I'm very much in favor of the new guidelines! Most of the time I find that I have a positive experience on the forums. My first experience however was a bad one and it took my a full year to want to come back. After that I discovered that I must have just hit one of the rare times that such negative interactions occur. As pointed out in the first page, I was also a refugee from Neo and had come to know forums as a frightening and hateful place. I'm so glad to know that Subeta doesn't hold to the same theme. Having a nice intro for new users or a reminder for those who have been around but would like a refresher is a great idea!

I also want to point out that the guidelines have been broken down nicely into easily readable groups. It has a friendly feel that doesn't leave you feeling as though you're going to be banned for breathing wrong. Things like this are so much easier to remember and follow when they're presented so easily. Great job on the writing!

If there was one thing I would like to see added, it would be something about not arguing/being rude back when someone else is hurtful. It's very easy to try to stand your ground against a rude remark or attitude, or to stand up for someone else but continuing a fight doesn't solve anything. It would be nice to point out that two wrongs don't make a right even if it seems like you're helping.

I also agree with the previously posted thought that rewards for helpful behavior may lead to more problems. I'm always trying to get new achievements and my first thought was "Ooh, what new helpful board can I make? And what if someone else makes it first?" I then immediately realized that this was completely the wrong way to go about things and that I shouldn't pursue such an action. I can see this becoming a common occurrence however.

This is overall a great addition and I can't wait to see what the end result is! :D

I think these are very straight forward and cute guidelines!

One thing I might add are consequences to go along with first time, second, third, etc offenders. Like you said if someone's habitually disrespecting the rules then sure give them the boot, but I also do believe people can make mistakes or a misunderstanding can happen. So a clear set of consequences might help users benefit from these rules eve more.

It's a lot easier to understand "If I dont follow the rules I will get banned for a month" than it is "If i do something bad, something bad will happen" I do think the community need these rules. I haven't experienced many rude people on subeta, but it definitely dampers the community!

I've read through the guidelines and they look good - in principle.

I totally agree with you. I can't count the number of times I've read or posted threads in the Suggestions and Ideas forum and seen lots of totally negative posts that appear to put the OP down or pooh-pooh their idea. "Constructive" criticism and feedback serves to not only allow the OP to still feel positive about the experience but possibly also learn from what is said and/or change their idea to something more workable rather than throwing their arms up in despair and not bothering to come up with any ideas again.

I agree with what you said about the rewards system and think that had a good idea. If it were possible to flag a post, just like with the heart system we have now, so that staff/forum mods could see that people have found a particular thread or post useful, then this would be a much better way to handle things rather than seeing people fighting to make "helpful" threads just for some form of reward....actually, come to think of it, isn't that what the whole "heart post" is supposed to be for?

i dont have anything meaningful to add at the moment (i'll come back if that changes) but i just wanted to say that i really like these and the essence of what they're trying to establish. i'm hoping they'd be somewhere very prominent, and maybe even one of the first pages new users are linked to in any newbie tutorial the site may have (i'm so unfamiliar with the registration process these days)

I think the "new" rules sound fair.

I don't however see myself using the forum much. I have been an active member of Subeta for almost 7 years and have just barely 1000 posts because I have never felt very welcome or appreciated in the forums.

I know we are talking about the forums but since it is also about social interaction do you think you and staff might look at some of the shop names? I am quite offended by a few of them and they make me very uncomfortable while doing restocking or quests.

Thank you for always giving us opportunities for feedback I love spending hours here!

I think the guidelines look great, Keith! Short and sweet and simple!

good idea as long as it don't open doors to other forms of bulling i have always done it like this.

rewarding helpers is not something i would do though there are a lot of helpers that just help not to get something in return.

The guidelines are concise and cover a broad range of issues. Overall, I like the ideas that are presented here. This is actually the first year that I've really written anything in the forums for fear of retaliation, despite being here for...a little over 4 years, I think? So it's nice to see that the site is heading in a more friendly direction.

On a more serious note, I do share the concerns of specificity. The guidelines are good and I like them, but they're guidelines. If they had links to examples of what IS and IS NOT okay, then I think it would give a better idea of what you're going for. Otherwise simply saying "no racism" can have as loose of an interpretation as "don't say 'blacks should die' but anything other than that is okay". There are varying levels of the 'isms, 'phobias, and hate speech.

Lastly, , do you have people on your staff who are experienced/equipped to assess these situations?

- I kinda thought it would be mods or staff giving out rewards and I still think I wouldn't change the worries I have.

I think it is going to be a lot of hard work for the staff checking all posts/threads. Using the post likes is a good idea but could lead to them constantly being called to popular users posts/threads rather than helpful ones, so long as the mods/staff have the time to read the post/thread and determine the difference this could be fine.

I still think their will be scrabbles for thread making, pointless posting and this still doesn't help for people who don't like or are too shy or whatever to use the forums.

I love that this was included. People always talk about how they have "freedom of speech" without even knowing what that actually means.

