Creation of Forum Rules

[Crystal Pisces]

I think rules should have a sense of strictness, but not enough to deter someone. Like Destiny said, make a short bold sentence fragment, then an explanation.

Another thing I used to do was split up my rules. Like I would have Role-play rules and General rules, and within them I would split it up further, but would keep it simple. I also think splitting rules up, however you choose to do it, is important. That makes it easier for a member who is wondering about a rule can check up on it, or can skim it knowing it is more than likely common rules among the proboards communities.

[Bones]

I think it can be intimidating if you rules are too long and go on and on and on. If it is very lengthy it is more likely to put people off reading a huge wall of text.

When I set mine out for my forum i had them all in one post and it did look huge, so over the years i have made mini posts with a link to each in the main post:



It looks alot more organized and is easy to follow, and each post for these points is only a small paragraph. Every member gets a welcome PM and in that PM it asks them to please read the Board Policy and links to the thread. Whether they do or not is up to them, but i hope they would.

There are a few posts below (Which i might meld into one post seeing as i haven't done so since V4 and the extra character limit per post), which explains if the message board goes down, and how the member warnings work. But all-in-all it's not terribly huge or a pain to read I don't think.

The more organised and formatted your rules are the better, no need to waffle on and on, clear and concise points only I find work best.

[katzel]

I also think rules should not be too strict as to deter someone from posting.
The rules should be stated clearly and in a simple to read format.
Many boards I'm a member of list them in their forum FAQ or board rules section.
Every member who joins up has access to them.

[thebiggerbopper]

I believe you have to have rules on your board. They don't have to be long or boring to read, just to the point.
As the Admin of a board that's almost 4 years old, with 100's of members, and a couple 100 posts a day, we found out rather quick that you do need to put rules in place.
We started out with the intention of not having any rules and letting our members have more freedom with the posts they make. That didn't last long at all till things got out of hand, members got upset with each other, some left and a few others got banned.
My staff and I worked together for a couple days and finally came up with a list of rules that we feel kinda covers it all, and as short as possible. Yes, we've had to edit and make a few changes over the years as different situations arise, but you'll always have that.

Here's what I have on my board. My board is a general talk forum from everything from news, jokes, photography, recipes, sports, entertainment and a bunch of other stuff too. I know these rules wouldn't work for all boards but I think it's a good general idea on how to set up your rules.

You Must Be 18 Or Older To Join This Forum

1. No pornographic material, including cartoons.
2. No avatars or signatures that are of adult nature.
3. Do not argue with other members.
4. If you post something that is of adult nature please
mark it as such.
5. No racial comments or name-calling.
6. Do not send PM's to members just to harass them.
7. All threads are open to all members.
8. No Spam.
9. If you have a website that you're selling something on, or a forum of your own, you must have permission from Admin. to post it here. If not, it will be considered spam and will be removed. Only members with 100 posts or more will be given permission to post their site.
10. If you have something you would like to sell please read the rules for selling in the Flea Market forum and post your item in there.
11. Posting of copyrighted material is illegal and you must obtain permission from the person/persons who hold the copyright to repost it. Doing so without their permission could result in a lawsuit.
12. We do not allow the use of a IP Sniffer on this board. If you use one it will be removed.
13. And above all play nice. We're here to have fun and make new friends.


Moderators will have discretion as to what does and doesn't break the rules. We will do this by judging the "spirit" of the post - nice or nasty. We will not justify our decisions. If you argue excessively with a moderator, we won't hesitate to ban you from our forums.

Staff Members.
Admin. The Bigger Bopper
Admin. Debbie
Asst. Admin. Linda L
Moderator, Phatcats
Moderator, Goldengirl
Moderator, Doc2626


Please feel free to PM any of the staff members if you have any questions or problems.



We reserve the right to change or add to these rules as we see fit.

[bikingmatty]

Rules are only meant to be a guideline. In my opinion if there is more than twelve rules i will immediatly look for the unnecessary rules. I also feel that any board worth spending time on will be slightly leaneant and fair. If i see a board with pages and pages of rules i turn away. I just like a community spirit. Thats all, rules are important yet shouldn't be turned into a checklist(as i think has already been said).

[rackvin]

Some rules that really turn people off are ridiculous post length minimums like 2000 characters. And also high post count requirements like 150 posts to get access to things, it can take at least couple months to reach that if they have a life outside of the forum. You also want to explain the rule and not use just it's slang name, such as NO Mary Sues; I don't even know WHAT that is!
Also I do love to see a strict rule on signatures. I only use normal text in my signatures if I have one at all. I hate to see big pictures in a signature, it's annoying beyond belief. I only use a big sig here on this support forum for the purpose of spreading my board. This forum allows a 250 pixel high sig. I couldn't even stand to use one that big, mine is about 170 pixels and I honestly think it too big.

