What are some rules you think should be posted on an online community?

My friend and I are setting up a message board and we want to know what rules we should have. The forum is mainly directed to teens, however anyone is welcome. It's a general chat site with places to talk about Art, Religion, Culture, Games, Media, and anything else. It also has a real-life site RPG, active staff members, and personal member blogs.





What rules do you think should be enforced on the forums to protect the site without making the staff too powerful?





What do you think we should include in a staff list terms to follow to prevent one or two staff members from having too much power?

What are some rules you think should be posted on an online community?
You should have one or maybe two admins. At least a moderator for each section of your board ( they can be the moderators of the subsections as well ).


Speaking of the rules I think that it should be the same as every message board: no piracy, no links for adult material, no racism, no insults to other members, no offensive language, and a few others.
Reply:- no excessive bad language


- use semi-proper grammar, not internet slang


- no NSFW topics


- No sex talk


- Don't share personal information (like last name, address, phone numbers, place of work)


- No "flaming" and insulting others


- Respect everyone's opinion


- Have fun!





I would give each staff member a section or two of the board to monitor and have the ability to delete posts containing inappropriate material/topics, and have someone managing the whole thing.





Good luck, sounds like a good idea!
Reply:You should have rules that prevent flaming and bashing others. Enforce all rules with IP bans of course! Also make rules that prevent spamming and lewd topics! I hope this is a good start for ya'! ^__^





Most forums really can turn to hell without good mods/admins, so it'll mostly be your and your friends' jobs to keep the bad people banned!
Reply:ok.. i have started several boards for MMORPG's (Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game). the famous game, Runescape being one of them (www.runescape.com for more info or www.runehq.com for a fan site)





one of the things you will need, since you say its for everybody, is No cussing. we dont want some little kid getting on and getting ur site banned from the internet...





the second thing is: no Flaming (fighting over a topic or going way way way overboard with a rant about something someone else said).





and the third minimum thing you need is: no racist, sexual, jokes, comments, remarks, questions, vids, etc.





after that... what i reccoment is: DON'T SAY "All users must put in" *amount* " posts per week/month/day/etc or their account will be deleted" this onlly drives them away...





and something else, dont make EVERYONE an admin when you upgrade them... look for people that will stick to their job, when you're looking for a moderator. if the person doesnt do their job, notify them at-least once, if they continue to not do their job... send them a message telling them they're fired and remove them from the mod position.








thats it/... e-mail me if you have any questions