Preface:
So. This has been on my mind for a while now. Everyone with a Runouw account should be familiar with our rules, right? They're among the first things a new member is directed to, containing all our guidelines and expectations for civil conduct while using our services- I'm pretty sure you actually need to read them as part of the account registration process. And if you do happen to be a random internet-goer who stumbled upon our forums via stray Google search, I encourage you to skim through them (existing members should refresh their memories too!) so you can assess the validity of my next statement for yourself: They're pretty standard, reasonable, common sense stuff. Don't do anything illegal, don't be hurtful to other people, don't do anything harmful to the site or its community. If you're a random internet-goer, you might be thinking to yourself: "Sounds easy!"... but if you've been with us for any amount of time, you may have a different opinion. This is what I intend to address.
And, uh, compromise is a pretty huge focus of this. Whatever happened is already too far back to change, unless someone has a time machine they've been keeping secret. I don't really care who or what was responsible, only that it's time to get past it- and, of course, prevent this exact situation from rearing its ugly head again in the future. Everyone will be required to drop their grudges or it's going to be an incredibly unpleasant experience for everyone, not to mention the fact that if interactions keep going the way they have been lately, there's going to be a lot of warnings going around. Nobody's been enjoying their time around here lately. You might not enjoy a compromise either but at least it won't be a worse situation. It's time to move past it, and nobody's suggested a better* way.
*Read: objectively fairest, least BS way, considering failures on both sides
Just to make sure we're all on the same page, here's a brief recap of the events that convinced me this topic was necessary (all labels are solely for the sake of categorization and not personal opinion):
If only we had some sort of guidelines to hold every single forum member to, right? Except we do. They're called the rules, and I not only linked to them in the first paragraph, but kindly asked everyone to revisit them before proceeding. (If you still haven't read them, click here to do so.) Good call, Ven.
Now, I'm not going to name any names at all in this, because nearly everyone is at fault for letting things get this bad. I will, however, attempt to be as transparent as possible about the shortcomings I am within my jurisdiction to discuss. I will then deliver an intensely detailed ultimatum that will apply to everyone, staff or not, immediately following a grace period of a week or so to ensure everyone has time to shape up and comply to the new standards. I intend to enforce this ultimatum without discriminating, without bias, and if it comes down to it, alone. I am doing this as a Moderator of the forums with the authority to act, as a human being who has watched his friends leave or be subjected to unfair treatment on forum territories for far too long, and finally, as an individual who has had enough of it. It's time for a change.
Concerning Staff Failures:
As it turns out, having special powers and a fancy colored name doesn't make us perfect. We make mistakes just like everyone else- the only difference is that when we do it, it tends to affect a lot more of the community than just us. Consequently, it becomes much harder to fess up and take responsibility. I'll say right at the start that I am absolutely not excluded from any of this- I've been a contributing factor to it as much as anyone.
We've become lax over the last few years, and with that more lenient attitude, it's become even easier to slip into a state of functional disrepair. That's the truth of it. As we've become more tolerable of minor rulebreaking, we've taken longer to make decisions that can (and have) potentially affected the freedom of users to interact on the forums. While this isn't exactly a new problem (the "this is Runouw, we don't ever finish everything" meme is a forum meme for a reason, after all), it's become especially bad lately. When someone comes under scrutiny for a bannable offence, we flop between intense arguing and rehabilitative suggestions instead of just making a call and acting on it, and this back-and-forth process can take over a week (best case) or several months (worst case). While this sort of discussion isn't strictly a bad thing, we take far too long to decide anything. This could be easily rectified by setting concrete standards.
Speaking of standards- punishments issued by staff have become increasingly arbitrary. We still follow some sort of general template, that is, repeat infractions get increasingly longer bans, until finally the offending user is permanently banned from participating in all aspects of the site. Similarly, more severe instances of rulebreaking will generally net you a longer ban length. That being said, there's no guidelines of what actually defines a "more severe instance of rulebreaking". It's a very individual thing. And, if you did re-read the rules, you may have noticed we have a 3-strike warning policy that should come before a ban in all but the most extreme cases... what ever happened to that? The answer, of course, is that it became a strictly verbal thing- no record on your profile, and easily forgotten.
The fact is, there are almost no concrete standards apart from the extremely subjective ones mentioned in the previous paragraph. Should you break a rule, you're often at the mercy of whoever happens to to process it. If they consider it a minor infraction or maybe they're just in a good mood, you probably won't even hear about it from us. If you're a repeat offender or perhaps someone's just cranky, you might get told off (for what could have been an honest mistake) or even banned (without any guarantee that proper procedure is being followed on our end). It really hurts to say this, but this is something that has happened a lot lately, simply because they involve users that some members of staff feel very strongly about. There's no excuse for letting emotions motivate a punishment when we should have procedures to objectively evaluate it. Currently we do not.
