Lately we have seen a few instances of gossip occurring against various members in the shoutbox and it is getting out of control. Be reminded that we will not be allowing gossip sessions on this forum, and those naming other members on here in an attempt to drag them through the mud over some personal quarrel will be dealt with accordingly.
Let me remind everyone of the first section of the Forum Rules
Forum Rules said:
Treat All Members With Respect
New, old, ranked, unranked - all members shall be treated with the same respect.
Insulting or Flaming Another Member: Talking down to another member based on who they are or what they have posted is considered flaming. Talking about another member in a demeaning way is also not allowed. There is a clear difference between flaming and constructive criticism. If another member has posted something that you feel is wrong, that you disagree with, or that you feel is not appropriate, there is a better way to get the point across than insulting them or giving feedback in a demeaning fashion. This rule also forbids ad hominem attacks in debates. (Infraction: 5, 10, or 15 points, based on severity and repetition)
Trolling or Baiting: Trolling and baiting describe actions which attempt to elicit negative - often humorous, emotional, or inappropriate - responses from others, and will not be tolerated. This includes mocking, antagonizing, harassing, or otherwise targeting the nerves of another member or group. Although by definition these depend on a member's intentions, moderators will judge incidents based on the perceived effects on the target. Be careful to respect other members' dignity. (Infraction: 8 or 15 points, based on severity and repetition)
Gossiping about members on this forum behind their backs and/or in the shoutbox is contributing to unnecessary drama and if we see this happening we will be considering it as Insulting or Flaming Another Member. Repeated instances will also become Trolling or Baiting. For those who haven't received warnings for this, consider this your warning.
We will be taking a hardline on this from now as this issue is one that is making various members uncomfortable on the forums. This is a place to come talk about video games and relax, not one to breed drama, hate, and gossip. If you don't like someone else then ignore them, don't make it your mission to make others also dislike that person. If need be, involve the staff rather than gossiping (and rather than retaliating to gossip) and of course myself if you are not satisfied with the response of other staff members.
@Jimmu this is ********. The whole thing. I don't know if it was you, Mases, the mod team, or a combination that made this decision but whoever did really needs to rethink their vision for this forum.
The interpretations of the rules you listed state that no member of this forum may, at any time, post anything negative about another member regardless of what they did. For a completely hypothetical example, if a member posts, say, hardcore Nazi porn in the SB according to the rules you stated, no one may "ad hom" that user and call him a moron to his face or behind his back. It even applies to inactive users. No one may express their opinion and say "That guy was an asshole, he just insulted people in his threads and never listened unless you agreed with him." Nope, can't do that.
You also state that this is a forum for people to relax and talk about games. This is utterly false. If that were the case, then delete every sub section other than World of Zelda and Gemeral Gaming.
You also state that you could just ignore the person instead of gossip. It goes both ways. If someone doesn't like the troll/gossip, just ignore it. There's literally an ignore button so you don't have to see their posts. It solves the problem without censoring anyone.
Lastly you state that the mod team will strictly enforce this policy and that no one gets warnings because this is the warning. Imma tell you right now, this policy will hurt the forum. It's not gonna work. This is a policy more suited to death threats, not some ****ing gossip. Whatever vision the person who made this has for the forum is terribly unrealistic. It's a vison where everyone respects others. Sounds simple, but it's not gonna happen. At least not through force like you're trying to make it.
My suggest is to completely trash this hardline policy.
When Smash 4 first came out, I made a discord server to organize tournaments. Since we couldn't even finish tournaments and since users outside if ZD joined, I dropped the ZD name and it just became a Smash server. They wanted a place to post unrelated stuff so I made another channel on that server were people can post and say whatever they want. PM me if you want a link, and I only have 2 rules:
No child porn
No irl gore
If you already have a place that fulfills that role, then shoot me a pm with a link, cause I wanna chat with my ZD peeps without fear of being banned for gossip or something.