SN Rules/Guidelines Feedback

So we're going to be updating our rules and guidelines again soon, and we'd like to hear your feedback about how you(yes, YOU) feel about the current rules and guidelines for the forum. Are there any rules that you feel like should be removed/added/changed/etc., or how people should follow a particular way in doing things when posting?

If so, please let us know in this thread. Any and all feedback whether good or bad would be appreciated. We can take it.

I swear, you guys have to let up on that "In Character" posting rule! Hitler didn't appreciate being banned, and neither did his army!

Okay that was a joke, but since you mention it, there is some feedback on the current rule system that I would like to share. One rule in particular, and I shall quote it here.

Quote :

4. Do NOT post in/bump/necro/revive threads if they have been inactive for 30 days or more. This definitely applies if you have nothing to contribute to the revived topic.

Now let me start by saying that I understand and respect why this rule is necessary and important. However, from a creator's point of view, it can be frustrating when the trailhead for their series hasn't been bumped in more than 30 days, especially if the series is still ongoing. Fellow creators know that Slender Nation is my forum of choice, and they sometimes ask me to post in their threads for them (because who doesn't want their series to be talked about?) and I have had to tell them a couple of times that I couldn't because their thread hasn't been bumped in so long. Now I'm not going to speak for the other creators, and claim that this rule is turning them away from Slendernation, or effecting their opinion of the website, but I will honestly say that when I bring that rule up, the response isn't always good.

It isn't because these series aren't well known or anything like that. There are a few series that I know the creators from that have not been updated on this site in the last 30 days. As far as the Creators go, these series are pretty well known to us. If I were to be the judge, I say a couple of those series are moderately known, one series it quite a bit more known, and one is a very popular one, with more than a thousand subscribers! So it can't just be a case of "No one wants to talk about these series, so that's why their threads don't get bumped." But if it's not that, then what is it?

If I had to guess, I would attribute it to possibly being the current post volume. I'm not an expert on this, and I don't know how many posts are made in a single day, but there have been days that I look on this site after being away for 24 hours, and only 5 or so threads have been posted in. I could be way wrong on that, but the traffic on this site might be going a bit slower, and heck, that can be simply because we are a smaller community. Once again, I could be and probably am wrong, so I apologize if I'm just talking out of my ass here. The point I'm trying to make, is that with the amount of traffic we get, there are still threads for great series that don't get bumped enough.

Now once again, the rule does make sense, and I especially agree that if a topic has to be revived, the post HAS to be relevant. But if I were to change anything about the rule, I would give a bit more leeway. Perhaps by extending the period past 30 days, or changing the rule for trailhead threads belonging to ongoing series. Perhaps "You may only bump a trailhead that has not been posted in for 30 days or more, if the post is very relevant to the progresss of the series, such as announcing a new video/tweet/blog post/update." Or heck, maybe even making the 30 day mark more of a guideline than a rule.

These are just ideas, and I won't mind if they aren't used. If the rule stays the same, I won't mind that much at all. I'm just taking a look at the rules as they are, and providing feedback for a rule that I have dealt with personally while talking to other creators. As far as the other rules on this site are concerned, I think they all work really well.

Keep up the good work guys.

Thank you Tiro. We'll definitely be fixing that.

Does anyone else have anything to suggest or put on the table in regards to the rules? Please don't hesitate.

Well, Expanding on what Tiro said, I would also make exceptions for rule against double posting to allow the creator to announce something highly relevant to the progress of an ongoing series.

Zetto, there's a reason we have double posting rules.

In the situation you're presenting, let's say a creator posts their blog here or something, and it's open to discussion.

It initially gets some discussion, but then it wears down and no one updates it as much, so the creator comes along and posts an update for it.

Unfortunately for them, no one posts about it so then they make another post with an update.

And then another...
And then another...

So at this point it might look kind of bad on the creator for updating a thread that no one's really interested in anymore and it just kind of clutters the thread for it.

This is why we merge some posts together, so as to keep the thread cleaner and have less self-insertions all over the place, as well as lessen peoples' spamming of topics. However, I know that myself and other staff members don't want to sit here and constantly have to edit posts into each other for a series that no one is interested in anymore. So as for giving people exceptions I'm sure I can speak for the rest of the staff when I say no to that.

If we were a bit more harsh on it like beforehand, then there's quite a few vlog and blog threads that would have less pages right now, I'm sure.

