Is there a rule against flaming "third parties"?

[hamishspence]

Specifically, people who are not posters on this forum- authors, game designers and the like.

It was brought up in another thread that some comments about authors would count as flaming if the author was a poster on these forums- and I'm wondering if this forum has a rule against all personal attacks.

[MikelaC1]

I seem to remember something in the rules about this...it was okay to criticize the fictional person James Bond, but not okay to criticize the author Ian Fleming, even though he was long dead. If I can dig it up, I will.

Here it is:
Groups and Message Board Wars
We do not allow groups or threads based solely on the exclusion of, or opposition to a certain group of posters (much less a certain group of real-world individuals, such as a ethnicity or sexual preference). Nor do we allow groups or threads where the function is to voice opposition (including insulting or defaming) a specific real-world person or group. While you can form an Anti-James Bond group, you cannot form an Anti-Ian Fleming group, because Ian Fleming is a real person. No, it doesn't matter that he is unlikely to post in these forums on account of the fact that he died in 1964; groups set up in opposition to real people are not permitted. Such groups will be disbanded and threads locked, and Infractions will be issued as the staff deems appropriate.

[ChristianSt]

Mh, yeah from the forum rules as printed Flaming is defined as
"Any poster that openly attacks, insults, belittles, or abuses another poster will have their offending post modified and an Infraction issued to them. ..." (emphasized by me)

But I would be pretty sure that flaming any person at all, will be considered as flaming nevertheless (and be scrubbed and gain infractions). [I don't know if that thread you mentioned crosses that boarder, but if it does, I personally would report it]
Because I don't think that flaming other peoples is something this (or any) forum should do.

[hamishspence]

I post based on the assumption that there is such a rule- but I wasn't sure just how report-worthy, for example, insulting nicknames for authors, was- so I don't think I have reported any such posts yet.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: The rule cited above does state "posters." But flaming others is problematic for a couple reasons. First, you don't really know who might be a poster here. Members of the design teams of various games, authors of fantasy fiction, etc., may well post here under some nickname (like "The Giant"). Second, insulting nicknames or insulting a person may also be seen as trolling, toward fans or just toward the general civil forum population.

Criticism of a work is great, but insults (and insulting nicknames) of people are not really conducive to the kind of civil discussion we want here. Folks should tread lightly in those areas.