A Good Time To Update The Forum Rules?

Ive been guilty of falling foul of my own standards, if not the official ones. We want a pleasant place to be and a good set of forum rules helps that, even from a personal perspective. The current rules allow a bit too much leeway for personal attacks for me, I know because Ive been there and got away with it when I shouldn't have. Its not good enough that Ive apologised after the event- it should never have gotten to that point. So what can we do about it?
The below is borrowed from the internet..


"Cardinal Rules

-No trolling. Don't make posts that are inflammatory just to get people riled up. Substance is the key to not being labeled a troll.
-Attack the message, not the messenger. Criticize ideas, not people. Flaming will not be tolerated.
No member is allowed to engage in public personal attacks on any other member.
-Personal attacks are defined as Personal, Racial, Ethnic, and/or Gender based insults, slurs, or derisive comments.
-All complaints need to be communicated privately using either PM, "Report this Post" feature and/or EMail.
In the event of this, the offending post will be edited or removed, and the offending party shall receive no more than two (2) private warnings via PM and/or EMail, and one final Administration warning.
-If the behavior continues, the member will be banned for a week, and upon a repeat incident, banned permanently.
This will apply to all other community members as well.
-All we want is a little community kindness and no attacks. Let's all work together to accomplish this, eh?
-No pornographic, sexually offensive, sexually explicit, or objectifying material. _Simple rule. Administrator's judgment applies here. Sexually suggestive images will be heavily scrutinized. We'd like for our readers to be able to visit the site at work and share with friends without fear of retribution.
-Do not post links or requests for warez
-Post in the right forum! If it's a question for the studio, post it in the “Ask the Studio” forum. Even if it's only humor, an observation, or angst, if it's about something that we have a forum for, post it there. Resist the temptation to post something off-topic because you think you'll get "better responses" in a particular forum.
-Respect the privacy of others. Do not post other's phone numbers, addresses, pictures, etc., without their permission.
-Each MetroDanceCenter.com member may have only one account.
-Do not place foul language in thread subjects .
-Blatant advertising of competing products is not tolerated.
-And of course, NO SPAMMING. No commercial-oriented posts, and no flooding with useless content.

Compulsory Rules

-Use descriptive subject lines and research your post. This reduces the chances of double-posting, and it also makes it easier for people to see what they do/don't want to read. Also, scan the subjects of the last several days' posts to make sure you aren't duplicating posts. Also, consider what forum your topic should be posted in.
-Restrict the use of excessive foul language. Swearing will not be tolerated on this board at all. Because of the fact that it is a family-oriented site, we need to keep it clean. We aren’t saying you can't express your opinion, but there are ways to do so without swearing.
-No "Am I Hot or Not", "show me your girlfriend." etc. threads. There are several places for that already. The occasional picture thread is OK (if we're talking about pictures of members), but this is not a dating forum.

Finally, remember that we're not the ratings board here. We're not going to give you a PG for four swears and a gunshot, but R for five swears and splattering brains. Not making any hard and fast rules means that the moderators can use their good judgment in moderation, and we think the results speak for themselves."

These are just ideas and I think it needs trimming down to a few sets of well directed rules. Our new community manager of course probably has some ideas of his own. It just seems an auspicious moment to put our shoulders to the cart of change.

If you agree post a like. If not post a comment

 

Great idea, since TSW2 will undoubtedly bring more players to the game it will also mean more forum users. Of course it is better to have a more peaceful place to discuss the game instead of being attacked for whatever reason.

One addition I'd make is the complete ban on quoting the above message. This is when a user wants to reply to the post directly above him, but also quotes this entire message. This will make threads uselessly long. I know this is a basic rule on the SCS forum (the creators of Euro Truck and American Truck Simulator) and your post can be edited by the moderators if you don't stick to the rules.

This isn't the case on the Dovetail forums, and you can literally see threads or posts from months or even years ago saying "Pls remove this thread/post"

So yes, I think DTG should pay more attention to the forums

 

Respect the privacy of others. Do not post other's phone numbers, addresses, pictures, etc., without their permission

 

That's in there Fanta.
"-Respect the privacy of others. Do not post other's phone numbers, addresses, pictures, etc., without their permission."

There's probably legal issues around this one too for the forum administrators.

 

Most of the rules you have copied from another site are already in the forum rules here. In some cases the rules here are tougher than the ones you quoted, especially about swearing and use of capitals for shouting. Of course nobody has ever read them!

One thing I’ve noticed here is that there has been little evidence of active moderation. It kind of just happens very quietly in the background. Which is good. There has been a bit more recently and it has been more public. It’s a tough thing because if there is too much of an obvious presence and everyone thinks they are being watched it might dry up the forum and people will be reluctant to post, too little and anarchy sets in. But I do think there’s room for a little more moderation here.

There’s also the reporting system. I know sometimes I have reported specific posts about things that certainly should not be on the forum (racism, swearing etc.) and the offending post has still been there days later. These are maybe posts that should be picked up without anyone reporting them but things will slip through the net. I’ve reported posts and members before but there has been no feedback on those reports, so I feel left in a position of confusion, and without such feedback I question myself... am I reporting stuff that I shouldn’t? would it help the moderators if I reported stuff more often? I have no idea so often just leave it.

Overall though it’s a good forum. I’ve not seen anyone who has severely overstepped the mark for a prolonged period, and have also seen people who start off being seriously annoying but end up being valuable members of the forum. And one great thing about it is that we can be brutally honest about stuff we don’t like without worrying about upsetting the bosses too much!

 

I agree it's time to make changes to the rules the last little bit has shown people are willing to push those boundaries and sometimes beyond. Time to adapt to a new change to stop these forums from becoming toxic/foul and out of control.

 

H

HONG KONG

 

What does Hong Kong have to do with this?

Anyway, totally agree with you stujoy! It is very hard to find the perfect balance.

 

This would rule out screenshots of the Class 319 in the light grey NSE livery, which is a shame. ;-{

 

Here's something for you, back in the day when trains were trains and snow was snow.. and health & safety stayed at home

 

I think I remember that winter..... first ever proper snow..... ;-)

After dark is best, well below zero.... with 3rd rail properly iced.... then you get sheets of arcing which is quite blinding, with a proper bang...... like this, but much more scary when it is darker...:

 

That's some serious arcing!!

 

Locking this here as it's barely on topic to begin with.

Given the reports that are made through this forum there is a very wide spectrum of what some users find acceptable. New rules will be incoming along with a general reorganisation of this forum.