Shoutbox Etiquette: Open Thread for Suggestions

[Rayven]

With the new redesign of the forum layout, our shoutbox now appears in the sidebar of most of our forum pages. This means that people arriving here via search engines, upon finding the answer to their questions in a thread, will also be viewing the shoutbox commentary. I feel this provides us with a big opportunity to encourage people to become members and visit our site regularly.

Since the shoutbox is being showcased, I feel it is necessary to talk about the image we're presenting to guests. Those of you who spend your days in the shoutbox with me are familiar with my general rules in the shoutbox: no personal attacks, no links or posts of a pornographic nature, no spamming. I think these basic rules of citizenship have served us very well and have provided a great foundation for the strong membership base we have here.

So I will put this out there for all of you to ponder. I am looking for suggestions, comments and general philosophy about the shoutbox. I am considering writing some sort of official rules document, much as I am loathe to have some bulleted list of how to behave. I have been strongly against having some litany of followed commandments anywhere on this site, but I do also know that I don't want visitors to be driven away.

So, tell me what you think. Keep it constructive. Expect me to play Devil's Advocate for everything mentioned. Tell me about this community. Tell me what I can and should expect. Tell me what I need to write down explicitly.

I look forward to your comments.

 

[Rayven]

You may also PM me with your thoughts on this matter if you don't feel like being "out loud" with your opinions.

 

[Harc]

I honestly don't know what to say, I would think of maybe we need mini games!! That'll be fun

 

[Epic Keith]

Well you could change the censor of the "f" word to "Fluffyfartcharts"

 

[Raijin]

Well you could change the censor of the "f" word to "Fluffyfartcharts"

I disagree.

All of the censorship words should be replaced with something similar to Skyrim..

For an example when someone releases the F bomb... Instead of saying "Fluff" It should be replaced with "Fus Ro Dah!"

If someone uses the S word the replacement censorship word should be "Su Grah Dun!"

 

[Rayven]

I was kind of hoping for more generalized etiquette. Not a debate about the censor. We got another thread for that

 

[Crooksin]

Censors are good, it doesn't need to be "Skyrim-themed", seems kinda tacky to me. Just no general asshat-ery. What I've seen in the shoutbox is good and well enough, minus all the sexual content I see a lot sometimes (which should be monitered even if I personally couldn't care less about it). Remember that Skyrim is an M-Rated game so the Skyrim forums should follow in suite, not over the-top, but somethings are to be expected.

You should post a bulletin or list of the rules though, so when someone does act up and you take action against them, it is of no surprise. Just to save a little face. One thing I hate is being banned from somewhere that has not posted the rules as sometimes it may just seem the rules just popped up just for the occasion even if such an warranted action seems obvious.

Where the forums are at now with the rules seems reasonable and satisfying enough, no need to go around and change things. Don't fix what ain't broken.

 

[Rayven]

One point I have to make often enough is that while Skyrim is an 'M' game, that means different things in different countries. And despite that, the forums allow registration for members as young as 13.

 

[Crooksin]

One point I have to make often enough is that while Skyrim is an 'M' game, that means different things in different countries. And despite that, the forums allow registration for members as young as 13.

Whatever the ERSB rating is is what it should be treated as. Some countries go lower and some go a year higher in regards to the age limit of 17+. (I know UK has it rated as 15+ and I think Australia may be 19) The forum may allow registration for members as young as 13, but the forum is based on a game that is 17+. Isn't that 13+ age restriction just part of the forum template? I guess as a safeguard. Like I said, things are to expected. I don't think you want to cater this forum to kids of the 13-age group because then this place will get a little mundane, don't you think? So in that regard, I feel as if the rules should be more-or-less 17+. Most of the users of this forum seem to be of that age, anyway. I like where it is now though, even though I do not frequent the shoutbox very much, only giving an opinion of a lurker.

 

[Rayven]

13 is basically the international "sort of agreed on" age of allowing children to join forums. There are a great deal of legal issues that arise by knowingly allowing people under 13 on your site. There are also tons of "cans of worms" opened if your site has any sort of "mature" content. This includes loss of ad revenue. Now, by and large, advertisers limit their concept of "mature" to things of a pornographic nature. And those things are already not allowed here.

The censoring here is already very lenient as far as I'm concerned, and nothing different than you'd see, say, on a university supported site. Which, by it's nature, would cater to those 17 or 18+. I don't allow pornographic or outright erotica. I do allow artistic nudity in posts, but generally not in albums because there's no way to prefix and tag the album stuff.

Honestly, some of the nastiest stuff I see in the shoutbox comes from people in the 14-15 year old range. Still, I don't think we "cater" to 13 year olds. They are permitted to register, we use the prefixing as often as possible to warn about content and for me, I only ask people to behave with the most basic sense of civility. I don't think that's catering to any age group. I think it's just good business sense.

 

[Crooksin]

13 is basically the international "sort of agreed on" age of allowing children to join forums. There are a great deal of legal issues that arise by knowingly allowing people under 13 on your site. There are also tons of "cans of worms" opened if your site has any sort of "mature" content. This includes loss of ad revenue. Now, by and large, advertisers limit their concept of "mature" to things of a pornographic nature. And those things are already not allowed here.

The censoring here is already very lenient as far as I'm concerned, and nothing different than you'd see, say, on a university supported site. Which, by it's nature, would cater to those 17 or 18+. I don't allow pornographic or outright erotica. I do allow artistic nudity in posts, but generally not in albums because there's no way to prefix and tag the album stuff.

