Derek
12-12-2009, 02:13 AM
The Boards is a dictatorship. A benevolent dictatorship, but a dictatorship none the less. You have the privilege of discussing basketball here, providing you obey the rules. Failure to obey the rules will see that privilege revoked.
For the most part, I don’t ask for much. It would be really nice if I could just have one rule: Wheaton’s Law (http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2008/03/wil-says.html). However, people do stupid things that annoy me, and then argue “but that wasn’t explicitly spelled out in the rules, therefore you can’t ban me, neener neener neener.”
So here are the new revised rules.
I can ban you for any reason, at any time, without warning.
However, to introduce some consistency in decision-making, The Boards has, effective immediately, an ‘infraction’ scheme- particular offences attract a points penalty, and once you have a certain number of points, you get an automatic ban.
Accruing 3 points earns you a one-week ban.
Accruing 6 points earns you a one-month ban.
Accruing 12 points earns you a six-month ban.
Accruing 100 points earns you a permanent ban from the service.
Points expire after 7 days.
It is possible to earn multiple penalties for the same post- for example, 1 point for dragging a discussion off-topic, plus 2 points if you’ve already been warned for it previously, would give you 3 points (and a week off).
1 point:
Posting affiliate or sponsor links to other sites so you get a referral fee. This includes Amazon and other legitimate businesses, as well as bookmakers or online gambling sites. (Links to personal sites or non-profits- like your Movember site- should go in your signature or profile. But don't post just to pimp your site.)
Excessive coarse or obscene language. The Boards should be at about a PG level- I don’t mind a little bit of ‘colour’ in discussions, but particular words at the high end of the scale are always going to earn you a point.
Off-topic discussion. It is possible that the topic of discussion may change- a game-day thread, for example, might turn into a discussion of a particular event that occurred during that game, or of a particular team’s tendencies/weaknesses/championship calibre. If the discussion remains basketball-related and is reasonably linked to the original topic, we probably won’t give you a point for this.
Posting a thread that is not on-topic in that particular forum. We will not penalise you for 'borderline' calls- a thread about Nathan Jawai's NBA performances, for example, belongs in World, not NBL, but would be of interest to NBL fans. In that case we would just move the thread. (Use the Search function before starting a new thread.)
Non-descriptive and unhelpful thread titles. Your thread title must clearly tell me what you’re referring to. (You may edit your posts here, so if you fix it before we see it, you’ll be fine.) This includes thread titles that just have “You know…” or something useless, which make us click the thread to see what the hell you’re on about.
Giving away the result of a televised game in the title of the discussion thread. This includes NBA/NCAA games in the World forum.
Posting multiple threads. One game, one thread. If two people have the same idea at roughly the same time, you won’t get any points, we’ll just close whichever one has the fewest replies. I don’t mind if you revive old threads providing the discussion is relevant- for example, there might be a lapse of time between former Kings owner Tim Johnston’s arrest and any possible trial.
‘Bump’ing threads to put them at the top of the page without adding anything to the discussion.
Responding to threads with “who cares?” or “too long/didn’t read”.
Responding to threads with a single smiley/emoticon, or empty-quoting another post without adding any comment of your own.
Derailing threads with irrelevant internet memes (like Rickrolls) or dumb jokes. (Good jokes are allowed, however I’m the final arbiter of standards of humour.)
Quoting other people’s problematic posts so I have to clean up your post as well as theirs. (Just click the Report button, people!)
Cutting-and-pasting articles from other sites. This gets us into serious copyright hot water. Don’t do it- provide a link to the article so others can read it. If you MUST cut-and-paste, please only include the parts of the article you want to talk about, and directly address them.
Wasting the mods’ time. Don’t click Report unless the post really justifies it; reporting posts to the mods out of spite isn’t going to make you popular.
Posting links to BitTorrent trackers. There are multiple legal ways of watching NBA games now- one of them is even free- so there’s no reason to download.
Backseat moderating (pestering and harassing admins).
2 points:
Derailing threads with abuse. I will allow a certain amount of leeway if you’re arguing the topic rather than just calling each other idiots. (Play the ball, not the man.)
"The refs cheated" / "We were robbed" / "We were playing 5-on-8" or any variant thereof. Unless you can explain WHAT ASPECT of the refereeing speciflcally cruelled your team's chances of victory, blaming the refs without any attempt to explain yourself will get you an infraction. If you're discussing a specific call, remember- most of us did not see the game, we are relying on written reports, so tell us what happened.
Posting material that violates the privacy of staff, other members, or any third party. This includes players, coaches and administrators, as well as The Boards staff and members.
Admin sass. Doing something after an admin (generally me) asked you specifically not to do it. The other admins will be able to see your ‘rap sheet’, so they’ll know if I’ve warned you before.
3 points (instant one-week ban):
Posting material that is Not Safe For Work. This includes (but is not limited to) nudity; sexually explicit material; violence, dismemberment and gore; links to ‘shock sites’.
Posting links to illegal material (for example warez sites).
Spamming (posting garbage posts or threads to disrupt or clog up the forums).
Proposing or threatening to disrupt, invade or vandalise other internet forums or sites.
Posting unconfirmed signings or speculation as fact, in its own thread.
100 points (instant permanent ban):
Posting advertisements for cheap cigarettes, medications, fake watches, counterfeit clothes/shoes, sports betting sites, World Of Warcraft gold-farming operations, investment scams (including chain letters), pornography, or anything otherwise deemed problematic by moderators.
Being really, really annoying and/or violating multiple rules to the point where we're just completely sick of you.