Though thinking about our methods of merging, we could probably edit them into the recent post so the thread stays more recent instead of dying from the topic expiration date abyss. (Even though that hasn't stopped some people, but we'll be working on that anyway, as I said in response to Tiro's post.)

There are a few flaws in the current rule system and we'll be cleaning that up to where the whole thing can function properly, but creators aren't going to spam their own topics to death.

Zander wrote:

Zetto, there's a reason we have double posting rules.

In the situation you're presenting, let's say a creator posts their blog here or something, and it's open to discussion.

It initially gets some discussion, but then it wears down and no one updates it as much, so the creator comes along and posts an update for it.

Unfortunately for them, no one posts about it so then they make another post with an update.

And then another...
And then another...

So at this point it might look kind of bad on the creator for updating a thread that no one's really interested in anymore and it just kind of clutters the thread for it.

This is why we merge some posts together, so as to keep the thread cleaner and have less self-insertions all over the place, as well as lessen peoples' spamming of topics. However, I know that myself and other staff members don't want to sit here and constantly have to edit posts into each other for a series that no one is interested in anymore. So as for giving people exceptions I'm sure I can speak for the rest of the staff when I say no to that.

If we were a bit more harsh on it like beforehand, then there's quite a few vlog and blog threads that would have less pages right now, I'm sure.

Though thinking about our methods of merging, we could probably edit them into the recent post so the thread stays more recent instead of dying from the topic expiration date abyss. (Even though that hasn't stopped some people, but we'll be working on that anyway, as I said in response to Tiro's post.)

There are a few flaws in the current rule system and we'll be cleaning that up to where the whole thing can function properly, but creators aren't going to spam their own topics to death.

Good point man, I guess I wasn't thinking when I made my last post.

Nah, it's fine man. If you hadn't brought it up, I wouldn't have come up with (hopefully) a good way to fix it. Thanks for the feedback.

Zander wrote:

Nah, it's fine man. If you hadn't brought it up, I wouldn't have come up with (hopefully) a good way to fix it. Thanks for the feedback.

No problem man, I give a lot of feedback but most of it is from my amp so most of it is not useful.

Alright, so we have a write-up of the updated rules, and I figured I should post them here. As with similar updates, a lot of them are the same because they don't really need changing. However, with the new rules, we'll be giving people a clean slate to work off of. I will be adding a repercussions section detailing what the repercussions are for breaking particular rules.

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SN Rules

1. Do NOT Post "In Game", or "In-Character". Leave your immersion at the door. The Slender Nation, for all intents and purposes, is an "Out-Of-Character (OOC)" site for users to post freely outside of the Slender Man Mythos Universe.

This means that any posts as a character from any series on the forum, promoting a vlog or blog In-Character, posting about being stalked by Slender Man or anything of that sort, WILL NOT be tolerated.

2. Do NOT "Plug and Run". A Plug and Run is when you post your blog and then don't post anything else on the forum, leaving it behind. If you do so, you have a week to post elsewhere before we take any action.

3. NO Spamming. Spam, or posts that are nonsensical or irrelevant to the sub-forums in which they're posted, are not acceptable. This also counts as double posting, one-word posts, advertisements, and topics that don't belong anywhere on this forum.

4. Do NOT necro threads past 30 days. Please ask an Administrator or Moderator for permission if you wish to revive a thread/topic and what you intend to post to it. If a thread is locked, you can ask to have it unlocked but only if a post is approved by an Admin or Mod. As a standard, all topics that haven't been posted in from 2011 and back have all been locked.

5. Do NOT Disrespect Other Users. Be nice and respectful. If you are excessively vulgar, insulting, explicit, hateful, or if you post material that is provocative or intended solely to offend other members, it will not be tolerated.

6. Do NOT Harass Members. If a member is reported for harassment of any kind; sexual harassment, emotional harassment, etc.

7. Do NOT use outside or forum-based personal issues/vendettas to instigate problems within the community. Same goes for trying to instigate or escalate problems between users.

8. Do NOT try to impersonate an established Slenderverse creator, another user, or Slender Nation Staff. This will be taken care of immediately.

9. Enforcement of Regional Laws. There will be no threats, sexual role-play with minors, sexual role-play with adults, terrorist plotting, OR any activity that clearly breaks the law in the USA and/or your place of residence. This includes links to illegally gained music, movies, tv shows or ripped audio from copyrighted/trademarked material. (i.e. Mega video links, Pirate Bay torrents, etc.)