Also, usually the most hate I see people getting is on the "suggestions" forum. People can get kinda nasty when someone suggests something they don't necessarily agree with, as if staff is just going to take that suggestion verbatim and apply it as posted. I think a push to reinstate a search feature for threads would somewhat help with this, so that the same things don't get posted over and over again.

Pretty easy to follow. Should be common sense to treat others how you would like to be treated. I'm more of a lurker than a poster in the forums because of bad experiences on neopets. I have a learning disability so my typing and spelling aren't the best. I don't post much because out fear of being picked on for it. That plus I'm shy to begin with. I've seen hateful things said in the past on the forums. That said, I've also seen a lot of helpful friendly post also.

: Thank you for the kind words. You wrote:

I've seen some rude behavior there as well. :(

Please don't stop. I believe that communities wither when different views get squashed and groupthink becomes the norm. Besides, it can only help to have people on this site who can model how to disagree without getting personal.

you've raised some very valid points there and I share your concerns. In all honesty I don't know how they are going to stop the sudden influx of people posting "helpful" threads just for some form of reward/achievement. As far as filtering popular posts from useful ones, maybe a star or some other icon could be added to the top right of each post (where the Ping/Quote/Report/Link ones are) that will draw special attention to a post if people deem it to be helpful. Other than that, I really don't know what else could be done, but I'm totally against what's already been proposed at the bottom of the Guidelines.

I really appreciate that in the "Don't Be That Guy" section, transphobia is listed, and not included as one of the "other types" at the end of that particular area of the section. And kitten pictures. Bonus.

Unfortunately, I don't spend a lot of time in the forums, except during events, so I can't really add to the talk about how there's negative stuff going on. EXCEPT, I can talk about the debate forum. I have this bad habit of checking it out, but most of it isn't really debate, I don't think. Some of it's like, "Oh, this is my opinion, it's superior and I won't take your REALLY LENGTHY, INFORMATIVE post about how my opinion is actually not really great. I'm right, I'm better, I'm gonna continue to argue with you." I mean, sure, they're at least mostly polite with their opinion, but enough's enough, especially when the OP or anyone else responding to it stops responding, and then that person who kept saying their opinion was the right one continues to respond to posts and keep talking about how their right. This is ESPECIALLY relevant to topics in the DSG/LGBTQIA+ (Sexuality subforum) community. I mean, when I go into the subforum and see almost every topic locked on the first page alone, something's not right.

Granted all of what I just said is probably really vague, I still appreciate that the phobias are listed. I just hope that the Don't Be That Guy rule is enforced strongly.

But overall, I think the guidelines are pretty great. Simple, straightforward. Except I don't like that the section titles are the same format as links, because then I'm like, "I WANT TO CLICK THAT," but it doesn't go anywhere. It bothers me.

I find the guidelines easy to read though I do agree with many others who have found the rules to be vague. If you want people to read them though there does have to be some level of vagueness, no one is going to read some giant bogged down list of all the things you can't do. You have to keep things short and simple if you want people to read them.

That said I really think you should clarify that one or two screw ups isn't going to really harm your experience (I know the red box says habitually but this could be better worded I think). Keep the overall message positive, the red box does seem a little scary and might still discourage users as mentioned above the rules are vague.

I also believe that the review process for deciding if something is rude or not needs to include a few members of staff and not just one. Bringing together multiple people with multiple opinions can only increase a sense of fairness, if multiple agree this action was bad then it must be so.

Finally I've seen it brought up that people may not know exactly what they've done wrong. Specific examples should be given to the warned user and perhaps suggestions for how to avoid these mistakes in the future.

I like the guidelines,they arent in your face,but are friendly reminders to be kind to each other,and respectful. I'm always asking questions even after 3 years,and have always been treated well,and encouraged to be more confident. As been mentioned before, I'm a neo refugee too, and it took me a long time to feel flameproof on the forums. This site has a delicate balance,people are allowed to express their opinions often quite vehemently without getting in trouble and these guidelines will help to let us all know how far is acceptable.

I think that this is a great idea, and am actually really happy to see that Subeta is wanting to build and harvest a good community for all. :)

I especially am fond of this

Rules mostly look good.

some are a little scary for me. I know the hope it to move to a more positive experience overall. I do worry that sometimes the nature of things typed can be misunderstood. Due to many variables such as non native english speaker, or overall just misunderstanding, Sometimes I have said things as a joke, and inadvertently hurt someones feelings or vice versa. I just want there to be room for that to be worked out when there is a misunderstanding between user/user.

Could it be something like talk to user before reporting?

Not gonna read through all the pages, but skimming the first page it looks like there's already some great feedback.

Overall, I really like it. It's simple and to the point, easy to understand.

Or maybe under one of the other sections. Idk, I just feel like there should be something regarding the idea of complaints/feedback- sometimes they come off as hostile or aggressive, when it could be constructive on both sides of the argument.

Thanks , well said. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way :)