Hey all-
With the new year and new decade upon us, the forum staff thought we’d take some of the lessons learned from the last year and apply them to how the forum operates in 2020 and beyond. These are not proposed changes but are being put into practice as of the posting of this message.
That said, we would still like to hear your thoughts on any and all of the following. Please consider this a SERIOUS thread, and that subject makes for a great starting point to our changes.
- SERIOUS threads clarification:
It has been brought to our attention that SERIOUS thread rules could use some clarification since it’s gone from being a test program to being adopted across the forum.
So here goes:
Anyone can start a SERIOUS thread that wants the most information shared in the quickest fashion. By using that tag when you start a topic, you are in effect offering to police your own thread and weed out extraneous content or people who make too many jokes and derails. Mock SERIOUS threads are funny, but let’s try to resist that urge.
In a SERIOUS thread, the word (SERIOUS) needs to be added to the end of the title, with the beginning of the title describing the intended topic of discussion. No further rules or conditions may be applied to the discussion. Users must respect the intent of the topic of discussion and posts should contribute towards the topic at hand. Trolling or posts that are clearly off topic or not within the spirit of discussion are subject to removal through flagging.
- Slugfests in public threads:
We all know the infamous Deckoz/s5300 spat that got way out of hand. At one point, they were pulled into a PM to fight privately, but one of them decided to leave the PM and continue the fight in the “replies to pictures” thread.
So we have decided that once people fighting in a thread or creating unnecessary drama are pulled into a “please work it out privately” PM, anyone leaving that PM and going back to the scene will be silenced for a 24-hour period. If they wait it out and do it again, it becomes a week. A third instance brings a permanent silencing.
- Abuse towards admins or mods:
The mods and admins of this forum volunteer their time and effort as a form of community service. It is an arduous task, and requires a lot of time and effort. The payoff is nill, but we don’t donate time and skills for a payoff. We do it to encourage the community to grow.
Anyone abusing, swearing at, obviously wasting the time of, or calling out a mod in public and/or sending multiple messages just to be insulting is will be silenced for the 1st instance, 7 day silencing for the 2nd. Any following actions will end in a permanent silencing. This is also true if those lines are crossed in a PM or the abuse extends outside the forum in any way including but not limited to text messages, instant messages, emails, or other forms of communication. Respect will be given to all but we expect the same in return.
- Mod action consistency:
We try to work as a team, but since we’re all individuals, we handle things differently from time-to-time and that can lead to confusion. So we’re going to make a mighty effort to be on the same page with how we handle things. If you see instances that fall outside this stated goal or something that seems like a misuse of mod powers, please contact an admin by PM. The admins for 2020 are Mike ( @mmaner) , Damon ( @longhairedboy ) , Jamie ( @jamie) and myself ( @BillGordon )
- Derail Jail:
Derail Jail will continue as currently implemented, but even given that, let’s try to follow the trend of keeping the level lounges, Derail Jail and “In Your Corner” as the dirty playgrounds of esk8.news forum. For anyone wondering, with the exception of the lounges, these areas do not update to the main listings of topics.
- Do not post PM screenshots:
Although Discourse intended for PMs to be “personal messages” instead of “private messages”, we tend to use them for both purposes here on the forum. For that reason, we’re going to ask that private message screenshots not be used as threats or shaming tactics from this day forward in the public forum or posted elsewhere on the web. If you want to send them in PM, go right ahead. The same “24 hours/week/permanent” silencing scale will be in place here.
- Don’t get sneaky:
This, frankly, gets a bit old. On a forum with 1500+ intelligent people, there will no doubt be instances where someone finds a clever workaround to avoid some policy or another. In these cases, a warning to stop will be issued first, then the “24 hours/week/permanent” silencing scale goes into effect.
- Civil Discourse and Inclusion:
We want all members to feel welcome on the forum. To create an environment of tolerance and inclusion, we ask members to continue to honor the previously set rules and conditions.
They are:
No file-sharing or torrent links to pirated software.
No posts targeting another user’s race or geography.
No political posts.
No serious threats of violence or calls for such.
No sexist, homophobic, or transphobic comments.
Again, the above changes are live and in place as of now. Thanks everyone for your input and hard work in getting the forum to where it is today.
@longhairedboy (Damon)
@jamie (Jamie)
@mmaner (Mike)
@Dareno (Daren)
@anorak234 (Ben)
@zach (Zach)
@Sender (Tim)