Why are there no easily visible and accessible forum rules on the forums?

damnacious · January 2021

As the title suggests, there seems to be a significant and detrimental lack of actual 'Forum Rules' available for community members to access, acknowledge and understand.

Am i blind and simply been missing it?

While some sub-categories may contain some specific rules, there is no mention, anywhere that i can see, of what is or is not within 'forum rules', and no mention of what occurs with moderated posts with regards to how it affects a community member, or even what types of moderation may exist, such as a 'warning'.

How is it reasonable to expect the community to be able to communicate on a moderated forum when there are no easily accessible, viewable or visible rules?

From my experience with 'moderating', a clear, available and accessible set of rules is necessary, particularly as moderation without rules would simply serve to create undue, unnecessary and excessive need for moderation.

Could not a simple thread and post at the top of the forums contain the forum rules and other necessary and relevant information?

greywynd · January 2021

Once upon a time there was. I believe the closest you'll find now is the ToS. It's a footnote at the bottom of any forum page.

kreatyve · February 2021

The forum rules are pinned at the top of every platforms General Discussion subforum.

damnacious · February 2021

kreatyve said:
The forum rules are pinned at the top of every platforms General Discussion subforum.

Wonderful! So, the forum rules then only apply to those General Discussion subforums?

If not, then if someone does not actually visit those subforums, they will never read the rules, but be posting in other subforums and being moderated for rules they know nothing about?

I fail to perceive how this is, even remotely, logical.

hotfrostworm · February 2021

damnacious said:

kreatyve said:
The forum rules are pinned at the top of every platforms General Discussion subforum.
Wonderful! So, the forum rules then only apply to those General Discussion subforums?

If not, then if someone does not actually visit those subforums, they will never read the rules, but be posting in other subforums and being moderated for rules they know nothing about?

I fail to perceive how this is, even remotely, logical.

I don't know. Where do you perceive the rules should be located? I have been on countless forums and all of them post rules in various formats. Some simply inform you of a link upon account creation; "Hello new user here is the link to the rules be sure to read them at you leisure.". Others have sets and subsets depending on the topics. I don't have issues with rules, reading them, or not reading them. I think the layout of this forum's branches are a little precarious.

For example; this topic branch is "Peer to Peer Tech Support" isn't a root topic and should appear under all 3 platforms within separate subforums (PC, XBox, Playstation). This is suppose to be, players helping other players with game related issues, and not forum feedback. There should be a forum feedback here on the root and a forum bugs on the root. Maybe if those existed then you could have forum rules to also contain discussions about moderation, off topic, forum games, and the "lower depths" dispatch thread.

One of the issues I see here, Cryptic doesn't host their own forums they rent them off Vanilla. The official wiki is not supported by them either. I am not sure how much a forum moderator can do or is allowed to do here. But this forum branch seems to be barely understood by anyone.

cc: @kreatyve

kreatyve · February 2021

hotfrostworm said:

damnacious said:

kreatyve said:
The forum rules are pinned at the top of every platforms General Discussion subforum.
Wonderful! So, the forum rules then only apply to those General Discussion subforums?

If not, then if someone does not actually visit those subforums, they will never read the rules, but be posting in other subforums and being moderated for rules they know nothing about?

I fail to perceive how this is, even remotely, logical.

I don't know. Where do you perceive the rules should be located? I have been on countless forums and all of them post rules in various formats. Some simply inform you of a link upon account creation; "Hello new user here is the link to the rules be sure to read them at you leisure.". Others have sets and subsets depending on the topics. I don't have issues with rules, reading them, or not reading them. I think the layout of this forum's branches are a little precarious.

For example; this topic branch is "Peer to Peer Tech Support" isn't a root topic and should appear under all 3 platforms within separate subforums (PC, XBox, Playstation). This is suppose to be, players helping other players with game related issues, and not forum feedback. There should be a forum feedback here on the root and a forum bugs on the root. Maybe if those existed then you could have forum rules to also contain discussions about moderation, off topic, forum games, and the "lower depths" dispatch thread.

One of the issues I see here, Cryptic doesn't host their own forums they rent them off Vanilla. The official wiki is not supported by them either. I am not sure how much a forum moderator can do or is allowed to do here. But this forum branch seems to be barely understood by anyone.

cc: @kreatyve

I don't have that much power.

Why are there no easily visible and accessible forum rules on the forums?

Comments