Joined: Jan 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 5,429 Location: Toronto
Board Guidelines & FAQs « Thread Started on Dec 17, 2005, 1:36pm »
Welcome to the Crown Princess Marie Chantal of Greece Forum. The board administrators are Moldy Tofu, Oxynia, Sunnyhorse, Yossarian, Dwanollah, and Brookie. Hopefully the following will clear up any questions you have. If it doesn't, please feel free to put a question in the "Suggestion Box" or PM any of the admins. These guidelines will be updated on an as-needed basis.
Forum Guidelines
The language of this forum is English. Please do not write your messages in other languages.
Please do not write your messages entirely in CAPS or entirely in lowercase letters or use any kind of nEtSPeek weirdness. (The occasional joking post is one thing, but repeated posts in CyBeRtAWk are really annoying and hard to read.)
Please use appropriate punctuation and proper grammar.
Please run a spell-check on your posts.
If you wish to reference a post by another poster, do not use the caret (^), hyphen, asterisk, or other character to do so. Either quote the material using the quote tags or mention the poster by name.
You can use bold font to mention other members’ names in a post, but it’s not mandatory. It just makes for easier reading.
With the exception of links and spoilers, please write your messages in black text and avoid the "glow," "shadow," and "marquee" tags.
Feel free to add an avatar under your name. You can do this by editing your profile. However, we ask that you not post pictures on the bottom of your messages.
Please do not use potentially offensive avatars (e.g., X-rated images, racist captions).
Please do not “sign” your posts.
Please do not be excessive in your use of smileys.
Please do not "double post." If yours is the last message, edit it to add more rather than posting again. However, do not edit your posts to comment on something that someone has posted below you -- post again.
Although swearing is not prohibited, please avoid being excessive about it.
Please do not use offensive terms associated with someone's race, religion, mental condition, or sexual orientation.
You will notice that certain words have been blocked from the site and appear in your messages as ****. This is because we don't want you to use them, not because we want you to find a way to slip them past the censor.
Do not suggest or wish death, harm, terminal illness, infertility, or anything else on a celebrity or anyone else we snark on here. It's in bad taste.
Please work to keep the threads "on topic." Although it's OK to include a bit of "off topic" stuff in your message, it's also important to make sure that the thread doesn't end up being totally unrelated to the original topic. If you're asked to bring the discussion back on topic, please do so.
Please ensure that you're adding something to the topic you're posting in. Although it's OK to state agreement with someone else or congratulate that person for his or her superior wit, please avoid posting messages that consist solely of "WORD" "I just threw up in my mouth a bit" or "You owe me a new keyboard."
Please read all of a thread (to a maximum of 15 pages) before posting in it. This is to keep people from mentioning topics or asking questions about things that have already been discussed. Yes, some of the threads move fast and it can be hard to keep up, but read the last 15 pages anyway.
Please do not insult the other people who post on this board.
If someone writes something that you feel is offensive or "trollish," please do not encourage the individual by responding -- just ignore him/her. You can report the offending post by either posting a message in the "Narc Squad" thread (in the "Suggestions" section) or PMing a mod.
Be respectful of other posters. It's OK to express disagreement with someone or indicate that you think that that person is mistaken about something, but please be polite about it. For example, please do not start such posts with "Um ..." or "Uh ..." or "Wow" or "Huh/Huh?" -- it's kind of snotty.
NO PERSONAL ATTACKS! No, the fact that ___ uses annoying nicknames or ___ seems weird or ___ is too invested in a certain celebrity, in your opinion, does not excuse a personal attack.
*Absolutely no cyberstalking behavior, not even as a joke. Do not post real names, addresses, phone numbers, or other personal information -- yes, even if it's info that can be easily found with a Google search. Any cyberstalking post will result in immediate banning.
*Absolutely no trolling behavior. Posting something as a means of stirring up shit, starting an argument, or provoking fellow Greecies in any manner will not be tolerated and, in fact, will get you banned faster than anything else. Also, there are lots of other message boards on the Internets, some of which talk about this board. We don't care where else you post, but dragging in anti-CPMCoG or otherwise inflammatory sentiment from outside sources is not allowed. Snark all you want away from home, but, once you're here, play by our fair and simple rules or you're out.
