Rules and Protocols of your forum

[bolissa]

This thread has been very helpful. I just recently started our forum and I appreciate all this information. Thank you!

[Desdemona Dreadful]

I have so much trouble making rules. I have made clubs before where the Mary Sues who join will PM me right off the bat to tell me they want to find ways around them. Yes. That has actually happened three seperate times. I could not believe the gall they had in telling me that they were going to ignore what I said.

So now I make more rules than most mods would but I can't help it. I don't want certain players to feel they are entitled to step on others because they want to break my rules. It's not fair to anyone.

[Timothy]

No Discussions Regarding Illegal Downloading
Debate the Topic, NOT the Person (No "Flaming")
Have Fun


The reason for the first rule is that Batman and Superman materials get leaked online; we've made a communal rule that it's okay to talk about the leaked materials but never to intentionally post them.

Those are DC's three principal rules; they're easy to remember and even easier to follow. ;D

[essess]

I have discovered that another site has copied and pasted from my site without my permission I thought this wasnt allowed
please can someone clarify this
thanks in advance

[kelendria]

Aug 17, 2008 14:18:48 GMT -8 essess said:

I have discovered that another site has copied and pasted from my site without my permission I thought this wasnt allowed
please can someone clarify this
thanks in advance

This belongs in the Support Board.
I had the same problem, twice in fact, but apparently there's no rules against copying someone's board word for word, even though they steal your skins & everything you've worked hard on

[Squishers!]

Basic things you know

But like there are also things since I have roleplay forums

No one liners, and stuff
YOu know all that stuff

As for what spam is.

I think spam is when people are just posting stupid things. This is why i usually put a spam section. There is usually the anger box for all your swearing needs...

But I was on a site that got not so much hacked as disgusting spammed. Pornography of a gross category. That was spam.

[lalaleah]

on my forum theres the common sense rules but thats it. and i really like the staff thing because im one of those people who STRONGLY hates having to say no to someone but when the mods we have are gd enough thats awsome and i think that its a better thing to let all the staff have a say in future staff members because they know it as wel as me what it takes to be a mod.like in the staff sect we have a thread for discussing future mods nad tis a reward to them and it works well

[kelendria]

One rule I make very clear is not to copy any part or whole of my forum.
I've had this one person keep coming back & copying the entire thing, down to the skins & board names
I've tried banning usernames, IPs & emails but nothing works.
Of course Proboards protocols are paramount, but as far as personal rules, this one must be abided
I refuse however to put my board up so only members can log in because it spoils viewing by others.
I hope this person's learnt her lesson, it's flattering I guess in a way, but highly annoying in another.
I've worked hard for four years to get it how it is, just for someone in five minutes to get it down to a 'T', which is absolutely acceptable by PB

[Rozic Dixon]

My rules Are:Back to back posting will not be tolerated.Back to back posting will dock the posts off your post counter.Spam is not commited in my forum.No PORN!This will warn all member.Don't DO Any Thing Prohibiting Otherwise You'll Be Banned!

[Rachel]

I think that the rules should be understandable, and have logic behind them. Too many rules tend to scare off new members, but not enough rules can make the forum look untidy, and is even more likely to draw away potential members. Even the most obvious rules should be written down, such as no harrasment, ect. Otherwise you may find people rebelling, telling you that it wasn't in the rules, so there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. I also think that they should be simple, so that people who don't like reading can get through them easily. If you want to go into lots of detail when writing them, then you could always bold the first line, or the important stuff.

[madisoncarter]

My board has far more rules than I'd prefer to have, but sometimes you just have to do that. Even had to make one banning "rick-rolling" recently due to the constant surge of those.

My main dilemma is in deciding what breaks Proboards' TOS and not my own rules. We have a membership of over 6000 people, and even with over two dozen active moderators, it can get a bit hectic keeping track of things and it wears the mods out pretty fast. For instance, there's the TOS about not promoting alcohol; I'm the skittish type, so I've been pretty strict on this one, not even allowing threads like "what's your favorite type of beer" or references to actual labels/brands. Yesterday, a member posted pictures of a bunch of birthday gifts they received, one of which was a bottle of champagne. I decided to allow it, since it didn't seem to quite fit into the usual stuff we're not allowing, but I have a few posters up in arms over the "hypocrisy."

