Forum Guidelines

[The Eva Monkey]

Ok, now give me some credit, cause I've never administered my own forum before. I've done it for others, but never from scratch for myself. So I'm new to this whole thing.

I've drafted the beginnings of a well laid out set of rules. I'm still revising it, and will most likely make alterations as issues present themselves. But for now, here's a gist of what I will be expecting from you. Some of these are rules, some of these are merely guidelines, but I expect you to adhere to most of this.

You can find the rules in the forum links below the header, or here: http://www.evamonkey.com/forum_rules.php

[Reichu]

One thing I have noticed here is a lack of regard by the majority of members for the "proper writing" rule. Sometimes it is as minor as not using capitals; othertimes, posts can be completely incoherent. Whatever happened to netiquette? I'm a bit of a grammar snob -- writing properly has always come naturally to me, and when I first arrived on the Internet, perhaps a decade ago, people often couldn't believe I was that young. Communicating properly is important, and your level of written fluency on the Internet is a big part of how you are perceived by others (to me, anyway). Yes, some people have learning disabilities (dyslexia, etc.), or English is not their first language, but overall I get the sense that people are simply lazy, apathetic, or both.

On another note, I have noticed a profundity of very short replies that contribute nothing. Saying nothing but "Yes", "no", "I agree", or whatever is essentially a form of spam. Spam is okay once in a while if you compensate with a greater number of substantive posts, but when the spam outweighs the substance, we have a problem.

[Sventevith]

I thought most of the things that was listed at that site was obvious? ;)

I've been following them pretty good, except when I've felt a little weird - then I usually do weird stuff too!

And most of you people here write so refined that it scares me from writting, because it would make me look like a lesser being because of my minor english skills (15 years old, coming from Sweden - better english than most others in my age though) and my lack of words in some situations.

[Hexon.Arq]

Sventevith - You have a damn good excuse. Don't be intimidated.

Reichu - "Boo hoo hoo, I'm superior!" Get used to it.

[Reichu]

Reichu - "Boo hoo hoo, I'm superior!" Get used to it.

Get used to what?

[Soluzar]

Reichu - "Boo hoo hoo, I'm superior!" Get used to it.

Get used to what?

Get used to poor spelling and grammar, I suspect.

[Reichu]

Those who cannot write properly ought to get used to correct spelling and grammar.

[anatrok]

Nyaa...I wouldn't consider anyone on this board bad with spelling or grammar....so I don't really know what your complaining about....

[Reichu]

Nyaa...I wouldn't consider anyone on this board bad with spelling or grammar....so I don't really know what your complaining about....

You're absolutely off the mark here. The standards of writing on this board are ABYSMAL, save for a handful of people. If this were a test of English prowess, 85% of the members would fail. I think if I am subjected to any more of this, I will go mad and reflexively delete any post that does not meet the basic standards of comprehensiveness. This forum has a few noteworthy members, but the amount of offal is outrageous. This place is like a cess pool of teenage boys who can't write, and a forum devoted to NGE deserves much better.

[DatDude]

I do not mean to be rude but, this board is about NGE, not english class.

If we are polite and posts do not become unreadable, why care if our spelling is screwed up?

As far as I know we've never had anyone banned for " bad spelling and grammar". It kind of sounds like your heading in that direction Reichu, and thats just silly IMHO.

[Reichu]

Well, that last post shows that you are least capable. Does it all amount to laziness, as I thought?

It's not about English class, but a forum is a hub of communication. The Internet is supposed to enhance communication, not facilitate its degradation -- yet the inverse is, ironically, true. If you folks can prevent this, you should. Lazy typing is obnoxious to read and it reduces the quality of a forum and its discussion. Oh netiquette, where art thou?

[DatDude]

I think you are making a big deal over nothing, and as such I will return to my wondering around the internet.

[AchtungAffen]

Everyone, halt die Klappe! Grammar macht Frei!!!

[anatrok]

Wait, so do you consider me on of those "teenage boys who can't write"?

[Reichu]

Well, those who have received PMs from me know who they are. :P

DatDude, I wouldn't consider it so much a "big deal" as a realistic thing to expect of people who have made it at least to junior high school.

[ShetenshiSenshi]

Is my image sig too big?

[Cogboy]

I think the general rule is that you should only have a sig pic if it links to some sort of personal site like a deviantart account or something.
but i don't think anyone will really mind you keeping yours, just see if anyone notices.

[Mr. Tines]

As I noted earlier today, standards have been slipping lately, partly due to mods & admins being distracted by the real world. However, time has come to say "Enough is enough!"; and we shall start being more ruthless.

These simple guidelines should help us all.

• Your post must /contribute/ in some way to the thread. If you do not have anything useful (or perhaps amusing, in a pertinent way) to add, your post will be considered spam. That is to say, junk. Noise. Pointless filler. Don't spam.
  
  
• QUOTING:
  
  • DO NOT QUOTE ENTIRE POSTS. Edit them down to _the part(s) you are actually replying to_.
    
  • Quotes within quotes within quotes (etc.) will also not be tolerated, unless they are required to provide context to a response.
    
  • Embedded images from the original post must be edited out unless it is actually practical to leave them in.
  
  Broken tags are no better than broken English*. Make sure your posts do not have them. Use the preview function!
  (* This especially applies to native English speakers. The broken English, that is.)
  
  
• Do not instigate or contribute to the derailing of a thread if at all possible. Off-topic conversation should be diverted either to a preexisting thread of the appropriate topic, a new thread, or, if appropriate, PMs. Splitting and/or locking threads that go off-topic, pruning out off-topic posts to the Graveyard, and constantly reminding people to STAY ON TOPIC BITCHES are *not* things the moderators should have to do to maintain order in threads. [In fact, Monkey's policy was originally to simply LOCK threads that went off-topic. The splitting, etc., stuff is generous, in contrast. You should feel lucky we do it at all.]
  
  
• Before creating a new thread, check to see if a preexisting thread satisfies the specifications. Yes, we promote Necromancy. And, yes, this means you have to become familiar with the Search tool.
  
  
• Reminder on keeping sigs bounded in screen real estate (150px being as tall as it gets -- otherwise Less is More) or they will be destroyed without notice or mercy. And maybe replaced with text that says, "I SAWED THE SIGNATURE." (Sorry. Obscure reference.)
  
  
• Double-posting: DON'T. Create a new post to bump the thread if you must, but then copy the text of the previous post into the new one, and use the little button to delete the old one. Otherwise, the button is your friend.
  

[slothen]

Read and approved.

[Tokpile Quohog]

This being a forum I generally assumed that there would be some leeway when it comes to writing/grammar so I'm somewhat okay with it. The main thing that bugs me are posts that make so sense whatsoever and trolling. But from my experiences in other forums, the mods here do a great job.

Please do not quote the quote of a quote. We had this giant pyramid quote thing going a while back but having to see them everywhere is not cool. (EDIT: whoops Mr. Tines already mentioned this)