Rules and Guidelines

Site Rules and Guidelines
1

Rule Policy

We’ve spent a lot of time on forums in the past, some as members and some as site staff. So we know how it’s like to be on both sides of the bar, and we’re going to be up front with you. Nearly everything that’s done on administration is on a case-by-case basis.

This is a list of stuff that we actively dislike and generally always leads to disciplinary action, but there’s always going to be that point where you can be like “Well, I only barely mentioned something political, but this guy went on a whole rant and yet he didn’t get punished and I did!” or “I just did some really minor thing that I didn’t even mean to be trolling, but this guy seriously trolled this other guy and he didn’t get punished but I did!”.

There’s also the point where it gets really hard to define where the rules are. So we can say “No trolling!”, but how do you define trolling? Where do you draw that line? Or we can say “No swearing!” but what counts as swearing? When is it appropriate and inappropriate? Which words count as “swears” and which don’t?

Here’s the honest truth. Sometimes, people will break the rules and we leave it in because it’s topical, or because it adds to the discussion, or because we know that person better and know what they actually meant, or sometimes just because we think it’s funny. And other times we punish people because of those same reasons; it isn’t topical enough, or funny enough, or we don’t know you enough to know your intentions, or whatever other reason.

So here is the policy when it comes to rules. If you don’t want to get on our bad side, if you want to stray from administrative action, then follow these rules like they’re laws. Don’t do anything that skirts close or seems remotely questionable. That’s your best bet to say safe and our of our “crosshairs”.

But some people will want to push the envelope of how far these rules go for whatever reason, and if you do decide to be one of those people, know that you’re really playing with fire. And maybe you can get away with it and maybe we’ll laugh and think you’re clever and witty. And maybe we’ll just ban you for it because you aren’t.

It really depends on what we’re feeling at the time, and what you’ve done or said before, and if whatever you’re doing has been done before by others and we’re tired of it and you’re just the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s called bias and I really wish we could say that we will not be biased but in all honesty that is simply impossible,

I mean, just being on this site is playing with fire, honestly, because you can be punished for something you didn’t even mean. It’s happened to us before, and we understand what it’s like to be blamed for something you didn’t do, but you also have to realize that anyone can say anything to get out of trouble. How are we supposed to know you didn’t mean it, or that you didn’t have those intentions?

So the only solution we have is to be up front with you and tell you that we treat everything case by case. Yes, we totally realize that it sounds unfair, and to be honest, it totally is, but there is honestly just no way to be 100% fair in every situation. If you’ve been on a site before or been staff on a site before, you know what I’m talking about.

We’re going to straight up tell you that our decisions are going to probably, at some point, seem unfair to you, because at some point they totally will be unfair to you. We just aren’t able to make sure that everything is fair because we can’t see every thing that’s happened. We can’t judge how antagonistic someone has been, what people have said on other sites, what you were thinking when you made that post or whatever other reasons were at play. We can’t always be fair. We really wish we could, but we can’t. That’s just life.

That’s the risks of being on this site. If you’re willing to gamble with them, that’s your decision. You’re going to see people, friends, enemies, staff, that to you clearly broke the rules we’ve listed here, and they aren’t getting punished for it, and to be honest that’s because they gambled and they won. And you’re going to see others, maybe your friends, maybe your enemies, maybe staff, maybe even you, break the rules and get brutally punished for it. That’s because they gambled and lost.

We’re not saying that it’s arbitrary, because we will try our best to stick by these rules and deal with things as fairly as we can. But “as fairly as we can” is not “always fair all the time”. So we apologize in advance and hope our little bout at honesty, while it won’t make up for being unfair, at least makes you aware that it is very possible and can happen.

So when it comes to pushing the envelope with these rules, you can play it safe, or you can try and go as close to the cliff edge as possible, that’s all up to you. But we’ve made you aware of what your chances are up front. If you get burned, that’s your responsibility. Gambling is always a dangerous game.

