Emails

[MK]

So this subject sort of comes up a lot in the Artists/Writers Wanted section.  I just wanted to give out some suggestions on how to stop emails from being posted.

1) Maybe censoring the @ symbol.  I know this wouldn't censor the whole word but you can set it to PLZ READ RULES NO EMAIL ADDRESSES @ymail PLZ READ RULES NO EMAIL ADDRESSES, @g, @y, @h, gmail, ymail, hotmail.  If they are seriously determined to get their email in then you could have "posting your emails" topic at the front page telling people that it is not allowed but through PMs.  I realize it will make PMs a bit harder to share but they can probably space out every single letter or just use PMs more often

2) Simply renaming or adding a sticky in the Artists/Writers Wanted section as "No emails allowed, reasons why" or "Don't post emails, reasons why"  I know people are skipping the "What should NOT to post - reading this might save time yours and ours" because if they didn't then emails wouldn't be posted but having a sticky named "No emails allowed, reasons why" will show up even if the person doesn't click the link.  Also a different colored highlight will pop up more in all the red highlighted stickies.

Again, I know these can't really solve the problem but they probably will help a little XD

[Hasith]

Actually that's a really good idea. Simple to implement too. I can add a small punishment too. So I'm gonna add those words into Censor list and also if someone post one then it will be replaced with "emails not allowed in posts".

Also that board need more strict rules than we have right now. I'm working on that too. There are newbie don't even bother to look at rules or guidelines. Plus have no clue what they are doing. Decide to work outside of forum and then send PMs complaining about all kinds of things including rude team members, run away artists, writers who doesn't have skills etc. I no longer even bother to reply these. 

Also there are pro level artists or similar people who come only promote their service or DA. They only do posting and replying in their threads about commission inquiring and Keep posting links to their service. They might be great artists but we, as forum receive nothing from them. Never helps others who these or offer maybe a free commission once a while.

It would be nicer if our regular members get a better chance at paid commissions. We do have good artists who have been helping others as well as offered free commissions for our members. I think it's fair they get the priority.

[legomaestro]

Yeah, we do need some more transparency on the rules it seems, because the run ins with people who ignore reading the rules is a bit too much to all moderate.

I'll see what I can do in my boards to make it clearer

[MahluaandMilk]

It might be tiresome, but we could take that idea of using the pinning to mark out each of the major rules as their own topics with an explanation for why each rule is in place in that section. If users have questions, then, about that rule, they can leave it on that thread. Still, that might clog up the front page of some sections. Eh, either way they should still just read the rules in the first place, whether we make it obvious to them or not.

[legomaestro]

That'd clog the board. We're actually aiming for 2-3 maximum stickies per board so that won't work. We can try to make the actual topics clear though.

I also need to bump the other rules that remind raiders to simply report a topic if it's not following the guidelines. The cleanup is even more of a headache when people go in there to argue about how they're not following the rules properly.

[MahluaandMilk]

I hope I'm not a part of that problem. I usually just try to give a little heads up like "Hey, your email will eventually be taken down. You do have other options, so here's a list of those: (yada yada here, sometimes an extra reply with links if requested.)" That way they get that kind of recognition. Of course I also try to give a reply about the actual thread/topic. I just hope I don't come off as squawking the rules at them.

[Suuper-san]

@mahluaandmilk thats very similar to what i do to be honest, i think its a friendly reminder :P

@lego it didnt cross my mind to use the report button, should we use that for when users under 25 posts post emails or links?

[Hasith]

@mahluaandmilk thats very similar to what i do to be honest, i think its a friendly reminder :P
@lego it didnt cross my mind to use the report button, should we use that for when users under 25 posts post emails or links?

Nobody can post email addresses in public, post count doesn't matter.  25 posts before links still has a grey area which need to be cleared. This rule is there so people won't spam from the start. But also that doesn't mean they can spam their links everywhere once they get 25 posts. And Also in places like Artist / writer request boards links are not allowed rare exceptions. For example they want to show character image from other site etc.

But a mod remove these links if those look spam. For example we have seen people making threads there just to promote their DA profiles, Youtube channels and services. Also some try to do things like posting an artist request thread and then ask them to check their DA profile or some other site.

The whole point is we don't need link droppers or those come just to promote their service. It's fine only if they are willing to give something back to members too. This is not something mods alone can do. Our regular members can help forum by try to turning these link droppers and others into regular members. We can weed out those who don't want  )))

 I guess friendly reminders should work in most cases. Because it's just some new members have no idea what they are doing.

[legomaestro]

Yeah I already saw that you and suuper do that regular Mahlua, that's fine and friendly as you said so no problem there.

[Operative13]

Better yet, force people to read the rules as part of account creation. That way, they are held liable for breaking them and gives little excuse for not knowing them before-hand since they agreed they had already read them upon signing up.

Put the liability on the users and not the host. I would go mad myself if I had to advise everyone to read the rules every day or so...  They either follow them or they do not. No need for long explanations or drawn-out discussions...

[Hasith]

When someone register here he/she has to agree with our terms of services. First 2 lines of our TOS is asking members to read general forum rules and artist/writer board rules. Both links are provided there.

But I don't think even 10% bother to read TOS let alone these Rules.

If I feel like member simply spamming I would just delete the thread but if I feel like it's a genuine mistake I would PM or post in thread asking them to read rules. At least other new members would notice it that way.

We really need a way to people force people read at least board rules before creating topics there. This is what I have been testing for a while now.

Maybe we should ask all regular members to keep a link to rules thread in their signature.  :)

[MK]

If we do have links in our signatures then can we have a personal page somewhere on the forum and simply have the link to our personal pages in our signatures as well?  I like liked my aqua gif T.T

[Nomena :)]

I'd opt for a more drastic solution on the self-promotion spamming.

When some newbie comes and directly post in the artist/writer wanted section, an error message like

"Sorry you are not allowed to make new thread on this board until you become a Junior Member (X post counts), head to the welcome centre and introduce yourself to start with"

How difficult would it be to implement that? It will only be for those boards

Alternatively, you could try to highlight the artist that are trustworthy to MR, for example you could say something like

"We recommend you to commission the artist/writers that are on the "Artist Available"/"Writer Available" list as they have been on MR for a while"

Of course you should also emphasise that MR is in no way responsible of any exchange made between artist and writers, so no one should have to complain about run away artists/writers but it would be much more fair to the active members here.

[Operative13]

While I would agree that would force others to actually spend time of the forum, I feel as though that would kill much of our traffic. After all, this forum's mostly here to help writers and artists get together, isn't it?  I wouldn't have stuck around here either if it wasn't for Caesar's offer to assemble twenty-some people for a one-shot, and although that project's long faded by now, I'm still around and kicking in the MR Projects    People don't want to waste time with pointless obstacles, they'd rather get to the point.

Perhaps we need to step up our media game and have banners posted at the top of every page telling everyone to check the rules, with a mascot and what-not, something that people can't ignore because it stands out from all the text thrown at you... I kind of liked the banner thing for the art contest you had up months ago, maybe something like that can do... 

We must spread our glorious message throughout the realm!

[Suuper-san]

just seen the new email block in effect, rather impressive
i just had a thought though, instead of making it just say "Plz no emails etc", can you actually make it link to the rule page itself?
so an email address automatically becomes a link to the rules?