Modding Policy

[quindraco]

First off, I'd like to apologize for "thread resurrection"; I was trying to shift the emphasis from the banned topic (update times) to the topic of communication with the readers, which I didn't think was banned. It strikes me as perfectly legit to not stand for people responding to thread locks by reposting the same thread; I failed to understand what exactly was being locked.

More generally, I'm curious as to why we have banned topics at all. Since this forum is segregated, it makes sense to move posts based on content; since it allows a broad age range, banned language also makes sense. Who exactly is harmed by a "bad topic" thread, though? No one has to post in it, or even read it; I for one would ignore any thread about Mary Sue fanfics of Erfworld, but that doesn't mean I'm opposed to their existence.

In the interest of avoiding another lock, a disclaimer: this is NOT a complaint about the forum rules, it's merely a request for an explanation.

[SteveMB]

More generally, I'm curious as to why we have banned topics at all.

Certain topics have a known tendency to degenerate into flamage. The Giant doesn't want that on his forum.

[Roland St. Jude]

Certain topics have a known tendency to degenerate into flamage. The Giant doesn't want that on his forum.

Sheriff of Moddingham: That's pretty much the gist of it. The one who makes this Playground possible has things that he is willing to have discussed here and things he isn't. Topics like real world religion and politics, or the comics' scheduling, tend to degrade quickly into flames. Rather than having to sort out the good or the bad (or have moderators do so), certain topics have been declared off-limits, pretty much completely. There are a number of reasons why this rule makes sense. Less real world argument of this type makes these forums a friendlier, fantasy escapist place. Avoiding these topics entirely means much less moderation/moderator effort is needed. I could go on. But the real reason is, and has been from the beginning, The Giant doesn't want to pay to host these types of discussions and it's his Playground.

Rather than lock this, I'm going to move it to Board Issues. (For those seeing it for the first time here, it's about a recent spate of threads in the Erfworld about that comic's updating schedule. As previously noted there, the whole of that issue is out-of-bounds. That includes when the comic will update, why it hasn't updated yet, comments on how long it's been, and comments on why the banner over a given comic doesn't seem to reflect its actual updating schedule.)

General questions about the Forum Rules should be posted in the Board Issues section. Questions about instances of specific moderation should be taken up via PM with the moderator who took the action.