To make people read the rules...

[AzureWolf]

I have an idea about how you can lower the number of law-breaking threads or continuous greetings threads that never seem to end. I say you should have a "Newbie of the month" thing, where everyone who joined in a certain month is applicable for the "award." However, those who broke even one rule cannot be nominated. That way, people will actually make an effort to read the rules, or at least follow them.

Maybe the reward can be that their status will be "Newbie of the Month (month)" until they become a junior member. Just a suggestion. I don't know how practical it sounds... :huh:

[James]

[color=#707875]Well, we did have a line of text on the site that said "All members must read and agree to the forum rules before registering."

Basically, reading the rules is not compulsory -- I have no way of knowing who has or hasn't read the rules (though some obviously haven't).

The point is, if you don't read them, you run a greater risk of being banned. Why? Because even though most of our rules are common sense, some of them are specifically tailored to our site. And so, some of them won't be apparent to you, even if you post with very high quality.

With the next iteration of OtakuBoards, I can promise you two things. First, rules will be totally overhauled. We'll be rethinking them from the ground up and redesigning them for the new boards. But secondly, they'll be a LOT easier to read/understand and they'll have a greater visual presence on the boards.

So, until then, we're sort of stuck in the middle. Luckily, we've been getting a flood of really high quality members lately, many of which seem to have read the rules with no problems. So, I don't think there's too much to be concerned about -- at least, nothing that won't soon be fixed.[/color]

[MillieFan]

Until these hentai spammers came today :flaming: . Let me just request that the rules against hentai/yaoi/yuri/lemon and inordinately profane language remain in the new rules for the new forums. -^.^-

[wrist cutter]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by James [/i]
[B]Because even though most of our rules are common sense, some of them are specifically tailored to our site[/B][/QUOTE]

What are some of the rules that are specifically tailored to your site?

[James]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by wrist cutter [/i]
[B]What are some of the rules that are specifically tailored to your site? [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=#707875]There are many. No double posts is one, although a lot of sites have a similar rule. But there are also many who don't.

Another would be "No one word posts". Many sites allow that, whereas we don't.

Another would be the rule relating to banner size limits. And yet another would be the set of rules that relates to what kind of stuff you can/can't link to.

As I said, some sites do have similar rules, but not all of these rules are "common sense". They do relate to the preference of the site on which they're based.[/color]

[Terpischore]

[color=b60039]Well you could say, like..if there was something that we had to write before we joined Otaku, like WHY we wanted to, in the rules, you could put in like a special phrase and say "Make sure you put this phrase in your "Why you want to be in Otaku"..." and then the people who don't have the phrase obviously didn't read the rules. [/color]

[Sandy]

Attention, please! (Especially Jamesy!)

I've seen this trick on few sites that have a rule-page before you enter (not going deeper into what sites they are :toothy: ), and there's this method that ensures people to at least fast-read the rules.

The trick is that you have an "I agree" and "I disagree" buttons below the list of rules, but neither of them actually work, as clicking "I agree"-button will take you to a page saying "you didn't read the rules! Go back and read them, you dork!" - or something like that. ;)

You see, somewhere along the rules there stands a text that says something like: "To enter you must click the little icon on the bottomright corner of the page", and then there is the icon, and you click it to enter after you've kindly read the rules. Convenient, isn't it? :toothy:

What say you?