Below are the rules that have developed over the years, but we did not think it was necessary to put them down specifically because they seem to fall, at least to most of us, under the “be reasonable” rule or just simple courtesy. Unfortunately, this has enabled a few to claim that they did not know the rules or that forum moderation was completely arbitrary or that they were not informed of what rules they had broken. So in addition to the updated rules, we are also going to make the process more transparent. A user might disagree with a mod’s ruling, but that person cannot say that he wasn’t told why or that there is not an appeal process. So, here they are:
The updated rules as they stand:
1. Do not make personal threats toward members or their families. This is a Diplomacy site and no members should have to worry about actions taken against them in real life.
2. Do not post or make reference to personal information about another member without their specific consent.
3. Do not make targeted threads that are abusive toward another member, group of members, or social group. This includes but is not limited to posts regarding sexuality, race, and religion.
4. Creating an account for the sole purpose of advertising goods or services is not allowed, but a member can post an advertisement as long as he/she does not spam the forum by posting the same message repeatedly.
5. Punishment for infractions may range from a warning, a temporary silence of 48 hours each time to a ban at the discretion of the site owner. The moderator staff retains sole discretion in taking punitive measures. Silences will prevent forum posts as well as private messages. Bans are an instrument of last resort and the moderator staff will seek to avoid issuing them where reasonably possible.
When in doubt about whether posting something is allowed, remember your first responsibility: use common sense and respect other players!"
Moderator Responsibilities:
As users have their own set of responsibilities, so does the moderator staff. As representatives of the WebDiplomacy users, the moderators will be held accountable for disciplinary decisions. While judgement regarding forum rule violations remains at the sole discretion of the moderator staff, users will be provided with a clear warning regarding rules violations in either a forum post or private message. Users can appeal any moderator's decision by sending an email to
[email protected], specifying the grounds for the appeal. The appeal will be dealt with by one of the admins that was not involved in the original decision or by the site owner. The outcome of an appeal is final.
On a more general note, I realize that a lot did happen over the weekend and there was a number of posts/threads that had clogged up the forum a bit, which understandably is not pleasant. Since then however, the forum has seen more posts and threads than before. We have seen a lot of positive feedback about the site and the forum in the mod emails, emails to me, in PMs, and even on the forum! In fact, there are many more people who have spoken up in the forum recently who said they were reticent to post before or that they stopped posting because of the vitriol and general hostility in the forum. There are just more people posting in the forum period!
I believe that we are capable of having an interesting forum while being respectful to each other. Respect yourself and respect others. You can disagree with people, but that is no reason to be disrespectful. Many people are excited about the site improvements we are making and many of the top 200 peak GR veterans are excited to come back to the site to play quality games. And playing Diplomacy games is truly the main reason we have this site.
Please look forward to a more welcoming, respectful, and interesting forum, more quality games, more tournaments, more site features, and less cheating on webdiplomacy.
Sincerely,
Zultar and the Mods
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