10. Mature Material. (Refer to Guideline 2 for the guideline to posting mature material.) Despite the guideline, any mature material that is too excessive for the members of this forum will be removed accordingly.

11. Do NOT post Harmful Images. Certain types of graphic images that may contribute to, or cause viewers to experience an adverse physical reaction, such as migraine headaches or seizures, are not permitted. Should your post or signature contain such an image, it will be removed.

12. Inappropriate Profile Content. Anything excessively vulgar, insulting, explicit, hateful, or breaks any other rule of The Slender Nation that is found on your profile will be removed/edited.

13. Signature Content. Any images in your signature must not break past the post border. Do not stretch the page with your signature. The content will be removed if it exceeds the post border and/or expands the page.

Sub-Forum Specific Rules

This section is for Sub-forums that need elaboration upon.

Out-Of-Game Discussion: This sub-forum is meant for the OOG (Out Of Game) discussion of Slender Man vlogs and blogs. It is highly recommended that if you don't want to ruin any and all immersion, do NOT check this sub-forum. You've been warned. If there is a complaint about Out-Of-Game info received from there, used elsewhere without permission, there will be a temporary ban. This applies even more so with the intent to ruin a series, or try to game-jack it.

Flamewars: The Flamewars is a sub-forum for when other members discuss problems involving the site and/or members, or topics in general. It's meant to isolate the incidents from the rest of the forum so it doesn't affect other topics. However, this does NOT give you permission to break the rules that have been established when posting in this sub-forum. Try to remain civilized despite how strong your emotions may be about the subject.

SN Guidelines

1. Please post in a legible manner. Refrain from using chatspeak and try to use proper grammar when posting. It helps other members to understand what you're clearly saying. Also, try to be sensible when using different fonts and colors when posting. Using a different color for every word/letter isn't really necessary.

2. Any material that is sexually explicit, pornographic, depicts excessive violence, and/or gore is not encouraged. This may be a site about the Slender Man who is of a horror origin, but there are members of a younger audience on this forum. If you do post such material, you MUST label it as "Not Safe For Work (NSFW)", and put it in a Spoiler tag in a post.Reported content or images deemed inappropriate by Slender Nation Staff will be removed instantly, even if it may be labeled as NSFW.

3. Don't overreact on members that may not have the best of grammar. We don't need grammar police on the forum. There are other users of which English is not their native language, so please keep that in mind.

4. Avoid backseat moderating/use the Report System. Please use the Report System instead of taking matters into your own hands. The Report System is for when you find a topic or post on the forum to be breaking the rules. By doing this, it will notify the Staff immediately so that they can take care of the problem, and it'll keep the forum cleaner without having threads de-railed by these situations.

5. Keep in mind that others may have differing opinions to your own. Don't try to force your opinions on the other members. If you have facts to help support your opinion, or have a solid fact to disprove an opinion, then that's perfectly fine. Just don't have a discussion degenerate into an argument over who is "right" and who is "wrong" when a theory or speculation isn't set in stone.

6. If someone disagrees with you, don't take it personally. They don't have it out for you or hate you just because they may disagree with something you post. It's better not to dwell on such thoughts, as they could cause problems later on.

7. Be mature enough to admit when you're wrong. You can't always be right.

8. When posting a new topic in a thread, please check to see if pre-existing topics or similar content to what you're posting hasn't already been provided. This helps keep the forums tidier and all of the content to a topic in one place. Same goes for when you're posting in a thread. It helps to fully read through the thread, for someone may have already posted the content you want to post on a previous page.

In accordance with Rule #4, if you wish to revive a thread/topic that has passed the 30 day limit, please ask an Administrator or Moderator for permission and what you intend to post to it. If a thread is locked, you can ask to have it unlocked but only if a post is approved by an Admin or Mod. As a standard, all topics that haven't been posted in from 2011 and back have all been locked.

9. In a blog and/or vlog thread. Creators of the series in particular may post in their discussion topics to update them, but should not reveal too much. We may be an OOG site but part of the fun is speculating and theorizing. A few small details don't hurt, but giving info away by the handful is going to be frowned upon.

10. If you have any questions needed answering in relation to the forum, members, or if you are unsure whether content you want to post violates our rules, it's best to check with a Moderator before submission.

There's of course the Forumotion ToS and and our Staff-Related section, but this is the main deal you all should follow.

Nice work on the rules Zander, Very nice indeed.