[Please Read]Guidlines to posting for an optimum forum experience

[mchapra]

Before we begin, let me make this very clear, I am fully aware of the original rules thread but it was rather vague to forum behavior I wish to just pull in some encourage-able guidelines to make posting better for everyone, and also update some of the rules. these are not my opinion, I tried to be very unbiased, you can add in and vote for more posting rules and guidelines for the thread. This is just a few pointers and suggestions to improve all our discussions.

Oh and please, actually contribute to the thread.

This thread is to just pull in some proper ground rules for posting, these are not enforced but encouraged(unless reed says otherwise) and we can add or deduct rules if you guys vote on them.


Before we begin, Let's go over basics(Constants, cannot remove):
-No Racism and Homophobia. Pretty obvious.
-No links to piracy
-No NSFW content.
-No personal attacks on other members.

1. It's alright to hate things. Just don't be an ass about it, we all have things we don't like, things we disagree on, it's a part of life that everyone should embrace. But what you should also embrace is that if you hate something, that does not give you the right to be an obnoxious moron to those who like it. This does not mean you are forbidden from expressing your hatred, if you do, be civil and give actual reasons for the dislike without any attacks to those who actually like it. Oh and just to add, please don't complain about things you haven't seen/played/read. No one likes that. Refer to this video.

2. Concerning memes, image macros, gif responses and catchphrases, It's OK to post them once or twice but repeating them is annoying. Yeah the arrow to the knee joke was funny ONCE, but when you repeat it, people tend to not like to hang out with you. Yeah you can post ONE funny in context or in relation to the subject matter but please don't respond exclusively with these. It adds nothing to the conversation and frankly, makes us look more stupid. Now Bronies and Anti-Bronies listen up. This is an appendix covering this because this is the stuff that sends forums into a frenzy, it is OK to like MLP. Just don't plaster it everywhere. Keep it in the respective thread. Thank you. As for anti-bronies, whining about them doesn't make you any less annoying than them.

3. Debates and Civil discussion are good. Fights, are not. Now what's the difference? Well, I tend to classify arguments in two kinds. The good kind is a debate or a discussion where we make well worded, non-offensive posts to a subject at hand. It's healthy for a community and adds a lot. Now. The other kind, the nasty kind, which I just call a fight, where we just outright insult the opposite party and attack them directly for disagreement. This is a no-no, for obvious reasons, it's just not a good thing.

4. Curses and Derogatory terms, say what you will but some of them are just terrible. It's fine to say words among the lines of damn. But do be conservative with the use of the F-bomb and other strong words. As for derogatory terms, like using "Gay" as an insult, I do not encourage it, it is usually frowned upon but it's not as intense and you can go ahead as long as you don't use it every other word. Strong terms like the N-word are strictly forbidden. Excessive swearing is just bad.

5. Posting without actually contributing is not posting at all. When you go in a thread, you go there to give critique, discuss a certain topic or catch up. But you know what you shouldn't do? Post in a critique thread with "Cool", "Nice", "Pretty good" and "awesome". Cro already covered this on his thread but just be clear, don't be scared to into the details of a box and nitpick it's flaws. Same with any other thread, posting things like "Something clever /thread", "+rep", "This." and "/thread" or "In a nutshell" posts add nothing to the discussion and take up space that an actually good post could have occupied. Posting "I don't care" in a discussion adds nothing. We already knew you don't if you never posted or avoided to. Not everything needs to be a wall of text but you need to put SOME thought in your posts.

6. Advertising and shamelessly plugging your box on forum profiles, threads and the like is for obvious reasons, not good. We try to judge your box ourselves and you shoving it in our faces tends to make us put off checking it out even further. You can post a link in your signature and be patient, just don't clog up the forums.

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These are all for now but if you have any suggestions for any more additions please put a message on my forum profile or post here and if it get's enough requests for addition, I'll add it. Same if you want to edit something in the rules.

[mchapra]

-reserved-

[Joeseye]

Quite a nice summary - although a few things are missing/could do with slight altering, I'd say.

Also, what's a bronie?

[mchapra]

Quite a nice summary - although a few things are missing/could do with slight altering, I'd say.

