Title: Rules Too Strict?
Hotaru - July 7, 2008 07:21 PM (GMT)
So, I've recently created a forum with another person, and although people are joining others seem to show interest and then get scared away. I'm not sure why this is, but I know that the rules of a forum influence my decision of whether to join or not, and so here is our rules list. I'm simply curious to see if they are good, too strict, or not strict enough. Suggestions of rules to add/take away are also appreciated. Thanks. :]
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OOC::
1. Here at Morsmordre, prejudice of any kind will not be tolerated. Prejudice includes remarks that are racist, sexist, or offensive to a religion, group of people, etc. If a comment is even close to being prejudiced, don’t risk posting it.
2. Sadly, Morsmordre is allergic to chat speak. Please don’t substitute letters with numbers or symbols; it ends up giving people headaches!
3. Respect is a vital part in this forum. We’re not asking you to be best buddies with someone who annoys the hell out of you – we just ask that no one is harassed, provoked, and vexed.
If there really is a problem between you and a member, don’t hesitate to contact an admin member.
Morsmordre has a brutal truth policy – nothing but the truth goes. Especially when it comes to critiques.
4. When you join, make sure to change your display name to your character’s name. Do not role play until someone has accepted you into a house! We will try to look over the application as soon as we can, until then feel free to chat on our Out of Character boards!
5. Register a new account for each character. This is necessary to assign the proper membergroups and keeps everything less confusing.
6. The admin at this site are extremely serious about their jobs. More than often, they will be right when it comes to disagreements. Do not act as if you own this site. Every admin member has been with Morsmordre since the beginning – they were all a part of the rule writing process, the application creating, etc.
7. Try to start your application in the first 72 hours you are a member. If you want other members giving you suggestions as you are completing your application, write a [S] in brackets beside your name. Otherwise, leave it normally. If you have been registered for two weeks and have not started your profile, your account will be deleted. If you have started your profile but then fallen inactive, your account will also be deleted after two weeks.
IC::
1. Everyone is limited to two students and one teacher. Since female characters normally overpopulate in forums, it is advised that you don't bring in two female students, but rather a male and female or two males.
2. After you are accepted into Hogwarts, make sure you have a celebrity claim. Anime characters will not be allowed! Neither are werewolves, half random animal, vampires, etc. If you do not claim your celebrity and someone else comes along and claims the celeb you have been using, you will be asked to change it.
3. All In Character posts must have a minimum of two well developed paragraphs. Paragraphs must have a minimum of 5 sentences and it is suggested to either bold, color, or do both to speech.
4. Please try to include as much information as you can about the setting, time, and plot of the thread. If the thread includes extreme amounts of violence, sex, drugs, cursing, and alcohol include a capital [X] in your thread title. If the thread is limited to a certain number of people, add their names in brackets. Otherwise, add in [OPEN] or [O] in brackets. Code word for application is Death Eaters Own!
5. All posts must be in third person narrative form. No god moding, Mary/Gary Sues, killing, or powerplaying is allowed in the role-play forums. OOC’s are allowed if they are put in parentheses or brackets and are kept to a minimum.
Graphics::
1. All characters should have an avatar and signature that has to do with themself. Signatures may not stretch out the page (maximum width is 450px, maximum height is 200px.) and are limited to one per account. It is advised that you include links to your character's profiles and relationships underneath the signature.
2. Your avatar must be a picture of your character, sorry. This makes it easier for people who want to include avatars in their relationship plots as well as the administrators when choosing the member spotlight.
3. Graphics may not contain nudity, porn, etc.
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Jae - July 7, 2008 08:44 PM (GMT)
It sounds fine to me, but I'm not too picky. However, there is this part:
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| More than often, they will be right when it comes to disagreements. |
I'm not entirely sure why, but that part kind of rubbed me the wrong way, probably because there are always debates about what's right and what's wrong, and I've had my share of disagreements with admins (not at RPGs, or at least not in the past five years or so) who always thought they were right.
So I'm thinking, maybe change it to something about the administrators being fair and doing the best they can under the circumstances, and to respect their decisions because they put a lot into running the site. Or something. xD
Vanity - July 7, 2008 11:29 PM (GMT)
Some of it sounds patronizing. The second rule particularly. Frankly, my muggleborn & halfblood characters say things like "roffle" and "pwn" a lot. My real-life friends say those things a lot. But I would be afraid to use it on your board, even though it's not the sort of excessive chatspeak (I assume) you're talking about.
