DBB Policies a little outdated?

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Drakona
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DBB Policies a little outdated?

Post by Drakona »

Laughed pretty hard when I saw this one:
5 - Avoid religion and politics discussions.
This despite the fact that politics is one of the major topics on this board these days, and religion comes up a fair bit too.

Seriously... Koolbear and Sup wrote this thing back in 1997. The board has evolved so much since then that I'm sure it's speciated at least twice. (I, for one at least, think of the DBB I knew and loved back then as a long-dead animal, and the current version as something entirely different!)

I know I'm probably just being picky and annoying, but are there any plans to update that with the current real policies and guidelines for the board?
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Post by TheCops »

heheheh.
i can't even find the policies let alone abide by them.
:P
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Post by Drakona »

Yeah, I hit the link on the description of Ethics and Commentary, just out of curiosity. I suppose you want to be linked to it?
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Post by MD-2389 »

Actually, the policies were updated some time ago in text form. They just never got updated on HERE.
User Guidelines:

1 - No spam. The staff reserves the right to determine what constitutes spam, but we all pretty much know what it is. Don't spam the board.

2 - No adult material. This includes nudity and bypassing the profanity filter (including such words in images themselves). If you have to ask, either don't post such material at all or post it in the NHB forum.

3 - No flamewars. People disagree, and that's cool. However, personal attacks because of a difference in opinion are just lame, and things can quickly get out of hand on an online forum because of them. Don't flame. Play nice, and use lots of smileys, or something...

5 - Keep the forums on topic. We tried to set up forums that cover broad enough categories for whatever Descent topics you might have. When in doubt, go to the DBB Announcements / Feedback Forum and ask. Crossposting is not permitted.

4 - No links to multiplayer cheats or dicussions of cheating will be allowed on the DBB. This includes URL's, hyperlinks, files, or any other type of discussion about cheating on this board. Also please do refrain from posting of IP's of subspected cheaters or or finger-pointing. You can try talk about multiplayer cheating in principle, but if a flamewar starts, the mod in charge will close it and we'll blame you.

6 - Limit your signature. All signatures should be limited only to 3 lines and no more. A blank line is also considered a line, so please remember to keep this in mind when using the signature feature on this board. Images and religious content are also not allowed in signatures.

7 - Image Guidline. All images that are posted should be at the most 100k, if the image exeeds the 100k limit, link the image. Images should also not force the user to scroll horizontally at 1024x768. Also it is polite to not steal bandwidth, so if the image is hosted on a server that is not your own, please link.

8 - Malicious content. Don't mess up users browsing experience. This includes all webpages that lock up a users computer, embedded sounds, messing up the table tags in the forum, or other such maliciousness.

Moderator Guidelines:

Every one we asked to be a moderator is someone we felt is already a contributor in the Descent community, has a lot of experience in the subject matter of their forum, loves the game, likes to write about it, and from what we've seen is mature enough to handle whatever situations that come up with good judgment. This means that the forum you're given is yours to run: just do what you normally do and the board will work out great for everybody.

We made the forums and set up some simple descriptions of the subject matter; these should be pretty straightforward. We probably exchanged e-mails with you, talked with you online or otherwise discussed any details specific to your forum by now. If we haven't, or you have questions/suggestions/concerns, get ahold of us and we will trade ideas.

Ideally we would like you to check the board at least once a day; if you can't always do that no big deal, but try and be consistent enough to keep touch with what's happening. If you won't have computer access for an extended period of time (more than 5 - 7 days or so) just drop us a line so we know to keep an eye on the forum for you. How often you check / participate in your forum is a matter of judgment, but again, because we asked you if you'd like to be a moderator, it means your probably into the topic enough for this to be fun and not a hassle for you anyway.

Moderators have rights to edit messages, delete messages / entire threads and close threads, from forums where they are granted rights. These functions should be self explanatory. Anything beyond that will be privatly discussed with the you and the member, if you have any other problems direct the case to Sickone or Xciter.

Moderators should follow the rules like any other user. Moderators in any case should not needlessly delete, edit messages posted by members, abusive behavior will not be allowed.. Abusive behavior could cause you to have your privladges removed.

We're hoping that the format of the board, and the caliber of the people on it will keep conversations more or less 'civilized', productive, and fun. We want everyone to be able to be free enough to express themselves within the limitations of the rules.

If you haven't done so already, we would like you to post a message to your forum welcoming everyone, describing what topics the forum more or less covers, and mentioning your experience.

If / when the time comes that you don't think you'll be able to continue moderating your forum, we'd appreciate it if you'd let us know in advance. That way we can line up somebody to take over.

Ok, if by chance you happen to get into a disagreement with a DBB moderator, we ask that you follow the following procedure:

1. E-mail the moderator in question. Their e-mail addresses are visible at the very top of the thread listing in each forum. PLEASE try to stay civil. Remember, your objective is to SOLVE your disagreement, not keep it going.

2. If you cannot resolve your problem with the moderator in question, then contact an administrator. Be sure to be as descriptive as possible WHILE remaining civil. Bashing the moderator in question will not look good in your defense and only hurts YOU. If need be, include your conversation(s) with the moderator in question so that the Administrator can make as fair a judgement as possible.

Finally, the Descent BB really is for the benefit of the community. We're the admins for the board, and take responsibility for setting everything up, design issues, final policy decisions, staff coordination etc.. but from that point on it belongs to everybody. Think of it as a big anarchy game, you guys are the refs, and we're just the poor suckers that have to do all the legwork and take the heat when things get lagged. Thanks for all your efforts guys: we know great things are gonna happen because you're a part of it.

- Koolbear, Sup, Sickone, Xciter, GAvotte, Tetrad, Ferno, and MD-2389.
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Post by Scorch »

ha, I like the part about Moderators having to follow the rules as well..,. :roll:
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Post by Ferno »

Really jim? what was the problem exactly?
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Post by MD-2389 »

He sure as hell didn't say anything to us about it.
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Post by MD-2389 »

Xciter wrote:I know he did in an email between you me and him...
That was over the conversion. I don't have any e-mails concerning the guidelines in my inbox.
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Post by fliptw »

Guidelines shouldn't look like legalesse.

If its too long, no one will bother to read it.

Not that most would actually read anything they are supposed to.

What MD posted looks more like a contract than a set of guidelines.
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Post by Gooberman »

I agree with Sickone.
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Post by Ferno »

well, split it in half. post the users part in public view, and the moderator part in the moderator group FAQ or whatever.

and i didn't see anything about the guidelines in my inbox either.. hmmm...
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Post by Tetrad »

fliptw wrote:What MD posted looks more like a contract than a set of guidelines.
It's pretty much exactly the same as the old policies, except with the religion/politics taken out and the image and sig (shows how old this is) rules put in place.
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Post by MD-2389 »

It wasn't me. I've got every e-mail I've gotten since '00 and I've only got two from Kevin which were on a totally different topic.

Anyways, about the guidelines, how bout we do what Ferno suggested and just split them up and have links to just the User guidelines and the Mod/Admin guidelines.

As for a mod forum, I actually suggested one some time ago. What we also need is a "recycle bin" as an evidence forum. That way, if someone does something they shouldn't, it gets moved there instead of deleted so there is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt one way or another that someone did something they shouldn't have. (ie: the recent hijacking of my account a while back and posting that 'gay' thread.)
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Post by Lothar »

On the other board I'm staff on, our "secret" forum is highly useful. Among other things, when someone suggests we un-ban a friend of theirs, we can go re-read whatever it was that got the person banned in the first place. It keeps us from forgetting why that person got banned...
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