Make a Rules topic or something already Zodiac.

[FFMaster]

I've spent about 5 minutes looking for forum rules. If there is a general forum rules sticky somewhere, I probably missed it. Which means a lot of others could miss it as well.

If a rules topic hasn't been made, make it an announcement saying "RULES: READ BEFORE POSTING" or something along those lines.

I would also set up a system for warns/bans or something. In a forum which I lurk in, after X warns depending on severity, they lose ability to edit posts and no avatar/sig. The "warn points" go away after a while(a couple of months). If enough "warn points" are accumulated they get banned until enough points go away.

Just suggestions, ignore/use as you see fit Zodiac.

I just want less chaos on the forums.

[Kuraudo Sutoraifu]

I second a sort of code of conduct page, so when people get out of line they can be shown that they have been out of line.  I suggest "borrowing" a code of conduct from Newgrounds or Gamefaqs and edit from there.

[FFMaster]

As a general outline for rules I've stolen rules from a forum I lurk a lot in. Some are harsh, but the collective intelligence of the forum is a lot better due to these rules =p

Its a pokemon forum, so =p.
Firebot is their Spam section.

Code Select Expand

   * No open proxies. If you are using an open proxy, you will be IP banned.

    * Do NOT organize trolls here. If you post here about how you've been trolling a forum, you will be infracted. You aren't safe in Firebot either.There is one exception to this rule: people who advertise forums on this site will have their forums trolled to death. A moderator will organize the event in this case.

    * If you get an infraction, and you want to reply to it, think long and hard about that reply. If you respond with flames, sass, etc., you will get a harsh infraction.

    * Do not disrespect the hard work of the Smogon site staff. Suggestions are encouraged, but keep it constructive and polite. Further, though it should go without saying, insults and condescension are included under the umbrella of "disrespect", so be careful in your discourse with the staff.

    * No staff impersonation. This includes any attempt to appear to have certain abilities not possessed; such as using badges as an avatar, using a similar name or other earmarks of staff, or claiming verbally to be staff.

    * Do not be a junior mod. This means that you are not to make posts like: "In before lock" "Ban this guy!" "This is a bad thread!" "Off to Trou with this one!" The Smogon moderation staff is more than capable of maintaining these forums; please let them do so without your interference.

    * Do not advertise other sites, especially those related to pokemon. Do not link to them in your posts or in your signature. We are not interested in learning more about your upstart clan or anything else of that nature. There is a line between linking to another site for convenience or humor and making an attempt to promote another site; we know the difference.

    * Outside of Firebot, trolling is not allowed. This means keep purely joke posts and one word replies out of the serious forums. If you do not have something substantial to contribute to a thread, do not bother posting. Just think to yourself, "Does my post add something to this thread?" If the answer is no, think twice about hitting that submit button.

    * This is an English forum. Post in English. Unless your topic is specifically about posting in Spanish or something similar, there is no reason to not post in English.

    * Employ the conventions of standard written English. Nobody is going to jump down your throat if you make a spelling mistake or split an infinitive, but please, your posts MUST be readable. As you might imagine, l33t 5p34k and other intentional misspellings (u, liek, etc.) are expressly banned. Spell out "you" and "your" instead of typing "u" or "ur." Don't be lazy!

    * Do not bump old threads. Making meaningless posts in threads that have long since died is strictly prohibited. If you have something of consequence you'd like to add to a thread that has fallen off the front page, feel free to do so. All "bump" "to the top" etc. posts will be infracted and deleted without exception.

    * Do not register multiple accounts, ever. This is self explanatory. Post HERE if you want to change the name of your current account. If you create an alternate account when infracted or banned, your ban will be extended or made permanent.

    * Do not flame or abuse other members. The anonymity of the internet does not give you a license to treat the users of this forum disrespectfully. Of course, posts in Firebot may be an exception, but please refer to the rules of that forum. This rule goes at least triple if the member in question is a moderator or administrator, as alluded to above.

    * Do not post illegal stuff here! This includes links to ROMs, warez, or anything of the sort. If it's illegal, do not link to it here.

    * General stupidity is banned. This includes linking to porn sites, shock sites, "lol cats" or anything else in that vein. Similarly, we'd ask you to keep discussions of anime to a minimum. Smogon is interested in the competitive aspect of pokemon, not whether or not Ash beat Lt. Surge on his first try! The discretion of the moderators is supreme in the enforcement of all rules, this one especially.

    * Do not create threads that do not support discussion. Creating an entire thread to ask a simple question is not acceptable; do a Google search for that stuff. All thread starters are required to provide a good basis for discussion in their opening post.

    * Do not disparage other internet sites here, especially other pokémon communities. We are not interested in your trolling episodes- we are above that here at Smogon. Please keep all negative comments about other sites to yourself.

    * Do not flood or double post. If you have something more to add to a post you have made, please edit it rather than creating a second post.

    * If your post or thread is edited or deleted by a moderator, do not remake it. It was altered for a reason, and there is nothing else that will earn you an infraction faster than this.

