There really should be a set of clearly defined rules and some form of warning system before an individual is banned.
And yes, I am quite annoyed that I was banned without a single warning PM. Also, you banned my account and forgot to edit my post for which I was banned for! What’s up with that? 
I agree: if people may be banned for misconduct there should be a set of basic rules posted (with a disclaimer that they’re just general guidelines). I wonder what offenses would be grounds for banning if there were such rules?
Repeated or excessive personal attacks, threats, racist language, incitement to commit criminal acts?
posting of MLM scams?
pro-KMT propaganda?
overly boring posts?
What are the rules?
Boring posts? That’s it MT you’re outta here! [By the way, thanks for the link in the ‘I want cool pictures’ thread. 
]
Maybe when someone gets banned an announcement could be made in this forum - it’s called feedback and annoucements after all.
What post was TaiwanPsycho banned for?
[quote=“Spack”]Boring posts? That’s it MT you’re outta here! [By the way, thanks for the link in the ‘I want cool pictures’ thread. ]
Maybe when someone gets banned an announcement could be made in this forum - it’s called feedback and annoucements after all.
What post was TaiwanPsycho banned for?[/quote]
He’s not banned. He’s under suspension pending a ban vote for posting links for software thievery. Some of the posters and mods here have their livings directly affected by software thieves and are therefore somewhat touchy about this kind of stealing.
There appeared to be no problem with it before. 
~here’s where there was no problem with it~
[quote]You have been banned from this forum.
Please contact the webmaster or board administrator for more information.[/quote]
[quote]There appeared to be no problem with it before.
[/quote] You are wrong, and in fact it was that very thread that caused a great deal of mod discussion as to what our stance should be on the issue.
Its true, though, we are indeed a bit messed up on this topic, but discussions are underway as we speak. Expect to see some concrete guidelines very soon.
You are not banned, despite what that message says – the mods have to vote on any banning and at present you are under suspension pending a vote, as per protocol.
I’m back!
I love Steeevieboy.
Now, about those rules…use these and edit as you see fit.
[quote=“Announcement: Forum Rules”]If you break any of the rules below, depending on the severity, your post may be edited, your topic may be locked, and you will be warned. Repeat offenders will have their accounts deactivated. If that still can’t get your attention, then we may be forced to put your IP onto our ban list.
1 No pornographic or obscene images/links
Do not post images or links to images of an obscene nature in the forums. Any topic started for this purpose will be locked and its content deleted. Any image, or link to an image of an extreme adult theme within a legitimate topic will be immediately deleted. If you are unsure if an image you wish to post falls into this category please ask one of the mods in a PM and we will help you.
2 No discussion about warez, or links to warez sites
This includes no-cd patches. Any topic started for this purpose will be locked and the content deleted. Any links or discussion to this effect within a legitimate topic will be deleted.
3 No racist comments
Extreme racial attacks will be edited. Do not resort to attacking someone’s racial background or country. Discussion about racial differences without being offensive is allowed. Joking about racial differences is allowed so long as it does not contravene any other rules above or below this. If you are asked to stop making the racial jokes by anyone (not just moderators), however, you must do so.
4 Do not spam
Do not repeatedly flood the forum with images or pointless text. Do not continually use the quote tool without adding text of your own and try to keep the text relevant to the topic as much as possible. Here is a definition of what will be considered spam from now onwards:
i) Posting the same image, text or emoticons over and over. If you wish to use an image more than once in a post and it is relevant then it will be allowed, but this is up to the discretion of the moderators. Emoticons are there to brighten up your posts but they are not there to flood it. Any more than two emoticons in a row is spamming. Any more than 5 in a post is spamming. Any extreme flooding of text, images or emoticons will be deleted - Any topic started for this purpose will be locked and the content deleted.
ii) Posting multiple threads (more than 2 in immediate succession) is not allowed. If you wish to post 3 or more topics and they are all relevant and different then this will be allowed at the discretion of the moderators. However, if you are asked to stop posting threads repeatedly by anyone then please refrain from doing so. Any extreme abuse of this rule will result in the deletion of all topics by the user.
iii) Do not spam any member with private messages. PMs are subject to all of the rules but cannot be directly moderated. As such any such transgressions that are brought to the moderators’ attention will be investigated on an individual basis.
