Improving the Community

[Petrosian]

Most of you who have visited multiple forums will agree with me on this point: The more members there are, the worse the community is on average. We might be slipping away from a good community, so I propose some additional rules.

1. Just ban leet, except in Nonsense.
2. New members must do an easy English test, like writing five sentences. Example:
Question: How do you properly ask someone to close the door?
3. Required reading of the rules before starting. This is best enforced by slipping a message in between the rules, somewhere near the end. Example:
Rule X
If you've read to this point, put a dollar sign in your post
Rule Y
4. Max of 5 smilies per post, and no posting one smilie multiple times. This shouldn't be allowed:
LOL11!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
Again, Nonsense is the exception.
5. No name-changing to imitate someone else's. Actually, I did this once. Anyone who does this should get the same punishment: Changing back their name, sig, avatar etc, and a ban on the whole forum from changing their names for 3 days.
6. No posting in others' log posts. If there is a question about units, they should go into a new thread for each army called "Comments". Only very big problems go into God-Mod Alert.

That's all I have to suggest. I hope this stops a newb from naming their general Sir Omgwtfroflmao in the future.

[yoshimaster]

You know I very much disagree. If a forum becomes too uptight, it ceases to be fun.

[bulbmin]

I agree with most of these, apart from the "put a dollar sign in your post" one. I know it was just an example, but it still seems kind of awkward.

Oh, and:

Dec 1, 2008 9:26:17 GMT -5 yoshimaster said:

it ceases to be fin.

[Rocky]

I think it would be good to have an entrace exam, but a bit more... well, more.

[yoshimaster]

Mistype, I meant fun.

[THE GODDAMN BATMAN]

Dec 1, 2008 6:07:22 GMT -5 Petrosian said:

Most of you who have visited multiple forums will agree with me on this point: The more members there are, the worse the community is on average. We might be slipping away from a good community, so I propose some additional rules.

1. Just ban leet, except in Nonsense.
2. New members must do an easy English test, like writing five sentences. Example:
Question: How do you properly ask someone to close the door?
3. Required reading of the rules before starting. This is best enforced by slipping a message in between the rules, somewhere near the end. Example:
Rule X
If you've read to this point, put a dollar sign in your post
Rule Y
4. Max of 5 smilies per post, and no posting one smilie multiple times. This shouldn't be allowed:
LOL11!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
Again, Nonsense is the exception.
5. No name-changing to imitate someone else's. Actually, I did this once. Anyone who does this should get the same punishment: Changing back their name, sig, avatar etc, and a ban on the whole forum from changing their names for 3 days.
6. No posting in others' log posts. If there is a question about units, they should go into a new thread for each army called "Comments". Only very big problems go into God-Mod Alert.

That's all I have to suggest. I hope this stops a newb from naming their general Sir Omgwtfroflmao in the future.

1. That's pretty much how it is right now.
2. We've been planning on doing that, but only if they have noticibly bad grammar. If they have legible text from the beginning, it seems pointless.
3. I'm with Bulbmin on this one.
4. No, honestly it doesn't seem like it'll be nessicary. I think we'll need to do it unless we get someone who does this a lot, and even then we'll probably just ask them to stop before we do anything as drastic as this. It really isn't that annoying if someone only does it occasionally.
5. I agree with the consequences, but it's not worth actually putting it in the rules for. It's unlikely that someone else will do it, and if they do we can just punish them.
6. Definetly not, some new guys really need you to post in their box. While you were gone we had this one guy who had posted over a dozen times in his own mailbox to get someone's attention, before I finally told him to post in the3 other person's mailbox.

But that's just my opinion.

[vidguysteve]

Well, as much as my opinion's worth...

2. I don't think that people should be judged by their grasp of the English language. What if it isn't their native language or they struggle with it? Or, what if they're dyslexic? If the posts are unreadable, then I agree. But otherwise, I say live with it.

3. I'm guessing that reading the rules is only if you plan to play?

4. Limiting smilies? REALLY? That's just restriction of free speech.

5. Makes sense.

[Makajawan]

I'd pretty much agree with vidguy. 1's fine with me, six doesn't seem necessary, but if I understand your proposal correctly, then I've got no problem with it.

[Waffle-SS]

I really don't see any need for any of these, especially 6. A quick reply in the corrosponding topic seems better than bottlenecking all the comments into one topic.

[Planet9]

I would agree with most of these if the world was perfect.

However, it isn't, and so I must only agree on 1, partly on 2 (I think we just need to make decent grammar a rule. I mean, forgetting to capitalize every now and again is fine, but if you type like this: i rly wish ther wuz more cake here, then that is bad.) 3 I sort of agree with, but we already have something like that (Please make appear you have read the rules.) 4 I don't really agree with, although I do find the smiley's ugly. 5 should just lead to a suspension, to make sure there are no impersonations. 6 I agree with.

[Water Dumple]

Frankly, I must disagree. This is a far too uptight system for a forum that's only slightly so. Leet is pretty much only ever done in jokes, often in additions to posts, so it doesn't really matter. Norbert and I came up with a grammar test that we'll be using on new members who fail to respect the English language slightly--I mean, stuff like Yoshimaster's occasional typo (Fun->Fin) doesn't matter, but the insane disrespect for English will go. (By the way, Bulbmin, your response to that typo was hilarious.)

The rules deal, I feel, (lolrhyme) is not entirely needed. If you haven't read the rules thoroughly, your application will not be approved. That's why the application is there--To ensure that you understand the rules. It's not flawless, sure, but I don't think we need to police members like this. Limiting smilies is random--If it goes overboard it's dealt with, but I don't think a number limit makes sense. Name-changing for imitation is understood. As for posting in others' log topics, I don't see why that shouldn't be allowed. It's simple, as you can address the problem with the log right there, it's easy, because the post button is right there, and it will probably get the attention of the person you want to the fastest.

In my opinion, this won't really "Help the community" very much; it'll just overpolice it.

[yoshimaster]

Yeah bulbmin that was funny and to petrosian, you ar phaill ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D so go awy slly!

[Waffle-SS]

Dec 1, 2008 20:44:45 GMT -5 yoshimaster said:

Yeah bulbmin that was funny and to petrosian, you ar phaill ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

o, i c wut u did thar

[yoshimaster]

yu did da dat to!

Okay Idiocy is over. That was fun.