    * Post all threads in the correct forum. The topic of your thread determines the most appropriate location. For example, you would not post a serious political debate in Firebot or a discussion of Starmie's prowess in Congregation. It is fairly easy for us to move threads, but it would be nice if you would be conscientious enough to make your threads in the correct places.

    * Do not send mass PM's for any purpose, especially advertising. Please forward any such PM's to a Super Mod or Administrator if you receive one so that the offender can be dealt with.

    * All signatures must be under 6 lines. We do not want to see massive signatures that exceed the guideline. If you break this rule, you may have your ability to have a sig revoked. Only Community Members and higher ranked members have the option of using an image in their signature.

    * Because of COPPA, we strictly enforce our age policy. If we somehow determine, or if you announce that you are under the age of 13, you will be banned immediately. No exceptions.

    * Do not ask about release dates for the site, Competitor, or anything else please! They will be done when they are done.

    * Do not link to shock sites, rick rolls, or other sites designed to scare and/or annoy the person accessing the site. This goes for signatures too.

    * Read the rules of the sub-forum in which you would like to post before posting. Here are links to each of the rules threads which have been stickied in their respective forums.


[Xifanie]

I always relied on people's "gros bon sens" which could translate as the superzero Captain Obvious.

This hasn't failed up until December 2k8.

[Dokurider]

As a general outline for rules I've stolen rules from a forum I lurk a lot in. Some are harsh, but the collective intelligence of the forum is a lot better due to these rules =p

Its a pokemon forum, so =p.
Firebot is their Spam section.

Code Select Expand

   * No open proxies. If you are using an open proxy, you will be IP banned.

    * Do NOT organize trolls here. If you post here about how you've been trolling a forum, you will be infracted. You aren't safe in Firebot either.There is one exception to this rule: people who advertise forums on this site will have their forums trolled to death. A moderator will organize the event in this case.

    * If you get an infraction, and you want to reply to it, think long and hard about that reply. If you respond with flames, sass, etc., you will get a harsh infraction.

    * Do not disrespect the hard work of the Smogon site staff. Suggestions are encouraged, but keep it constructive and polite. Further, though it should go without saying, insults and condescension are included under the umbrella of "disrespect", so be careful in your discourse with the staff.

    * No staff impersonation. This includes any attempt to appear to have certain abilities not possessed; such as using badges as an avatar, using a similar name or other earmarks of staff, or claiming verbally to be staff.

    * Do not be a junior mod. This means that you are not to make posts like: "In before lock" "Ban this guy!" "This is a bad thread!" "Off to Trou with this one!" The Smogon moderation staff is more than capable of maintaining these forums; please let them do so without your interference.

    * Do not advertise other sites, especially those related to pokemon. Do not link to them in your posts or in your signature. We are not interested in learning more about your upstart clan or anything else of that nature. There is a line between linking to another site for convenience or humor and making an attempt to promote another site; we know the difference.

    * Outside of Firebot, trolling is not allowed. This means keep purely joke posts and one word replies out of the serious forums. If you do not have something substantial to contribute to a thread, do not bother posting. Just think to yourself, "Does my post add something to this thread?" If the answer is no, think twice about hitting that submit button.

    * This is an English forum. Post in English. Unless your topic is specifically about posting in Spanish or something similar, there is no reason to not post in English.

    * Employ the conventions of standard written English. Nobody is going to jump down your throat if you make a spelling mistake or split an infinitive, but please, your posts MUST be readable. As you might imagine, l33t 5p34k and other intentional misspellings (u, liek, etc.) are expressly banned. Spell out "you" and "your" instead of typing "u" or "ur." Don't be lazy!

    * Do not bump old threads. Making meaningless posts in threads that have long since died is strictly prohibited. If you have something of consequence you'd like to add to a thread that has fallen off the front page, feel free to do so. All "bump" "to the top" etc. posts will be infracted and deleted without exception.

    * Do not register multiple accounts, ever. This is self explanatory. Post HERE if you want to change the name of your current account. If you create an alternate account when infracted or banned, your ban will be extended or made permanent.

    * Do not flame or abuse other members. The anonymity of the internet does not give you a license to treat the users of this forum disrespectfully. Of course, posts in Firebot may be an exception, but please refer to the rules of that forum. This rule goes at least triple if the member in question is a moderator or administrator, as alluded to above.

    * Do not post illegal stuff here! This includes links to ROMs, warez, or anything of the sort. If it's illegal, do not link to it here.

    * General stupidity is banned. This includes linking to porn sites, shock sites, "lol cats" or anything else in that vein. Similarly, we'd ask you to keep discussions of anime to a minimum. Smogon is interested in the competitive aspect of pokemon, not whether or not Ash beat Lt. Surge on his first try! The discretion of the moderators is supreme in the enforcement of all rules, this one especially.

    * Do not create threads that do not support discussion. Creating an entire thread to ask a simple question is not acceptable; do a Google search for that stuff. All thread starters are required to provide a good basis for discussion in their opening post.

    * Do not disparage other internet sites here, especially other pokémon communities. We are not interested in your trolling episodes- we are above that here at Smogon. Please keep all negative comments about other sites to yourself.

