1 - No spam.

The staff reserves the right to determine what constitutes spam, but we all pretty much know what it is. Don't spam the board

2 - No flamewars.

People disagree, and that's cool. However, personal attacks because of a difference in opinion are just lame, and things can quickly get out of hand on an online forum because of them. Don't flame. Play nice, and use lots of smileys, or something...

3 - No links to multiplayer cheats

... will be allowed on the DBB. This includes URL's, hyperlinks, or any other method of distribution. You can try talk about multiplayer cheating in principle, but if the flamewar gets out of hand, we'll blame you.

4 - Keep the forums on topic.

We tried to set up forums that cover broad enough categories for whatever Descent topics you might have. When in doubt, go to the DBB Announcements / Feedback Forum and ask. (If you're still in doubt, you might have taken a wrong turn on the way to the Quake Forum. Try Yahoo)

5 - Avoid religion and politics discussions.

These "sensitive" conversations most always seem to end in a flame war. Topics of this nature won't be tolerated on the DBB. We realize that we all are protected by the 1st Admendment of the US Constitution, but let's remember:

This is a PRIVATE BB not PUBLIC this entiltitles the DBB and it's staff to decide what is acceptable.

Please be aware that these rules are in place from experience, including #5. Every attempt we made over the years to try to accomodate those issues on the board met with no success. So keep in mind that the focus of the DBB is a game called Descent, and as such should be a place where people are enjoying themselves (ie. not openly fighting in the threads)

And that's the extent of it so far. Keeping forums on topic is just good common sense; however, we probably will never have to go so far as to kick someone for being pathetically clueless.

As time goes on, we might add to these rules if circumstances seem to warrant it. Moderators: if you feel there's something missing, please let us know and we'll talk about it.

Moderators have rights to edit messages, delete messages / entire threads and close threads, from forums where they are granted rights. .

The format of the board, and the caliber of the people on it can help keep conversations more or less 'civilized', productive, and fun. We want everyone to be able to be free enough to express themselves within the limitations of the rules. We will only approach users about a problem when what they're doing is clearly against the rules they agreed to when they regged, or there is something that obviously needs to be dealt with to keep the BB on track. So policing the the forums is secondary to being a moderator.

Other than brief comments in a thread to try and point it in the right direction, or comments when closing out a post - moderation will primarily be private. Policing the forum publicly can backfire: there's a chance it will just get worse. That's why we think it's better to carefully and professionally ask offending users to stop via e-mail.

However when a Moderator feels there is a real problem with a certain individual, we will follow this rule:

"3 Strikes and YER OUT!"

When deemed necessary, Moderators will:

1 - Delete the offending message if the they think it's completely inappropriate

Every one we asked to be a moderator is someone we felt is already a contributor in the Descent community, has a lot of experience in the subject matter of their forum, loves the game, likes to write about it, and from what we've seen is mature enough to handle whatever situations that come up with good judgment.

Moderators are not required to be the final authority on every single detail or topic in their forum (although they might be in some cases!). The way we see it they are somebody who's knowledgeable enough about the topic to be a kind of 'host', that is there to to participate in whatever's going on in the forum fairly frequently, and be enthusiastic enough to be involved in what's going on in general. They can provide 'answers' when they can (when the subject is technical in nature enough to be black and white), but that's not the primary reason for thier presence there.

Ideally we would like them to check the board at least once a day; if they can't always do that no big deal, but try and be consistent enough to keep touch with what's happening. Moderators without computer access for an extended period of time (more than 5 - 7 days or so) should drop the Admins a line so they will know to keep an eye on the forum. How often Moderators check / participate in thier forum is a matter of judgment, but again, because they were asked if they would like to be a moderator, it means they are probably into the topic enough for this to be fun and not a hassle anyway.

Finally, the Descent BB really is for the benefit of the community: it's our board, not just the Admins' board. Admins for the board take responsibility for setting everything up, design issues, final policy decisions, staff coordination etc.. but from that point on it belongs to everybody. Think of it as a big anarchy game,

Moderators are the refs, and we're just the poor suckers that have to do all the legwork and take the heat when things get lagged.


DBB Founders - 1997