Oddworld Forums - Rules Enforcement Scheme

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Rules Enforcement Scheme

Yeah, I just wanted to spice up the title.

But, the content within is serious. A number of Moderators have expressed their disgust at the current state of law enforcement, and general chaos with members. As such, the rules will be enforced to their maximum. If I warn or ban you, it will be of a just nature, and any backlash will result in a swift: "I don't give a crap" from yours truly.

For those who have recently spammed, chit-chatted, threatened, or been an absolute idiot, be forewarned. I don't care if you're staff, I don't care if you're a friend of mine, if you break the rules, you'll be dealt with accordingly. I hope you'll have the sense and intelligence to realise I'm doing my job.

For those who need a pick-me-up-reminder on the rules, they as follows:

The Oddworld Forums are a community of Staff, Fans of Oddworld and everyday web surfers. While everyone is different, yet equal in their moral rights, we expect all members attending these forums to follow a set of rules. These rules exist for the sole purpose of maintaining forum peace and harmony between our members. Please take the time to read these rules thoroughly.

Rules In Short

Respect other members, and their opinions.

Use the search feature before creating new threads.

Post threads in the correct forum.

Spamming is not tolerated.

You may not register multiple accounts.

Do not threaten the safety of the forums or server.

Do not discuss bans with others.

Do not post anything directed at single members.

There are regulations regarding signatures:

One image, three lines of text per signature with an image.

Six lines of text per signature without an image.

Avatars can be used if they are under 5 kilobytes in size.

If a rule is broken, the member is given warnings as such:

First Warning - No ban

Second Warning - No ban

Third Warning - Temporary Week Long Ban

Fourth Warning - Temporary Two Week Long Ban

Fifth Warning - Permanent Ban

Warnings are removed by the discretion of an administrative staffer.

Ultimately, the administrative staff have control over everything.

Rules In Full

Respect is a key issue here. We expect that every member will be considerate of other members’ feelings and opinions. Everyone has the right to express his or her opinion, as long as it isn't posted with malicious intent. Such things as offensive language, flaming, using vulgarities or posting sexually explicit material is deemed as a spiteful attack against the receiving member(s). You can discuss or challenge members' opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully.

Before deciding to create a thread, use the search option. More than likely you'll find the answers in past threads. However, do not reply to old, outdated threads. If it is a thankyou to the member who helped you in the old thread, send them a kind Private Message.

Before posting a new thread or replying to a thread make sure you are in the correct thread and / or forum. By looking at the forum title it is easy to check you are posting in the correct area. For example, General Oddworld Discussion is for Oddworld related topics only. Off-Topic Discussion is where topics of any nature not pertaining to any other forum present, are to be posted.

Do not, under any circumstances spam. Spam can be defined as posting excessively, flooding, excessive advertising, double posting, posting irrelevant replies or posting replies containing the bare minimum of words. As a result of spamming, the offender(s) will be dealt with by staff members, in one of two manners, these being: warnings and / or post deletion.

Registering with two or more accounts is considered both illegal and deceitful. Members found with multiple accounts will be questioned and dealt with accordingly. Registering multiple accounts will often find all accounts banned, except for the primary account. The primary account will be banned temporarily.

Members accusing to threaten the safety of the forums or compromise the safety of the server with which it is hosted on will instantly be banned permanently.

If a member has knowledge of another member being banned, refrain from discussing his or her banning. Threads and / or posts found to have such information will be immediately deleted, and the offending member(s) contacted. Whether or not the offending member(s) are dealt with is a judgment decided upon by staff members.

If your thread and / or post are relevant to only one member, use the Private Message system to contact them instead. Threads and / or posts directed solely to one member are considered spam, and will be dealt with in the same manner as spam.

These forums allow the use of a signature, however there is a set of rules that must be complied to when using a signature.

Concerning signatures with an image:

There is a limit of one image per signature including smilies.

The dimensions of the image must not exceed 400 pixels in width, and 125 pixels in height.

The image itself must not exceed 35 kilobytes (35840 bytes).

The image cannot be hosted as an attachment on the Oddworld Forums.

There is a maximum of four lines of text.

Concerning signatures without an image:

There is a maximum of six lines of text.