Also, what's a bronie?

Look it up. It's a amalgamation of Bro and Pony. It's to describe fans of the new My Little Pony reboot. The only reason I mentioned it is because fans tend to post memes of the show all over the tubes and people tend to attack them and it brings the WORST out of everyone.

It's pretty exploding over the Web. I am surprised you haven't seen anything related to it.

[madoublex]

Just don't an ass about it

Your right, no one should an ass about anything XD.

Nice work Mub.

[tmrd]

I agree with most of it, but I don't like this bit.

"You can use "Gay" as an insult, I do not encourage it but strong terms like the N-word are strictly forbidden. Excessive swearing is just bad."

I don't think we should use gay as an insult, especially when words like the N-words are banned. You guys who know me on here know that I don't use either term, and I think that calling someone an N-word is just as derogatory as using gay in a bad manner.

[Eggboy'13]

I love you guys.

[mchapra]

I agree with most of it, but I don't like this bit.

"You can use "Gay" as an insult, I do not encourage it but strong terms like the N-word are strictly forbidden. Excessive swearing is just bad."

I don't think we should use gay as an insult, especially when words like the N-words are banned. You guys who know me on here know that I don't use either term, and I think that calling someone an N-word is just as derogatory as using gay in a bad manner.

If you have an issue, can take it off.

Any objections? Remove it completely?

[Patches]

I think that should include the term "faggot." Not sure if that's just some inside joke between you guys but lighthearted or not, it's still incredibly offensive.

[mchapra]

I think that should include the term "faggot." Not sure if that's just some inside joke between you guys but lighthearted or not, it's still incredibly offensive.

I believe it goes under derogatory words.

[Mariolee]

I think you've covered most of the problems that we've had over the past couple of years. Kudos.

[mchapra]

I just noticed I messed up the title. I hope reed fixes that.

[Daemon]

Sticky please.

[Pleiades]

Good post, Mub. I agree with everything listed, especially the curses/derogatory comments. People around here tend to throw around terms most would normally find offensive, as if they have no meaning at all.

[tmrd]

If you have an issue, can take it off.

Any objections? Remove it completely?

Personally I say yeah, remove it completely. But if anyone has a particular reason it should stay, speak up.
But yeah, amazing thread. and personally I think this thread should become forum rules.

[beardedwalrus]

I approve. Especially the swearing part. I think as far as swearing and derogatory terms are concerned, it's more or less the context they're used in that should determine whether they are acceptable or not. Cause I mean, if you look at something you dislike and say "that's gay", do you actually mean that that thing is homosexual? Same with faggot. If someone pisses you off and you call them a faggot, are you actually trying to imply that they are gay and that's why you dislike them? I could give several examples, but basically what I'm getting at is, words are words, and there's nothing wrong with them in and of themselves. It's the context you use them in that should determine whether they are derogatory.

I know you already covered that somewhat, I just wanted to emphasize it a little.

[mchapra]

I approve. Especially the swearing part. I think as far as swearing and derogatory terms are concerned, it's more or less the context they're used in that should determine whether they are acceptable or not. Cause I mean, if you look at something you dislike and say "that's gay", do you actually mean that that thing is homosexual? Same with faggot. If someone pisses you off and you call them a faggot, are you actually trying to imply that they are gay and that's why you dislike them? I could give several examples, but basically what I'm getting at is, words are words, and there's nothing wrong with them in and of themselves. It's the context you use them in that should determine whether they are derogatory.

I know you already covered that somewhat, I just wanted to emphasize it a little.

I made it clear that you should JUST be conservative in the use of the REALLY strong ones, but Let's just agree to one thing, using the N-word or the C-bomb is just impolite and insulting, they are rather strong words and it's better if we steer clear of using them.

I do agree with you, and like I said, F-bomb, but please use it with precision. And don't use it as a personal attack towards someone.

[slimd1995]

Someone sure is trying hard to be a moderator.

[mchapra]

Someone sure is trying hard to be a moderator.

Curses. My ruse.

[coolguy753]

You guys are too uptight about people using gay as an insult. It just equates to dumb or some other variation of the word.