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I've put a lot of thought into this, along with everyone else who was involved in the creation of this site (Adelaine, HotGamerMum, and thraadash, if anyone didn't know). We looked at examples and precedent set by other sites that our users were likely to have been part of, such as EoT, SoCrimson, and of course GameFAQs.
EoT, we felt, was much too strict in their banning policy and left it up too much to the whim of a single person. Skies of Crimson, on the other hand, apparently wasn't strict enough and eventually degenerated beyond repair and turned into an anarchy of a forum. Again, we don't want this.
GameFAQs seems to have struck a balance between the two, however those forums are quite custom and have MANY features we can't hope to emulate here (put down that keyboard, Adelaine), nor do I WANT to have a carbon copy of GameFAQs. However, I do feel that the way moderation works at GameFAQs is the best solution, and the way they group many rule infractions under a few 'umbrella' rules is also effective. Most importantly, mods have the final say there. They can be disputed, which means their decisions are reviewed by another moderator, but ultimately they can't be bullied or coerced.
SO! Here are our 'umbrella' rules, which cover many infractions, which will be enforced by mods and admins. There are far and away too many rules to list each and every single one, so of course, it will be up to the mods to decide if something does or does not fall under these. If they do decide so, then that's the way it is. We're working on a sort of 'moderation contest' mechanic or something, but don't expect to get away with murder anymore. Furthermore, punishments will go along with each rule, so if you break one, don't be surprised by what you get. Without further ado:
Trolling - Posting a topic or post with the sole intention of baiting other users into getting angry or tricking them with false information.
Flaming - Personal insults of any kind. 'I think that's really stupid' is okay. 'I think YOU'RE really stupid.' is not okay. Furthermore, public insults against the site itself or the admins and moderators will not be tolerated.
Racism - Will not be tolerated. End of story. Do not post racist comments, names, jokes, etc.
Offensive Posts - Overtly sexual, violent, or otherwise disgusting topics or posts.
Illegal activities - Discussion of CFW is fine. Discussion of where to find pirated games is NOT. For those of you that wish to play MHFrontier Korean, DOT NOT ask for KSSNs or where to get them, the same goes for Taiwan version. DO NOT ask for any illegal game modification patches or post any download links to them.This applies to other media as well.
Offensive Language - We already have an amusing filter in place, however strong language has been disallowed as of now on this forum. Attempting to bypass the censor we have will result in moderation. No longer applicable as censor has been removed. However, use of strong, offensive language is still grounds for moderation.
Disruptive/Indecipherable posts - I understand that a large amount of our users do not read/speak/type English as their first language. However, if you're going to post in English, it needs to at least make sense and be readable.
The first 5 rules are the big ones. If you break these rules, the first offense is deletion of the post or topic, 5% warning level, and a 12 hour suspension from the site. Second offenses will be as above, with a 48 hour suspension. Third offenses and beyond will result in a week-long suspension, an additional 15% warning level, and with possible permanent loss of posting privileges.
Note that these are MAXIMUM punishments. I leave it up to the moderators to reduce them if they see fit.
For offensive language or disruptive posting, the moderation will be a deletion of the post and a warning for the first offense, deletion, 5% warning, and a 12 hour ban for the second, and deletion, a 5% warning, and a 24 hour ban for third and above offenses, with possible increased punishment for multiple offenses.
These rules also apply to the shoutbox AND the IRC chatroom.
Questions and comments are welcome, as always.
This post has been edited by Jask: 29 April 2011 - 05:29 AM
