MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > UPDATE: Rules - Open Discussion and Feed...

UPDATE: Rules - Open Discussion and Feedback

posted 7 years ago by jim (136)
98 replies | jump to latest

Hey everyone - we just finished drafting the following set of community rules. We'd like to take this time to have an open discussion and solicit feedback from the community. Let us know any comments or suggestions. The rules have also been posted at https://moviechat.org/rules.

Community Rules[/b]

MovieChat was born out of a desire to encourage free speech and open discussion amongst all media and entertainment fans. That being said, MovieChat is a large and growing online community with new members every day. To protect our users and ensure the community is a safe and welcoming place for all – both today and in the future – we ask users to abide by the following set of simple and straightforward rules. By using MovieChat, you agree to the rules listed on this page in addition to our Terms and Conditions.

[b]Rules[/b]
1. Do not post or link to Prohibited Content as defined below
2. No trolling, flaming, spamming or unsolicited advertising
3. Do not impersonate other users, including Moderators, in a misleading or deceptive manner
4. Do not attempt to hack or crack MovieChat, including attempting to manipulate post count, attempting to bypass posting quotas, attempting to inject malicious code, attempting to manipulate the Trending section, or any other attempts to break, manipulate, or use the service in a way that was not intended by MovieChat
5. Do not attempt to evade these rules or the enforcement thereof by creating multiple accounts, using different IP addresses or proxies, or any other means of evasion

Prohibited Content
1. Pornography, adult or mature content
2. Content that threatens or advocates for harm on oneself or others, or otherwise violent content
3. Content that harasses, intimidates or bullies an individual or group of individuals
4. Content that incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization
5. Excessive profanity
6. Hacking/cracking content
7. Malware, adware, or other malicious software or content
8. Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content
9. Content protected by copyright law unless you have the necessary legal rights to display that content. This includes pirated content, such as illegal torrents and streaming websites
10. Personal and confidential information, such as another user's name or contact information, unless you have express consent to post that information
11. Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others

[b]Enforcement
MovieChat's rules are actively enforced by our team of dedicated moderators. If you suspect a violation of these rules, please use the report post button in the bottom right of a post to notify our moderators. Our moderators may also be contacted at [email protected]. Additionally, you may ignore a user by clicking the ignore button in the bottom right of a post, thereby hiding all posts from that user.

Our team of moderators have several tools at their disposal to enforce the rules, including:
1. Warning you over private message or in reply to your post that you have violated the rules
2. Removing or deleting your post that violated the rules
3. Temporarily or permanently suspending your ability to post

What happens if you break a rule? In most circumstances, you will receive a warning from one of our moderators citing which rule you have broken. Depending on the severity of the violation, the offending post may also be removed, or you may be asked to edit it. If you continue to break the rules and repeatedly ignore warnings, you risk having your ability to post temporarily or permanently suspended. However, you will always be able to view and read MovieChat. To appeal a suspension, please email [email protected].

[–] Nipsey_Russell (1339) 7 years ago

So far those are great and reasonable rules jim! Thanks for everything 👍🏻🍺
Oh, How many warnings before getting suspended or banned for others that may be woundering? Should it be a 3 strikes you're out?

[–] Moderator1 (767) 7 years ago

Yes, at the moment it is 3 strikes (warnings). However, there are a handful of rare situations that could warrant an instant ban.

[–] Nipsey_Russell (1339) 7 years ago

3 strikes is definitely reasonable

[–] TexasJack (12515) 7 years ago

The draft rules are comprehensive, reasonable, and will serve the community well.

[–] LeiaOfLothlorien (1980) 7 years ago

Looks great, Jim!

[–] Guitar King (4383) 7 years ago

I'm a bit concerned about a 3 warning rule. A big part of IMDb's appeal was it's leniency compared to other boards. Offending posts were deleted quickly, but posters were rarely banned permanantly. I've seen other message boards too quick on the ban trigger become ghost towns.

[–] arvin g borkar (2854) 7 years ago

If you cannot do the time, do not do the crime. 3 strikes is more than enough.