In other words: DON’T BE AN ASSHOLE. PERIOD.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the policy on spoilers?
Use spoilers for the important plot points of movies as long as the movie is playing in a first-run movie theater in North America. Never use spoilers for TV shows.
How do I do spoilers?
Unfortunately, there's no nice spoiler tag on this site. If anyone knows how to develop one, let us know.
Please do not paste URLs onto the board -- they clutter the screen, and the longer ones actually mess up the board's display. We also ask that you make links blue so that they show up against the rest of the message.
Please don't. If you have a photo you want everyone to see, please provide a link. Can I paste entire articles on this board?
Please don't. Please provide a link instead.
Can you explain the poster rankings? How do I earn the fancy title of "Crown Princess Gwyneth"?
The more you post, the higher your ranking. Here's how you can climb that ladder towards the epitome of famewhorishness and self-importance, which we can assume is the only reason you're gracing us with your presence:.
Why does your site have such a dumb name?
Because it was originally a site about socialites and minor royalty. Moldy Tofu then expanded it to include the celebrity gossip stuff. She asked people whether she should change it, and the overwhelming consensus was no. We kind of like the randomness of it.
Why did you use such horrible colors on the site? Are you color-blind?
If you think this is bad, you should have seen the pink-and-aquamarine monstrosity Moldy Tofu previously created. As scary as it might sound, this is the "improved" look. Blame ProBoards; there’s only so much we can tinker with!
What words are forbidden and why?
*c-u-n-t *mon-goloid/re-tar-ded *variations on "f-a-g" *the "n"-word *the d-word for lesbian *Winter Rose's real name
What does “HoJo” mean?
Ah, in any community, stupid and silly inside jokes will pop up. Auroranorth explained the HoJo thing way back when:
Quote:
GirlNamedCarl started it a while back. Here's what she says:
Quote:
Quote:
The "Howard Johnson is right!" thing came about when billdozer74 wrote something so spot-on in the Love and Marriage thread that my post about it said simply "Billdozer is right!" The wording of it reminded me of a moment in Blazing Saddles when Howard Johnson, resident of a little inbred town where everyone has the same last name (residents include Howard, Arte, and Van Johnson), makes a suggestion and Van Johnson, I believe, declares "Howard Johnson is right!" with an authority that still cracks me up. So I followed "Billdozer is right!" with "Howard Johnson is right!" -- 'cause they both were, y'know.
It's been shortened to "HoJo," and it's the Greecie version of ITA (I totally agree.)
Who is this Winter Rose person?
It’s a long, long story, but she’s our favorite CyberWeirdo and the TRUE crown princess of our hearts!
Why did ___ challenge me to a dance-off?
That’s how we settle differences ‘round these parts.
Why did you close ___ thread?
We close threads when they get close to 400 pages because we’ve found that girthy threads on ProBoards tend to implode and we lose a lot of posts or even the entire thread. We move the old thread to the “Dearly Departed” section and open a new one.
Some threads are just short-term. For instance, we’ll have threads on awards shows or a pop-culture event that’s meant to be more like a real-time chat.
Some threads are repetitive, and it can get confusing and annoying to have three different threads about an issue when it might all fit under “Current Events” or “Old Hollywood Gossip,” or “Weird Websites.”
Some celebrity threads -- specifically, when a particular celebrity dies -- aren’t likely to still be active topics in a few weeks, so instead of opening a new thread on that person we point you to the Recently Deceased thread, in the Popular Culture section.
We also close/lock a thread if things get too nasty and argumentative and personal-attacky. It’s like a “time-out” for all involved. With any luck, things will settle down and we can reopen the thread, but in some cases it just becomes too difficult to moderate and the same problems keep cropping up, no matter who is warned/banned.
Why can’t I talk about ____?
There are certain subjects that, no matter how fascinating, just don’t work on a message-board community. So yes, discussing colonialism issues in overseas adoption which female celebrities are man-trapping hoors, or the nuances of certain political issues might be great elsewhere, but we’ve found that it is only going to result in a lot of pointless arguing and name-calling on a celeb-gossip board. If we ask posters in a thread to cease with a certain argument, it’s not because we want to put blinders on; it’s because these discussions have never ended well in the past and we don’t want to go down that road again. I don’t like the way you ___ on this board. Where can I talk about that?
