The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
The New and Improved Consolidated Rules Thread of Great Rulesiness
ElJeffe
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Rules for D&D General Discussion
Some of this is reiteration of our general forum rules, found here. Read those first.
Obey the Glorious Edict
The only insult that is permitted on this forum is “silly goose”. No other adjective may be added, you cannot call someone a “fat, stupid, silly goose”.
Among the insults this covers (ie; all of them) is the insult “troll”. Accusing someone of trolling will be treated as an edict violation. If you call someone a troll and they are, then you are an idiot for doing what they want. If you call them an troll and they're not, then you are an arsehole for calling them names. Please use the report button if you have a problem with another user.
Genders and Pronouns
Also, please do not use the word "bitch" to describe a woman. It is fraught and kinda gross and even if you are in the habit of calling everyone a bitch regardless of gender, it takes on a more sinister connotation as applied to womenfolk.
To reiterate: use the report button, don't meta-mod
PM mods with questions, do not ask in-thread
Link images over 1mb in size
No, you cannot have an anime thread
The [chat] thread is a no-politics zone
We generally don't care what dumb shit is happening on Reddit, Twitter, et al.
Reminder that this is an on-topic subforum
Except for the chat thread, our threads are on-topic and discussion should stick to areas that are directly relevant to the topic identified in the OP. If you would like to hang out in more chatty threads on various topics, check out SE++.
Regarding the posting of articles and Twitter threads:
In light of this, please observe the following rules when referencing outside works, including long Twitter threads:
Regarding the posting of hate imagery:
Violence and Death Threats against Public Figures:
Warnings, Infractions, and You
If you have been Infracted or Banned and wish to appeal, please see the main Rules thread for the site here.
Rules for D&D Political Threads
Here is the summary of the specific, concrete guidelines for threads discussing political topics that we hope will help pull the signal out of the wall of noise. Longer explanations of rules are spoilered. To wit:
No livetweeting in the thread.
This is not an open mic.
No stupid nicknames for public figures.
No contentless Twitter embeds.
Further elaboration on how to post tweets:
No satire, or the "IT'S TOO REAL" rule.
Cite your sources.
No relitigation of the 2016 primaries, and no rehashing of the result of the 2016 election.
Learn to let it go. But seriously, let it go.
Read the thread to the end before posting.
Nihilism and doomsaying are not helpful to discussion.
Debate & Discourse, Outside Social Media, and You
But what if the person says something that's really shitty on Twitter?
But how will everyone at PA know that this person is a garbage human whose opinions should be ignored?
Seriously though, you should see what this dude said on Twitter.
We take the safety and privacy of our forumers seriously, and this is very much going to be a Fuck Around and Find Out situation. If you are harassing someone, you'll be eating a serious infraction at minimum, and repeat offenders are going to be banned.
Mental Health Resources
EDIT by @Hahnsoo1 on 2024-06-04: Added guidance on Violence and Death Threats against Public Figures.
EDIT by @Hahnsoo1 on 2024-06-08: Added the current Warning/Infraction/Ban rules in place (site-wide).
Some of this is reiteration of our general forum rules, found here. Read those first.
Obey the Glorious Edict
The Glorious Edict
The only insult that is permitted on this forum is “silly goose”. No other adjective may be added, you cannot call someone a “fat, stupid, silly goose”.
Among the insults this covers (ie; all of them) is the insult “troll”. Accusing someone of trolling will be treated as an edict violation. If you call someone a troll and they are, then you are an idiot for doing what they want. If you call them an troll and they're not, then you are an arsehole for calling them names. Please use the report button if you have a problem with another user.
Genders and Pronouns
Transgender people will have their pronouns of choice respected here with no ifs, ands or buts. If you fancy yourself some kind of erudite devil's advocate or heroic gadfly - well, you probably aren't, frankly, but you're free to fuck off elsewhere to do that. It's had its day here.
Also, please do not use the word "bitch" to describe a woman. It is fraught and kinda gross and even if you are in the habit of calling everyone a bitch regardless of gender, it takes on a more sinister connotation as applied to womenfolk.
To reiterate: use the report button, don't meta-mod
PM mods with questions, do not ask in-thread
On sending questions to mods by PM:
Official rule is now that you need to send to at least two D+D mods when you have a question. This helps ensure your PM is read in a more timely manner if one of the mods is not online or is, say, spending all their waking hours attending to a smol human.