iv) One word/line replies, single images with no text and emoticon only replies are not spam. So long as they are in direct reply to a relevant post or point they are allowed. However, if you are asked to stop doing this then you must do so.
v) One word/line replies, single images with no text and emoticon replies that have nothing to do with the topic whatsoever are spam. Particularly if repeatedly done so. In extreme cases the posts may be deleted.
vi) Replying to old topics is not spam and is not against the rules so long as you contribute to the topic and do not just do it to bring it back up to the top (Known as “Gravedigging”). If you do the latter you are spamming. In extreme cases the topic may be locked, or your post deleted/edited. You may also be asked to stop doing this by a moderator. If you are, please do so. Please note that so long as this rule is adhered to no member can ask another to stop doing it in order to force them to stop it.
vii) Try not to reply to one post more than once in a row, if you can. Use the edit button unless posting a second reply is relevant. Extreme abuse of this will be deleted.
viii) Keep your images (including any signature image) to a decent size. Signatures should be no more than 450x150 and 100kb in size . Images in your posts should be kept to a reasonable size, as well, but as larger images are likely to be less common than signatures this can be a little larger. However, do not post images any larger than 800x640 and do not post bitmaps (stick to jpeg, gif and png style formats). If your image is too big then post a link instead. If any image is deemed to be too large then your post may be edited so that it is a link instead, or it may be removed in extreme cases. Signatures will be edited in extreme circumstances.
5 Keeping on topic
Do not post unrelated replies soley to try to de-rail a topic. Digressions from the topic are allowed so long as it is in direct reply to a previous post, or it is linked in some way. You should understand that you may be asked to get back to topic by any member. So long as this is asked for politely then you must stop posting off-topic. Do not post totally unrelated material (This is spam, see Rule 4, v). A topic will not be locked because it is taken off-topic. The member(s) who break this rule will be dealt with, not the topic itself.
Post in the correct forum. If you aren’t sure which forum to post in then state this in your post and one of the moderators will move it for you, if necessary.
Do not post duplicated topics. Try to check at least the last 2 pages on the forum where you want to post your topic and see if it has been posted recently. If it hasn’t then go ahead. Your topic may be locked if it is a duplicated thread, but you will be told this and directed to the related thread so you can discuss it there. Extreme cases of this will be deleted.
6 Do not create multiple accounts
This is refered to as “smurfing”. Unless you tell everyone that you have done it, you are posting under a pseudonym and this is not acceptable. If you do decide to change to a new account you must stop posting with the other account, and it may be deleted/deactivated.
7 Flaming, arguing and swearing.
Do not unfairly flame or insult any member. If they have posted something that you vehemently disagree with then you will be allowed to respond with a heated reply and you will be allowed to flame each other thereafter so long as you do not break any other rules in the process. If you are asked to stop flaming by any member politely then you must stop. Bear in mind that any impolite request to stop flaming does not have any weight here. Asking someone to stop flaming by effectively flaming them is hypocritical and will be disregarded. At any time a moderator may ask all parties to stop flaming at which time you must do so. No matter who started the argument all parties who do not stop when asked will be dealt with as normal.
This rule will require the most amount of common sense by members and moderators alike. We are fully aware that there are, and always will be, certain members who do not get along at all - It is expected that these members will argue more often.
However, repeated nit-picking, insulting, sarcastic remarks, provocative behaviour and any other “hand-bags at 5 paces” like that will eventually picked up on. If you can’t resolve your differences after a few weeks then you should ignore each other totally. Whilst flaming and heated arguments are to be tolerated, within reason, continued abuse of common decency and mature behaviour will not be. If you are asked to stop picking fights with any particular member you must do so indefinitely. Moderators will give as much leeway as they can and will not let personall judgement sway their decision but this is now a rule and they will uphold it.
Swearing. Do not continually use abusive language. No hard rule will be set for swearing but if you are asked by anyone to stop it politely you must do so. As before, impolite requests can be ignored, particularly if they themselves contain swearing of any kind. As there may be children reading this please avoid the use of more aggressive words. Any extreme usage of swear words may be deleted or edited.
Finally, try to be polite as much as possible. Whenever you ask for something, say please. It makes a huge difference to the replies if you are polite. If you ask a question or request an action in an impolite way and you are flamed then that will be allowed, as per the above rules. So, you may not get your answer/request at all unless you ask nicely. This also means that by asking politely anyone who does flame you or reply heatedly will have broken the rules and will be asked to stop.