(Basically, you’re at our mercy, peasants. Mwahahahaha.)

Sincerely,
TTV Staff

1 Like
2

Post Content

Profanity and Sexual Innuendo

Our audience has a wide enough range, but there’s still a lot of younger people on here. Please try to keep the swearing/sexual innuendo to a minimum. Of course, there’s a wide range of what’s considered swearing and what’s considered innuendo, and we aren’t going to list every single little thing here. Suffice to say, the staff will edit anything we find unsuitable at their discretion, but try to use common sense and keep this place child-friendly for the most part.

Debates/Flame Wars

Obviously, since this is a place where people can share their opinions, there is undoubtedly going to be a time where at least two people will have completely different ones. Controversy creates discussion, but please don’t let this get out of hand and start attacking each other instead of civilly debating or discussing a topic.

Religious/Political Discussion

We get it, politics and religion are a fundamental part of who you are. They shape your worldview and how you treat people. The problem is, they’re such a fundamental part of who you are, it can get very heated very quickly because some debates end up feeling like a personal attack, no matter if they actually are or aren’t. The TTV Cast ourselves hold a very wide and conflicting variety of beliefs and opinions, but we’ve seen first hand both in our group and in countless other sites that going too deep into religious and political discussion opens up a huge can of worms. Please, please, please try to keep it to a minimum.

Note: Yes, this line is especially blurry, and some times it’s relevant (for instance, talking about Matoran forms of government or whatnot), but we reserve the right to discern when to stop it before it gets out of hand. We will try our best to not be biased.

Spoilers

Spoilers aren’t cool. Things like plot twists or character deaths are a huge part of the entertainment experience, and sometimes a plot twist can totally make or break a film/television show. We’ve all had that moment where we came across a plot twist and it totally blew our minds, and it’s the primary thing we think about when we remember that story. We also remember being spoiled for something we looked forward to and how that kind of ruined whatever we were going to watch (I’m looking at you, Game of Thrones).

So being spoiled is kind of a big deal. We should have spoiler threads made for people that want to discuss new story/spoilers when they come out, and also spoiler tags to use, so please try to keep spoilers like that there. There’s also a specific spoiler policy for certain pieces of media that you can find in each forum, so keep that in mind.

Duplicate Topics

We have a very nifty search feature that gives you live feedback on what you’re looking up, and we’ve tried to make it as seamless and convenient as possible to search for topics that have already been made. Please use that before making a new topic. We don’t have any revival limit, so you can reply to that topic whenever you want. Just don’t clutter the forum with topics that already exist.

English

We’re a English speaking group, and English is primarily the language used on this forum. We want to be able to read your posts, so posting in another language or purposefully messing up your text just does you no favors. Obviously, there are exceptions when it comes to context, but as a rule of thumb, make sure you’re speaking with English and pay attention to spelling and grammar. Also, be aware of formatting too. Bright text colors are just terrible to look at.

3

Behavior

Respect the Members

Honesty time again. We agree, conceptually, that every single human being deserves respect. That’s a concept we can all get behind. But putting it in practice…well, there’s always that guy. We get that it’s hard sometimes, and we’d be lying if we didn’t say that there’s people on this very board that we aren’t fond of. But we’re asking you to please do your best, because in life, you do have to put up with people that you don’t like and act respectful even though they annoy the living daylights out of you. Unless, of course, you can easily get ride of people you don’t like. Like we can on this forum. So watch yourself.

Respect the Staff

Speaking about watching yourself, we have a very interesting policy here when it comes to staff. See, the staff are all people we trust, so that means that they’re given certain liberties when it comes to moderating stuff. Basically, being staff means that we trust you enough to break the rules. So maybe you’ve seen a staff member do something that goes against the rules or maybe just rides the lines between them, and you think “Well, I should be able to do that!”.

Nope.

Staff get certain privileges because they have proven themselves to be noteworthy, and this is one of them. What you should do is make sure you respect them, because they wield unimaginable power. UNIMAGINABLE POWER.

