Creation of Forum Rules

[Owlstar]

For me, I just do general site rules and RPing rules. In the general rules, I include things like image size, post size, respect, and such. For RPing, I include stuff like killing off other peoples' characters without their permission, creating a character, etc. I think it depends on the type of site, though. Like if you have a Harry Potter RP, the rules might be different than, say, a horse RP because the two subjects work differently. The same applies for non-RPs, at least in my opinion.

[amaranthine]

With my sites, I generally have a quick one or two word title, then a paragraph encompassing the details of that rule, and there's about ten "sections" to it. It's easier for me, and really, if you don't want to read all the details, you get the basic idea by the one or two word title. The sections vary on the site, but there's usually always one on spamming, another on accounts, another on roleplays, one on characters, ect. ect. Of course, if I were to do a non-roleplay site, it would be a little different, but still follow that format.
For example:

SPAM: All posts must be at least three sentances in length, preferably longer. They all must have a point, to a limit. No random messages saying "hi","lol", ect. will be allowed. This includes double posting, unless you are in an area which allows it.

EDIT: To match the rule limit, sorry about that.

[Candice]

Aug 27, 2010 10:53:30 GMT -8 amaranthine said:

With my sites, I generally have a quick one or two word title, then a paragraph encompassing the details of that rule, and there's about ten "sections" to it. For example:

SPAM: All posts must be at least three sentances in length, preferably longer. They all must have a point, to a limit. No random messages saying "hi","lol", ect. will be allowed. This includes double posting, unless you are in an area which allows it.

Hi,

Welcome to D:YP. Please remember to read over the Discussion: Your ProBoard Rules. Also, please remember that all posts should be four sentences long at the minimum.

Thank you.

[The Dark Knight]

The trick to not have very long forum rules for me is to split the rules among boards. Have specific rules for specific boards in addition to having the general rules of course.

The general rules go into the News/Announcements section where users can view the basic rules of the forum regarding spam, flaming and other such issues like images and everything as well. But individual forums with their rules thread (like on PBS) is a better idea as well. It also gives them a point in every forum to check through the specific rules without having to go back to the main rules thread for anything.

Makes it more convenient for the staff as well. *nods*

But I agree, too many rules can force people to not come back to the forum or not even sign up at all if the rules are visible to guests (HIDE THEM PEOPLE!). ;D

[Wormopolis]

The only board on my site that really needed any sort of rules was the forum review section. I had to put in a disclaimer in case anyone was offended that the reviewer was too harsh about their site, and that his opinion was entirely HIS opinion. Meaning I didnt want them to take things out on me.

for the rest of the forum, I really didnt have much in the way of rules, other then I wanted new code requests to go into the right board, and help with existing codes to go into another. It helps keep things less hectic for me if I can take sort out what I want to work on each day. I also included a rule about posting in the thread where they found the code if they could so I could easily refer to it in the opening post.

as for hiding rules for guests, I actually WROTE a code that would only show a rules table to guests for 7 days after they made their accounts and then disappear. If they deleted their cookies it would go away just as well, but they saw it at least once.

one thing I will mention though, since I look at a lot of sites daily to help with code requests, is if there are too MANY rules, it can seem rather restrictive. if someone has to constantly refer back to your list of 100 rules about posting in the forum to make sure they havent violated anything, chances are they will just stop posting.

[``HEATHER-LICIOUS``]

On my forum I usually have onebthread with rules and put it in the announcements and show it on all boards. That way people can easily review them. Also for Rp, I have a section for outbid character and in character. Occ is the basic don't spam, rating and word count ect. And Ic, I have god modding, powerplay and such. That is just the system I use and it works fairly well.

[FROST BBY♥]

May 11, 2009 16:14:05 GMT -8 ToriJ said:

I wasn't aware being too long can turn a guest off, I never had that problem, rules need to be at least a decent length if you want all that helpful information. I usually posted my rules in four posts.

The first post listed the TOS and linked to the Term of Service to make sure guests read that first. The second post had the general forum rules which really wasn't all that long. It listed things about respect, sig sizes, spam, swearing, staying on topic when posting and I think that was it. If it was an RP the post after that would have things such as God Modding, (explaining the three types of god modding) Auto kills, Character Creation information, races and I can't remember the rest. -_- The last post just listed what would happen if you broke these rules with a thank you for reading at the bottom.

My apologies for quoting a post made so long ago however I believe that what was said here made a very good point. In fact it had also raised something that I had not thought of. I used to do something along those lines. (The reason why I said used to was because I no longer a board of my own unfortunately.) However I highly agree with the points made here~ In fact I had forgotten about Proboards ToS and if ever I had the time and luxury to make my own forum again, I'd definitely incorporate at least a semi-detailed explanation of the ToS since most members tend to ignore it when they register on the site. Although there is still a possibility of it being ignored while being placed in the rules, it will at least be able to refresh the minds of members upon first joining the site.

What I would do though is I would put the RP rules in a seperate thread along with Character rules if it was a RP forum that I chose to create since I believe highly in seperation of forum and RP rules in order to make the rules seem more organized.

[TIKOLICIOUS]

I was recently consulting with my staff the forum rules and such. I was informed that our rules are too lengthy and it is an eye sore (a turn off as several of you have said). Now I am all for shortening the rules, but I always figured it was for the benefit of the guest and/or member who may not understand a simple, brief sentence for each rule. I like to be elaborate and explain to you why and give examples.

My question is where is the median in being thorough in explaining something but not being too lengthy in your explanation?

[make a S C E N E !]

My most basic rules are usually something like

• No double posting. Edit your original post if you have something new to say.
  
• You must log in and post once a month.
  
• All posts must be grammatically correct.
  
• For the love of God, use spell check.
  
• All posts must be at least four full sentences.