In your User CP (top left link) you can see what your current points tally is- if you are given an infraction you'll get a Private Message explaining it. A message is also posted in our super-secret Admin forum, so the admins can't pursue personal vendettas without the rest of us seeing them. Unless it's me, in which case, tough, it's my site. :P
DN
For the most part, I don’t ask for much. It would be really nice if I could just have one rule: Wheaton’s Law (http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2008/03/wil-says.html). However, people do stupid things that annoy me, and then argue “but that wasn’t explicitly spelled out in the rules, therefore you can’t ban me, neener neener neener.”
So here are the new revised rules.
I can ban you for any reason, at any time, without warning.
However, to introduce some consistency in decision-making, The Boards has, effective immediately, an ‘infraction’ scheme- particular offences attract a points penalty, and once you have a certain number of points, you get an automatic ban.
Accruing 3 points earns you a one-week ban.
Accruing 6 points earns you a one-month ban.
Accruing 12 points earns you a six-month ban.
Accruing 100 points earns you a permanent ban from the service.
Points expire after 7 days.
It is possible to earn multiple penalties for the same post- for example, 1 point for dragging a discussion off-topic, plus 2 points if you’ve already been warned for it previously, would give you 3 points (and a week off).
1 point:
Posting affiliate or sponsor links to other sites so you get a referral fee. This includes Amazon and other legitimate businesses, as well as bookmakers or online gambling sites. (Links to personal sites or non-profits- like your Movember site- should go in your signature or profile. But don't post just to pimp your site.)
Excessive coarse or obscene language. The Boards should be at about a PG level- I don’t mind a little bit of ‘colour’ in discussions, but particular words at the high end of the scale are always going to earn you a point.
Off-topic discussion. It is possible that the topic of discussion may change- a game-day thread, for example, might turn into a discussion of a particular event that occurred during that game, or of a particular team’s tendencies/weaknesses/championship calibre. If the discussion remains basketball-related and is reasonably linked to the original topic, we probably won’t give you a point for this.
Posting a thread that is not on-topic in that particular forum. We will not penalise you for 'borderline' calls- a thread about Nathan Jawai's NBA performances, for example, belongs in World, not NBL, but would be of interest to NBL fans. In that case we would just move the thread. (Use the Search function before starting a new thread.)
Non-descriptive and unhelpful thread titles. Your thread title must clearly tell me what you’re referring to. (You may edit your posts here, so if you fix it before we see it, you’ll be fine.) This includes thread titles that just have “You know…” or something useless, which make us click the thread to see what the hell you’re on about.
Giving away the result of a televised game in the title of the discussion thread. This includes NBA/NCAA games in the World forum.
Posting multiple threads. One game, one thread. If two people have the same idea at roughly the same time, you won’t get any points, we’ll just close whichever one has the fewest replies. I don’t mind if you revive old threads providing the discussion is relevant- for example, there might be a lapse of time between former Kings owner Tim Johnston’s arrest and any possible trial.
‘Bump’ing threads to put them at the top of the page without adding anything to the discussion.
Responding to threads with “who cares?” or “too long/didn’t read”.
Responding to threads with a single smiley/emoticon, or empty-quoting another post without adding any comment of your own.
Derailing threads with irrelevant internet memes (like Rickrolls) or dumb jokes. (Good jokes are allowed, however I’m the final arbiter of standards of humour.)
Quoting other people’s problematic posts so I have to clean up your post as well as theirs. (Just click the Report button, people!)
Cutting-and-pasting articles from other sites. This gets us into serious copyright hot water. Don’t do it- provide a link to the article so others can read it. If you MUST cut-and-paste, please only include the parts of the article you want to talk about, and directly address them.
Wasting the mods’ time. Don’t click Report unless the post really justifies it; reporting posts to the mods out of spite isn’t going to make you popular.
Posting links to BitTorrent trackers. There are multiple legal ways of watching NBA games now- one of them is even free- so there’s no reason to download.
Backseat moderating (pestering and harassing admins).
2 points:
Derailing threads with abuse. I will allow a certain amount of leeway if you’re arguing the topic rather than just calling each other idiots. (Play the ball, not the man.)
"The refs cheated" / "We were robbed" / "We were playing 5-on-8" or any variant thereof. Unless you can explain WHAT ASPECT of the refereeing speciflcally cruelled your team's chances of victory, blaming the refs without any attempt to explain yourself will get you an infraction. If you're discussing a specific call, remember- most of us did not see the game, we are relying on written reports, so tell us what happened.
Posting material that violates the privacy of staff, other members, or any third party. This includes players, coaches and administrators, as well as The Boards staff and members.
Admin sass. Doing something after an admin (generally me) asked you specifically not to do it. The other admins will be able to see your ‘rap sheet’, so they’ll know if I’ve warned you before.
3 points (instant one-week ban):
Posting material that is Not Safe For Work. This includes (but is not limited to) nudity; sexually explicit material; violence, dismemberment and gore; links to ‘shock sites’.
Posting links to illegal material (for example warez sites).
Spamming (posting garbage posts or threads to disrupt or clog up the forums).
Proposing or threatening to disrupt, invade or vandalise other internet forums or sites.
Posting unconfirmed signings or speculation as fact, in its own thread.
100 points (instant permanent ban):
Posting advertisements for cheap cigarettes, medications, fake watches, counterfeit clothes/shoes, sports betting sites, World Of Warcraft gold-farming operations, investment scams (including chain letters), pornography, or anything otherwise deemed problematic by moderators.
Being really, really annoying and/or violating multiple rules to the point where we're just completely sick of you.
In your User CP (top left link) you can see what your current points tally is- if you are given an infraction you'll get a Private Message explaining it. A message is also posted in our super-secret Admin forum, so the admins can't pursue personal vendettas without the rest of us seeing them. Unless it's me, in which case, tough, it's my site. :P
DN