8 Moderators
Are here to help you and to keep the forums running as smoothly as possible. If a moderator asks you to do something then you must do it. In extreme circumstances you may be told what to do, but this will be avoided as much as possible. Moderators are not here to order you around but if you disobey the rules then you will be dealt with.
If you have a question or request of a moderator do not start a new topic. Send one of them a PM. If you do not get a reply within 24 hours then try sending it to another moderator and so on. If none reply to you after a 24 hour period of you sending the PM then you can start a topic.
If this is still ignored after 24 hours then the moderators have not met your expectations and you can raise this directly with an Admin.
You may disagree with something a moderator does. You are allowed to state this, of course. Moderators are all bound by the above rules. As with any member please be polite in your request. Being abusive to a moderator may get you nothing and they are well within their rights to ignore impolite requests.
Moderators can also change any rules without any notice but a reason will be given and it will be cleared with an Admin first. Any suggestions by members for changes to rules will be considered but this must be done via PMs. [/quote]
The rules should be placed in an Announcement so it appears in every forum section.
I have been administrating forums for a long time. Its about time this one had a kick up the bum.
kthxbye
People are supposed to be adults. Especially on Forumosa, where you are specifically asked your (chronological) age when signing up.
When you sign up for Forumosa, you have an opportunity to review the terms and conditions. Additionally, I think it is not beyond the pale of expectation to think that a user would adhere to certain fairly universally accepted guidelines of conduct, i.e., don’t break the law, etc, without being specifically told to do so.
I see no benefit to placing a huge post at the top of every forum. The proportion of people posting on Forumosa who need to be warned is very small. Most people are able to act in an appropriate manner without specific instructions. Placing a huge set of rules atop each page is buying into the American litigation mentality by which McDonald’s has to warn you the coffee is hot lest they be sued.
I’m sorry you’re bent out of shape, TP, but at the same time, if you are an administrator for another site as you say, you should be able to understand that admins have to take decisions for the good of the forum as a whole – ie., not risking having it shut down to placate one individual who wants to wander into grey or black areas of the law. There are plenty of other places one can post that sort of thing if one likes. I can’t comment on how you were treated during the banning process – I’m not on the committee – nor have I had anything to do with the discussion thus far, but as a software developer and proponent of good old-fashioned common sense and respect for the law, I would probably have voted in support of your suspension if not banning. It’s just common sense.
Flame all you like, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 
Also – a random thought here – if you’re sincerely looking for a job, using the e-mail “taiwanpsycho” might not be the most productive one you could choose…
How can you possibly run a forum without a set of clearly defined rules?
You can’t expect posters to run around posting and hoping it’s OK to do so.
I clearly asked if it was OK to post such material, and was told “yes it is”.
Then, a month or so down the track, to have one moderator change their mind without letting anyone know…give me a break.
We may live in Taiwan, but there’s no need to have a democracy like it.
Why can’t a moderator simply edit the offending post and give a warning both in the post and in a PM and/or email? A simple edit and finger wag would have sufficed, wouldn’t it?
In TP’s case, the offending post (posts?) was still there after he’d been suspended and I think it’s still there right now. Why is that?
[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”]I wouldn’t worry about the rules. It used to be against the rules, but not anymore, and now this forum is full of “What’s the best way to commit piracy?” threads.
I’m the only one who seems to care about doing the right thing, so carry on, who cares what everyone thinks of Forumosa, or Taiwan ?..[/quote]If you’re referring to this post, I was trying to be sarcastic, I was trying to say that none of the other mods seems to care about breaking the law so you might as well do what you like because they won’t do anything. I certainly wasn’t condoning anything, or giving you permission, I was expressing my sense at the futility of asking you to do the right thing in my own ineloquant and uneducated way.
Sorry if I was misunderstood.
As for why other mods thought your other post was ok, I have no idea, because it wasn’t.
Obviously we don’t need to write up “don’t break the law” in the rules, why did you think that you or Forumosa is above the law ? But we probably will anyway, because it seems it’s not obvious to everyone 
The mods are learning from this experience, I hope everyone is.