Link images over 1mb in size
The inline image size limit is 1mb.
Inlining anything bigger than that will result in an infraction. Yes, this applies to gifv as well.
Quoting huge images in a subsequent post will also draw the ire of the mods. Take off the tags if you're quoting something that is a big gif.
No, you cannot have an anime thread
after consideration, we are making the following change to the anime thread policy:
1) no general anime thread in D&D
2) no new specific topic anime threads either
Basically what this means is that if you want to discuss anime - either the general topic or your specific favorite anime - you should really look for another forum or subforum to do this. I'm positive they're out there and they're better-suited for the kind of environment you're looking for than D&D will ever be.
The [chat] thread is a no-politics zone
Chat has traditionally been a thread for folks to hang out in a more casual manner since it's not an on-topic thread. To this end, we are highly discouraging the discussion of political topics in chat, including dropping in tweets or news stories that have just come across your feed. We have many, many political topic threads in which to discuss the various goings on in the political world. New on-topic threads can be created as necessary. Politics discussions can tend to take over pages of chat, cause emotions to run high, and generally change the culture of a thread where many people go to socialize and NOT discuss news or politics.
Use on topic threads to discuss political issues. If there is not a thread, make one. If you are unsure if you should, ask mods.
We generally don't care what dumb shit is happening on Reddit, Twitter, et al.
You know that thing where someone posts a thread from Reddit, and it's full of stupid people saying stupid things, and the point is "lookit the stupid people who are in favor of this thing, they are totes stupid, lololol," and then someone gets pissed, and everything goes to hell, and people start yelling, and someone makes a report, and a mod has to go in there and sort out what happened and tell people to stop being fuckos?
You know how that's just so very fun? Probably not! Because I was actually using very sophisticated sarcasm right there, and it's actually not much fun at all! Holy shit, what a shocking twist!
So. Posting Reddit comments, or 4chan posts, or anything else for the express purpose of lol-ing at some group who is not you, is verboten. It is stupid strawmanny shorthand, and instead we are going to use actual words and cogent arguments to make our points, like God intended.
Reminder that this is an on-topic subforum
Except for the chat thread, our threads are on-topic and discussion should stick to areas that are directly relevant to the topic identified in the OP. If you would like to hang out in more chatty threads on various topics, check out SE++.
Regarding the posting of articles and Twitter threads:
While the point of this subforum is for people to talk to other people about stuffs, sometimes it's helpful to reference an article or news story or Twitter thread. This is fine! However, there are a few caveats:
First, there is the issue of copyrights and other related legal issues. Posting all or most of a news article such can get us in trouble. We don't like trouble!
Second, posting huge walls of text breaks up the conversation and makes it more difficult for someone to skim through a thread if they're not interested in a particular tangent. They're unsightly. We don't like unsightly!
Third, like I said above, the point is for people to talk with one another and potentially use outside sources to bolster a point or draw attention to an issue. The point is not to convert the thread into a bunch of people lobbing articles at one another sans comment. We don't like lobbing! Or whatever!
In light of this, please observe the following rules when referencing outside works, including long Twitter threads:
- If you need to cite text, please limit it to a few paragraphs that summarize the article and a link that folks can follow to read the rest. If it's a Twitter thread, just include a few tweets.
- Please try to avoid dumping an article into a thread without commentary. Surely you're posting this article because you have thoughts about it! Tell us what those thoughts are, we really wanna know! Note that "This is interesting" or "Wow" are not really compelling commentary.
Regarding the posting of hate imagery:
Because the world is a stupid and awful place, many tweets or images discussing stuff happening in the world right now contain pictures of things like swastikas and confederate flags and other symbols of hate and bigotry. These images can be upsetting to some, so we ask that if you need to post such imagery, you spoiler tag and throw up a note that there's a swastika or whatever involved.
Nobody is going to get banned because there was a confederate flag in the back corner of a picture they posted of a Trump rally or anything, this is just a request to act courteously towards people who might be upset by such pictures.
Violence and Death Threats against Public Figures:
Obviously, wishing violence and/or death threats on other members of the forum is an infraction-worthy offense. We also do not allow threats/wishes of violence or death threats against public figures. Besides the obvious security issues, it tends to derail and change the tenor of discussion in ways that aren't productive. Look, we get it. There are some reprehensible people out there in the world, especially in positions of power, but please harbor those feelings privately and keep them to yourself (or, at least, off of these forums).
