Help us simplify the Sythe Rules

[Sythe]

I want to open a discussion with the community about modernizing and simplifying the rules.

The Official Sythe.org Rules

Ideally the rules should fit on a single page or about 50 lines.

We should remove special cases and exemptions wherever possible, and use the TwC and DNT ranks rather than banning, wherever possible.

Submit which rule you think should be amended or removed and why. Anyone may make a suggestion and the staff and I will review all suggestions.

 

[Sythe]

Just remove all the rules. Especially anything regarding personal info, defacing, maybe even remove all of the length of ban punishments in regards to leaking staff info, no more six month bans. I hundred percentage agree with your stance in our convo the other day. People need to man up. Nobody needs any protection anymore especially when we sign up to the internet.

Just hand out DNTs to anyone who releases personal info from now on. To any person who dox should remain in the community as well.


You're doing a great job rich, keep it up.

It's honestly a waste of staff time and site resources to enforce dozens of feels-protecting rules. The average Sythe user is now an adult 18-30. If they can't handle the internet then they should not be on it.

Worse still the rules are being used as a sword by which users attack other users, instead of a shield against injustice. This in my mind indicates that they need to be revised.

 

[Sonia]

It's honestly a waste of staff time and site resources to enforce dozens of feels-protecting rules. The average Sythe user is now an adult 18-30. If they can't handle the internet then they should not be on it.

Worse still the rules are being used as a sword by which users attack other users, instead of a shield against injustice. This in my mind indicates that they need to be revised.

I totally agree but remember we're on the Internet so if users are using rules to attack you need to accept that too. Because we're on the Internet and you have to deal with that. In the end I see this forum as not needing any form of moderation or staffing present in regards to punishments. How free and beautiful that would be. I'll read over the rules and suggest exactly which should be removed or revised!!

 

[Gen]

1) Disclosure of Personal Information of a Staff Member or Acquaintance of a Staff Member: This includes, but is not limited to, full names, private emails, Skype/Facebook, addresses, phone numbers, private photos, etc

and

Disclosure of Others' Personal Information: Posting information such as private emails/MSNs, private Skype accounts, Facebook accounts, addresses, phone numbers, private photos, etc.

Should both be equals IMO as I believe its just as damaging to non-staff members if their info gets leaked. Not sure why one is more severe than the other

2) PIN Sales: Sale of membership PINs is strictly prohibited. Any discussion of this will be infracted. If it continues, you will be banned for 1 month

Is this still a thing? As it seems people have been selling twitch prime codes (30 days membership for RS) lately.

3) Condensing these three into one:

Spamming:

• Posting short, unhelpful comments (such as "cool", "nice acc,", "added" etc), including free bumps on other's threads and bumps on stickies
• Posting for the sole purpose of increasing post count
• Posting comments with little to no relevance to the topic

4) Excessive Bumping: No double posting or bumping in threads within 8 hours of your last post in a given thread

We can't even post a bump prior to 8 anymore as it doesn't allow you to until the 8 hour timer is up, idk if this rule needs to be here anymore

5) Grave Digging: If a thread hasn't had a post in several weeks or months, do not post in it (except in the spam forum and some other forums/threads)

Some old threads seem to catch the interest of our current users. I feel if the post is relevant to the OP, why not? It just adds activity

DNT suggestion:

Have we thought about issuing perma bans for DNT's that do not pay back within x amount of time?

-This pushes DNT's to repay debt
-Actually punishes DNT's that have no intention of paying back

The cycle:
-Temp ban on member
-DNT issued after temp ban
-DNT member given x amount of time to repay debt
-Failure to pay within x amount of time will result in perma ban
-Banned member issues a ban pardon with an estimated x time frame to pay back on the pardon process.

 

[Sonia]

• Grave Digging: If a thread hasn't had a post in several weeks or months, do not post in it (except in the spam forum and some other forums/threads)

This rule should be removed maybe with exception to market threads, the only reason for this rule is to prevent postcount from old threads. When in fact we should never restrict post count activity or community participation even if the thread is old!

 

[Heads447]

The rules are fine the they way they are. Just get rid of the PIN sales rule and posting links to screamers.

 

[tigeris]

Threads MUST display the follow information or they will be locked.

A screenshot of the account's levels (Example) (Example RS3)
A screenshot of the account's wealth [If specified] (Example) (Example RS3)
A screenshot of the lobby screen [If specified for membership] (Example) (Example RS3)
A screenshot of the offence history/ban meter (Example)


I bielieve the part about account levels should be removed as anyone can just find the screenshots on google, and it's really a hassle when you're selling lots of accounts (way easier to just say what build it is, and no one is going to update the stats when they train 10+ accounts and get a level up every 15 minutes anyway). And a screenshot of offenses should only be required if it has any

 

[ShipTheFlip]

I personally believe the opposite should be done. Even staff often don't know the rules because so little is covered in there. Leaving all of the "special cases" (which are not as uncommon as the name may suggest) up to staff discretion has turned out horribly in a lot of instances.