[–] Guitar King (4383) 7 years ago

Shut up and don't reply to my posts ever again.

[–] arvin g borkar (2854) 7 years ago

Strike 1

[–] Guitar King (4383) 7 years ago

You're not a moderator and you're harassing me so piss off or put me on ignore.

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

Strike 2

[–] Guitar King (4383) 7 years ago

Are you impersonating a moderator Cookie LA? You can piss right off, too.

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

We're just speaking a word to the wise...

(struts up and down thread, hands on hips)
.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

You raise a topic of legitimate concern for those of us who have already been a victim of a misguided ban from the moderators on this board and are hearing similar complaints from others. I am disturbed by the increasing number of posts marked deleted on several boards and have already seen some of my own deleted without justification. Some of the posters here, such as Arvin G. Borkar and kspkap, have ideas that are repellent to me on a moral level. They demand more moderation even though it should be as minimal as necessary and they use a thousand reasons why it has to be done. Quasi-fascists such as these are the true nemesis of free speech.

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

<< Quasi-fascists such as these are the true nemesis of free speech. >>

We don't really have free speech in America that is protected from consequences, and we never have. "Freedom of Speech" is about the government not silencing you, not a private website.
.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

I will quote from Jim's original Tweet to IMDB on 15 February: "We just launched Moviechat.org to replace your message boards. Long live Free Speech!" Unwarranted and excessive moderation on this site could potentially be its death knell if it begins to have this reputation.People don't like having their comments censored and unjustified banning. Since some of us have already seen the moderators in action, we are fearful there may be more to come.

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

<< Since some of us have already seen the moderators in action, we are fearful there may be more to come. >>

But you're still here posting, non?

What was the great price you had to pay; being blocked from sharing your deep thoughts for a day?

Where exactly is the scar tissue?
.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

Congratulations, harpy! You're my first ignore!

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

I'm honored.

But, really. What "victimization" did you truly suffer, long term?

Being temporarily stalled from creating another thread like your << Who's hotter--Jane Lynch or Alexa Vega? >>
.

[–] Guitar King (4383) 7 years ago

Exactly, Metatron. That's why I immediately told that little fascist arvin borkar to piss right off. I've seen little crybullies like him on other boards trying to get everybody banned. Those types often run in packs and gang up on other posters. The little twits can never find the ignore button even though they are offended by everything.

[–] db20db (16229) 7 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Guitar King (4383) 7 years ago

Yep, every board has them. IMDb likely had to shut their boards down due to endless complaining from those types. I see it happening all over the internet.

[–] kspkap (13056) 7 years ago

@Metatron

I, Sir or Madam, am not a Quasi-fascist! I am an advocate for free speech, but I believe with free speech comes a responsibility to do no harm. It doesn't need to be vile, disparaging, laced with profanity....did you even read my post? Did I mention banning someone who doesn't adhere to a modem of decorum? I believe not! You on the other hand apparently believe it's open warfare, speech wise...no respect for others. As another poster stated, you believe a true message board should permit someone to be obscene, aggressive, disparaging...no holds barred...rules be damned! Complete and total anarchy! I do believe these are the traits and actions of trolls. Just sayin'

[–] arvin g borkar (2854) 7 years ago

YEAH!!! Keep advertising me! I actually never thought you would be so kind as to put my account name in your post.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 7 years ago

A big part of IMDb's appeal was it's leniency compared to other boards. Offending posts were deleted quickly, but posters were rarely banned permanantly.

That may have been a big part of IMDb's appeal for you, but for many others it was the opposite. Their boards were virtually unmoderated, despite having a pretty clear set of rules.

Sometimes offensive posts were quickly deleted, sometimes they weren't, and sometimes completely innocuous posts were deleted, that had broken no rules. This is what happens when a board has 99% automated moderating.

There were any number of users that would have been permanently banned for their relentless bad behavior on any other forum that were allowed to stay on IMDb. Thus, a culture of trolling evolved and thrived there.

I agree it's not good to be too quick on the ban trigger, but that isn't what I'm seeing happening here.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

Thank you for these. It looks good and I can tell you have been working hard to make the rules clear and comprehensive.