I just get paranoid, I suppose, because we've spent years building this forum into something really good, and I'm always afraid one day I'll get a "this forum has been deleted for violating TOS" message just because someone mentioned a type of beer.

[matrix934]

I thoroughly detail my rules and restrictions, although most of them are obvious. No spamming, swearing, racism. No images that stretch the page. No chain PMs or constantly annoying PMs. Basically, rules have to keep an organized forum. When making a rule, you have to think "Why is this important. Is it benefial to everyone?" Otherwise, it makes no sense.

[Zoey Redbird]

Let's see, I have around 25 in total. Ten of them are common-sense rules (spamming, respect to members and admins, ect.), and then the other 15 are in regards to the role-play (what you can/can't be, what you need to get permission for, ect.). I'm really not sure if that's too heavy or if it's an alright ammount.

I've seen other forums that have had an extremely lengthy list of rules and guidelines, which I stopped reading after halfway through because there were just so many. It was pretty exhausting.

Along with that, in other cases, it takes one a few seconds to read through the rules, and although that may be cool for some, it made me wonder if the administrator really cared if people followed the rules or not.

[Azuloth]

People say that my rules on my site are daunting, and a lot to take in at once. But that's because I have the rule, then I explain what I mean by the rule. The general rules of the forum are, well, general and just for conduct on the site out of character. Those hardly need enforcing or reminding half the time. Generally I have rules for the whole roleplaying bit, in an entirely different thread, with two posts separating the actual rules, and the explanation of the rules. That way if a member doesn't know what such and such rule is, they can find out by reading the next post.

I also like to space out my regulations, which are different from my rules. The regulations generally provide order and structure to the gameplay of my forum. Which can seem a bit complicated just by looking at it, but I've written it in plain language that explains this and that easily, and in a very conversational tone. The regulations I have divided into different threads in that board, so they can be easily spotted and searched for if a member needed to find some information.

Some areas in the game though have rules on their own, like the training grounds, which have just a couple of rules to state how this area works. Etc.

I'm a big fan of rules and regulations, and I like to see respect rules, and rules on having fun. The biggest rule my site has is to have fun, and if you're not having fun, then there's a serious problem going on, and something needs to be addressed. I have all the rules and regulations for my site because I structured the game to be difficult, challenging, and rewarding at the same time. People just look at the rules and say "Oh, I can't do this and this because it's cheating here" or "There are too many rules, I'm not playing here", it's mostly because they just look, and don't try to read it or understand what kind of roleplaying game it is. If they're that lazy, I don't need them on my board. :/ It's just how I roll. I like to reward my members that can get through all the rules and regulations, and join and stay at the site. Generally it's a different kind of roleplaying, with structure on combat and such. I put a lot of work into it and I like it how it is.

O= Just my two cents.

[Marie-Cris]

I have 6 main rules, each with explanations and some with sort of sub-rules to further define that area. The 6th one doesn't really need to be there, actually, but I put it up just so everyone can see that I'm abhorrent to bots XD Here are mine:

1) Play Nice
2) No PM Advertising
3) Post Counts
- a) No Ads til Post Count of 50
- b) VIP Lounge access at 50
- c) Custom titles at 100
- d) Meet Dorian at 1000
4) No Double Posting in a Two-Day Span
5) No Porn
- 5.1) Censorship Curfew 10pm ACT (10:20pm AEST)
- 5.2) Censorship via Spoiler
6) No Botting

I also have "Unspoken Rules" which are spoken anyway just to make things clear, and I've got 7 of those ((with explanations too, of course. Go nuts, have fun, be wary of High School Musical ((it's just a touchy subject; I don't say to not like it or to like it, just to be wary that it's been known to cause unnecessary arguments)), keep food and drink away from the computer, don't try to convince others to like Gerard Butler as the Phantom ((but it's okay if you like him as the Phantom)), no l337, and no excessive profanity ((the occasional swear in frustration I don't mind)).