FanArt forum Rule Changes - READ THIS OR GET BANNED! [Archive] - Team17 Forum

PDA

View Full Version : FanArt forum Rule Changes - READ THIS OR GET BANNED!

thomasp
6 Aug 2007, 16:04
Of late, the FanArt forum has got more and more spammy, which as a result, has begun to spill over into the rest of the forum. Therefore, the moderation team has decided to change the rules a bit to try and cut down on the spam. We will also be imposing harsher penalties for spamming and derailing threads - these will be discussed later. These rules will be taking immediate effect
The Rules - In short.
Rule 1: Anything not directly relating to FanArt is spam, and all threads must contain art (see below). Posts will be removed and infraction points issued.
Rule 2: Anybody replying to the spam will have their post removed and a larger number of infraction points issued - replying to spam doubles the work for the moderators.
Rule 3: Anything created in under one minute is NOT FanArt. This will be removed.
Rule 4: Rules 1 - 3 are enforced entirely at the moderators' discretion.
The Rules - In Depth
Rule 1:
New threads must contain Art in the first post (see rule 3), with the exception of the "Official FanArtist of the Month" threads and associated voting threads. If you want to do a request or competition thread, you must start off with an example piece of art that is original. (If you haven't got any way to create art, then ideally could you solicit a starter image from someone else -- and credit it, of course? An original one, mind.) Threads with "Art Coming Soon" will be removed -- the thread needn't be posted until the art is. If you want a sigworm or avatar, then post in Avatar Absurdity (http://forum.team17.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=59)
Criticism is half the point of the forum, but if you're saying something unkind do please be helpful about it: say something that will help the person improve. This isn't The X Factor here. Tell them what the problem is and ideally offer advice on how to fix it. Otherwise you're just being mean.
Bottom line, before you post, ask yourself if your post is in any way useful to anyone other than you. If it isn't, then perhaps it should be in a Private Message, or just part of your stream of consciousness. Private conversations are NOT to be had in a Public forum. Use the private message facility or, use one of those wonderful instant-messaging services like MSN, AIM, or GoogleTalk. But don't carry out your private conversations here! If it's only of interest to two or three people, do it somewhere else.
All of this brings us quite nicely onto Rule two:
Rule 2:
Quite simply, if you reply to a spam post, you are spamming. And not only that, you are creating more work for the moderators. While vBulletin version 3.6.x has a really nice and quick "Multi-post Delete" feature, it's still a right pain in the neck to remove 20-odd posts from a thread. It's considerably quicker to remove the entire thread or lock it.
Since this annoys us, we'll give anyone who replies to spam more infraction points, usually.
If you see some half-decent spam, this forum has a post report feature. Click this icon (depending on what skin you are using): http://forum.team17.co.uk/images/buttons/report.gif or http://forum.team17.co.uk/images/retropurple/buttons/report.gif beneath the offending post. We can see who reports the spam, and anyone who reports a lot of petty stuff that's not really worth our time will probably be thrown onto a Being Watched status. Every post report generates an email that's sent to the mods and admins. We'll try to keep our eyes on things as much as possible but we do need your help for the more serious cases
See also note on backseat moderation in reply below
Rule 3:
Spend a bit of time on your artwork. Something created in under a minute really can't be considered art, and we'll probably just remove the threads. This also means that artwork must be your own creation - not taken off a website or stolen.
Rule 4:
If you want to post a thread that is technically against a rule (say, it's impractical to have art in post one) but that you think isn't really spam, then that's probably OK, but it's best to email or PM a mod first, in case we disagree. It's all very much spirit-of-the-law rather than letter-of-the-law stuff, so we'll very possibly just tell you to post it anyway. Probably some people will report it anyway, but we can ignore them easily enough.
The Punishment!
So, what happens if you break the rules. Well, your posts will get removed and some infraction points will highly likely be issued to you. The infraction system is quite handy as it issues punishments which then automatically expire, so we can put you onto Being Watched or Banned statuses temporarily. And then forget about it and the forum will remove it for us automatically. As I'm sure most of you know, the infraction system has been here for a while. We're not really changing it, just adding a few more things for the FanArt forum.
There are four levels of punishment that the mods/admins will dish out.
A small infraction
A "couple of points" that will expire after about 30 days. If you earn more than 10 of these, for any crime, before they expire you will be automatically put onto a Being Watched status until your points total goes below 10. You'll receive a Private Message for each infraction.
A large infraction
For more irritating spamming, this will put you onto a Being Watched status for two weeks (unless you already have some infraction points, in which case, it'll ban you for a short while). See below for what happens when you Become Watched. This is a forum-wide Being Watched, not just FanArt.
A huge infraction
So, you just don't get the message. OK, we'll ban you from the entire forum for two weeks. This will also happen if you clock up more than 20 infraction points, and will last until the points drop below 20 (when you'll then be returned to a Being Watched status, until your points go below 10).
A "The Mods are totally fed up with your blatant disregard for the rules" infraction
Permanent ban. 'Nuff said. You don't come back :p
What's a Being Watched Status?
You get a nice, snazzy usertitle that says "Being Watched" (where mine says "User Mod")
Your avatar disappears (it will return when your status is removed). There is a small glitch where some users get to keep their avatars - if this happens to you, consider yourself lucky :p
You cannot create new threads anywhere in the forum, but you can still contribute to existing threads
You cannot post attachments (You can still use the IMG code though)
You cannot use the Private Messaging system at all, or send e-mails to other users via the forum
You cannot receive Private Messages from other users - they'll get an error message if they try to send one to you.
You cannot edit your profile, including signature and avatar.
You cannot vote in polls
You get a strange feeling that someone's watching you...
What happens when I'm banned?
Well, you can't access the forum at all, not even to read posts.
When we issue infractions, we can see if you've had a small, large or huge infraction before. So, if we've previously issued you a small infraction from the FanArt forum, we'll issue you a large infraction the next time, even if both FanArt events are unrelated. If you've been issued a large infraction before, we'll give you a huge one. We don't have to start with a small infraction though, we could just go straight in and give you a huge infraction. Infractions from the rest of the forum will count towards your total but won't necessarily influence the giving of FanArt forum infractions.
One other small point - please do not use IMG tags in quotes. If you quote a post that has IMG tags in it, please edit the quote in your post and change the IMG tags to URL tags. It saves a lot of pointless scrolling!
That's it really. If you have any questions about these rules, please PM either me or AndrewTaylor and we'll try to answer your query.
And finally, enjoy posting your art!
thomasp, AndrewTaylor and The Teamsters.

