In many ways i can agree with some rules, mostly because hopefully it would put a stop to alot of problems including, imo, Iccy using his own feelings in deciding what he wants on the forum and what he doesn't want.
After reviewing them, however, i thought I'd raise some issues.
Firstly i am assuming that, while these rules could broadly cover every forum, Chat is the only one with a perceived problem. Any trolling, falimg or otherwise unfavourable threads in the other boards should be locked, or moved to chat, since those boards are specifically in place for discussion relevent to their title. Chat, however, is an open board for discussion of anything. As such i am, in general, against over-regulation of this board, since it would seem to impact negatively on the communities growth.
As follows, the rules that Iccy has put in place, and reasons i may disagree with them.
Things that will probably get you banned:
* Sassing/ Annoying Moderators/Admins (Mod's or Admins should not be given higher status as users than anyone else on the board. By introducing this rule you are giving mod's and admins the right, at their discretion, to warn others for almost anything. If i made a post that in anyway annoyed a mod, or dissented, i could be warned! Obviously in practice this may not abused by certain mods, but in the past we have seen moderators abusing their powers on this forum. This idea that mods and admins are higher status users is wrong, they should be viewed as normal users, but with the added responsibility of removing posts that do offend others, or cause significant problems for other users use of the forum (ie flooding or whatever).
* Severly content lacking posts. Remember your RCP kids (Read. Comprehend. Post) - (Unnecessary and will only lead to abuse, if a post has no content of interest, it will not get posted in and fall of the front page, if a post stays on the front page because others are posting in it, clearly it does have content and therefore should not be locked.
* IRC based threads/discussions/talks. Keep that for IRC, it's a seperate place from here. It's offical and all, but it's completely seperate from here (The IRC and forum are inexplicitly linked, and crossover is definitly going to occur, this doesn't immediately imply that it is bad, and the overlap is something you're just gonna have to get used to.)
* Discussion of either politics or religion. These subjects often degenerate into flamewars more quickly than almost any other topic, and therefore it is recommended that you not make topics about them. Some discussion is fine, but keep your fanaticism in check. (Just no, this is a CHAT forum, you cant just deny people the right to discuss religion or politics because you think it leads to flamewwars. These topics are obviously very polarising but you MUST NOT deny peopel the right to have enjoyable discussions about it. If a thread does degenerate into an off-topic flamewar then thats probly justification for locking or deletion of posts, but you MUST NOT censor our enjoyment of free discussion of ANYTHING WE WANT. In doing so you will kill the form.
