Forum Rules - A lot or a little?

Shawn Gossman

Shawn Gossman

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When it comes to your forum rules, do you write a lot of rules to cover all things or just a few to keep the rules small?

What is your rule writing strategy?
 
I like to keep forum rules small and simple. However, I always reserve the right to moderate depending on situations that could arise that’s not covered within the general forum rules.
 
I like to keep it simple and to the point.
When new members come to a forum and have to read pages of rules it sometimes turns them away, however keeping it simple and to the point on one page is good.
 
Should be straight to the point and simple for members to understand. Plus not to go way over meaning it can be upsetting or just makes them feel nervous. Who does read the rules anyway 😛

Most of the time, including myself we join forums and post right away without even reading the rules. Or having members find the rules page.
 
I used to be an Admin on a really huge forum and they not only had forum wide rules but also different rules for specific areas of the forum as well...which meant rules upon rules. It was really frustrating to new users and one thing I heard over and over was how there were too many rules. So when I wanted a new Christian forum to be created, my one caveat was not too many rules.

The one rule most people violate on Christianity Haven is the No Flaming rule. You can flame the belief, but not the person and a lot of people just don't get that. They still want to call people ignorant and that's not allowed.
 
I keep my forum rules minimal and stick to the core things like be nice and don't cause trouble and give others abuse. I think it's mostly the same for all forums really so I don't think you need to go too in depth.
 
NerdiestKen said:
I make my forum rules detailed and straight to the point to make sure no one gets in trouble.
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Even your own staff rules right?

I say that staff also have to obey your own rules otherwise what's the point keeping the rules if you can't even obey them.
 
Empire said:
Even your own staff rules right?

I say that staff also have to obey your own rules otherwise what's the point keeping the rules if you can't even obey them.
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If staff don't stick to your own rules then they shouldn't make it on the staff team hahaha!
 
.Jay said:
I like to keep it simple and to the point.
When new members come to a forum and have to read pages of rules it sometimes turns them away, however keeping it simple and to the point on one page is good.
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This. Keeping them simple, concise, to the point and easy to read makes people a lot more likely to actually read them versus what a majority do with just skimming to the end of the page.
 
Empire said:
Even your own staff rules right?

I say that staff also have to obey your own rules otherwise what's the point keeping the rules if you can't even obey them.
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Yes, that applies to staff as well. This goes back a year where I first fired and banned a staff member for spewing offensive stuff and gotten into a fight with one of my members.
 
I only have the basic rules that most sites have like I dislike homophobia, racism, people that start arguments all my rules are!
 
I generally only have one or two rules that cover the general usage of a forum.

No hate speech, including sexism, racism, homophobia and religious hate speech.
No spamming.

Everything else is left up to the common sense of any admins / moderators.
 
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