I have to tailor them to each specific forum, of course, but I find those provide a good backbone for the rules.

[Luke [[.6.0.3.]]]

My site is small, only containing about 25 members, 20 of which are active. It's basically a site for my class (since I am a student). So anyways, we have 7 basic rules. They are all basically about the attitude towards eachother, the site, and about what can go on it and what can't.

Obviously with different topics for sites there will be large amounts of rules or small amounts. Mine is basically all about just talking about the world and what's going on, and such, we don't have/need a lot of rules. This way, everything flows really well. If someone had a site about a video game, there might be different rules for different parts ilke Cheat Codes could have a whole different set of rules than General Discussion might. Or something like that. The rules all depend on the forum.

Of course the admin is one of the key elements in this situation. Obviously the admin sets the rules, if they are too strict, people will WANT to disobey. If not that, there won't be a lot of flexibility in posting, and the site will be very straight forward. If there a few rules, but not enough, then the site would get too out of hand and every post would be spam. I think the general rules for the site should be a number in the 10-20. My site is a little loose, it has seven rules, but everyone seems to like it that way. I have seen sites with up to 20-25 rules, that just won't make it anywhere, it is too much pressure on the members and simply too strict.

See, some people are setting posting rules, which are (in my opinion a little too much). If you set rules like length of posts, spell check, etc., it will be difficult for members to post well, regularly. I guess it depends on the site. Mine is very flowy, so I like the posts to be a phrase or usually a sentence. But if you own a roleplay site, then sometimes a few sentences should be required, it all depends though.

[laramie]

These are the rules on my forum:

Every Forum or Message Board I have been on,always had 10 paragraphs of rules.NOT HERE!!!
We have only 3 rules at Western Theatre.
1.Respect each other
2.Keep posts Western related
3.HAVE FUN!!
Chatters and one liners welcome!!!


The thing that folks forget is,no members no site!
Word count and # of sentences are ridiculous at best. Sometimes the topic doesn't call for a 500 word theme on the subject.
Rule No.1 covers everything,from racism to you name it.You don't need to define the word respect in your rules.
People join for fun and entertainment only.If they can't enjoy themselves,why bother.They didn't join to count words,sentences and be brow beat.

[laramie]

Aug 27, 2010 11:37:46 GMT -8 Candice said:

Aug 27, 2010 10:53:30 GMT -8 amaranthine said:

With my sites, I generally have a quick one or two word title, then a paragraph encompassing the details of that rule, and there's about ten "sections" to it. For example:

Hi,

Welcome to D:YP. Please remember to read over the Discussion: Your ProBoard Rules. Also, please remember that all posts should be four sentences long at the minimum.

Thank you.

See what I mean

[Luke [[.6.0.3.]]]

See this topic is tricky, rules completely vary with topic. Role play might have a few extra for characters, post structure, etc. A company forum would have double or triple the rules a casual forum might have. The bigger the community, the more rules might need to be enforced. This is how I look at it.

1-50 members: 10 rules
50 - 100 members: 25 rules (including sections etc.)
100 - 500 members: 30-40 rules
500+ members: 40 rules (50 max)

Remember, this includes all sub-sections. 50 rules is a LOT! But if you have a lot of content to cover, then maybe 50 rules is right for you. If you have only a few basic things to say, then keep it basic. No forum should have less than a posting/spamming rule, respect rule, account rule of some sort, maybe advertising rule, and maybe 2-3 other rules.

[Rei]

I prefer it when rules are clear and don't have the whole "The posting minimum is 50 words, break it and your dead XD" I like being straight forward and quick. Which is why I love sites that format their rules with small short and clear rules. Each spread out and making sense. I like having a summary of the rule as a first sentence instead of having to read the whole paragraph, because after about 10 paragraphs on rules, my brain just turns off. I also believe the apperance of the rules makes a differance. I don't like rules that look plain and boring, nor rules that are overly colorful, I like something soft and sweet.

[niyx]

May 13, 2009 0:55:53 GMT -8 Android 17 said:

My advice is - Put a woman in charge. XD Every great forum that has done well that I've seen has had a female admin. They're just better at keeping everyone in line.

OMG! I love this guy, hah.

Moving on... Long rules suck, at least that's my opinion. I usually don't have the patience to read an uber long list of rules. And let's face it, they are tedious to write and edit and all that jazz.

On the other hand, really super duper short rules are easy to write! However, in my opinion, they turn me away due to their lack of specifics. I would be afraid of members misbehaving because 'it's not in the rules.'

There is a happy medium somewhere in there, and that is really up to the administrator's discretion. I think my rules are a reasonable length, and they are broken up into five small sub-groups including: user accounts, characters, role playing, respect, and banning. Each section is about a paragraph long, so I don't think that's too too long, right?

There is always the other option of using a pre-made template, but that, I believe, does not really apply to this topic. So yeah, that's just my opinion!

Nov 25, 2010 23:21:40 GMT -8 laramie said:

These are the rules on my forum:

Every Forum or Message Board I have been on,always had 10 paragraphs of rules.NOT HERE!!!
We have only 3 rules at Western Theatre.
1.Respect each other
2.Keep posts Western related
3.HAVE FUN!!
Chatters and one liners welcome!!!


The thing that folks forget is,no members no site!
Word count and # of sentences are ridiculous at best. Sometimes the topic doesn't call for a 500 word theme on the subject.
Rule No.1 covers everything,from racism to you name it.You don't need to define the word respect in your rules.
People join for fun and entertainment only.If they can't enjoy themselves,why bother.They didn't join to count words,sentences and be brow beat.

That last bit really depends on the type of site you have. If the majority of your member's post lengths are categorized as literate, they do not want to get in a thread with a person who posts one or two sentences. It kills their muse. While this may work for you, it does not always work for every one.