I have some questions.

3. Content that harasses, intimidates or bullies an individual or group of individuals [/b]

Can you expand on this, perhaps with some examples of what is or is not considered bullying?
My concern is with simple disagreements being reported as bullying. This is very common (I'm sure you know this already by the reports you have received). Trolls will continually report their enemy trolls and you get a situation like a kindergarten schoolyard, with Johnny constantly crying "Janey called me a dummy!" and Janey constantly crying "Johnny called me ugly!".
For your own sake and the sake of your mods, you need to define 'bullying' as only the most abusive behaviour, and not the banal everyday, mild insults and arguments.

[b]8. Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content [/b]
"Illicit" can vary by where you live. Marijuana is completely legal in my state and in quite a few other US states. It's still illegal in others. In some countries it might get the death penalty, although I am not sure how much internet access those countries have. I think I have mentioned weed in a couple of my past posts, not very often but it has come up. How are you defining 'illicit drugs'?

[b]Relevance to movies
Also I think when a movie itself is dealing with hard drugs (like Trainspotting, Scarface, etc), then the topic of drugs will likely be discussed. This can also be true of other prohibited topics like racism, hate speech (American X, Imperium), etc. There are non-pornographic movies that are about the subject of pornography. There are movies that deal with cops hunting pedophiles, etc. And obviously there are millions of movies that portray violence and murder.
Is there some leeway to discuss a movie that contains criminal or prohibited topics? Definitely not advocating the crimes, but discussing the plot points of the movies and how they might relate to real life.

[–] AtomicReturns (1252) 7 years ago

Great work again, Jim. Those rules are reasonable and go back to the good old "common sense" rule you mentioned before. Users should feel safe and welcome - not repulsed - by a message board. They should want to come back, not look at a troll infestation and go "Okay I'm out of here and never coming back."

I have no problems with some provocative or differing opinions, and the rules do seem to give enough freedom for users to express themselves here. But these same guidelines also make clear the difference between giving strong opinions vs. outright harassment, hate speech, and egregiously offensive/illegal content.

Last thing - will these set of rules be linked somewhere? Maybe we could pin this thread to the top, or have a link somewhere on the bottom (near the Privacy Policy/About/Contact area). That way new users (and even trolls/socks thinking of doing something) can easily see the MC ground rules. The ones who cross the line cannot go "Huh, I didn't know!" No excuse not to know, bro.

[–] Nipsey_Russell (1339) 7 years ago

Great idea! Regarding the last thing part

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

Wow. Lots of rules. I guess it's important to have a sort of "legalistic" paradigm. One doesn't have to be a psychic to prophesy on the available evidence that there will undoubtedly arise disputes between moderators and users on the exact definition of how one may be in violation of these codes of protocol. One user told his story a few days ago of how a bit of playful ribbing with another user was completely misunderstood as abusive language for which he was momentarily banned by a moderator. Now I sadly see the mods will be out in full force with this list in their hands, with bulging, watching eyeballs eager to point out every perceived infraction and use their power to the uppermost, justifying in their minds that they are the guardians of integrity on this board, but if users feel as if they have the Stasi watching over them and even censoring their material (as we already see with increased Deleted posts), writing isn't nearly as much fun. That's when people start leaving. I propose that if we must have mods they should be as phantoms "refined out of existence" who scarcely make their presence felt and intervene only in extremely egregious circumstances.

[–] AtomicReturns (1252) 7 years ago

I propose that if we must have mods they should be as phantoms "refined out of existence" who scarcely make their presence felt and intervene only in extremely egregious circumstances.

The mods are like that already. We don't know who they are and you don't really see them posting casually anyways. A lot of their moderating is done behind the scenes and happening all the time. We just don't see it.

Also, I don't see how these rules are taking the fun out of posting. Your concept of true message board fun was making posts more aggressive, personal and obscene?