[Supernatural: Unforgiven]

This is a very interesting topic. I'm glad that I found it as we have recently had an issue over "rules" on our forum.

Mainly, as with a lot of people I am sure. I as well as my fellow admins on the site are members of several different forums (RP forums).

A couple things I would like to know or just throw out there. First I agree that too many rules, even split up or maybe even especially split up into different posts makes it difficult to read and people do tend to give up on that.

My personal opinion I think that a "list' of rules either with bullet points or numbered is the way to go and don't go overboard. I ended up with 20 "rules" and I wouldn't want to go any higher than that. I almost think that is too much as it is.

Why I like the listed rules as opposed to rules written out in paragraph form? It's too much like reading a novel to be honest. Even if you try to keep it short. If you try to put too much explanation into it, it just gets monotonous. People wanna jump in and play the game on RPG forums, not spend an hour trying to figure out the rules.

Yes, you need rules... But the most important thing you need are ADMINS that actually police your boards and watch for things that are detrimental. If people are god-modding, you don't have to have a big long explanation in the rules about it. You see it you bring it to their attention and you solve the problem.

Same thing with something like Mary Sue's and Gary Stew's. You don't need a detailed "rule" on that really. Not if you as admins and your staff are doing their job. It's their job to read and approve character applications (or at least it should be... if you allow people to just make a character and go without approval... you will never stop the bad characters from invading). What the admins say goes.

Anyway... I could probably babble about this for days. I think the bottom line in my opinion is your rules need to be brief and to the point. From there on out it's the admin and staff that are responsible for keeping people on track. Whether there is a written rule for an action or not.

[Artemis]

May 22, 2009 6:39:21 GMT -8 bikingmatty said:

Rules are only meant to be a guideline. In my opinion if there is more than twelve rules i will immediatly look for the unnecessary rules. I also feel that any board worth spending time on will be slightly leaneant and fair. If i see a board with pages and pages of rules i turn away. I just like a community spirit. Thats all, rules are important yet shouldn't be turned into a checklist(as i think has already been said).

I definitely agree. It's important to have some ground rules for the community itself, but leniency is always nice to have. Rules should be there to guide the member, and a site can do just fine with just a few rules, or even none at all as long as there is some form of guidance as to what is and isn't allowed and appropriate. On my own forum I've rarely had to reprimand anyone for anything. We have our fun threads, we have our serious threads, and while I make sure all my staff know the rules, I also stress that unless something is blatantly against the rules then it's generally not worth pointing out or going after.

[tinkerman]

I'm finding this discussion very interesting!

I must admit if I enter a forum for the first time and all I can see is pre-emptive rules, I leave quickly!

On The Bunnyboard we have a "New Bunnies" Section which new members are encouraged to look at first.

Our "rules" are split between Proboards Requirements and a local statement....

The first thing they see is a thread called "The Big Rules" where we set out Proboard's requirements with an intro "As a Proboard we are obliged to set out Proboard's rules which all members are expected to understand and follow....."

After that however we switch to positively encouraging people to enjoy themselves and have fun. The local statement is quite simple:

"The Bunnyboard is open to everyone.

It is a cyber area existing on the internet and is not tied to any particular geographical area (although the administrator does have a particular liking for Northumberland, UK!).

Everyone from everywhere is welcome to register and join in.

The main aim of the Bunnyboard is for members to have fun and be entertained.

Please play your full part in this, whilst respecting other users/members.

If you need any help with anything - just ask and I will help, help, help!"

And that's pretty much it...

The whole theme of the forum is to encourage members to have fun whilst respecting others. Its worked for us so far but I suppose it depends on the members.....

[jadw2k9]

There's been some interesting stuff in this thread. I'm working on a new forum and the current (temporary) rules thread I've put isn't all that great. I think I made mine a bit verbose and stict-sounding (mainly because I haven't yet taken the time to write a proper one).

A few things I'd except from a good rules thread would be simple bulleted lists or short paragraphs for rules requiring extra explanation. I tend to take time to read through rules on other sites but I can't stand the EULA-style ones where it's all too long and business-like, especially as most of it's irrelevant to me anyway.

I also think that it's maybe too much effort to write rules for every single possible form of abuse. I go by the idea that if people are going to abuse the rules, they will find a way around almost anything.

People in general know what's right and wrong. If someone doesn't, you can warn them and then expect them not to re-offend. Geuine users won't try to argue that what they did wasn't mentioned in the rules if it's made clear that what they did/were doing is wrong.

