A rules section?

I think there should be somewhere on here with some basic ground rules because I can't find one. Some questions that people (myself included) always have:

1) Swearing? Yes/no; how much; how bad?

2) Hot girls thread? Yes/no?

3) Speaking of that, nudity? Whether it be a piece of art or whatever.

4) Internet-related rules such as with linking

__________________
"Travis Bickle: Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man."

There were some fairly detailed rules presented to each member when they registered, I believe, but I do intend to put together something a bit more straightforward and easier to find. But, to answer your questions in the meantime...

1) No swearing, beyond the "lightest" swear words. General rule: if you can say it on network TV, you can say it here.

2) Depends on what you mean, but if it's a thread that only exists to post random images of scantily-clad women, then no. If it's a thread where people post images of the actresses they think are beautiful, that's another matter. Somewhat case-by-case.

3) No nudity. Some exceptions may be made for paintings or genuine art. Case-by-case basis as needed, erring on the side of caution.

4) No self-promotion or linking to sites that promote illegal movie downloads.

Anyway, the new Help page was added a few months back, and some clearer rules will hopefully follow suit soon. Most of the guidelines can be pretty easily gleaned by what's already here, but I agree that it can't hurt to be clearer.

Alright thanks a lot, I think there is a decent amount of help but I'm just saying a FAQ about different rules would probably help a lot of people from being banned who just don't know the rules (which I've noticed happens a lot).

I know there is a thing when you register but most people forget that the second they click OK

While I agree that we should make things clearer, I'm struggling to think of anyone who's been banned simply for not knowing the rules. If it happens at all, I certainly wouldn't say it happens often.

This is excepting the purely technical sense, of course, because I don't think someone who shows up spamming their site or swearing at people they disagree with can claim they didn't know any better. Rules against swearing and spamming are pretty consistent across most forums, and fairly intuitive, too.

The overwhelming majority of people we ban are banned for trying to promote something.

Oh, my bad I was kind of assuming because I've noticed in a decent amount of old threads that I go through that a lot of people who just have stupid one word posts tend to be banned. Maybe they're just spammers or something.

W/e you're right cause you're the mod and actually ban people, I don't really know

Ha. Nah, I can see how it would look like that. It's probably because we have a 10-post minimum before a new member can post links, so they tend to post lots of short, pointless posts to meet that minimum so they can post their links. It's annoying, but the minimum keeps out plenty of spammers, so by and large it's worth it. I can imagine how it might look kind of strange, though, to see what's left behind when we ban the member and remove the spam.

How do you feel about swearing if it's typed like so: *****, or a$$hole, or f#ck? You've never warned me about curse word edits like this, so I've assumed it was okay.

__________________
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Self-censoring is usually okay. Sometimes it straddles a little too close to the line, but it's not a huge deal. If something is too close to comfort, I'll usually edit it without warning the person if they've been around a bit and already know roughly what's permissible.

Not that I would intentionally, but people say sh*t or a**hole on network television. So that's allowed???

Hmm, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say sh*t on network TV. you're probably thinking of cable TV.

Yep, in my "Made for TV" version of Halloween . . .

Lynda: "The only reason she babysits, is to have a place to . . . "
Laurie: "Shoot!"
Annie: "I have a place for that."

I really hate that.

As far as the other word goes, I just used it somewhere on the board the other day, and it didn't turn into this ***holes. They are a bunch of them, though.

__________________

"Chicago Hope" and "ER" both used the sh-word on network TV.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

NYPD Blue did to I believe.

__________________
We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Well, I know they edit it out of movies. I've seen them take the time to edit out *****, and leave in God ****. Which I find very bizarre to do. In my opinion, anyway.

Simply put, if you wouldn't say/show something to your mother don't do so here. That rule always seems to work.

__________________
"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

Two examples, which the FCC made exceptions for, and one of which I've read has since been edited out of syndication. I gave you a general guideline, and it's a pretty good one. If you want to be completely pedantic, sure, you can find two exceptions over something like 70 years. The network television example remains a good (rough) guide.

That usually works, too.

1. No nudity allowed unless your Nebbit's avatar.

2. No swearing unless your a regular jerk.

3. Don't mess everything up.

4. No posting at anytime anywhere.

5. You are not allowed to use the spell check function in the top right.

6. No emoticons are allowed within post confines.

7. Never mention a film title in your post under penalty of account deletion.

__________________

I just answer back by saying..

....and Yoda sends me this somewhat, babyish comment

"Geez, are you trying to start a fight? It wasn't an insult. Chill out."

Now tell me, what the heck was an insult and what was i fighting about???? I just responded back.

What on earth is "babyish" about asking you why you're being contentious? There wasn't any whining or namecalling. You should be a lot more careful about how you throw words around.

Anyway, to answer your (rhetorical) question: I thought it was petty. There's a lot more to a given comment than its literal meaning. It wasn't a personal affront for me to suggest that you might have been thinking of cable TV, so why the needless confrontation? Why be so pedantic?

Unless you're an outright spammer or an easily identifiable plant it takes rather a lot of effort to be banned from MoFo.

Personally, I can think of one single person I have wielded the ban hammer on in my career as MoFo mod that didn't fit the above criteria.

Said person was warned repeatedly by me, Yoda and Caitlyn as I remember it.

At any rate, if you're a spammer one of us will pick up on you before post #10 (and it probably won't be me). If your reasons for being here fit within the scope of the site you'll have plenty of warning before a banning.

Specifically:

1) Swearing? Yes/no; how much; how bad?
Bad is relative. In posting, to me, swearing is the lazy person's attempt to garner attention. Don't do it, be creative instead. Stun us with wit.

2) Hot girls thread? Yes/no?
Probably. But why? It's not particularly germane to the subject matter of the site. Hot actresses? Sure! We have lots of those threads... search before starting a new one. If your idea is original try it out.

3) Speaking of that, nudity? Whether it be a piece of art or whatever.
Art is subjective. In the context of this site I'd say make it PG13. Any 12 year old can walk into Barnes & Noble and buy a book about the old masters, nudity and all. I don't think a focused discussion (In intermission) would be frowned upon here, although we have some in that vein already going.

4) Internet-related rules such as with linking
You mean hot-linking from other sites? This one is a peeve of mine because people hot link images into their posts and they disappear within a few days because the host sweeps them. This leads to picture oriented posts with no pictures! Each user has a personal gallery here they could copy the picture to and then post it.

Some other trouble we've had here is people copying content from the internet and trying to pass it off as their own post/work. If you copy it, credit the author. Anyway, just employ common sense. You'll be fine.