Copying rules?

[Thomasss]

I'll be the first to admit I have copied some rules off of other forums, and put them in my own words, (of course) however I have seen many admins steal guidelines from other forums, and get away with it. I create my own guidelines now, and bounce idea's off of other forums guidelines in case I missed something that should be obvious, but I don't copy, let alone plagiarize rules.

My question is, have you ever got in a bind to where you needed to copy rules from other forum guidelines, or where you able to make your own? And have you ever copied someone's rules verbatim? Have you been on a forum with copied rules?

 

[Teapot]

Sometimes I find it hard to establish good and effective rules. I may have looked on some other forums to get some ideas of things that should be enforced, but I don't think I ever really completely copied a specific rule in particular.

 

[Ashley z]

I have never copied rules from another forum because I always make mine as self explanatory as possible.

4 Tips for making rules
1) Short and concise individual rules
2) Short list of rules overall
3) Rules must be clearly posted
4) I always make the last rule on the list something such as this:

Rule #5: Loopholes don't exist. If you find a loophole in the rules, you will be banned and the loophole will be fixed.

or

These rules are set in place for valuable members so everyone can contribute and participate. If you are not a valuable member, you may be banned even if you did not break a rule.

A lot of members will try to nag admins about rules and loopholes, so I always make it clear that the banhammer can be smacked down at any time for any reason and that the rules are guidelines for avoiding a ban, but following the rules does not guarantee that you can always participate.

The reason? Sometimes a member follows the rules well, but still causes trouble on the forums. For example, there could be a Neo-Nazi or someone who believes in Satanism on the forums. Technically that falls under freedom of expression/religion, but that doesn't mean I have to allow it. I'm not going to put something such as "No Satanists" or "No Neo Nazis" in the rules as it's hardly ever going to apply to my members. So that's why I include the statements that people can be banned for any reason. Even if a Neo Nazi follows all the rules, I want to be able to ban them for being a Neo Nazi and then link to the last rule on my list for my ban reason 🙂

 

[Geoffrey]

I usually look at other forums to make sure I haven't missed any categories or areas that need a rule, but I write the copy myself. I have copied from other forums of my own where I wrote those rules though, no point in redoing it when it comes out the same.

 

[Sunshower]

Sometimes, you can't always make original and new rules. Popular rules in forums are popular for a reason - they make sense, and they work. It makes sense to take a few from one site or another!

 

[Joshua Farrell]

When I was younger, I have copied plenty of rules, and tried modifying the rules to fit what I was doing, but since I am older, and more mature, I know that it is much better to take your time writing rules, than to copy/paste rules from other forums. This is because it helps make people aware that you are serious about your forum.

 

[MrDawn]

I too have been guilty of this. I use to copy and paste rules from other forums when I owned my forum. I used to alter the rules quite a bit.

 

[Mikaya]

I've never needed to copy rules from another forum. I like to come up with my own ideas for rules, and explain them as clear as possible, as well as being fully informative. I've seen a forum copy another forums rules once. The forum that had carbon copied the rules were forced to either edit or remove the rules.

 

[Allenafaith]

I have done this a few times too. I do change and edit them so they aren't exact replicas of other forums, though. There are some rules that would't apply to my forum as well so I would take those out.

 

[Cosmic]

There can be a fine line between copying something and receiving inspiration from it. Nearly all major companies buy copies of the competitor's product and then open it up to take a look at how it works. Not nescessarily to copy, but at least to understand. I think the same can be said for guidelines and other written materials. Don't copy it directly, but feel free to get inspiration from it. That's how things get improved after all. 😛

 

[Cierra]

I used a template I found on a forum owner tips/tricks blog, and tweaked it a lot and added my own as things cropped up. It gave a great base template. I'll see if I can find the link again, I haven't visited the blog in a while.

 

[VirusZero]

I took inspiration from the forums I worked on prior to starting my own. I'd had a good 5 years of admin experience by that point so I figured roughly what I needed. Though I made sure to type them up myself (even though I had been told explicitly that I could use the rules from a site I was, and still am, staff on.)

That stated, to a degree it's hard to make rules completely original. I mean there are only so many different ways to spell things out. Eventually there will be overlap even though site 1056738 and site 10023456 have never seen each other they may still have some individual rules which are very similar (to the point that it would appear one copied from the other). Though adding more rules would decrease the chances of it being incidental that a full ruleset is that close.

And for my catch all rule (or for eliminating loopholes):
"Anything not explicitly mentioned in these rules are at the discretion of staff."

 

[linkedin 2.0 bonus]

I used to do it for 2 times. And make a little change. It's quite normal. You can !

 

[Teg]

Generally, I make my own rules and guidelines for my forums. However, I can admit that I've reworded a few of them from other forums and used them on my projects. Sometimes, you just gotta do what you have to. Other times, I see a rule and go, "Hey, that's a great idea!" Rewording them in my own voice makes me feel better about it though.

 

[Forces of Steel]

As long as it's not a DIRECT copy. Reword a few things, add some of your own rules, and remove those that don't belong. Otherwise, it shouldn't matter.

I recently deleted my rules. It should be common sense that if you join a forum for the sake of trolling or flaming, then expect to get banned. No more tolerance for troublemakers.

 

[Page]

Guilty as changed. I have definitely copied and past, however I did reward and taken statements out and added. I'm known to be a bad grammar person, even at school I sometimes past other peoples words. And I need ideas too where you can't make out a point and so checking others sites rules does help.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Luckily, I've been in the forum game long enough to know the proper rules to create on my forum. As a forum owner, and an owner and staff member of many forums throughout these years, I enjoy innovative thinking on my own part so I prefer to create rules and other policies unique to my own thinking.

However, I have used ideas of other sites. Some social media sites have a short version of the rules and then link to the full version...I personally like and have used that idea. I feel that is fine.

 

[JohnyAF]

I think that's ok, man! Have no tax on it, right? 🙂