We have a Questions and Suggestions thread in the Board Issues section. That’s a great place to suggest new threads, ask about weirdness you are experiencing while loading the page or logging in, ask about stuff like “What is up with all of the weird cat avatars lately?” or ask a question that isn’t easily found here in the FAQ.
If you have a bigger beef, by all means PM any/all of the mods to talk about it. That’s why we’re here. That’s why they pay us the big bucks. We’re open to new ideas and suggestions and really and truly do give a shit about our community members!
Why do mods sometimes post in bold? Isn't that like yelling?
Sometimes we find we do have to shout a bit to get a point across when a thread has required repeat warnings to either tone it down or move on from a subject. Whenever you see a mod post that's entirely in bold, it means that the same warning has been put in that thread multiple times before but has been ignored. Posting in bold is our way of ensuring that it gets noticed once and for all so we don't have to continually repeat ourselves.
Why are people ignoring me?
If there is one constant on a message board, it’s that everyone feels ignored, left out, or “not one of the cool kids” at some point. More often than not, it’s nothing personal, so try -- try! -- not to take it personally. Keep participating. Have fun.
Why did you delete my post?
Any number of reasons. Did it include a picture, a URL, a personal attack, something that's prohibited in the FAQ, someone’s personal information, or something that you’d been PM’d about not doing in the past? Was your post basically incomprehensible as a result of spelling/grammar/language issues? Were you inflammatory, arguing unproductively with someone, debating a mod issue, discussing something better left to a PM? Were you unnecessarily snotty or cruel? We don’t leave shit like that up. Why did you ban me?
Any number of reasons. Did you attack another poster? Did you post something clearly against the rules, like a racist rant or someone’s personal information? Have you been an asshole in general? Are you a problem in our online community? Have you been ignoring repeated PMs to check your spelling/fix your links/not double-post/post more than one-word responses? Are your posts difficult to read or understand? Do you constantly cross-post the same stuff in different threads? Did you troll?
We give posters the benefit of the doubt/a second chance most times -- so if we’ve banned you, it's because we had damned good reason.
Can I come back? I’m sorry!
No. No one has ever agreed with us that what he or she did deserved banning anyway, and likely we’ve already given you plenty of chances before banning you. Why didn’t you at least WARN me?!
Often, we did -- but it is not our policy here to send solicitous PMs asking whether a poster is OK with our banning them. We also have the warning levels for warned posters hidden, so the administrators can see them but other posters can’t. Why did you ban ___?
It’s none of your business -- and, no, it’s not because we’re trying to hide anything or pull one over on you. It’s because it is not our practice to explain to others why a certain poster was banned; that only results in an argument.
Why didn’t you smack down ____ for saying ____?
Most of our reprimands, queries, and suggestions are made behind the scenes, by way of PM. It’s not our practice to post specific smackdowns in a thread or demand apologies or target a specific poster on the boards themselves. Why are you so afraid of the truth?! Why are you so iron-fisted?! Why are you so unfair?!
We have found, through years of experience, that certain rules, standards, and guidelines make this place more productive and pleasant for the community as a whole. Not everyone will agree with that, and that’s fine. If you want a completely unmoderated forum, a place where you can use certain inflammatory words, post potentially libelous information, write completely ungrammatical/incomprehensible mishmash, or attack other posters to your heart’s content, then go someplace else.
Our primary commitment is to make this board the best place possible for the majority of our community members.
And why are you so mean sometimes?!
Because we aren’t your fucking babysitters, and even we lose patience. I'm interested in making a financial contribution to this site. Can I?
The site is a free one and we’re going to keep it that way. Paying for a site and worrying about taking money from people would just create too many hassles. We appreciate the offer, though! Where are the Greecie T-shirts and bumper stickers and coffee mugs?
We don’t have any merch and don’t have plans to develop any. However, if you come up with an awesome design for something while killing time at work, PM us. You never know!
How can I upload my own cool avatar?
Open yourself an account at Photobucket or tinypic and follow the directions there to upload a personal photo, an animated icon, etc. DO NOT HOTLINK TO A PHOTO on a site! This normally means that the file size is enormous and will cause major problems for your fellow Greecies. If you have any questions at all, PM a mod. It's better than having to have one of us PM you about it.
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