Joking all aside, we do expect our staff to be fair and to respect all of the rules we have on this site. That being said, if they do disrespect those rules, we will do our best to deal with them. That being said, you also need to realize that while we don’t require you to always respect the person, you are supposed to respect the position they are in.

We also reserve the right to disregard any of the rules just because we can. We don’t want to, because we think they’re good rules and they keep the peace, and we wouldn’t really expect you guys to be held to a standard that we don’t follow ourselves.

But we do reserve the right to do whatever the heck we want to. Hey, it’s our site. Booyah.

Don’t Do the Moderator’s Job

Oh, here’s another one that’s a little context specific, because it gets a little blurry when it comes to exact situations. We don’t like people playing moderator, because we actually have people for that. If you want to do your part, flag the offending content for us because that legitimately helps us out.

But basically, have you ever been in a situation as a kid where you were like on a playground or something, and there was a disagreement, but this one kid came up and tried to settle something except he or she just kind of did a terrible job at it and all you were thinking of “Who died and made you king?”.

But then, on the other hand, have you been in a situation where someone just stepped up and you just went along with it and didn’t even question why you should be following them?

There’s an innate difference between those two, and we can’t really describe what it is. But basically, some people will “play moderator” and it will be a relief, and other times people will do it and it will seem just really annoying. If you do it, you will most likely end up in the latter category, but there’s always exceptions. However, your best bet isn’t to do it at all and play it safe, because you don’t want to be known as that annoying know-it-all on the playground.

Trolling

I’m not going to lie, trolling can be really funny sometimes. I know, it seems really wrong for someone to say that because no one likes to be at the receiving end…but there’s always that guy, you know? I’d be a hypocrite if I tried to look like I was above it. Not that I’m always proud of the way I handle things when I do, mind you, but I know what it feels like.

It’s also hard because the lines between what’s trolling and what isn’t can be pretty blurry. Some people are really good at making it seem passive aggressive, some are much more direct, some people just antagonize…it’s one of those concepts which everyone knows but it’s a lot harder to draw the lines as to what the definition is or isn’t.

And even then, even if it is severe trolling, it can be offset by how humorous it is, or how honestly stupid “the other guy” was being. Like I said, I’d be a hypocrite if I said I was above it. I’m not always proud of the fact, but I have done it and if I was to be honest, I most likely will in the future.

So here’s what we’re going to say about it: don’t troll people, don’t antagonize people, because if you think you’re funny and witty or that the “other guy” totally deserves it, 9/10 you are probably wrong.

But honestly, it’s going to be a case by case basis anyways. So if you think you have the wit and charm in order to get away with it, do realize you’re actively betting disciplinary action on your perceived “skills”. It’s your own fault if you’re not good enough at it. Simple as that.

5

This topic is now invisible. It will no longer be displayed in any topic lists. The only way to access this topic is via direct link.

7

Hello, people.

We’re adding addendums to the policies.

First:
No More Fan Clubs/Adoration/WeHate/etc. Topics
They were fun at first, but now they’re getting spammy and tend to die after a couple of days. Such topics made before 8/31/2014 will not be closed, but… no more, please. Future topics will be closed.

Second:
Reconsider the Hashtags.
We’re not sure on how to handle hashtags at the minute… listens to the side Oh, no more shipping-related hastags (what, really? saaddface :frowning: ) or posts containing only hashtags. Also, make sure that the hashtag is necessary to a post.

8

Changing the Hashtag rule. No posts containing only shipping hashtags or generic hashtags. Save them for the wedding. #eljayxalenawedding2015

9

You mean “only” as in the only thing written in the post is the hashtag? Or that the only hashtag in the post is a shipping or generic hashtag?

10

It kinda applies to both. Posting only a single hashtag gets spammy and the hashtag has to be related to the discussion at hand. For example, don’t post EBAYFOLLOWEROFVENOM in the Shipping Topic.