Updates to rules + reminders about rules

It’s been a while since an announcement was made on the site. However, with a rise in activity here, I think it’s the best opportunity for me to make a few announcements and some reminders.

When I was promoted to staff at the end of last year, one of the first things I wanted to try was to overhaul a couple of guidelines here, as I do think some of them seem a little less welcoming by today's standards.

One thing that was done, thanks to Soldaten, was the abolition of the old verification system, the one where you have to make a validation post, we look over and verify, you get 10 posts only to be put in prospect and then decide your fate. It was a complicated and messy process, and is something I’m glad to see get removed for good. Now it’s the case of starting as a trialist upon account creation and becoming a member after 30 posts, which makes a lot of sense to have and does encourage inclusivity and leniency in talking around here.

As for the consequence system, I have noticed that rules are being skirted by a couple of members, however, I’d rather not go the route of putting those in Limbo. I find that to be discouraging, as they’re minor inconveniences that can be rectified after a couple of reminders, and it doesn’t warrant the privilege to lose message access entirely. However, given it has been a bit of a recurring incident, I have decided that if one were to continue skirting around the rules and being continuously reminded of such, you’d go back to trialist (potentially lowering your post count) until there’s improvements and you’ve shown to follow the rules here. Limbo and Exile are only reserved for the worst of the worst, so if you don’t wanna end up there, look back at your post, see if you notice anything that doesn’t stick by the rulebook and consider following that then.

Now, let’s talk about something I recently made, a new showroom guidelines page, which you can check out here. I think the one pinned originally is… very mean-spirited. This one is more detailed and more encouraging, helping you to understand how you can attract people to your wonderful projects. Please follow this before posting the thread. Failure to do so will result in a reminder to edit to post to abide by the guidelines. After a week, it’s moved to the trash. I also recommend looking at other threads to see how they’re structured and seeing if you can follow in their footsteps. In addition, we are planning to have a download space for those who have produced multiple hacks to be hosted here. Expect to be notified on this later once it’s fully finalised.

So finally, I will need to address a lot of newcomers who joined the site, primarily those who joined in recent times and have become active. Please read the rules carefully because I feel like a lot of you are missing out on so much key information, even after editing your posts and reminding you what to do next time. I also think forum etiquette is one, and it’s something that’s highlighted in rule 5.

Please keep an eye on this, especially the post count rank and the one-liners. A lot is happening here, and it needs to stop immediately. If you don’t have anything valuable to say, then you don't have to post. Best to be helpful and give a post meaning rather than not post. If you just say something like “yeah idk i agree”, you’re not helping yourself and whoever you’re replying to. I will be keeping an eye on this, so please make sure there’s some form of substance when writing your posts. If forum etiquette isn’t your cup of tea, you can hop onto our Discord server instead.

Also:

That’s been broken a lot recently, and I’ll be finding the time to sort this out. You only need one account, unless there’s a valid reason why you should have two.

I also want to highlight that you should lurk before posting as well, something that’s obvious looking at the Basic Q&A thread. It’s good that you’re open-minded and wanna ask questions, but if something has been asked many times before, then to put it simply, you're just being lazy. Many questions have been asked here, spanning almost two decades now; they’re not locked away and are open for you to explore and know more than meets the eye. Use that to your advantage as you learn more and save time than asking something that’s already been answered before and waiting for a response.

Other than that, yeah, thanks for reading. If you do have any more suggestions to make this place better, comment down below, and we’ll take in your feedback, just as long as they abide by the terms and rules.