Building the Forum Rules

[Matt]

Okay, lets decide on the forums rules. Here are some basics I'm working on.

I want this place to be more friendly than other places. And more forgiving. No cumulative ban times. That is not fair. The ban must fit the crime. I've seen too many sites abuse the power they have and ban without due cause.

Rules for the staff:
Ban as a last resort only. Only when all other courses of action are exhausted. Unless the member is clearly an advertising bot.


Forum rules:

Umm. The general stuff here. You know the drill.


More ideas people?

[Steve]

I prefer the warning system, used on many forums. Bascially, a Mod can issue a warning, after the max number (usually 5) that user is banned.

[Matt]

Yeah, a warning system sounds right. We stick to the system though. Not counting when we clearly have an adbot. Too many other forums choose not to stick to it and ban after two, one or even no warnings. That is something that I do not want us doing. It needs to be a fair system.

[Matt]

I also want to make it a point that rent-a-modding will not be forbidden. Banning that is nothing more than being selfish. I don't want it so that we require a staff member to simply point out a rule. This particular rule is the most insulting rule I have ever seen. All the reasons that I've seen other forums give are complete nonsense.
I also do not want any rules made that are solely for increasing stats. Zelda Universe does this. They refuse to admit it, but they do. They have various rules that are there solely to boost their stats. Among these is the locking of threads once someone posts in them after a month or so. This is nothing more than trying to boost the thread count.

I will not allow us to stoop down to the level of selfishness that Zelda Universe has. That is an embarrassment to the community. And sadly that is a typical forum.

We want to be ahead of the curve. And not stoop to underhanded tactics to boost stats. If we want high stats, they must be earned. We can't cheat our way to getting them like most sites do.