AndrewTaylor
8 Aug 2007, 15:29
Rule 2: Anybody replying to the spam will have their post removed and a larger number of infraction points issued - replying to spam doubles the work for the moderators.
Clarification: This includes backseat moderation. If a post breaks the rules, report it. If you think it's harmless and choose not to report it, then that's fair enough, but if you tell the person off for it yourself then all that achieves is forcing us to delete one more post than we otherwise have to.
In fact, I'm tempted to be harsher on backseat moderation than on regular spam -- trying to clean up this place without turning it into some kind of a dictatorship will be hard enough without vigilante moderators filling the place with harshly worded warnings to anyone who steps out of line. I don't want a link to these rules in every thread, or, come to that, any thread.

thomasp
20 Aug 2007, 13:04
Just one other thing to add - please only report RECENT posts that break the rules - like posts with the current date or the day before, not posts from a couple of months ago. There's no real need to report something like a double post or a mildly off-topic post (assuming the off-topicness then promptly died out) if it occured back in June or July.
Adding one other thing:
Using the tags (to make your text go white, like [bright]this, thus virtually hiding it on the vBulletin/"Team17" default skin) does not make it OK to post spam. The usermods use the Retro Purple skin, so that makes your bright text even more obvious.

vBulletin® v3.8.6, Copyright ©2000-2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.