Finally, especially in recent months, staff has collectively developed something of a superiority complex. In a couple of recent cases, staff have been instigating conflict as much as the users they're supposed to be moderating. Apart from setting an extremely poor example, it often doesn't even get addressed beyond a brief "you shouldn't have done that" in the staff chat... keep in mind that flaming, bashing, and spamming (these are all things I have personally witnessed happening from staff) in such a manner is explicitly prohibited by the rules and would definitely be at least a guaranteed warning if any other user was caught doing it. We are supposed to enforce the rules from within the system, not from above it. This is an especially frustrating flaw in the staff mechanism because our Discord chat (where most of it has been taking place) has features for exactly this specific case. Don't like what someone's saying? Ignore them. If that proves impossible, right click their name in the userlist and block them. Before anyone says that blocking someone shouldn't be necessary, we don't live in that happy, ideal world- sometimes it is necessary.
These are all things that will be addressed in the ultimatum below, but first, an apology is due. There's no way to tell how many users have been impacted negatively by these things, either directly with a too-harsh punishment or indirectly by holdups on our part letting toxic behaviour continue unattended, but it's absolutely too many. Therefore, on behalf of the staff team and myself personally:
We made some pretty huge mistakes. There's a lot of work to be done to ensure it doesn't happen again, or that we can admit it and work even harder if it does. We're sorry for letting you all down.
The Ultimatum:
Alright, so, this bit is going to be straightforward. From the time this is posted, there will be a one week (7 day) grace period. Basically, if you've got any questionable content in your profile or signature or need some time to break any old and unwelcome habits, this is the time it needs to be done in. Attempts to abuse this grace period and sneak in a last bit of rule breaking will not be tolerated.
A movement will begin to find situations where standards are necessary (for instance, the analyzation and distribution of appropriate punishments). Standards will be objectively decided on by the community, and published in the rules once finalized. If you know of any cases that need to be quantified, or have any suggestions, please let us know.
If anyone's behaviour causes problems in any area of the Runouw.com community, it's now our problem. This means you may not be safe on other sites- using other forums, games, media, or communication channels as a proxy WILL still net you a warning if it's directed at anyone here. To clarify: you won't be punished here just because you were punished for something by the staff of another site. You will be punished here if the warning/ban on the other site was ineffective and continues to cause problems for users here.
This is a clean slate. Warnings will be reset, you can get 3 of them before a ban is considered. Staff reserves the right to issue bans immediately for highly malicious infractions. Existing bans will remain in effect (until further notice, or until they are appealed through proper channels- see the rules), however, banned users will have a clean slate immediately following the ban's expiration. There will be no retroactive punishments for cases that occured before this thread takes effect. I will not be calling for the involuntary demotion of any current staff, either- quite apart from you all being incredible people who I respect immensely, we're all in this together, and pointing blame helps nobody.
Nobody is exempt. Doesn't matter if you're staff, a friend of someone who is staff, had your account "hacked" or otherwise compromised, you're on a mission to prevent a dystopian future, or maybe following rules violates the tenets of your religion. None of those are valid defences, although usually honest mistakes will slide.
All existing rules still apply. If you've ignored both times I've said to review them again, really, I'm not joking- click here and do it, because we're going to get in depth about the specific rules that have been problematic recently and what they encompass:
- You should post in a way that is respectful to other users.
- This includes implications of insulting, hateful or abusive behavior. You won't be safe just because you didn't say anything hurtful outright. Implying staff members are bad at their jobs, that forum activities would be better off in someone else's hands, excessive swearing, and making targets of other users are also behaviours that break this rule.
- *Especially for staff:* If someone is trying to make a suggestion or inform you of something, listen respectfully. We don't know everything, and ignoring someone's ideas for site improvement because they're annoying or you don't feel like it or it hasn't worked in the past just promotes bad user relations. Calmly explain why we do things the way we do, and if it's a good suggestion, share it with the rest of the community.
- An exception would be if it is clearly a joke to all involved participants. Remember, just because it seems like a joke to you, it might not communicate as clearly across the internet. It's best to refrain from seriously offensive insults anyway, even if it's clearly understood to be a joke, and stop if you're asked to.
- Do not try to moderate other users.
- We have staff for a reason, moderation is their job, not yours.
- New staff are chosen by example, not by how effectively they can tell others off. If you really want to join the staff team, your best bet is to be a role model for newer members instead of pointing out when others make mistakes.
- Trying to correct someone's behaviour is not usually something they'll appreciate. If someone's behaviour is bothering you but it's not major enough to warrant a report, try letting them know first- they might not know it's annoying you!