[quote=“spack”]Why can’t a moderator simply edit the offending post and give a warning both in the post and in a PM and/or email? A simple edit and finger wag would have sufficed, wouldn’t it?[/quote]I agree completely, but I think the moderator in question who shall remain anonymous (me) felt it was the only choice left after trying the others in the past and always having his concerns dismissed.[quote]In TP’s case, the offending post (posts?) was still there after he’d been suspended and I think it’s still there right now. Why is that?[/quote]See what I mean ? But the lastest one has now finally gone.
These guidelines are what we see as ideal conduct for Forumosa members. The degree to which they are violated, and the spirit in which we perceive them to be violated, determine our response. 
[quote]
Guidelines
Forumosa.com has become well known in Taiwan
I think that there ought to be something that explicitly says that the moderators, if the situation demands, have the right to delete any post that they think could cause damage to either a poster or the site by remaining in view.
Such as cases of real defamation, libel or identity revealings.
Also, and I realize that this is a draft, the final version needs to be formatted for easier reading.
[quote=“wolf_reinhold”]I think that there ought to be something that explicitly says that the moderators, if the situation demands, have the right to delete any post that they think could cause damage to either a poster or the site by remaining in view.
Such as cases of real defamation, libel or identity revealings.[/quote]In fact, we have the right to delete or edit ANY post we see fit, I think it says that when you register, even though we wouldn’t. But those situations you mentioned are probably those where floundering isn’t enough.
Hope nobody minds, I re-drafted the rules so that I could read them…
About this avitar thingy rule. I know there is a phb bb code that will allow you to resize an image for display, however, it doesn’t work on forumosa. I tried to use this feature many times but it just doesn’t work. Perhaps you should have an auto resise feature and then you wouldn’t need to have that rule.
Rule 9: Difficult one to police. There are at least 4 or 5 accounts posting from the IP address that I use. There are also another 5 accounts that I have personally used for jokes, stealth posting, or because one account wasn’t logging in correctly. I’ll more than happily submit all the names of the accounts that are bogus to Maoman and he can delete them if he wishes. I wouldn’t want to see a witch hunt though because there are quite a few genuine posters at this IP.
There are some loopholes in the rules which I have purposely left in. The rules exist as guidelines. The degree and the spirit in which they are violated determines moderator/administrator response.
OK, rules page is finally up
I’m still cleaning up some formatting typos that didn’t transfer properly when I copy-n-pasted it to the content template
Just a thought.
Forumosa has the following Rule:
Flame wars/personal attacks - No personal attacks will be tolerated. Flaming is a pasttime that does have a place on the World Wide Web, but that place is not at Forumosa. If you cannot hold a reasoned debate without resorting to Flaming, you are not welcome here. If you are angry with someone in the forum, take it up with him/her through private channels like e-mail or the Forumosa PM function. Do not subject the rest of us to read your rants. Doing so will only lower our opinion of you.
What constitutes “flaming”? How about a “personal attack”?
It isn’t always evident (at least to me) that one post constitutes a flame or personal attack while another does not.
As such, is the above Rule necessary and or desired?
Remember, Forumosa also has the following Rules:
[b][color=red]Hateful posts - Hateful posts, whether racist, sexist, or whatever, are not permitted.
Outing - Divulging personal information such as the real-life identity of other posters, including, but not limited to, telephone numbers or sexual orientation, is not permitted.
Threats of violence - Threats of violence are not allowed.
Impersonating other users - Impersonating other users is not allowed.
Profanity - Please refrain from using excessive profanity.[/color][/b]
It seems to me that if a post is not hateful and does not threaten another poster and does not out another poster and does not impersonate another poster and does not contain excessive profanity, then such post, even if it is deemed a “flame” or a “personal attack” should not be so offensive as to be against the Rules.
Let’s imagine that some moron posts the following:
I think that is definitely a “personal attack”… though I’m uncertain whether it qualifies as a “flame”. In any event, I would not likely be very offended by the above statement.
But, according to the Rules, the above post would, IMO, be a breach of the Rules.
However, because “flaming” and “personal attacks” are not clearly defined in the Rules, the moderators are free to decide according to their respective personal and subjective biases whether or not the above statement is a violation of the no “flames/personal attack” Rule.
That situation will lead often to inconsistent moderation (or at least a perception of inconsistent moderation).
Food for thought?