This includes things that are borderline, like popular websites that say "Is X dead yet?" If they are already dead, then not much can actually be done to them at that point, but try not to be ghoulish about it.
Public figures include sitting politicians and heads of state, former politicians, celebrities, CEOs and other C-Suite members, and religious leaders, among others.
Warnings, Infractions, and You
If you do fall afoul of the rules at some point, you may incur warnings and infractions. These are worth a certain amount of "points", which accumulate site-wide. This means that infraction points that you get in Debate and Discourse also carry over to Critical Failures or Games and Technology. The points eventually go away after a period of time. The values of each level infraction are as follows:
* A Warning is worth zero points and are generally given as a gentle reminder when a poster is going off the rails.
* A Minor Infraction is worth 2 points, which go away after 1 month.
* A Major Infraction is worth 3 points, which go away after 2 months.
When a threshold of 3 points is reached, a poster is Jailed. This means that they cannot create new threads, and their posting ability is limited to about one post per minute. Note that this threshold is reached when a poster gets a Major Infraction by itself.
When a threshold of 5 points is reached, a poster is temporarily banned. The poster cannot create new posts or threads site-wide. The ban is lifted when the infraction points go away after the period of time stated above. This threshold can be reached by three Minor Infractions, one Major and one Minor Infraction, or two Major Infractions.
If you have been Infracted or Banned and wish to appeal, please see the main Rules thread for the site here.
Rules for D&D Political Threads
Here is the summary of the specific, concrete guidelines for threads discussing political topics that we hope will help pull the signal out of the wall of noise. Longer explanations of rules are spoilered. To wit:
No livetweeting in the thread.
This is a forum, not a feed. A wave of posts in the vein of "lol can you believe XXX just said that" take up space and add, essentially, nothing worth having - particularly when ten people are doing it at once. The guiding principle here needs to be "if someone comes back and reads my post later, will they have the slightest scintilla of a clue what the fuck I was talking about?" If the answer is no, then fire up Tweetdeck and take it there.
This is not an open mic.
That sick burn about Trump's hands may be the long-prophesied final joke that will unite humankind and complete the art of comedy forever...but it's still off-topic. Take it to SE. That is literally why SE exists.
No stupid nicknames for public figures.
"Cheetoh," "Water Boy," etc. Don't do this.
No contentless Twitter embeds.
This forum has "discourse" in its name, after all. Twitter embeds should have their sources cited and relevant commentary supplied. Hijacking someone else's thoughts to take up an entire post to say, in essence, "me too! but less pithily!" is a waste of everyone's time. React to the content of the embed! Give relevant commentary. Expand on the point being made (it was a ~140 character point - I bet there's room for that!). A good guideline for this is to provide the classic journalistic W's: who, what, where, when, why. The more of those you're giving us, the more likely it is that you're contributing something helpful and worthwhile.
Further elaboration on how to post tweets:
ON POSTING TWEETS
How not to do it:(Poster did go back and edit this to bring it up to snuff, thank you)
If your post is only a tweet, with one or no words, then go ahead and retweet it on your twitter account. If you believe it has relevant news/information to share with the thread, please include contextual information (who said it, when, where, why is it important, etc).
As well, given the current status of Twitter and the lack of confidence in any given Tweet even existing five minutes from now, please include, in text, the content of the tweet and the author.
No satire, or the "IT'S TOO REAL" rule.
If you can believe it, the reality of our political situation right now is real. Satirical posts and articles can be confused for a real news story and cause completely unproductive derails. So go ahead and post that Onion link to your FB, not here.
Cite your sources.
If you post new information, include a link to a news story or tell us which news channel you got the information from.
No relitigation of the 2016 primaries, and no rehashing of the result of the 2016 election.
These topics tend to factionize a thread's population and take over whatever topic is supposed to be discussed. Bernie vs. Hillary, why Hillary lost, what the DNC could have done better in 2016 - all topics that are not helpful to rehash as we talk about what's going on current day. Move on. This rule does not preclude discussion of Russian 2016 election interference, in the appropriate thread.
Learn to let it go. But seriously, let it go.