- If someone is harassing you or otherwise breaking the rules in private (through PMs, Discord private chat, or in an area that is normally hidden from Runouw.com staff such as another site), let us know! We're here to take care of that stuff, and you can still let us know without backseat moderating.
- Attempting to force changes to the site is also backseat moderation. Suggest an idea, and if nobody addresses it, politely ask whether it's a topic of discussion in the hidden staff chat. If so, we'll probably give you an update, and if not, we might be busy with other topics at the moment. Just ask us again in a day or two.
- We have staff for a reason, moderation is their job, not yours.
- Spam is not tolerated at all on this forum.
- The "forum" includes all aspects of the community, including the Discord chat and any offsite events we may have.
- Spam rules are relaxed on the chat. Videos and images may be large, but are not considered spam unless you enter them multiple consecutive times. Similarly, it can be fun to spam things like emoji on chat at times, but please stop or move to a different channel if you're asked to.
- An exception to this rule is the Fortress of Awesome (FoA). This is a special area that you can't see by default- you need to ask a staff member about the criteria to join. In this subforum, spamming is allowed and even encouraged, but try to be respectful of the more serious threads that happen there on occasion.
- Due to the nature of the FoA, some users find it annoying. If you gain access and discover it isn't your cup of tea, so much that you don't even want to see it anymore, you may simply ask a staff member to be removed from it.
That's all I can think of at the moment. It's occured to me that some sort of standard will be necessary moving forward, and so I've brainstormed a couple guidelines to help with forming them. These are not set in stone at the moment and will probably fluctuate somewhat in accordance with feedback from the community but I do intend to enforce it until better standards can be developed:
- The following cases would recieve no punishment or a verbal warning (no recorded strike on your profile):
- Speaking in a language other than English- we're an English speaking community, and Google Translate can quickly (if a little inaccurately) convert large chunks of text between languages. If you're worried about your bad English, don't be! We're understanding of communication barriers, and can give feedback if you want it. If we know of someone more familiar with your native language, we will attempt to contact them in case a clarification is needed, but practicing English in a chat or forum environment is among the most effective ways to get better at it. (No punishment, but users may be encouraged to try communicating with English.)
- Minor disruption of chat- This includes spamming, being extremely argumentative, generally creating an unwelcome environment for other users. Chat is a much faster paced place than the forums, and sometimes it's possible to get carried away. That being said, people go to chat to have fun socializing, and not to deal with unpleasant behaviour. (No punishment, may be told to stop. More severe cases might be kicked from the channel, and forced to rejoin.)
- Failure to use the report button when a post breaks the rules- this is tricky to enforce- maybe you just didn't see the offending post, or didn't think it was worth reporting. We can't see everything that happens on the site, so even if it does seem minor, try to let us know anyway. (No punishment, but there may be a general reminder in the relevant thread or subforum.)
- Minor spam or swearing- you'll probably get away with a couple swear words or a few more emotes than necessary in a forum post. Maybe you're just really frustrated by a situation, or want to express something really good that happened to you lately. We have a toggleable swear filter that is on by default, and a large selection of emotes for exactly these reasons. Just do try to keep it in check- if you can omit those things and knock the length of your post down 5%, it's probably too much. (No punishment, may be a verbal warning if it's particularly out of place. For example: site feedback threads, serious discussion, etc.)
- Double posting- posting multiple consecutive times will get you a verbal warning. We have an edit post button for a reason; if you accidentally forgot something you wanted to say in that post you made an hour ago, just edit your post and add it. Double posting is excused if a significant time has passed (more than a couple days), if something new has happened and it becomes necessary to post additional relevant information, or if the thread is devoted to showcasing your work. (Verbal warning unless the double post contains constructive new information and some time has passed from the last post, or in a showcase thread like an art of level designer collection. Exceptions are made for certain other cases, like user-run Forum Games, too.)
- Failure to follow subforum rules- a couple of our subforums (like Forum Games) have additional rules at the top of the page. Similarly, certain threads or forum events (like LDCs) also have rules to ensure everything runs smoothly. These rules are usually only applicable to their respective threads or subforums, so please read the first post of a new topic carefully. (Punishment varies from nothing to verbal warning, depending on the case. It is usually left up to the discretion of the thread host.)
- Forum signatures have a 250 pixel height limit- when trying to change your signature, this is marked by the blue line to the right of the signature preview page. We aren't super strict with this one, so it's fine to go over a little bit, but if your signature is much larger than it needs to be, we may ask you to change it or use spoiler tags to condense things a bit. (No punishment, but you may be asked to spoiler non-essential elements.)
