First, an overall statement:

Fortunate hit it on the head, mostly, when he said “The rules get messy precisely because they actually are pushed to the breaking point.”

For example: People keep modifying goatse in an effort to be able to post it without being banned. Traditional goatse is by definition a shock image. By retooling it, you run the risk of crossing the “line”. What is that line? I’m sorry, there’s no way to give a pixel-by-pixel definition. Shock is SUBJECTIVE. Your best bet for not getting “surprise-banned” for posting a doctored image is to either not post it, or get confirmation from a mod beforehand if it’s okay. But even then, since it’s a subjective call, another mod or admin may feel it’s shocking, and ban you. If you don’t want to risk it, then don’t risk it.

Think about this: If you posted one of those doctored images on a “real”, “serious” forum, you’d be banned straightaway. Think about that before you post something, and you’ll know when you’re skirting the line. If the average person — not the “this is the internet so **** anything” person, but the AVERAGE person — would likely have a visceral WTF response, then it’s probably not okay.

That’s going to be the jist of a lot of the responses below.

MeatLoafFan Posted:

NON-RP RULES

1) The rule states that posting “personal insults, unconstructive criticism/suggestions/answers” is bannable. This is extremely vague and is easily exploitable by bias and favoritism by the mods. Some detailed guidelines should be given on what is considered trolling, personal insults is obvious, but “unconstructive criticism” is extremely vague.

We’re not going to produce a George Carlin-like list of words you can and cannot use. This falls under the “average person” clause above.

MeatLoafFan Posted:

2) Another rule “NO TUBMAIL SPAMMING”. Now, I have a question, is there an automatic filter to catch tubmail spammers? Or do multiple people need to report a specific person to the mods? Once again, this rule is extremely vague, how many tubmails are considered spam?

Once again, we’re not going to give you numbers so you can push the line by spamming exactly that number. But if you’re ****ing someone off, or causing CZ to lost tons of money because they exceeded their email quota from forwarding tubmails as emails to thousands of users, you’re likely to be banned.

MeatLoafFan Posted:

3) “No ****ing with the wiki”. I’m asking, please clarify this. Hobart Bliggity and Nicco have both vandalized my self-made wiki page, does this count? Does me making a wiki page about myself count as ****ing with it?

This is pretty clear on the wiki ban page, but I’ll clarify that in the sticky later (if I remember).

MeatLoafFan Posted:

1) Spamming IDC. What qualifies as spamming, and where does it say this?

This used to be a rule, but unless a mod’s in there it can’t be enforced. Of course, if a mod IS in there, and you’re interfering with them trying to help someone or have a serious discussion, they may ban you. Why? Because, as per the above wiki page, “It is at the discretion of any Moderator/Administrator to ban a user temporarily or permanently.” If you don’t like that, then don’t do things which might get them upset.

MeatLoafFan Posted:

2) “Rigging” forumbuilder, by asking for people to vote for your submission. How is this rigging, and where does it say that this is not allowed?

The wiki page. That’s voting fraud. CZ doesn’t want people collaborating based on friendships, they want the results to be what people think are quality.

MeatLoafFan Posted:

3) “Making people perform actions against their will” specifically including sending someone a logout link. Oleg was banned for doing this action.

Yes. That’s a form of trolling, and falls under the same clause as the “no hidden shock links”. Check the first two responses to this post of mine to see that some people EXPECT logout links to bannable.

tl;dr: There’s never going to be a “this word/image is the dividing line between okay and not okay”. Also, the main ban sticky needs to be updated to point to the wiki page.