[Reform] New Rules for a New Era.

[Loremistress Eirien]

After re-reading the rather stilted rules in the Rules forum, I propose the following consolidation, for your comments (before implementing):

General Rules:

1. Have fun, and let others have their fun. Please, no angst.
2. Don't gossip. Don't bring private conflicts into public light.
3. Try to tone it down. Excessive obscenity and violence can detract from the value of your post.
4. No pornography. We're tolerant on what consists pornography, but guys, we don't want to have to mark the forums NSFW. If it's questionable, don't embed it. Link it. If it's overtly sexual, don't link it either.
4a (corollary). Don't be excessively sexual. People deserve the right to visit the forums without seeing people solicit sexual favors explicitly or implicitly.
5. Don't be obnoxious. No trolling, bumping, etc.
6. Keep avatars and sigs short and sweet.
7. Complain at the mods if you have a problem. If that doesn't work, complain to me. Don't let your personal problems boil over in the forums.
8. When in doubt, be considerate of others. (N.B. This might replace 1, 2, and 5)
9. Consider making a new thread after a thread reaches 50 pages. This keeps the forum lightweight and makes it easier to prune old posts.

RPing Rules:

1. Please don't godmod. It's frickin' annoying, and few RPers appreciate it.
2. Be considerate of others. Respect their right to not accept certain TFs.
3. Keep the RPing in the right forum.
4. You don't have to agree to a TF, but remember that you may have given the idea of implicit consent when partaking in an RP.
5. Agree to disagree. Not everyone likes changing into a girl (or a guy.)
6. Keep RPs from having to be marked as NSFW.

[Ninian]

My version or interpretation:

1. The forum is meant to be pleasant, fun, and enjoyable. Please leave angst or personal problems at the door, or between private conversations.
2. Gossip will not be tolerated, nor will open public hostility from private conflicts.
3. Vulgar language is discouraged and detracts from the quality of discussions.
4. Explicit sexual content is forbidden, and general NSFW content links discouraged if presented without a label. If labeled, there is a high level of leniency.
5. Content-lacking posts outside of the Muffin Room (bumps, one or two-word replies, memes) are discouraged.
6. Trolling or harassment, or content posted with the sole intent of causing harm or social disruption WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
7. If there is are issues that need to be resolved that require administration, please contact a moderator first. Please do not disrupt social discourse publicly (this is related to 2).

(removed the part about being considerate to others as an appeal to emotion. Removed the part about topic size, as that is administration-side an issue)

I have no RP rules because I feel they vary slightly between RPs. I also have little (positive) experience in public RPing, so I'm not a good person to draft something like that.

[Musashi]

Looks good to me! Especially the RP rules. :3 I have run into people who've come to the forums and didn't know they didn't have to accept every TF thrown their way, so I think this'll be very helpful.

Though I do have a suggestion... perhaps an area for people to vent about personal problems? But kept strictly there, not just anywhere on the forums. I've seen people sometimes use the forums as a place to vent amongst friends, and I think that's still a helpful thing. :o

[Loremistress Eirien]

Looks good to me! Especially the RP rules. :3 I have run into people who've come to the forums and didn't know they didn't have to accept every TF thrown their way, so I think this'll be very helpful.

Though I do have a suggestion... perhaps an area for people to vent about personal problems? But kept strictly there, not just anywhere on the forums. I've seen people sometimes use the forums as a place to vent amongst friends, and I think that's still a helpful thing.

Might be a good thing. Did you mostly agree with Nina's suggestions as well (they are rephrasings, but they might be a bit more useful )

[Musashi]

Mmhmm, they sound good too! ^^ Overall I think this new set of rules should work fine. I mean, honestly, they don't seem really /radically/ different from what's been going on at MSF already. So I imagine that most people will be cool wif 'em, but that's just my opinion... they gotta speak up toooo. :D

[Ninian]

I have to say one thing really challenging about drawing up rules of any kind is that there is a hidden message in the rules not listed -- the implication that any other activity not expressly written as forbidden is allowed. I shouldn't need to explain what is wrong about this. However, if rules aren't concise and to the point, people are less likely to read them and more likely to misinterpret them. It's really a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

[Stellar]

The rules look decent to me =) It's nice that they're rather compact and to the point compared to the longwinded older version XD

[Raleigh]

Seem fine to me for the most part. Fairly standard rules of conduct for most any message board/internet/rp community.

