This has become an increasingly large issue as of late, and it’s unfortunately something that we have done a poor job of making our stance clear to the public. Some of this stuff is gone over in the “quality discussions” topic, but I think it’s worthwhile creating a topic addressing the concept of joke topics in general.
Joke topics (as we shall define them on the Message Board) are topics based on things members have found funny and are most often self-referential or “in-joke” material. They are also quite often intentionally or ironically made poorly.
As of this point, these topics are prohibited from any sub-forum on the Message Boards.
The reason why is that they mostly just consist of back-and-forth spam between members in on the joke and serve to artificially inflate the post count needed to become a higher Trust Level.
The one exception to this rule is the Highly Suspect Hideout. Due to the free-discussion nature of the forum, and the general trust we as staff have in all Masters, joke topics are welcome there. Obviously, once/if you become a Master, the need for a higher post-count no longer becomes an issue.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.
