Forum Guidelines and Rules - or - Let's work on some better posts this year.

[jitspoe]

I'm not a fan of excessive moderation, but some of the recent posts have been getting a bit out of hand.  The new year is as good of a time as any to set some new rules.  I want these forums to be a place where people can come to get help, provide feedback, and exchange ideas, not a place to throw insults at each other.

From now on, I will be more aggressively deleting or locking posts that are counterproductive.  Here are some guidelines to help you make better posts:

- Don't troll.  Trolling is making posts simply to elicit an emotional (angered) reaction from other users.
- Provide constructive criticism.  There will always be inexperienced people looking for feedback on maps, websites, or whatever.  Instead of railing into them about how horrible it is, take the time to explain what's wrong with their design and how to make it better.  Be helpful, not hurtful.
- Don't take flamebait / don't feed the trolls.  If somebody posts something simply to make you angry or upset you, don't dignify it with an enraged response.  Don't fight flames with flames.  Instead, report the post to me (through PM on this board, IRC or whatever), and I'll delete it if need be.  If you feel a response is needed, make sure it's cool and well composed.  Perhaps do something else and come back to it if the poster really gets under your skin.
- Don't ridicule other users, particularly about physical appearance.  At least pretend to show some respect.  Even if it's in jest, not everyone will know you're joking and it sets a bad example for other users.
- Profanity isn't necessary.  Really, it isn't.  Sure, it's "just words," but so is about everything else on the forums.  Nearly every time profanity is used on here, it starts or contributes to a flamefest.  If you find yourself using it, you probably need to rethink the tone of your post, or perhaps cool down a bit and post later.
- Don't make "+1" posts.  In other words, don't post simply to increase your post count.  Add something valuable to the discussion or don't post at all.
- Use the spell check.  It's right there along with the "Post" and "Preview" buttons.
- Don't use lame "AOL speak" (ie: OMfG, LyKe R U SeRiUS?!!11eleventy1)

Thank you, and happy new year.

Edit: Sorry, I accidentally made this locked instead of sticky.

[Excalibur]

i go to alot of forums most of them christian and its better here then there. its sad that the mods do nothing over there.

[BSoD]

Yeah but theres still a buncha spam here.. maybe get a mod to delete spam threads.

[nXe]

"- Provide constructive criticism.  There will always be inexperienced people looking for feedback on maps, websites, or whatever.  Instead of railing into them about how horrible it is, take the time to explain what's wrong with their design and how to make it better.  Be helpful, not hurtful."

This will probably be impossible for me.

Hah- You've provided good feedback whenever i've showed you a site or anything.  And thanks for the mapping help.  Jakes just bitter...

[M&M]

lol
not funny
i like this forum, better than others forums i know.

[Excalibur]

same here m&m its cleaner them some christian ones i go to. and thats just sad for the christian but more power to the paintball community for it.

[Fryth]

Well, there's no justification to have any kind of flaming/insults or hacking accusations on the forums... Am I the only one who doesn't want to read about people whining and criticizing each other all the time?

Aside from that, I think the only rules you really need are "respect each other" and that's groovy. Otherwise there's no need to try to fix a problem that doesn't exist, by adding rules.

[loial21]

Problem is frye some of us dont "respect" others. I doubt any rules would be needed, if that would change. Good post though Fryth.

[paintface]

how do you actually play this game

[TM]

Well first of all you make a new topic and name it something like, Need advice on how to play PBall or sumthing like that. Then you make sure you put your message in the correct thread not a random one. Then you wait for people to reply. It also helps to read some of the previous threads as some of your questions will probably already be answered. Also, the question you are asking is a bit to 'broad'.

The main thing is practise. As with nearly everything else.

[P!nk]

http://dpball.com/forums/index.php?topic=1545.0

Further down the page you will find some excellent resources directly from the community's best. Please do not post in that thread, however, as it was dead some time ago. If you need more information besides what you know hence far, follow TM's instructions and don't post in threads that are either dead and/or not pertaining to your topic. It not only draws the thread off-topic, but also causes many conflicts which take some time to be resolved, this usually results in a thread split. Not good.

[jitspoe]

I'm going to crack down a bit more.  Recently things have been getting really out of hand, and I've been getting complaints about the forums being a flame fest.  In addition to deleting flames and spam, I'm going to start issuing temporary bans.

Here are some things that will likely get you temp banned:
- Evading the profanity filter, particularly to attack another user.
- Attacking other users in general.
- Spamming things like "My name is ____" or other mockery whenever a new person posts.

I'll probably start a new thread containing the posts that resulted in a ban so people know what's not acceptable behavior (and so the people who were banned know why).  I'm sorry it has come to this, but I feel like I've been babysitting this forum almost 24/7 just to keep things sane.  Hopefully temporary bans will motivate some personal accountability.