Full Thread: The Rules
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Old December 10th, 2010 #46
Pete Stef
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 107
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The information contained in the following was more what I was looking for, and in case I never find the original, will probably serve the purpose of illuminating at least the nature of the board style points:
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Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
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Originally Posted by Pete Stef View Post
Hi Alex.

I've actually been looking for the rules for a while and haven't found them. Are those really all that there are? I seem to remember more, like attempting to use correct grammar and spelling,
That makes for a better forum. It can hardly be a rule. I have said in the past, and occasionally enforce, the TCing of anyone who misspells 'a lot' and 'definitely.' Morons don't help our cause. I want VNNF standards to move higher, not lower. That means correct spelling and solid post formatting are highly appreciated, and their absence, in combination with other small negatives, will lead us to TC people.

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not loading posts with smilies,
I don't like to see these overused. Just as I don't like seeing huge numbers of exclamation points and other such indications of lack of emotional control.

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that sort of thing. There was a time when you posted about improving the readability of the board and you said something about getting rid of signatures, among other things. Didn't there used to be a sticky somewhere?
Probably is, I don't know where offhand. I'm sure Varg does. In fact, we've largely achieved what I sought. A newcomer can get up to speed on the basics of our case and cause as quickly as possible. That's in part due to my intellectual design, but mostly to the individual wisdom and brilliance of the posters. If you take a little time and study how the forum is arranged, including the subjects of the sticky thread, maybe you can make out my purposes. And if you have an idea for improving things here, I will listen to it.

And so, the style of the forum reflects the general purpose. The red color shows we are radical, not conservative. Blue is a conservative color. A lot of people do not understand what color means, or think it is a mere matter of choice. We use dark red because brighter red irritates the eye. And we use black on white because it is easiest on the eye. Much of the over-design of the forum is simple, clear, attractive, and self-reinforcing. That is, if you see what's driving us, you should be able to predict how we will handle any particular thing.

We play DOWN fantasy stuff. SF plays it up. We play DOWN knight and lady. SF plays it up. We play DOWN online "warrior," or any suggestion we are "fighting" here. SF plays it up. We want people signing up under ordinary names. We want them posting simply and accurately and honorably. The internet, as Pierce observed, is the natural medium of shitbags. Efforts must be taken to fight that intrinsic quality of this medium, so that we can maximize its incredible opportunities. As one with a print publishing background, I'm quite serious about that - the Internet is by far the greatest thing ever for collecting like minds and educating people. I thank god I was alive when it was developed. I was the last generation to come of age before the internet was widespread - I would have known nothing of what I know now without the internet. So keep that in mind when you see me repeatedly stressing that the internet is not real life, because it's based on a foundation of great gratitude to the white men who developed this medium.

In keeping with our mission we made rep invisible. It was the right decision. Many problems and squabbles disappeared immediately. I want people reading VNNF to have a quick smooth flow down the page, and for that reason have limited the size of avatars and signatures. I think we have made the right decision there too - it is very easy to read our posts. We have done all we could to set up the poster - his job is to make his post readable by only posting valuable posts, by spelling correctly, and using correct grammar, and by spacing his paragraphs with blank lines, and by using the block left and ragged right, so that the eye isn't tricked, fooled or irritated with lines ending midline and then restarting flush left - that is the main problem that still remains, and only with a handful of dim or recalcitrant posters. So when there's a thread you want to read, you can read right down the page with minimal struggle and interruption. Which is how i want it.