- The following cases would recieve a warning which would be recorded in their forum profile (lasts 90 days, then expires):
- Insulting, abusively targeting users, or otherwise disrespectful behaviour- if you're saying hurtful things to another user, using racial or sexual slurs, or generally trying to make someone miserable and ruin their site experience, that needs to stop. (Warning, 1 strike.)
- Posting offensive or otherwise malicious (for instance, flashing images that trigger epilepsy) images- these are not filtered by our swear filter, and should not be posted under any circumstances. (Warning, 1 strike.)
- Backseat moderation- leave punishments to staff, and use the report button instead. If someone's behaviour bothers you, try talking to them about it first. Trying to force changes or otherwise get your way at the expense of others is also considered backseat moderation. (Warning, 1 strike.)
- Major spam or swearing- this includes intentionally bypassing the swear filter, including so many emotes/images that communication is hindered or that the point of a message becomes obscured, as well as posting wildly off topic material or rapidly posting in threads all over the site. (Warning, 1 strike)
- Multiple, minor infractions (see verbal warnings)- if you're told to stop doing something, we mean it. Failure to stop can lead to warnings. (Warning, variable strikes- usually it takes several repeated minor infractions to get a warning.)
- The following cases would receive a ban, with length ranging from a couple hours to a few months:
- Major disruption of chat- this can take many forms. Spamming chat excessively, harassing users through private channels, or excessive pinging of others are considered major disruptions. (Kicked from chat + ban ranging from an hour or two for spamming to several days for harassment.)
- Reregistering accounts- Users are not permitted more than one forum account per person. If your account was banned, it was for a good reason, and trying to get around it by registering again will only increase the ban duration. We do sometimes get false positives from siblings/friends on the same network, so please try to let us know well in advance if anyone else is using your internet to access the forums. If you've reregistered by accident (by forgetting you made an account previously), lost your password, want to change your account name, or have been issued a ban you feel is unfair, talk to the staff about it instead of reregistering. We have systems to handle all of those cases, and will be more than happy to help you sort it out. (No punishment in event of false positive, etc; (increased) ban length if done to avoid punishment, starting at 1 week.)
- Multiple, moderate infractions (see recorded warnings)- again, if you're told to stop doing something, there's a good reason for it. We have a 3-strike policy, and if you recieve three warnings before any start to expire, your next punishment will be a ban. (Ban, 1 week to 3 months.)
- Repeated major infractions (see recorded warnings, bans) after a previous ban- Bans are intended to be a break from the site. Obviously something wasn't working out between you and the rest of the community, and a ban is intended to give some cooldown time for both sides. If you're going to break more rules immediately after getting back, the ban clearly did not serve its purpose. You will be given a longer ban- seriously consider using this time to evaluate your behaviour and any feedback you were given. (Ban of increased length, 2 week to 1 year.)
- The following cases would receive a permanent ban:
- Posting illegal material- we're a site full of minors and don't need to be encouraging shady behaviour. Discussions that encourage breaking the law in any form will not be tolerated, and anyone who provides images, instructions or otherwise instigates it will be punished. If you'd get in trouble for it at school or work, don't bring it onto the forums. (Permanent ban.)
- Any combination of previous offences, such that total ban length is >1 year- It would take a great deal of wrongdoing to get to this point. Generally, this would be a full 3 strikes, and then 3-4 bans of increasing length... but exceptionally toxic and malicious behaviour directed at any user(s) or the site itself may mean it happens sooner. (Permanent ban.)
Again, this is a guideline, not set in stone. Staff reserves the right to assign multiple warnings, as well as increase ban durations for any troublemaker that really goes above and beyond. Any questions or concerns should be addressed now, because I am dead serious about every single word here, and will enforce it alone if need me. And by all means, if I'm doing any of this, let me know. It applies to everyone, without question, no exceptions.
Disclaimer:
This is an independant action. I did this alone, only mentioning it in passing to staff chat after it was already underway. I believe I am within my authority as a Moderator and also as the highest man on the totem pole in absence of Runouw or Doram, who I would defer to in almost all cases. None of this is new, it's all been in the rules from the start, and while I'm convinced someone is going to hate me regardless of whatever choice I made here, I'm past the point of caring. If any of this is suddenly controversial now, well, it's not the rules that changed, it's the people who suddenly have an issue with them. And I guess if it does turn out to be controversial, feel free to demote me. In fact, don't just feel free- do so. A community that no longer believes in these morals and values is not one I want to remain a part of, least of all in such a prominent position of representation.
That's all, folks.
Too Long, Didn't Read:
Too bad. I said at the beginning this was important for everyone to read, so do it properly. Ignorance is not an excuse.
It's sad that things have to change.
