A "No Rules" forum

[Sam]

Has anyone created or been on a forum where there are literally no rules? How did it work out?

I'm not thinking of starting a forum, I have way too many things I need to get done, but I could see this working.... I would setup the forum so that:
- Members can give out Rep. Points. If you go into negative rep. (say negative 10 points), you get instantly banned.
- Members who have a good positive rep., a good number of posts and have been a member for x months are upgraded to be able to give a higher amount of rep. points.

That's it. Obviously any legal complaints have to be dealt with... Topic removed.

Thoughts?

 

[MeganChan]

I don't think I have been to one. I think on one of my first forums I didn't really have rules on there, but that was also when I was real new to web design. Most I go to now have rules. Really a lot of them is just common sense or courtesy. Sadly, most people lack that.

 

[Teapot]

I've never even heard of a no rules forum to be honest with you. I think your idea sounds really cool! It would be an interesting concept to try for sure.

 

[Geoffrey]

Sounds like a social media concept, to be honest.

On a site like Facebook, there really aren't many rules to follow. They have their terms of service & use but most people don't read them and they're basic in what they covered. Like mentioned in the OP, unless it violates an actual law, they don't care.

The rest is based on reputation (though not with actual rep points) and what the people in your network and geographic area think about what you're posting. If they don't like your posts, they'll remove you from their feeds or even unfriend you. If you don't have any friends or don't show up in any feeds, you're basically talking to yourself.

I can see a forum working under that concept with the concept you described, if someone actually put in an effort and was invested in it. This shouldn't be something someone does to be lazy and take the easy way out on a forum. You still need a good theme, content, features, etc. But you're giving the community a bit more ownership of the site (like on social media) than an average forum does.

 

[Teg]

Its an interesting concept. However, the problem is, when you use forum software (especially with free hosts) you have to follow the rules of the hosted software or your forum will be taken offline. That being online, unless its your own software, typically there will have to be rules to ensure you can keep your community online.

 

[Reverse Flash]

My forum kinda has no rules, though, obviously, we all still have to abide by our host's rules.

 

[Naiwen]

I have, it's a forum games forum though.

 

[Thomasss]

Oh this sounds like fun. Talk about not stressing over staff activity, though. 😛

Honestly, if you follow the laws in a place with a lot of them, (Like England and the U.S) you should be fine. However I would not allow porn on my forums, rules or not, and I think that's covered in U.S laws if I am not mistaken so it takes care of that.

A no rules forum sounds like fun though, you don't have to worry about breaking a rule or worrying about being moderated if you do something wrong. I'd much rather prefer a forum with some kind of rules, more so common sense rules since it seems people are lacking any kind of common sense nowadays. 😛

 

[CM30]

I would worry that such a forum (if taken to extremes) could easily turn into an absolute and utter hell hole. I mean, even the sites out there that encourage freedom of speak (like the chan sites, Voat, etc) have some semblance of a terms of service, if only to stop them getting sued.

And if you ban anything more than what's minimally legal... then you're not really running a no rules forum, are you?

 

[Sunshower]

I've never heard of a no-rules forum, but honestly, I feel like some rules are important to set a baseline for the community. Otherwise, it might spiral out of control into needless arguments, or inappropriate content. It depends on the kind of website you want, though.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

The only issue I have with forums that have no basic rules, other than the terms of service that covers certain things, is the issue regarding things getting out of hand, because there are nothing aside from the TOS that prevents things from going sour. Though if it was self moderated by the community, then I could see it turning out well for me as an administrator.

 

[Sam]

Really interesting discussion here! Everybody's brought up some great points.

Its an interesting concept. However, the problem is, when you use forum software (especially with free hosts) you have to follow the rules of the hosted software or your forum will be taken offline. That being online, unless its your own software, typically there will have to be rules to ensure you can keep your community online.

You would never be able to host this on a free host. You should be able to host this in the US which do have freedom of speech laws. Obviously court ordered take-downs and DMCA complaints would have to be complied with. It would certainly require a dedicated server / vps with an understanding provider.

Sounds like a social media concept, to be honest.

On a site like Facebook, there really aren't many rules to follow. They have their terms of service & use but most people don't read them and they're basic in what they covered. Like mentioned in the OP, unless it violates an actual law, they don't care.

The rest is based on reputation (though not with actual rep points) and what the people in your network and geographic area think about what you're posting. If they don't like your posts, they'll remove you from their feeds or even unfriend you. If you don't have any friends or don't show up in any feeds, you're basically talking to yourself.

I can see a forum working under that concept with the concept you described, if someone actually put in an effort and was invested in it. This shouldn't be something someone does to be lazy and take the easy way out on a forum. You still need a good theme, content, features, etc. But you're giving the community a bit more ownership of the site (like on social media) than an average forum does.

Facebook certainly do have rules: e.g. nudity, advertising etc.. I think I'd draw more similarity with Reddit. The concept would certainly require someone to put in a lot of effort. You're trying to create almost "community acceptability" without actually having rules. You might, for instance, find you get a lot of almost spam topics. You could implement a dislike / negative rep. system where the posts get hidden or removed.

I would worry that such a forum (if taken to extremes) could easily turn into an absolute and utter hell hole. I mean, even the sites out there that encourage freedom of speak (like the chan sites, Voat, etc) have some semblance of a terms of service, if only to stop them getting sued.

And if you ban anything more than what's minimally legal... then you're not really running a no rules forum, are you?

That's actually a very good point. I would be disgusted if a "no - rules" forum had suggestive pictures of children or something along those lines like 4chan was accused of (I think). My hope would be that the community as a whole would discourage it completely.

 

[THF_Martin]

I keep set rules for forums because I wouldn't want to deal with all the problems that happen as a result of having no forum rules. I couldn't be bothered with all the arguments and rubbish that is discussed frankly.

 

[Ashley z]

If you are going to do this make sure you don't attract a bunch of younger members. Their parents probably wouldn't be too happy about them opening up threads with giant meme pictures and all caps cussing...or whatever this forum turns into! 🙂

 

[John]

I think it's a rather interesting idea, if implemented correctly. As Sam said, you'd need to use a paid host, and be very careful on what you do and don't allow, due to legal reason. However, I don’t think you could make a true "no rules" forum, due to legal issues, if you could truly have no rules, that would be awesome, but I don’t think it could actually happen.

 

[Nebulous]

I've seen a few no-rules forums in my day. Some done okay and some with some disgusting individuals posting some of the most vulgar things you could ever imagine.

I prefer a laid back forum with modest rules and a tiny bit of structure.

 

[flyingdoctors]

I have never been to one too, but that would be nice!!!

 

[mushroompizza]

All my forums have had no rules. No one really used them so I cant really judge.

 

[MrDawn]

Its an interesting concept. However, the problem is, when you use forum software (especially with free hosts) you have to follow the rules of the hosted software or your forum will be taken offline. That being online, unless its your own software, typically there will have to be rules to ensure you can keep your community online.

I agree. Although I've been on a few forums that "had no rules" and violated their user agreement with the free forum company and had their forum shut off or taken down.

 

[Maestro]

I do not think it will work, It may however there could be people do not like a specific user so they will get banned faster than someone who is liked or well known. There would have to be some kind of moderation on the forum.