New Additions to Forum Rules

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Time for a short revision... Well, addition would be more accurate. I've made some minor adjustments to most of the rules, though the two important new ones are:

Only one registered account per person [exceptions apply]. To prevent abuse, members are only allowed one registered account per person. In the case that you lose your password and cannot retrieve it automatically, you can contact us with your login details and we will retrieve the password for you, but DO NOT create a new account just because you are too lazy to retrieve your lost password. Any duplicate accounts we discover will be deleted without warning.

Exceptions: Those members who intend to frequently post in the Creativity Surge forum (for example, posting parts of a longer story) are allowed another registered account, with certain limitations. The secondary account may be used ONLY in the CS forum so that they can alternate between the two accounts, and by doing so, post replies to their own posts, which is otherwise not possible before another member replies. (Due to the posting restrictions in effect on Boards O' Magick.) The secondary account must follow the naming convention of OriginalUsername-CS. So for example if someone's original username is Shining Knight, their secondary CS account must be named Shining Knight-CS. No deviations from this naming convention are allowed.

and

Do not ask to be a moderator or admin, or pretend that you are one. We are not looking for new moderators or admins. If we were, we would not pick anyone who posts/mails us asking for it. The only persons qualified for interpreting and enforcing our forum rules are the moderators and administrators whose status is written in white text below their publicly displayed name. NO ONE else is allowed to publicly advise any members of BoM how to comply with these rules, or publicly tell them how they have broken any of them in their opinion. If any members feel that a certain member is in violation of any of our forum rules, they may send a private message to Taluntain or Blackthorne TA, informing us of the alleged transgression, providing a link to where it was supposed to have happened and by whom. We will investigate the reports and act, if we deem it necessary. NOTE: This rule also applies to itself, meaning no one is allowed to quote it to another member publicly.

Questions, comments? Post them all here.

[ July 04, 2003, 23:29: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Actually, I don't know the post. (Or I do, but don't know the exact one you're referring to. It's 2am, I'll have a clearer head when I get some sleep.)

The second rule is primarily meant to discourage people from trying to lecture others on properly following the forum rules on the list, nothing else. I wrote it down because in several cases lately users tried to tell other new users how they broke certain rules on the list, while they actually haven't. (Meaning needless frustration and confusion for the new users.)

If you need more clarification over a specific thread you can PM me with the details and I'll check it out. After I get some sleep.

 

I'll add that the "don't play mod" rule applies to itself as well. This obviously isn't clear to some people.

 

If someone just PMs another member it's not much of a problem, considering there's no public humiliation factor, and since if anyone but a mod/admin PMs someone, they don't have to listen or acknowledge anything they say. Actually, there's an option to ignore the rule quoters altogether.

And if someone is being particularly annoying at playing a moderator in PM, the members who are subject to their badgering can always report it to me.

 

The major problem is when people start giving far-fetched lectures to newbies about how a certain rule was broken, explaining at length their philosophy on it, which turns out to be wrong in the end from my point of view.

Some rules are obvious - for example there can't be any wrong interpretation of ALL CAPS TEXT. But that's about the only one. Even when it comes to |33t, a member managed to accuse another in the CS forum of doing it, while he/she was actually trying to imitate how in her opinion dwarves speak, which was perfectly fine and in no way a violation of the rules.

The key is also in delivering the warning. I used to do it publicly because there was no PM option, and mailing everyone was a chore. I practically never give out public warnings anymore now; I handle it all via PM. (And it works much better.) I only issue public warnings now when someone is doing exceedingly stupid or gross violations of the rules, which annoyed many members of the boards before I noticed it.

So, if you want to be helpful when you spot what you consider a rule violation, send a PM to me or BTA and let us handle it, or ignore it, relying on me or BTA to spot & handle it sooner or later.

 

If you can post and still follow all of the forum rules, I don't care what your physical status is. It's not like I could check anyway.

 

Mods and admins can freely reply to their own posts, but this is off topic.