of never seen the better posts. Of course there are those that never turned around... but do we want to eliminate the marginals that may get better on the chance they may not?

Should we purge their posts out of the greetings and piccuyne? (which I have not been doing, as those are more open). What about in roleplaying?

I admit we are not helping so much when we respond to them in a less than respectful and caring way We have occasionally fanned the flames. *cough*capt*cough* All of us have done this from time to time and we are mostly pretty good about not doing it.