Quote Originally Posted by Vaygor1 View Post
To me, when it comes to members (or rather, characters) in a forum of sharetrader's nature, colourful and controversial seem to come in the same package. As such, I will continue to miss many contributors that have now gone.

In line with the intent of this thread I have tried to come up with a draft list of concise rules by searching through the rules of other internet forums/blogs etc. But there are 2 main problems:

1) The human part. On a forum like sharetrader, contributors opinions and experiences are intrinsic to how and why it all works. For ANY given topic, each contributor's take on what is acceptable or offensive is not only unique, but each individual's reaction to anything will also to some extent vary from day to day. Which brings me to the second part….

2) The succinct part. How do you succinctly make rules to cover even 50% of every eventuality when there are no bounds like that on a sports field? Well, you can't - even rugby has over 1000 rules - which helps explains the 1st rule under the 'Long-List' below.

In my searches I have found a few sites that have already searched and collated others' rules. Without reinventing the wheel, I have summarised the most common rules, removing the ones that in my humble and subjective opinion, don't apply to this forum. So, using some of share traders existing rules, and ignoring liability/indemnity/disclaimer/IP issues here they are:


THE SHORT LIST
  • Use common courtesy
  • Respect others (even when they don't deserve it)


THE LONG LIST
  • Mods have total authority over rulings, membership, and site content.
  • Moderation appeals by email only.
  • No illegal, abusive, hateful, threatening, obscene, violent, or malevolent behaviour/posts/media.
  • No misquoting, defamatory content, fraud, libel, slander, lying, impersonating, or deliberate deceit.
  • No posts that breach copyright, violates anyones privacy or any 3rd party's publicity rights.
  • No posts of any kind exploiting minors or identifying anyone under 18 years old for the same.
  • No posts by any licensed investment adviser or representative of the same.
  • No selling, advertising, or spamming of any product or services. Refer fee schedule regarding breaches.
  • Hyperlinks are forbidden to any site that encourages or includes any issues set out in the above 6 bullets.
  • Limited 'adult' behaviour regarding mild profanities, comeback lines, banter, name calling.
  • Limited thread-hogging, semi-repetitive posting.


On reflection, the above is not too far removed from the existing rules.
There is however an added element of deliberate vagueness by way of the last 2 points because there's no other way to do it without some subjective wriggle room for fun. It comes back to the first rule which unfortunately can never be applied 100% consistently.

I have not included any banning mechanisms (ie 3 strikes, warning shots, ban periods, breach consequence etc). Perhaps a set of house rules that provide guidance only on what can be expected for each type of breach would suffice?

Feedback welcome… and I know.. there's a million ways to skin a cat on this one. None right, none wrong, just different.
Great post, great effort ... and I think you are right - we won't manage to get all imaginable situations into a rule set - and if we did, than nobody would bother to read them anyway. Hey - at the end of the day its just another forum - we don't want to study law to get it right (and hey - lawyers and courts don't get it always right either).

However - I would propose to add a (short) banning policy:

* Moderators have discretion to edit / hide posts and / or sanction members who violate above rules. Available sanctions are warning, temporary ban, permanent ban. Under normal circumstances will the moderator for a first offence just warn the member and give them an opportunity to apologise and withdraw the offending post. In severe cases (or for repeat offenders), the moderator may in his/her discretion ban the member for up to one week (tbd?). Any sanction needs to be explained (which rule has been violated).

* In cases of several repetitions or very severe rule violations a panel of selected posters and moderators can decide over a ban longer than one month (tbd - up to permanent banning).

* Sanctions are stored (including an - if necessary anonymised - copy of the offending post, which rule has been broken, which moderator made the decision and what the sanction was) and are visible to the forum to help other posters to understand the application of the rules.