The rules Jim laid out are kind of the same rules you see in other well-run message boards. It's not like he's asking the impossible here.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

I think there are not very many mods so far, and they are not paid, so I don't foresee them pro-actively going all over searching for possible infractions. There is no way they can check every movie's board every day. I think they are more likely just responding to the reports that users send.

They do need to be careful of overzealous flaggers though, which are frequently trolls engaged in little troll wars who just continuously flag their 'enemies' back and forth , trying to get each other banned. The Itchy and Scratchy show. They fight, and fight, and fight and fight and fight! I often see those two groups (well I think they are groups but it might just be two people with multiple names each) here in General Discussion, constantly bashing eachother.
They don't seem to have jobs or anything so they have unlimited time and stamina for this nonsense and they can wear out the mods and monopolize their time.

[–] kspkap (13056) 7 years ago

@Metatron1970

Oh, for Pete's sake! (sorry if I've offended anyone named Pete) Metatron, you speak with big words...but let's speak with simplicity. Just use common sense. Think of the person you most respect and how you would relate to that person. You can have heated discussions/debates without being abusive, bullying, using profanity, being disparaging, etc. The vernacular of some posters is chock full of vile, venomous insults...so disgusting if you are the target, you shrink away. This type poster sits anonymously behind his/her keyboard and hurls the garbage without compunction. To reiterate, just use common sense...behave as if in a court of law...which can get fairly heated.
I think the conduct rules Jim posted are a good start. As for the Mods...the more the merrier! These sites should NOT be a free for all, anything goes, no responsibility for one's hateful actions. The old adage "Sticks and stones..." doesn't cut it anymore. Words can hurt and do harm.

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

<< Now I sadly see the mods will be out in full force with this list in their hands, with bulging, watching eyeballs eager to point out every perceived infraction and use their power to the uppermost >>

I guess you can always go somewhere else if you don't like it.
.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 7 years ago

Now I sadly see the mods will be out in full force with this list in their hands, with bulging, watching eyeballs eager to point out every perceived infraction and use their power to the uppermost, justifying in their minds that they are the guardians of integrity on this board

Come on, Meta, that's hardly the case, and a far from accurate depiction of the mods here.

ONE person may have been banned due to a misunderstanding. One! Out of how many users? I don't know the count, but it's got to be up to at least 1k by now. Maybe even 2 or 3k. I didn't see the post or the context, but misunderstandings do happen, and at the end of the day that member's account was reinstated anyway.

There are lots of deleted posts because 1) a lot of them are imports from IMDb's archive (which may have been self-deleted or deleted by IMDb's admin), and 2) a number of people here have self-deleted. As I understand it (although Mods and/or Jim, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), if a mod deletes a MC post, it's gone entirely, invisible at least to us members. If a post says it was deleted, that means the member him or herself deleted it.

[–] Moderator1 (767) 7 years ago

Just a note on deleting: sometimes we can remove an entire thread, but if we just delete a comment/post, it still appears as [deleted]. There is currently no way to tell whether a post was self deleted or deleted by mods.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 7 years ago

Thanks, Mod1. I stand corrected :)

[–] clockwork0range (133) 7 years ago

i think trolls are having a hard time with the rules...they seem to want a free zone play ground to go crazy in.The rules seem very reasonable.If they don't like it, I'm sure there are other sites for them to visit

[–] Catbookss (13664) 7 years ago

I'm not sure if anyone on this thread is a troll, Clockwork. Well, except the one who outed himself, obviously ;)

I agree, the rules are very reasonable. They're what I expected, and most of them are pretty standard and normal fare for forums.

[–] arvin g borkar (2854) 7 years ago

The hardest part about having laws and rules is memorizing them all.

Then again, we need them. Humans are innately evil!

[–] kspkap (13056) 7 years ago

@arvin

Touché! Right on! About humans!

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

I don't think these rules are hard to remember. They are similar to the rules at most other sites. 90% of the rules are things that an average posted wouldn't even want to do or try to do anyway, so they don't really need to remember them. The other 10% are more like 'judgement calls' where there is a spectrum of behaviour and we aren't sure yet where they will draw the line.

[–] arvin g borkar (2854) 7 years ago

There is still that 10%.