Rule/Moderation Changes & New Rules!

[jcsnider]

Hello everyone,

 

This will be short and brief, but I wanted to enlighten everyone on new site rules and warning changes that we're implementing and will be actively using from now on.

 

New Rules

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The first and most important will hopefully give moderators an easier way to put a stop to members being offensive to one another. There has been a lot of things said in the past few weeks that have caused commotion but could never technically be considered flaming or flame-baiting. Rule 2.9 is No being Aggressive, Rude, or Insulting to Others. 

 

2.9 No being Aggressive, Rude, or Insulting to Others (+[5,10,20] Warning Points Per Offence)

• Being offensive to our members in any way, shape or form is prohibited. This includes being condescending, overly sarcastic, or otherwise an asshole to other members. If you cannot get along or work out problems with others you are invited to ignore/block them. These kinds of behaviors make the forum uncomfortable and unwelcoming to all.
• As always, this is at moderator discretion. Friendly and lighthearted BSing is fine, jokes are fine, but there are lines that should not be crossed.

 

Although this is a new written rule it has always been implied here and at almost every other forum community in existence. There are a few instances where we will revisit past interactions and warn for this so members know where we believe they've been out of line.

 

 

The other new rules may or may not surprise people:

 

2.10 No Excessive Text Decoration (+[0,5,10] Warning Points Per Offence)

• Excessive use of underline, bold, italics, font colors, font styles, and font sizes is prohibited. Use these features for formatting but never in excess in order to stand out or make eyes bleed.

 

2.11 No Selling of Fan Based Content (+[5,20,40] Warning Points Per Offence)

• Fan based games are generally fine when you're not making money off of others' copyrighted content. (This is still morally gray). Feel free to share your resources with others if you so desire but you may not sell them here. Selling of art, music, graphics, or code that derives from or copies from fan based games (like pokemon, dragonball z, naruto, etc) is prohibited.

 

These rules take effect today and no one will be warned for breaking these rules before now. Any topics where members are selling fan-based content will be locked or removed.

 

We understand there will be a few members concerned about 2.11 but we cannot block one medium and not others. It shouldn't be up to our moderators to determine which work is custom and which is ripped from other games. It definitely shouldn't be our job to mediate sales between members when a Pokemon starter kit/engine is sold for $100 that doesn't even work. Anyone interested in these kinds of transactions can do them somewhere else.

 

 

Moderation Changes

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A recent IPB update allowed us to setup templates for members when issuing warnings. Whenever a user is warned they will receive more information regarding which rule they've broke, what that rule is, tips on how to avoid trouble in the future, and instructions on how to appeal warnings in the event you feel that you've been falsely punished.

 

Example:

 

 

As always feel free to leave comments and critique below. We're really hoping to see more people collaborating, chit chatting, and building games as opposed to butting heads all day long. Hopefully these changes do not come as a huge shock.

 

All the best,

JC

 

[Grizzy]

If this is directed at me, I challenge you to a battle of fisticuffs in the yard.

[Weylon Santana]

  On 9/20/2017 at 5:02 AM, jcsnider said:

As always feel free to leave comments and critique below.

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There is nothing to criticize. really these rules are incredibly good. recently I've seen people abusing the font size in their posts, why this? I do not know anything about members offending members, but abusing the formatting to create a better highlight in their projects. It's a bit of an exaggeration. I am very supportive of these new changes.

[General Awesome]

Good additions to the ruleset. I'm sure this will help the community thrive

[Beefy Kasplant]

Great, so I can't sell my Sonic fanfic anywhere now.

[jcsnider]

Text decoration and selling fan based projects before today won't be warnable offenses. These were never explicitly discussed as being okay or not. 

 

Not being aggressive, rude, or insulting should have been implied all along as common sense. I have no problem warning for this for events that have transpired before today. 

 

All warnings are technically at moderator discretion. There's no program that we can type in text that comes back and tells us that "he/she meant this, and should/shouldn't be warned"

 

Site rules DO apply to the shoutbox. If you see a rule broken report it. Cursing isn't against the rules. If the shoutbox is a bother it can be hidden. (At least I think there's a button for it)

[jcsnider]

That might very well be a change we make in the future. Would require a little custom coding down the line.