These forums also allow members to upload an avatar. Avatars appear under a member's name basically throughout the entirety of the forums, with a few exceptions. When uploading an avatar, make sure that the dimensions do no exceed 100 x 100 pixels and 5 kilobytes in size (5120 bytes). Any avatar found to be offensive or the like, will be immediately stricken from the offending member's profile(s).

If a rule is broken, a staff member may decide to discipline the offending member(s). In this case, a staff member may issue warnings, and depending upon how many warnings the offending member(s) may already have, the following structure is used:

First Warning - No ban

Second Warning - No ban

Third Warning - Temporary Week Long Ban

Fourth Warning - Temporary Two Week Long Ban

Fifth Warning - Permanent Ban

Warnings depreciate at an administrative staff member’s decision. If an administrative staff member feels a member deserves to loose a warning they have gained, so it shall be.

While these forums are based upon a democratic society, in which we listen and learn from our members, there are times when an administrative staff member must take control in an undemocratic manner. In the end, an administrative staff member has ultimate control over the forums, but will rarely exercise this control unless necessary.

If you have any queries, suggestions, complaints or doubtful points please feel free to contact either Abe Babe or Alcar with your concerns.

Alcar...

Ok thanx for that warning Alcar, I will be on my bets behaviour this time ;).

It's about time someone took action. Good job, Alcar.

Of course, I have nothing to worry about. I'm a glowing example of the perfect member! :p

-oddguy

Thank you very much Alcar...
this was realy needed

Yes, much thanks are owed to Alcar. Acting on behalf of the Moderators, and all. ;) It's truely irked me to see levels of intollerance and flaming rise. One thing - what is the correct view on swearing? I believe it has its place, but a lot of the time it just seems uncalled for.

Thanks alcar....maybe now DI wont keep annoying me...

it's about time we have more strict rules and maybe i'll shutup one day because of them.......

Wow. That's a nice way to carry on with the campaign. Delete 3 posts from the thread about it. Anyways, I s'pose I'll keep my eyes open. Or something. And create an everlasting peace and prosperity for the forums.

Or something.

It's about time someone took action. Good job, Alcar.

Of course, I have nothing to worry about. I'm a glowing example of the perfect member! :p

-oddguy

Ahem.....

"Oh, you are such a kiss ass"

Yes.....

Anyway, thanx for the intel Alc, i'll behave.

Me? A kiss ass?

I wasn't the only guy thanking Alcar for taking action ya know. ;)

-oddguy

Now that I realise Adder is Chaotic Neutral, the rules don't matter!

But I'm not Adder, I'm the SIG.

I'll repect these rules as best I can, which should be pretty good. (And glad to see you sorted out the "1KB = 1024bytes" error)

Wow, Syd did this, and alcar bitched and moaned.

Alcar does it, and everyone applauds. What an interesting turn of events.

I don't remember bitching and moaning about cracking down on spam, or breaking of rules. As far as I remember, I was the one who didn't want any sort of swearing on the forums. Others scalded me when I mentioned it. However, if you have anything further to say on the matter, private message me. It has nothing to do with the topic, other than to disrupt and create more havoc.

On-topic, the enforcement is going well. The staff members are continuing discussion on a few pivotal matters, and we'll discuss some more before we get the opinions of the general population. Although, you can probably guess what we're discussing, it's not that difficult :p

Alcar...

Respect other members

Wha...?
But what if someone is being a right dickhead, surely we have the right to tell him in a unneccessarily harsh manner?

You can. Although, harsh words using mean the other person will respond in an even harsher manner. Usually it's best to tell them, but also contribute to the topic at hand. Sort of a split post, one telling the member, and one continuing the actual thread topic.

Although it usually gets very messy once someone tells someone what he's / she's done wrong. Then it ends up in one huge argument, and then, etc, etc.

Alcar...

Okay, thanks for clearing that up.

You see I reserved comment on this matter as I thought "Hmmmm... we'll give the young Peter a chance." But after the rash closing of the spam thread and the mindless deleting of posts which go against his opinion in this very thread... I am very sorry to say that as I thought this is being taken to the nth.... and even those who posted here intially in agreement with the new strategy have posted comments to the contrary in light of the sam thread closure...

Not a popular move Alcar.

What mindless, contradictory deleting of posts are you talking about, ClaireBear? I've only seen posts removed which are themselves mindless.