[Garath the Shadowshifter]

I prefer Eirien 's take on them, as they are quick and to the point.

I do have one small suggestion though. I don't think rule 8 should replace rules 1,2, and 5. Everyone interprets things differently and I think only having that one rule won't nessicarily mean they'll consider rules 1 2 and 5 not being considerate.

I've had friends in RL who didn't think 'gossip' was being mean to you in anyway. Their response being something like "What's the big deal? We're all having fun aren't we?"

I think having all four rules, while possibly sounding redundant, is a better choice just to be on the safe side.

[Loremistress Eirien]

I do like some of Nina's no-nonsense wording...

Perhaps the following as a suitable merging of the two?

1. We want you to find the forum fun and enjoyable. Please, leave your angst and personal problems at the door. (N.B. May lift rule for any sort of E/N forum)
2. Gossip is discouraged, and open public hostility from private conflicts will not be tolerated.
3. Excessive obscenity and violence can detract from the value of your posts, and is strongly discouraged.
4. No explicit sexual imagery (textual or visual). NSFW images/links should be linked and posted with a warning. We're tolerant on what consists pornography, but guys, we don't want to have to mark the forums NSFW. People deserve the right to visit the forums without seeing people solicit sexual favors explicitly or implicitly.
5. Posts lacking content (one or two-word replies, bumping, memes) posted outside the Muffin Room and Welcome Mat are strongly discouraged.
6. Trolling or harassment, or content posted with the sole intent of causing harm or social disruption WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
7. If there is are issues that need to be resolved that require administration, please contact a moderator first. Please do not disrupt social discourse publicly. Don't be afraid to use the 'report post' feature (the red exclamation mark in the top right of posts, if you aren't using subsilver2.

Guidelines for Profiles and Posting:
1. Keep avatars and sigs short and sweet.
2. Consider making a new thread after a thread reaches 50 pages. This keeps the forum lightweight and makes it easier to prune old posts.
3. Try to make every post count. Posts that are meaningful contributions mean more to forum-goers than those that aren't.
4. You don't need to be in character all the time. It's sometimes annoying to other posters, especially if you're in character in a 'serious' forum (like MSF Chat).

[Moonlit Naiad]

First, let's see if this whole new deal allows me to post again, cuz if it isn't, you're not going to see this... :p

One thing that isn't mentioned in the rules, or at least, if it is I didn't see it, being sleepy... is about vulgarities and strong language? In general, they've been disallowed on the forums through and through, though when I played at pretending to run the story forum, I made an exception for 'literary' work (ie, stories, scenes, etc) as opposed to critiques, comments, and discussions.

After all, how many villains will you ever hear say something like, "Well, golly.... and shucks, that good-for-nothing lout of a hero has foiled my plan another time..." ?

[Loremistress Eirien]

First, let's see if this whole new deal allows me to post again, cuz if it isn't, you're not going to see this... :p

One thing that isn't mentioned in the rules, or at least, if it is I didn't see it, being sleepy... is about vulgarities and strong language? In general, they've been disallowed on the forums through and through, though when I played at pretending to run the story forum, I made an exception for 'literary' work (ie, stories, scenes, etc) as opposed to critiques, comments, and discussions.

After all, how many villains will you ever hear say something like, "Well, golly.... and shucks, that good-for-nothing lout of a hero has foiled my plan another time..." ?

It's missing for a reason. I'm still going to call people on using it in excess, but the point was made (and I agree) that the type of people who are going to mind whether or not we permit profanity are the same type of people who mind the site based on its content (TG) anyway.

If you have some good reason why we should still strongly restrict language...

[Rowan]

The most recent iteration of the rules in this thread looks good to me so far. I'll mull it over. I'm glad at the inclusion of the welcome mat with the muffin room for exception to that one guideline.


As for profanity, maybe something like "Don't swear just to use profanity; there should be a point to it." Possibly expanded to "If you want your character to swear up a storm instead of putting down an entire page of vulgarities it would be more reasonable to simply go "X let loose with a string of obscenities" or "starting with <insert a profanity here> swore back and forth for a good hour with such rage they still hang in orbit above his home." Which one paints a more vivid picture and is less likely to offend someone into not-reading your work?

[Loremistress Eirien]

I think I'd like to keep it short and sweet. I might add profanity and vulgarity to obscenity and violence as discouraged actions, but I don't want to elaborate on the rules as it detracts from their simplicity and flexible applicability.