Stupid Rules on Sites You've Been To

Super Lazuli

Ever run across a website that you thought you might join, and then you read your rulebook and said to yourself "oh fuck no".

Well, even if the above scenario didn't happen exactly, this is where we post rules that we, personally, find retarded.


From Unexplained Mysteries

"1b. Recruitment: Do not recruit or invite members in to joining other sites, groups, services or forums."

This is literally considered spamming. You're not supposed to mention any other site. Ever. At all. Luckily this is never enforced.

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Here are two more that are stupid together--

"2g. Language: As this is an English speaking site we ask that our members post only in English. Mobile phone shorthand, fictional languages and "leetspeak" are disallowed."

and

"5b. Spelling and grammar: Do not point out mistakes or criticise other members on their spelling, grammar or punctuation."

see the problem here?

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It gets better

"5i. Rule quoting: Do not quote the site rules to other members, if you believe the rules have been broken please hit the 'report' button."

You can't explain to people if they've broken the rules, or if so, why. No joke.

Ponicalica

inb4 icycalm

Super Lazuli

Eh, let's try to avoid that. We all know that guy is....nuts.

Khwarizmi

I know a site where you're allowed to say «fuck», but you can be banned for having it in your sig.

Super Lazuli

Let's also try to avoid TVTropes examples, make another thread for that if you want.

Wow I'm setting up a lot of parameters for this thread.

Khwarizmi

Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

More generally, I dislike rules that basically amount to excessive censorship.  I especially dislike wordfilters.

Super Lazuli

Wordfilters are pretty fucking stupid. (SEE WHAT I DID THERE???)

Also, avatar restrictions.

Khwarizmi

I can understand banning avatars that are actually obscene on a site which isn't supposed to be adult, but otherwise, I agree.

Super Lazuli

Yeah, but I'm talking about stupidities like "no animu avatars, this isn't a weaboo site, fag."

Ponicalica

The only wordfilters I like are the ones that TimeFan(the forum run by Ben Heaton of Terror Island fame) had, which were mostly jokes, like Banach-Tarski → Banach-Tarski Banach-Tarski.

thatguythere47

I won't say which site it was, but they had a rule against violating free speech. Yes, on the internet. So mods could be banned if they deleted your post. 

LouieW

MyFireworksDoesYours,
1b. is the only one of those rules that I find to be fairly unnecessary, but I can kind of understand it if only as a way to ban people (or bots) who just come to advertise. I still think it is overly harsh though. I think 5b. would be better as a suggestion than a rule, but I cannot say I am a fan of posts that simply correct or complain about someone's grammar or spelling.

I may have some bias though because I used to frequent a site that banned swearing, did not allow any discussions that were political, religious, or the like and that banned people from linking to any site that had forums or was otherwise considered inappropriate. I am guessing that most people would not like those rules here or on TV Tropes, but given that many of the people there were younger, I think some of the rules made sense. I guess part of it was that the staff at that forum did not want to be responsible for kids getting into stuff their parents would not have liked.

While I certainly did not dislike the ban on swearing since I see swearing as being unnecessary, I did find some of the other rules to be a bit strict. Still, I think one nice thing about the forum was that though there were several powerful admins, there were quite a lot of moderators and sub-moderators so power was not too centralized.

I imagine that I would be willing to tolerate stricter rules than some other people because of moral guardian reasons though. I apologize for that.

glennmagusharvey

I've heard of a forum whose membership privileges carry required reading with them.

Longfellow

Insomnia, right?

glennmagusharvey

linkplz.