Why Every Forum Should Have Rules

[Deleted member 44219]

When we think about it, social media has rules, your country has rules/laws, your school has rules; Everything has rules and your forum should have rules too.

There's a reason about why your forum should have one and it's that it keeps your community safe, under-control and it helps them become a tiny bit more responsible for their actions. If your forum has rules, you have to make sure your community obeys them and promises to follow them. If they break 1 or 2 rules then let them off with a light warning. Break their 3rd rule and send out a serious warning and any more than 3 then just terminate their account without notice. They'll most likely not come back but they might learn after learning what not to do on a forum.

Hopefully this helps people to have rules on their forum. If you have further advice then comment below.

 

[Bryn]

If your forum has no rules, then it's basically an anarchy. Although, one forum I knew of didn't have a proper set of rules but still managed to survive anyway.

 

[Deleted member 44219]

If your forum has no rules, then it's basically an anarchy. Although, one forum I knew of didn't have a proper set of rules but still managed to survive anyway.

You are right but a forum with out proper rules and still survives anyway is crazy.

 

[Nomad]

Forums are basically user generated content site, which means the forum is built from user posts. Since users create contents for the forum, it is very likely that the forum will attract a lot of spammers. A forum also attracts lo quality posts. Therefore, you need to have posting rules so that the quality of the site is maintained.

 

[Jerlene]

Forums without rules will be overtaken by spam eventually.

 

[Gio]

I never get those forums that have like 2 rules, because they're usually like be nice, and don't spam. You need to define those two aspects better, cause if it's just cause you're lazy to type up rules, then that's a poor excuse. To be honest, when I see rules like that, those annoy me. 😛

 

[Jerlene]

Right! Those forums deserve to be spammed. lol

 

[Deleted member 44219]

Yeah. A lot of forums don’t really understand what ‘Rules’ are. They are essential to keep the forum under control and to keep users safe.

 

[tdbnz]

I totally agree with you

I think all forums should have rules it helps keep the community in order 🙂

 

[Page]

I think it comes down to who owns it. Some are nice and keep it simple, some can not be bothered about typing there rules and others care about rules and added rules. 80% of the time most members that join any forums doesn't even read the site rules anyway. But sites needs rules to keep the community in order and the team members and staff have to keep the rules in effective

 

[Eussbig]

Reddit counts as somewhat of a forum and certain subreddits there don't have rules. They're doing fine because people use common sense.

 

[Bluezone777]

I think most of us have come to this forum already well versed on how to handle oneself in a casual social situation of which being on a forum is one of. If you haven't figured it out by the time you made it to this place than no rules or forum staff are going to teach you it. I don't even know really why people insist on writing out rules that no one is going to read outside of the staff because most of it is stuff that you already know from how to handle yourself offline in social situations that it really doesn't need to be repeated. The people bent on causing trouble will cause that trouble no matter what rules you do or don't write and those who aren't bent on causing trouble won't give you any intentionally regardless of what rules you do or don't have.

 

[Deleted member 44219]

I think it comes down to who owns it. Some are nice and keep it simple, some can not be bothered about typing there rules and others care about rules and added rules. 80% of the time most members that join any forums doesn't even read the site rules anyway. But sites needs rules to keep the community in order and the team members and staff have to keep the rules in effective

Small forums will most likely have no rules to maybe a few rules. I'd say that once the site surpasses 100 members then that's when rules should be invested in. The Administrators of the forum also must stick to them and be serious about them.

 

[mav3n]

You need some level of house rules to follow for a number of reasons. First, it helps users know what they can and cannot do but it also allows the staff to leverage them when it comes time to uphold the rules. If there are no rules, the team cannot uphold anything because there's nothing to reference.

 

[Deleted member 44219]

You need some level of house rules to follow for a number of reasons. First, it helps users know what they can and cannot do but it also allows the staff to leverage them when it comes time to uphold the rules. If there are no rules, the team cannot uphold anything because there's nothing to reference.

Exactly. I take my forums rules seriously. There isn't a warning system yet but when I do add a warning system to my forum, users are only giving 2 warnings and then it's out the door.

 

[Azareal]

People don't read rules. Ever.
A lot of rules basically boil down to common sense anyway.

You probably want to give someone a tap on the shoulder and a friendly talk, if they're doing something stupid, but you shouldn't go around acting like you're running your own little state with your own police force giving out tickets for parking violations.

People get too hyper-focused on certain aspects and forget that a forum is essentially a community. This is one reason why I haven't implemented a warning points system, if someone is unpardonable, then ban them for however long or revoke their capabilities.

But, warning points blends too much into faceless enforcers roaming around.
I don't want moderators hiding behind canned responses like machines.

This is particularly the case when "the rules" are so long that it reads like a piece of legislation.

 

[Azareal]

Dear Valued User #8031, I would like to inform you that you are in violation of:

* Section 5. Subsection 63.
* Section 8. Subsection 12.
* Section 3. Subsection 3.

Due to these violations, your account on this site has henceforth been terminated.
You do however have the right under Article 11 to contest this decision in the Court of Ban Appeals.

 

[SarahGirl]

Yes but some rules are just so stupid, there are admins out there that just don't get it when it comes to what rules to have

 

[Eussbig]

Yes but some rules are just so stupid, there are admins out there that just don't get it when it comes to what rules to have

Yeah, and rules don't matter if the admins don't follow them.