SJWinchester - July 8, 2008 12:53 PM (GMT)
I agree with the above comments.
Regarding the language you have used, I might say that instead of
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| Signatures may not stretch out the page |
You say should not. Giving the dimensions afterwards seems to make the use of 'may' a bit... superfluous. But that's just me.
Carbohydrated - July 8, 2008 02:10 PM (GMT)
I agree with the statement above the above statement too. To be perfectly honest, it comes off a bit abrasive throughout. I would still join if it were a good site (it takes more than rules to scare me away), but I would notice the undertone and prejudge the administration, hahah. Then again, that might be a personal problem.
Radsos - July 8, 2008 07:16 PM (GMT)
The rules do tend to rub me the wrong way in a few parts.
For example, I happen to like to make characters who are rascist, sexist, homophobic, or just hate a particular group of people because, quite frankly, I like to play with them. They are fun and can actually make quite a few threads hilarious. Offensive, perhaps (though I do note in an ooc tag before such posts that the views of such characters are not my own - which is mainly why I like to make them like that). So, could you clarify on that - say that it only applies to OOC or to both IC and OOC?
Also, for the rule about chatspeak, specify if it all right to say things like 'G2G' 'lol' 'rofl'. You know, stuff like that without overusing it.
Lastly, this rule...
| QUOTE |
| 4. Please try to include as much information as you can about the setting, time, and plot of the thread. If the thread includes extreme amounts of violence, sex, drugs, cursing, and alcohol include a capital [X] in your thread title. If the thread is limited to a certain number of people, add their names in brackets. Otherwise, add in [OPEN] or [O] in brackets. Code word for application is Death Eaters Own! |
For open and unplanned threads, things may turn to violence, sex, drugs, cursing, and alcohol in a heartbeat. So, if players are not already given the option of altering a thread title, perhaps you could state that if it does turn to mature content then one of the players could contact an admin and ask, 'Hey, can you put an [X] on this thread?'
Hotaru - July 9, 2008 07:07 PM (GMT)
Thank you guys for all your suggestions.
I fixed 'em up in every way mentioned, so hopefully they'll be a bit more welcoming & understandable. :]
Thanks again, very much.
Tammi - July 9, 2008 07:23 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Paragraphs must have a minimum of 5 sentences and it is suggested to either bold, color, or do both to speech |
Should be: Paragraphs must have a minimum of 5 sentences; it is suggested to either bold, color, or do both when showing speech.
^ Something like this? The sentence is a little iffy.
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| Please try to include as much information as you can about the setting, time, and plot of the thread. |
Can they just list those ooc'ily? xD I know I'd get annoyed if I had to do that.
Otherwise, looks good to me. A lot of other fixes have been suggested, so the changes sound good~
Akala - July 11, 2008 03:49 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| 6. The admin at this site are extremely serious about their jobs. More than often, they will be right when it comes to disagreements. Do not act as if you own this site. Every admin member has been with Morsmordre since the beginning – they were all a part of the rule writing process, the application creating, etc. |
This is the one that gets me and would totally turn me off of the site. I agree with what Jae said earlier though. This kind of rubs off as "We are right period. Even if we are wrong, we're right and there's nothing you can do about it so STFU and GTFO."
I'd instead rephrase it to sound more like the admin will try to be fair in situations instead of "I'm right, you're wrong". :-/ That's all though that I see.
December, Esq - July 11, 2008 04:54 AM (GMT)
I wouldn't join your site. I'm sorry, but I would see rule #6 and then get my hiney out of there as quickly as I possibly can. No, wait, I'm not sorry; that rule just grates a nerve so badly that I wouldn't give the site a second thought. And frankly, I find it hard to care for your feelings if you don't care for the feelings of the members as your rule so delicately states. [/blunt]
Oh, but I do like the part about putting the [s] in the title or whatever if you want other members to give feedback. I thought that was sort of neat.
pathogenicoma - July 11, 2008 05:03 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Please try to include as much information as you can about the setting, time, and plot of the thread. |
This confuses me. I'm hip and down with giving the location and time at the top of the thread, and usually setting is involved with the thread through the writing. But... the plot of the thread? What if the thread has no plot prior to it actually being written? Do you want a small blurb on what the thread is going to be about?
It's just... confusing.