    * Do not flood or double post. If you have something more to add to a post you have made, please edit it rather than creating a second post.

    * If your post or thread is edited or deleted by a moderator, do not remake it. It was altered for a reason, and there is nothing else that will earn you an infraction faster than this.

    * Post all threads in the correct forum. The topic of your thread determines the most appropriate location. For example, you would not post a serious political debate in Firebot or a discussion of Starmie's prowess in Congregation. It is fairly easy for us to move threads, but it would be nice if you would be conscientious enough to make your threads in the correct places.

    * Do not send mass PM's for any purpose, especially advertising. Please forward any such PM's to a Super Mod or Administrator if you receive one so that the offender can be dealt with.

    * All signatures must be under 6 lines. We do not want to see massive signatures that exceed the guideline. If you break this rule, you may have your ability to have a sig revoked. Only Community Members and higher ranked members have the option of using an image in their signature.

    * Because of COPPA, we strictly enforce our age policy. If we somehow determine, or if you announce that you are under the age of 13, you will be banned immediately. No exceptions.

    * Do not ask about release dates for the site, Competitor, or anything else please! They will be done when they are done.

    * Do not link to shock sites, rick rolls, or other sites designed to scare and/or annoy the person accessing the site. This goes for signatures too.

    * Read the rules of the sub-forum in which you would like to post before posting. Here are links to each of the rules threads which have been stickied in their respective forums.


tl;dr No Posting Allowed. Jeez, small wonder you used to lurk.

[LastingDawn]

I must agree, those rules are extremely restrictive to our... carefree community.

[Archael]

Pokemans rules?

You must be crazy if you think Zodiac...

[Dokurider]

Yeah, I think Zodiac knows how to make forum rules.

[LastingDawn]

I think our Administrator should just keep the rules to himself, as he is fairly unbiased and is hard to anger and only steps in if necessary, I think he should hold the rules charter only in his mind.

[MagiTek v1.0]

That would work well, it's only the basics on this forum really...

[Llednar]

Yeah, with rules you can't make exceptions or give second chances.  With a wise admin, we do get necessary exceptions/second chances as long as we aren't to disruptive.

[CidIII]

Rules are for fools.

[Ant]

Zodiac's pretty much already told us what his opinion is...


Many of the posts in this thread made me lol.
A lot of the population of this forum is in the adolescent age range, a demographic which is pretty notable for its common anti-authoritarian "lol no rules!" sentiment. Which, as I've noticed from moderating on forums and a game or two, mostly boils down to rebellion for the sake of rebellion. People tend to break rules occasionally just to show how cool/edgy they are.

Any well-made set of rules basically just tells you not to be an ass to the rest of the community. That's pretty much the policy here now, just without a concrete list of how to achieve it. Works out okay. Besides, anyone who's here on FFH is no doubt a veteran of the forum format. We all know better.

[SentinalBlade]

Ant, i agree with your post in all its entirety, but i must point out that not all  Adolescents are like that. i for one prefer to actually keep an organized peace, not nessacarilly as organized as a religion, like Lutheran sects, but to some degree of a "morality" doesnt need to be said.

You dont need to be posting "ill kill you to watch you bleed if you dont like my patch"
Similarly are things that go without saying and should be common on every forum

No useless posts...Google is a noobs best friend, etc, etc.

These need to be instilled at birth. To many post questions without searching on their own, and while im fine with alot of that, after answering the same question 5 times in one week when the other topic i posted it in is RIGHT BELOW the current topic...it gets annoying.

then again these things cannot always be enforced mentally, even though they should...a basic rule outline will do, and anything going out of a respectful moral compass needs to be addressed, but not specifically mentioned in the rules, such as links to pornography sites are common sense not to post, not ot mention in several countries illegal to post if the site does not have a Age Warning, But things as threats dont need to be either. it should be common sense not to post that in someones introduction topic instead of spam.

Point is. if you dont "new hwo to splle", Use a Search button, or post without greater intillect than a grasshopper, you dont join the forums. A questionairre in this respect would  suffice more than a rule would. not everyone reads rules/terms of agreement. alot of people assume it the same for everysite unless its a required info checkbox or a pop-up.

"instruction #1, instruction #2, so forth and so forth"

Something like "If you are from a foriegn country and can correctly read the above Sentence, please select from this list what instructions are given to do this task"

And have people select the instructions that are worded as differently as possible.

This would weed out a huge number of foriegn people, or mentally unequipped children from joining and posting things like

"wehre get patcher? site broken, but is no there way?"

Which i have actually seen posted on game faqs...

On another note, a small Google Test could be given. such as
"this pertains to all that is google. use it in your time of need it will one day save your behind from getting flamed.

1. Do you need to install FFTPatcher?
2. What does CoK Stand for, in regards to FFT
3. Who is the original composer of this *insert classical song here*

It would help to make sure people know how to use google, and the forums search functions.


Just a thought my thought on some of this, i figured id give in my suggestion since it makes sense, is timed appropiatly and is in the correct forum (im recently recovering from a severe epileptic mouse breakdown. it is becoming increasingly harder not to make it double click when i click once, and then proceeds to spazz)