[Nacku]

The trick is...to learn how to spot the admins who'll put up rules and change them whenever it suits their purpose. I don't mind a post or thread being moved and the contents being PM'd to me so I can then place it in the right board. Keep rules at the top. Don't be an butt.

Edit: Spelling error and link removed.

[Shentino]

Remembering that members are human will go a long way towards ironing out trouble before it starts.

The presence of human nature makes any and all rule sets inherently inadequate for dealing with every situation, and any such hard rule set will also be exploited mercilessly by trolls. Leaving the administration of a board with the discretion it rightly possesses anyway is the only way to prevent problems, and of course, if the administration cannot be trusted to be fair in public, the board is doomed anyway.

Sadly, behind closed doors you can get away with a lot of things, and unless your staff culture promotes honesty and fairness, you won't get it, particularly since people by their own nature enjoy having power. You cannot eliminate that, all you can do is make sure your staff are loyal to you and to the community as a whole, and that will make sure they use their power appropriately. Not giving enough power to your subordinates will leave you stuck with all the grunt work of dealing with issues, so ultimately you need to develop a culture.

"Those who do not do politics will be done in by politics" -- french(?) proverb.

[annoyed]

It drives me crazy when forums have their rules split off into more than one thread. It's one thing to split them into separate sections or even separate posts in ONE thread, because that way they're not running together, but you don't have to keep clicking around in order to read all of the rules. It just makes it harder for members to read the rules if they're in different threads, and I'll freely admit that when I first started out in RPGs, I joined a site and discovered that there were five different rules threads, and I got so fed up with have to click the back button, I only read three of the threads.

I think that the only text color that should be used in your rules is whatever your default text color is, because what if you change your skin, and suddenly you can't read the rules text without highlighting it? Yeah, very annoying.

Hiding passwords within rules is something I myself have done on occasion, but what drives me wacky is when the password is split up and scattered; it's too difficult to find. If you're going to hide a password in your rules, do it in an obvious place at the very bottom, so when they're finished reading the rules, it's right there for them.

It also severely offends me when admins put things like 'if you break this rule I'll poke your eye out with a fork', which I actually saw posted in a rules thread! Swearing and threatening your members is absolutely inappropriate and immature; why should we want to follow the rules when you, the admin, are being such a child?

[HoudiniDerek]

May 27, 2009 22:47:23 GMT -8 @annoyed said:

It drives me crazy when forums have their rules split off into more than one thread. It's one thing to split them into separate sections or even separate posts in ONE thread, because that way they're not running together, but you don't have to keep clicking around in order to read all of the rules. It just makes it harder for members to read the rules if they're in different threads, and I'll freely admit that when I first started out in RPGs, I joined a site and discovered that there were five different rules threads, and I got so fed up with have to click the back button, I only read three of the threads.

I agree. I have one overall set of rules and I mention that a couple of sections have rules specific to that board. They are easy to follow and easily stickied to the top of that board so people read them when they first visit. I hate rules that are just scattered too, especially with no clear reason why they are that way.

Hiding passwords within rules is something I myself have done on occasion, but what drives me wacky is when the password is split up and scattered; it's too difficult to find. If you're going to hide a password in your rules, do it in an obvious place at the very bottom, so when they're finished reading the rules, it's right there for them.

Maybe I should do this. However, I just put a notation in the rules that state, "These rules are subject to change. As members, you are responsible for checking back to see if they have changed." I make it easy too because I bump after editing so it appears new. If they don't check it, the fault lies with them.

It also severely offends me when admins put things like 'if you break this rule I'll poke your eye out with a fork', which I actually saw posted in a rules thread! Swearing and threatening your members is absolutely inappropriate and immature; why should we want to follow the rules when you, the admin, are being such a child?

I have never understood this either. Why can't they give realistic punishments? With things like that, it makes it easy to believe that people will not take the rules seriously. If the admins can't fashion the rules maturely, why should people act maturely and follow them?

[Gia_Sesshoumaru]

I used to believe that one should cater to morons. A good friend of mine convinced that it was pointless because morons will be morons no matter how thorough your rules. Needless to stay we stopped that. Now, I believe that rules should clear and straight to the point. Now, while we have four different rules threads and a FAQ, none of it is hard to understand. I feel that having a few more threads is better than having to repeat certain things, and as for the rules themselves, it's always better to make sure that you have your bases so to speak, than leave out some rules, and have problems for some silly reason. Of course, you don't want to go overboard, either, as I have in the past. Experience and Practice make Perfect.