Honestly, some of the nastiest stuff I see in the shoutbox comes from people in the 14-15 year old range. Still, I don't think we "cater" to 13 year olds. They are permitted to register, we use the prefixing as often as possible to warn about content and for me, I only ask people to behave with the most basic sense of civility. I don't think that's catering to any age group. I think it's just good business sense.

That's what I'm saying though, it's good where it is. I don't think anything needs to change except maybe a posted rule list. Maybe I read your post as if we should be catering to 13+ or maybe you read mine wrong. I've been on forums (in fact a regular on one) where it started out as "we'll let people do whatever, I'm sure it'll be alright" and by then members took over and just made it a troll-infested and explicit circlejerk. It's not as fun as it sounds. I like being civil but I also like a little maturity. The nudity aspect is your call, I personally do not care either way, but I'm also not trying to promote a forum. Artistic nudity runs a thin line and should be handled on a case-by-case basis, imo.

The kinds of posters that are in this forum more often then not follow civility on their own though. A friendly reminder is good to have anyways, just to be clear. That's all I would change in your position.

 

[Rayven]

That's what I'm saying though, it's good where it is. I don't think anything needs to change except maybe a posted rule list. Maybe I read your post as if we should be catering to 13+ or maybe you read mine wrong. I've been on forums (in fact a regular on one) where it started out as "we'll let people do whatever, I'm sure it'll be alright" and by then members took over and just made it a troll-infested and explicit circlejerk. It's not as fun as it sounds. I like being civil but I also like a little maturity. The nudity aspect is your call, I personally do not care either way, but I'm also not trying to promote a forum. Artistic nudity runs a thin line and should be handled on a case-by-case basis, imo.

The kinds of posters that are in this forum more often then not follow civility on their own though. A friendly reminder is good to have anyways, just to be clear. That's all I would change in your position.

I do think in general our "house rules" are good where they are. As you said though, I'm thinking that I might need to document or make some things a bit more clear.

I definitely don't want this place to become a troll-haven. Philosophically, I want people to be able to come here and talk to each other, share ideas, debate, learn something, agree, disagree and just generally communicate with one another. That's the spirit of forum communities in general.

I also don't want to be in a position where I'm sitting here quoting the terms to people all day and citing people with warnings points like some demented parking ticket officer. That's never been my role here and I have no desire for that ever to be true.

By and large, this forum runs itself. After the place really took off, the community solidified and basically it attracts the kind of people we like to talk to. Of course, some people can't help but be ingrates. This is also where another of my philosophies comes into play. I hate making tons of rules to deal with idiots that only serve to punish the good people in the end.

I always deal with discipline on a case by case basis and I don't foresee that changing. The artistic nudity I can defend as freedom of expression. Pornography I cannot. Advertisers will drop us if there's pornographic material on the site. We would also get blocked by a lot of the "nanny" software that is installed in a lot of workplaces. It's not good for business.

Thanks for your thoughts so far, Crooksin. Always a pleasure working through my brain with you.

 

[Gunnbjorn]

I think it should be a rule for users of the shoutbox to not talk about certain aspects of their real lives. I know the internet is a great place to talk about things like insecurities or weird quirks you have as a person, because it's impossible for people to directly judge you or look down on you because of it. Sometimes I'm under the impression that people purposely say things about themselves that they do that they may or may not know is wrong, but share it in order to get attention. Things so random and so abnormal it looks as either they have no idea what they are even saying or they are simply trying to get attention. (I don't want to give any names or examples, but it's happened quite a few times).

Second, talking to people about deep thoughts or emotions are great, but shouldn't be expressed publicly. The Shoutbox shouldn't be an open therapy session, if anything find someone you trust on the site and discuss it in PMs. Between yourself and a person who wants to listen and give advice. I've always been a private person, and the fact that some people like to talk about things so private in a chat room with 20 people daily is mind-boggling to me.

The shout box for me is a fun chat room to discuss random things with a fun and positive tone. People posting funny pictures and joking around and being friendly is one of the things that caught my eye when I was browsing these forums as a nonmember.

 

[Sean]

The only thing that I can think of is when a person puts about 5+ images in the SB, and that can get irritating.

So, maybe a limit of 3 images within a specific time frame as a rule might be a good idea.

 

[Docta Corvina]

I sent you a PM about this a few weeks or so ago, Rayven.

 

[A.Auditore]

i have to agree with Gun on the certain things about personal life being said in the shout box, but i also have to say that certain things being posted ie gross or graphic images (blood dripping from mouth, flesh being ripped along those lines ya know) or when someone starts coming into the shout box and says stuff that involve babies, rape or some form of animal abuse (not preventing but encouraging it) or making reference jokes to certain races.. thats my only problem otherwise i really dont stay in shout

 

[Doctor Langstrom]

Is there a way to remove the shoutbox from being everywhere now? Seriously...I preferred it showing up only on the main page and the main forum area.

 

[Epic Keith]

Maybe a filter for nude pics and gifs

 

[Rayven]

Is there a way to remove the shoutbox from being everywhere now? Seriously...I preferred it showing up only on the main page and the main forum area.

There is not. I only have the option of making it visible everywhere, or invisible everywhere for individual users.

 

[Rayven]

Maybe a filter for nude pics and gifs

Those shouldn't be posted in the shoutbox at all.