Make Modding Forum rules more obvious

Currently, they're stickied in Showcase. While that's not the worst they could be; it doesn't make much sense. Wouldn't they be better off in Modding General? Or, even better, can we sticky the rules to both subforums somehow, to make them nice and obvious to anyone making a thread in either subforum? As they are, I doubt many people even know the rules exist. This would make them far more evident.

 

Yea, I'm sorry about that. Didn't mean to start the little war that occurred yesterday.

 

Yea, I'm sorry about that. Didn't mean to start the little war that occurred yesterday.

don't worry about it, we get these like every month.

though to be honest I think there should be some sort of notice when you make an account or just on the front of the forums

 

Yea, I'm sorry about that. Didn't mean to start the little war that occurred yesterday.

I made this thread because I realized that my defense for shitposting was "the guy should know that his stuff is against the rules" but that it was difficult to know the rules even existed
it's not your fault the shitposts happened, but the fault of non-visible rules

 

Well I went and read those rules so nothing dumb like that will happen again. Again I should have known better to check the rules than to go ahead and post away.

 

Now this, this I can support. Thank you dunc, this was much needed. Is there a way to force the user to read the rules before making an account? Or at least give them every opportunity to do so, so there's no excuses?

 

I am very much in support of making relevant rules more conspicuous so that posters in modding forums are more likely to see them and abide by them. Maybe something for andwhy to consider when he migrates us this weekend.

Well I went and read those rules so nothing dumb like that will happen again.

Probably not from you again, but it's bound to keep happening with members who join after you do, so some preventative action may be a good idea.

Is there a way to force the user to read the rules before making an account? Or at least give them every opportunity to do so, so there's no excuses?

This was almost 4 years ago, so my memory might be blurry, and things might have changed since then (we were on vBulletin back then), but I seem to recall receiving a prompt telling me to read the rules when I joined. If this was changed in the migration to IPBoard, then this might be another thing to request andwhy to change when he migrates us to Xenforo.

 

Is there a way to force the user to read the rules before making an account? Or at least give them every opportunity to do so, so there's no excuses?

Maybe a pop-up whenever you visit a new subforum, based on browser cookies - but IDK the limits of Xenforo, if any
or have a short list of rules relating to the subforum whenever you make a new topic, or a link to the full rules whenever you make a new topic

but there should definitely be some way that every user will see the rules at some point, and be able to see them again later

 

Maybe a pop-up whenever you visit a new subforum, based on browser cookies - but IDK the limits of Xenforo, if any
or have a short list of rules relating to the subforum whenever you make a new topic, or a link to the full rules whenever you make a new topic

Okay, we want to make the rules more obvious to new users, but it's not like we want to shove it in people's faces everywhere they go. I feel as if that would be going a bit overboard.

 

Okay, we want to make the rules more obvious to new users, but it's not like we want to shove it in people's faces everywhere they go. I feel as if that would be going a bit overboard.

for the "whenever posting a new topic" thing, I didn't mean a popup - I meant just a list at the side or top as 'guidance', not like they have to read it every time or whatever

 

Mayby make reading the rules part of the humanity test in some way? Take out two birds with one stone, even though one of the birds is already dead. Make it multiple choice questions. They read the rules, select an answer(s), and then they become a member.

 

I think we should just close registration, that would save a lot of hassle

 

XF seems to allow linking to a thread for forum rules during registration. I'll need to merge modding rules back into the main rules page for this to work though.

If you guys want to do forum rules Q&A then I wouldn't mind some suggestions.

 

Yeah the forum move seems like a good time to do some general updating, it's been a long time, even if making things clearer and more obvious can only do so much. It would give me something to do as well while andy is busy un-breaking everything

 

If the rules are as obvious as can be; new members will no longer be able to use ignorance as an excuse
Imagine, people getting infractions for ideas threads

 

Well I have a test script I'm working on that may one day allow me to show relevant rules at the bottom of certain pages. Like all posting-specific rules below both normal editor panes, all thread-specific rules below the new thread editor pane, that one signature rule below the sig editor pane, and all rules on the forum rules page. Modding rules would be something of an extension to the thread and post rule categories, assuming I can filter by forum category.

Something like "When submitting a post the following rules are in effect" and then a list of relevant rules.

I wonder if this might be a bit annoying to some users though? Maybe make it collapsible like the spoiler tags? Also it would have the unfortunate side-effect of making the rules uneditable by anyone but myself, which may not be desirable. So whether I pursue this or not is something I am still debating with myself.

In any case I have neither the time nor conviction to set up anything like this before the move.

In the meantime the forum rules will need to be consolidated and simplified. Our post bumping rules are still a convoluted mess and the second half of the NSFW rule is not exactly clear.

 

I think we should just close registration, that would save a lot of hassle

NO, we need new ideas in this forum. More people who want to create actual stories. Recently, the CSTSF has devolved into primarily making joke mods. Thankfully we've seen a recent rise in popularity of challenge mods.

 

okay listen if you think the cstsf was better before the joke mods then
you're absolutely right, we should ban every member that joined after, say, 2013

 

But that would include me!

 

the system works