rules idea

Just saw that Garion was going to go through the rules with Oli and I remembered what my school did and said it worked, although I'm not so sure. Basically, they scrapped ALL rules and the students had to work together to produce the rules they believed were needed to run the school.

Obviously, some were immature but seeing as I was one of four that had to give them to the governors by time the rules got to us they had been thought out and all the changes the students had thought of were implemented.

So yeah, what could happen. You post a thread about forum rules all the members contribute then you get your moderators to put the most productives one forward to forum management and that way everyone has agreed to the rules and made them. So in theory they're more likely to stick to them.

My school said it worked and that because the students had made the rules, they stuck by them and understood them better. Rather than the random rules nobody really understands (before this it was against the rules to have your shirt untucked at my school).

Just an idea :)

I'd personally say it should be a mixture between the Management and the public. Obviously there are going to be people who are immature and silly, but I think it could work! It would then help the Mod Team knowing how strict they should be, because some of the time I do think there are some unfair warnings or whatever. But yeah, I like the idea but it would have to work well.

The rules will, for the most part, be staying the same. We're just aiming to simplify them and possibly be a little more lenient on one or two things. All in all though we're just trying to make it all more streamlined and less imposing, so this might not work because it's not exactly a overhaul.

Yeah. That's what I mean. Users post ideas, obviously someone will post all the dont avoid filter, dont bully ones and then other ones and maybe some current rules will be ignored altogether (maybe the foreign language one for example) - then super mods can pick them out and ignore the stupid ones because you're going to get immature ones. Super mods can iron them out and present to forum mgmt.

Just to be pedantic; in theory people will stick to the rules they made but there will be loads that they didn't want so why will they stick to these? Anyway it sounds like a good idea, at least it can't do any harm to try it out - management don't necessarily have to go through with it.

To be honest though, most of the rules are necessary whether we like it or not. There's only a handful that you could debate so I can't see this making much of a difference.

yeah i don't atually think it's worth the hassle just thought i'd get some other views anyway :8

In a few months time you could argue that 6 months of new users might not like the rules or have other ideas. If that happened which would probably happen then the rules would be changing every 5 mins. I dont think there is much need to change the rules like you're suggesting when they have mostly stayed the same for the last 5+ years.

yeah that's exactly the point. although in theory the rules will be very similar at least users will think that they have contributed and really helped out and will want to stick to them more than before, bit of brainwashing is needed to keep us unruly masses in order

trust, none of you will make it into management ;l

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Originally Posted by MattGarner

Thanks to invincible & Jamesy for pointing this out.

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Originally Posted by Garion

Thank you to FlyingJesus for helping me create these rules.

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Originally Posted by MattGarner

Thanks to infrequent and the Graphics Team for this! :]

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Originally Posted by MattGarner

Thanks to Jordy for bringing this to my attention today with his issues regarding it!

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Originally Posted by MattGarner

Thanks to invincible, for making this suggestion.

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Some just taken from the Forum Updates threads, although not all of the above concern rules users ideas are considered and I'm sure that if anyone see's a gap or anything that needs updating/changing within the forum rules then current management would be more than willing to take it onboard, like this thread and make a decision on it and implement the changes.

more people would give ideas if this was done. but i know it's too much work and hassle and won't really change the rules.

I wrote a rule for Matt once lol. Can't remember what it was now

Our main focus on the rules revamp will be the wording, not the actual rules themselves.

The rules are very daunting here and quite a hard read, they seem to repeat themselves and in some places are hard to understand.

I think this is a great idea, personally I think some of the rules are stupid, so maybe that could change if most of the community give a valid reason why to change it :)

Personally, I think the rules should stay the same, just make some minor adjustments to them here and there. I don't think it's a good idea to just scrap them and then we abide by the ones we believe are important. Even with the rules we have now, there's still people who choose to disobey them. And if we don't have them, well it's just going to be even worse as it gives an excuse for people to misbehave. As there is no proof against what they're doing wrong. (rules)

Not scrapping them all just some of the less important ones. And making adjustments to ones that aren't being scrapped.

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Originally Posted by Gibs960

I think this is a great idea, personally I think some of the rules are stupid, so maybe that could change if most of the community give a valid reason why to change it :)

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So exactly what rules do you think are stupid?

I think it would be good to let the users get involved, surely if any ridiculous ideas are put forward they'd be disregarded so I don't see the harm in it.

All that needs to be done is the rules simplified and rules enforced properly; for example the meaning of bullying, offensive and racist is very vague on this forum because it seems that if you say something which somebody doesnt like they instantly have the right to call it offensive and you are done for. Just some common sense is needed in most decisions rather than turning it into a big decision like a government department would.

If its wrong and clearly flawed then change it, simple.

We've condensed 18 rules down to 10 in the first draft. They need to be approved by general management first, but I think they should be okay. After their creation we will be encouraging common sense decisions and looking at precedents rather than literally interpreting things and making strict decisions on that basis.

*sobs over the idea that he made a version of the rules* :'(

Not being completely arrogant (I kid, I kid, I am amazing :-j), but the version I gave Oli and Garion cut the rules down quite alot. It follows 3 principles:

Behaviour
Post Format
Privacy

Each principle is followed by a friendly pat on the back sentence describing each "rule", followed by what is meant in a sort of "sub-rule".

For example:

General Forum Rules:

Please be aware of the following when posting in the forums:
These rules are to be followed on every part of the forum.
A moderator may use their own discretion when a rule is believed to have been broken.

A1. Language, Behaviour, Communication, Conduct
Habbox Forum has an active Forum Filter which is used to keep conversations clean between all the members. Although it filters out the majority of bad language, it cannot filter against rudeness and poor behaviour, so we ask that you:

• Do not avoid the Forum Filter
• Insult, bully or be rude towards other members.
• Do not discuss inappropriate subjects such as; sex and illegal activities
• Do not accuse other members of the forum of scamming, hacking and illegal activities.
• Do not pretend to or claim you work for Habbo, Sulake or Habbox.

It follows a legal system format, where a rule categorises it's purpose etc with little effort and is straight to the point. So, for example:

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A9. Do not post on the forum using a different language - Posting in any language other than English is not allowed (this does not apply to coding languages in the web design forums). There are some exceptions such as "Bonjour," "Ciao" or any other well known basic words. This rule does not apply to VIP subforums.

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Becomes:

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[*]To refrain from posting in a different language, using uncommon words (rule may not apply to any educational threads and/or discussions).

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It doesn't come off as threat, and comes under a rule which revolves around post conduct :) It's to the point. Describing a rule becomes a chore and appears tedious :/

I agree they just need to be refreshed. It's apparent that they have been constructed over a long period of time as they aren't very coherent (for example, when trying to read about the reputation system, the information is all over the place as the stars system has been stuck in while VIP has gone). Looking forward to it :)