Update to forum rules

[orudge]

Hello all,

The forum rules have been updated. I would ask you all to go and read over the new rules, just to ensure you're familiar with them. If you wish to see exactly what has changed from the old rules, click here. Mostly this is just a bit of rewriting for extra clarification, but there are a few more significant changes:

• We now allow wider signatures, up to 800 pixels wide. The height limit of 60 pixels remains unchanged. As usual, we will exercise discretion over signatures, but blatant abuse of the rules will see action taken.
• I have clarified the copyright policy, and how to report infringing material.
• I have also added some information on how we use cookies on the site.

If you have any questions or concerns about the new rules, please let me know.

Thanks,

[Transportman]

Not that many changes compared to the old one, just two questions.
-Rule 1r:

please contact an administrator or moderator to request this.

And how should I contact an administrator/moderator for this request? Maybe add a notice on how one should contact the administrators/moderators. My guess would be that I have to report my own post.

On the copyright part:
What if you are on a holiday or have no access to Internet for longer times? Are you then also going to reply in 72 hours? Who is then taking over? Maybe only list the possibility to mail to abuse@tt-forums.net instead of also allowing PMs?

[JamieLei]

Woo! Double posting now permitted under sensible circumstances (as opposed to the old oft-flouted rule of not under any circumstance).

[Hyronymus]

Woo! Double posting now permitted under sensible circumstances (as opposed to the old oft-flouted rule of not under any circumstance).

That's merely a written down reflection of what we intended to do, so nothing really changes.

[orudge]

And how should I contact an administrator/moderator for this request? Maybe add a notice on how one should contact the administrators/moderators. My guess would be that I have to report my own post.

Reporting would likely be most convenient, yes. I shall amend the rules at some point to state this.

On the copyright part:
What if you are on a holiday or have no access to Internet for longer times? Are you then also going to reply in 72 hours? Who is then taking over? Maybe only list the possibility to mail to abuse@tt-forums.net instead of also allowing PMs?

Even if on holiday, or if my "landline" Internet is down, I anticipate I shouldn't be without Internet access for that long - hence me picking that number. I could perhaps make it just go to abuse@tt-forums.net and forward that to several moderators/admins, or set up some other kind of reporting mechanism on the site. I'll have a think.

[FooBar]

[*]We now allow wider signatures, up to 800 pixels wide. The height limit of 60 pixels remains unchanged. As usual, we will exercise discretion over signatures, but blatant abuse of the rules will see action taken.

About this rule 2a, I find it amusing that an image may be 800px wide, but a line of text is still limited to around 600 px
Maybe change the first 800 px to 1024 px or something?

[orudge]

Hmm, I see what you mean now, in terms of the "Signatures may contain up to five lines (one line being that displayed on a browser opened to 800px width)" bit. I suppose that could be changed to 1024 pixels.

The spirit of the rule, though, is "don't take the urine".

[FooBar]

What I meant to say: if I start nitpicking about things like this, the rules are quite solid indeed

[Dave]

"An exception to the three strike policy applies when users contact administrators or moderators personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban. Likewise, posting illegal, hateful or abusive messages on the forums or sending private messages this nature to any forum user may also result in an immediate permanent ban."

"private messages OF this nature" surely!

Pedant!

[orudge]

Surely indeed. Will be fixed in the next revision.

[Lord Aro]

Can i also suggest explicitly allowing double posts in certain situations, such as screenshot forums...

[orudge]

Well, I think some appropriate use of judgement is necessary in such situations - two posts in a row may be acceptable in a screenshot forum, maybe three. But then there might be situations where somebody is posting screenshots for weeks on end and absolutely nobody is commenting on them (may not be likely, but could happen) - where do we draw the line?

I think I'll leave the rules as they are, but moderators can exercise discretion as appropriate in cases such as the screenshots forum. Likewise, if somebody is posting screenshots or whatever in a NewGRF topic, then posting two posts in a row because you have more than 3 attachments is generally accepted.

[Dave]

Well, I think some appropriate use of judgement is necessary in such situations - two posts in a row may be acceptable in a screenshot forum, maybe three. But then there might be situations where somebody is posting screenshots for weeks on end and absolutely nobody is commenting on them (may not be likely, but could happen) - where do we draw the line?

I don't want to compartmentalise this issue too much but as far as I'm concerned on this issue specifically I don't care if people aren't responding to my screenshots, I will still be posting them - I don't think you should stop people doing that - but only in the screenshot forum.

[andel]

Well, I think some appropriate use of judgement is necessary in such situations - two posts in a row may be acceptable in a screenshot forum, maybe three. But then there might be situations where somebody is posting screenshots for weeks on end and absolutely nobody is commenting on them (may not be likely, but could happen) - where do we draw the line?

I don't want to compartmentalise this issue too much but as far as I'm concerned on this issue specifically I don't care if people aren't responding to my screenshots, I will still be posting them - I don't think you should stop people doing that - but only in the screenshot forum.

I second this motion as it could otherwise put people off one of the primary activities of the forum.

[orudge]

Well, there will be no specific rules made for the screenshots forum, but we will use our judgement if anything should arise that we think may be problematic. The vast majority of what goes on there just now is absolutely fine, so we're not going to suddenly start making issues out of things that weren't issues before.

[orudge]

Just a note that rule 1(j) has been updated, to add a note about replying to spam. New bit in bold:

Spam of any kind is not tolerated here under any circumstance. The term "spam" includes, but is not limited to, unsolicited commercial marketing, flooding, boasting about post counts, posts with fewer than 3 words (an exception is made for word games in the Forum Games board), and posts only containing smilies. Users posting spam will be warned and their post removed. If you do come across a spam post, please report it using the Report icon next to the post, and a moderator will attend to it as soon as possible. Please do not, however, reply to the spam message. We reserve the right to issue official warnings to users who reply to obvious spam messages.

[YNM]

Ehh... how about if the spam is like the last one ? Do we need to report all, do PM, or report one of them ?

[Hyronymus]

Ehh... how about if the spam is like the last one ? Do we need to report all, do PM, or report one of them ?

Just report one. As you can see the total postcount of an individual member so can we. It's easy to trace them and for Owen it's even possible to mass-move them away.

[Illegal_Alien]

So i woke up my big friend Orudge for nothing? Aws should give him a hug now, because i stalked him about it, poor Orudgie forgive me my dear friend, for my nightly disturbence about this incident.

Group hug anyone?

[orudge]

Well, you didn't wake me up, but I attended to it as soon as I noticed it (which was in fact through your message).