You know that one poster that you always seem to be disagreeing with? And then you go back and forth for pages, maybe getting angrier, maybe getting exhausted because neither of you are budging on your position? Hey guess what, the rest of the thread is exhausted too. If you aren't making meaningful progress in a discussion with someone else on a heated topic, take a moment to delete that draft and channel your inner Elsa. Do not clutter a thread with repeated posts going in circles around an intractable personal disagreement.
Read the thread to the end before posting.
Mods will make announcements and rulings in the thread, and it's your responsibility to be up to date on those when you hit that post button.
Nihilism and doomsaying are not helpful to discussion.
Examples: Trump will never be impeached, Trump's voters will always vote for him no matter what, Congress isn't going to do anything, we're heading to an apocalypse, there's nothing anyone can do about this, Eat at Arby's etc etc. Your feelings of this nature are not invalid, but they don't advance the discussion in any of our politics threads. If you are truly in distress, there are many resources we can point you to to help with that, or other appropriate places to vent your feelings.
Debate & Discourse, Outside Social Media, and You
Due to recent events, it seems necessary to remind folks of our policy regarding the intersection of Debate & Discourse and external social media.
Generally speaking, we do not get involved with stuff that happens in other social media. If a couple of PA regs get into a tiff on Twitter and scream obscenities at each other, we don't much care. Not our circus, not our monkeys. By extension, stuff that occurs strictly in outside social media should not be dragged into D&D. If someone says something dumb on Facebook, it is not to be dragged into D&D unless the person who posted the dumb thing decides they want to bring it up.
Let me be very clear: it is Extremely Not Okay to go trawling through Twitter so you can post their tweets in a thread in an attempt to discredit them. This should be very obvious given we don't, as a rule, want posters dragging in material from even other threads to invalidate someone's point in a current thread; we definitely don't want material dragged in from every corner of the intarwebs. It is our job to police the forums; it is not our job - or yours - to police the entire internet.
It is also Extremely Not Okay to DM people on external sites to yell at them about something they posted on the forums. This is the one exception to the We Don't Care What Happens On Other Sites rule - this is basically just a forumer skirting the rules governing forum harassment by harassing someone on another medium about forum business.
But what if the person says something that's really shitty on Twitter?
Yell at them on Twitter. We don't police Twitter. Go wild. Though really, being on Twitter is its own punishment.
But how will everyone at PA know that this person is a garbage human whose opinions should be ignored?
Not our problem. If they are pulling an extremely effective Jeckell and Hyde con, well, them's the breaks. We are not going to reward stalking people across the internet and dredging up the one shitty opinion they had on Facebook that one time, which is where this leads. It is creepy and gross behavior. Don't be creepy or gross.
Seriously though, you should see what this dude said on Twitter.
If someone posts something that is ridiculously egregious - like, a manifesto on why Handmaid's Tale is totes a great idea, or Holocaust denial - alert the mod staff privately and we'll consider it on a case by case basis.
We take the safety and privacy of our forumers seriously, and this is very much going to be a Fuck Around and Find Out situation. If you are harassing someone, you'll be eating a serious infraction at minimum, and repeat offenders are going to be banned.
Mental Health Resources
Times are tough, but there are resources available, so we want to pin a thread with some of them (borrowed heavily from Tube):
http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
1-800-273-TALK (8255)
http://www.befrienders.org/ (An international site that includes most countries and languages)
The Trevor Project 1 866 488 7386
LGBT Youth Support Line 1 800 850 8078
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) 1-800-950-NAMI (6264)
Veterans can call the veteran's crisis line at 1-800-273-8255 (same number as above, but press 1), or via text at https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/get-help/chat
If you're not in the US, http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html has suicide hotlines for most countries. Many governments (including more local governments) also put resources into place following the initial lockdowns, so it's also worth seeing if there are programs in place that might help you at those levels.
If you'd prefer to text, the crisis text line's US/Canada number is 741741. Their website is here: https://www.crisistextline.org/ - they have numbers for a couple of other countries, and can also be texted on WhatsApp.
If you have a resource you'd like me to add to this list, please PM one of the mod staff. I'm afraid that even if you're having a tough time, we can't offer psychological support or therapy on the forums.
EDIT by @Hahnsoo1 on 2024-06-04: Added guidance on Violence and Death Threats against Public Figures.
EDIT by @Hahnsoo1 on 2024-06-08: Added the current Warning/Infraction/Ban rules in place (site-wide).
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
Hahnsoo1 on
+59
This discussion has been closed.