The...er... posts that suggest that those "members" who are in agreement with Peter over this issue are "ass lickers and kisses"... I think that although a childish format was making a valid point!!!

Hmmm, if that's a valid point, it's a somewhat short-sighted one. Unfortunately, outside of GD and the Spoiler Forum I don't have the ability to see the content of posts that were deleted, so I have to trust that they were of unsatisfactory nature. One point would be that they are offensive, another that they are directed at just one person.

But in reply to whoever said those things, I'm sure whoever was accussed can see the logic behind the rules and what we're doing, and wouldn't be so petty as to enthrall favour with someone on a fan-based Forum.

The problem with having such stiff rules on spam is that our last three posts are by this forums definition spam!!!!

You addressed me directly I answered you directly.. messages for one member are spam are they not? So by such a definition normal, deviating conversation is a warnable offense? :confused:

Actually, the posts you are referring to which are supposedly spam, aren't, because they contribute to the discussion at hand. While Max is asking you a question, he's asking you to clarify something intended to promote this thread.

Does anyone have anything constructive to say. A perfect example of contributing is Mac's last post in this thread. Otherwise, you're just moaning with the same old content.

Alcar...

Giving the topic a brief instant of contemplating, I thought maybe the rules were unclear or ambiguous, so I went up and checked. Truthfully, I was surprised by how coherent they were regarding the 'addressing only one member' concept.

Then I looked again and saw there is indeed an element of confusion there.

If your thread and / or post are relevant to only one member, use the Private Message system to contact them instead. Threads and / or posts directed solely to one member are considered spam, and will be dealt with in the same manner as spam.

The first part makes it clear that it is only posts that are relevant to one person that should be kept off the Forum. Then later it says that posts directed at one person are spam. While your post was directed at me, it was relevant to all who read this thread. So the upshot of all this is that (hopefully) we've begun to clear up that little matter.

Good pick-up Max :)

I've modified the rule in question to make it clearer, so that it now states:

If your thread and / or post are relevant to only one member, use the Private Message system to contact them instead. Threads and / or posts that fit this criteria are considered spam, and will be dealt with in the same manner as spam.

Alcar...

Law enforcment? Cack. I should say well done to Alcar then I suppose.

DI has got a point. When Syd did this everyone went apeshit. Now Alcar acts completely draconian deleting posts left and right and everyone just bends over and takes it without lubrication? Un freaking believable!

80% of the people here weren't even around when Sydney was here. You can't compare the two at all, it's an entirely different group of people.

Yes, as Mac explained, the demographics of the Oddworld Forums at this point in time are completely different. So you can't expect the same responses. However, one major point you've overlooked, Statikk, is that back then, hardly anyone actually spammed. There was the occasional newbie, who was set straight very quickly, but other than that, not much in the way of rule breaking.

However. There is a lot of rule breaking and spamming now.

Alcar...

However. There is a lot of rule breaking and spamming now.

Alcar...

And the problem with that is?

I still don't get it you know... does it cause anyone pain, suffering etc etc etc... no!

But as I said before... the demographics must have changed here... there seems to be a Hell of a lot more younger posters here who probably don't understand what the Hells going on having perhaps not posted in other forums a great deal to compare your "regime" to theirs or maybe too scared to oppose your "views"...

It appears to be the older members (me, Statikk, Nate) that are having difficulty with this.

Basically spam commeth with immaturity... but your regime cometh with an obsessive, excessive attempt at maturity... the two shall never lie down well together!

Spam is related to immaturity? You've been one of the worst offendors in the past. The only thing that comes with age is stubbornness to see your own contradictions.

Who does it hurt? It hurts all of us in the end, when there is nothing but spam to reply to. Who else? Oddworld Inhabitants. I've said it many times, and I'll say it again. The Oddworld Forums have a duty to Oddworld Inhabitants. We are, actually a great promoting ground for the Oddworld series. Not only that, but we have many fansites that are prominent in the Oddworld Forums community.

We earn nothing from Oddworld Inhabitants. We do this because we want to. Which means we have a cause, other than greed. And you've got to contend with both Abe Babe's and I's passion. We aren't going to do anything that jeopardises the Oddworld Forums. And we see spamming / rule breaking something that could jeopardise them.

Alcar...