The rules dont seem very friendly

[Guest1]

I am a new member in these forums. I recently ran across a post that was 'locked' because it apparently violated some of board's rules. I went to the rules page and read some of them and I was a bit taken back by the authorative tone in them.

I assume that most of your rules are more/less arbitrary and they're not tied in any way to federal laws. So why do you have to use 'all-or-nothing' phrases to describe them, like "Don't do it. EVER" and "Whatever you do, just don't come here." This encounter doesnt exactly encourage people to write things that are 'outside the box', that may be perceived as irrelevant but on closer examination actually contain profound messages.

I know that this kind of 'black law' enforcement of rules is common in other forums; in fact, I've seen very rude lockings of posts without any explanations. Though this board doesnt take that approach, it could still be more open. After all, philosophy is all about open mindedness, critical thinking and arguments; you'd expect a more open approach to enforcing and explaning the rules. And like I said, I"m new here so I dont know much about how you work.

Of course, it eventually comes down to your own discretion as the owner/s to make any rules.

[ben]

Hey there,

Firstly let me welcome you to the boards, I'm sorry if you got the impression that we are all fascist dicators. Only some of us are. The point is this, the rules were written by people who have a fairly wicked and sarcastic sense of humour and they should be taken in the tongue-in-cheek fashion in which they are meant. As it says at the top of the page the rules are there to provide a social contract that we can all live by. Obviously not everyone is going to agree with them and that's fair enough, they are welcome to use other boards.

In practice, I am certainly very liberal in my moderation of the forums, some moderators will be more harsh and some will be less harsh. I only ever stop threads which clearly have on philosophical content such as people asking for help with their homework or just asking a question without providing any of their own views and research. When people post stuff i think is nonsense i let it run for a while (see the whole jjj and WarriorMonk sagas). These were two people who posted stuff which just wasn't appropriate for these boards but i gave them the benefit of the doubt and only after 100 or so posts later and a lot of complaints i removed them because they were a detriment to the board.

The rules aren't there to create barriers they are there to foster intelligent discussion which can sometimes be marred by stupidity and immaturity. You shouldn't worry that some "out-of-the-box" thinking may be missed since that's not the stuff we moderate here.

Of course, this is just my take on the rules and stuff which was co-written with the staff. They may or may not give different answers. I hope that makes things a little bit clearer for you.

Enjoy your stay

- ben

[BMW-Guy]

I actually accussed poor ben of the oppsite--namely, that the rules were too easy.

He basically told me to shutup, and eventually I'd end up loving ILP. He was right.

I really can't see how you think that the rules are too hard--they are easy compared to a lot of other forums.

[General]

Are these rules tied to internet laws that overlook internet board operations? Just curious.

[BMW-Guy]

Are these rules tied to internet laws that overlook internet board operations? Just curious.

I won't speak for ben, but phpBB might require that ben follows some base guidelines on his forums. I really don't know---I'm guessing.

[Marshall McDaniel]

Our bark is worse than our bite.

[Rafajafar]

Are these rules tied to internet laws that overlook internet board operations? Just curious.

I won't speak for ben, but phpBB might require that ben follows some base guidelines on his forums. I really don't know---I'm guessing.

The answer to both the question and the guess referencing said question is an emphatic, "No". These rules are just guidelines that the moderator(s) and administrator of the site follow to try and keep the riff raf out. If you don't like that your thread was locked, PM ben and I'm sure he'd listen to you. He's not a nazi.