But if you insist on removing stuff.. isn't bumping more than every 8 hours impossible now? I'm fairly sure there's a message saying you can't post for x amount of time, so I guess you could get rid of that

 

[Wonderland]

It's honestly a waste of staff time and site resources to enforce dozens of feels-protecting rules. The average Sythe user is now an adult 18-30. If they can't handle the internet then they should not be on it.

Worse still the rules are being used as a sword by which users attack other users, instead of a shield against injustice. This in my mind indicates that they need to be revised.

What does age have to do with wanting to be protected on the internet? You want lawlessness around here so the whole site can be one big meme. Get a grip and stop reaching to discredit your site further.

"Waste of staff time" - Handling cases that offset or question rule breaking is the literal responsibility of staff. If they can't handle it, they should step down.

"Site resources" - What site resources are being wasted here?

 

[Amei]

If you removed all the bullshit explanations and didn't have 3 seperate sections for spamming, excessive bumping & bogus bumping & posting then it'd probably fit into 50 lines already.

 

[Sythe]

What does age have to do with wanting to be protected on the internet? You want lawlessness around here so the whole site can be one big meme. Get a grip and stop reaching to discredit your site further.

"Waste of staff time" - Handling cases that offset or question rule breaking is the literal responsibility of staff. If they can't handle it, they should step down.

"Site resources" - What site resources are being wasted here?

By contrast you want sythe, a runescape blackmarket, to be a safe space... why?

 

[Wonderland]

By contrast you want sythe, a runescape blackmarket, to be a safe space... why?

Consequences deter toxicity. Me wanting my personal information protected should not be put into question based on the niche of a website.

 

[Seraphic]

• Posting short, unhelpful comments (such as "cool", "nice acc,", "added" etc), including free bumps on other's threads and bumps on stickies

This rule should be amended to NOT include this part:
including free bumps on other's threads and bumps on stickies

Instead it should say:
Free bumps on threads and stickies are allowed as long as they follow the 8 hour bump limit.

This is because people should be allowed to bump other people's threads if the OP has done them a favour i.e. a good trade. Banning free bumping is a useless rule if it follows the 8 hour rule. Also if the OP cannot get on the computer at the time of wanting to bump their thread they should be allowed to ask someone else to do it for them.

Next rule:

• Using excessive profanity, insults, or derogatory comments towards another user

This needs to be changed and modified to fit in with this rule:

• Genuine negative feedback about a negative experience with user that does not accuse them of scamming is allowed.

So effectively to tie it in, the rule instead should be this:

Using excessive profanity, insults, or derogatory comments towards another user is ALLOWED providing it is only used in the context of giving negative experience to another user which does not accuse them of scamming.

NEXT RULE! YES! This is the greatest thread ever!

Next rule is actually gonna come from this one:
Graphics Marketplace Rules [Updated March 25, 2014]

Vouches for GFX is ALLOWED providing the Graphics that was provided was paid for.

The reason for this is because if you BUY GFX, this is technically a trade. Graphics for Money. Where my homie GFX designers at @Paper Shark @T1N0 @MoonGlare

NEXT RULE:

• Advertising: Posting or private messaging links to other sites is allowed if there is a legitimate purpose in doing so that benefits Sythe users. Market threads may only link to websites if business is conducted on Sythe and alternative methods of contact (Skype, AIM, etc) are given. Accounts specifically created for advertising will be banned. To purchase advertising space email [email protected].

Lets be real here. Nobody even gets a reply from emailing [email protected]. So instead lets modify this.

Advertising: Posting or private messaging links to other sites is allowed if there is a legitimate purpose in doing so that benefits Sythe users. Market threads may only link to websites if business is conducted on Sythe and alternative methods of contact (Skype, AIM, etc) are given. Accounts specifically created for advertising will be banned. To purchase advertising space, PM @Sythe or @Matthew. In the case that @Sythe or @Matthew do not respond, feel free to contact any administrator.

There we go we've already improved that rule.

Next rule:

Users will be banned for 6 months for the following:

• Disclosure of Personal Information of a Staff Member or Acquaintance of a Staff Member: This includes, but is not limited to, full names, private emails, Skype/Facebook, addresses, phone numbers, private photos, etc
  • There will be a 6 month Spam Forum ban on top of this
  • A second offence from the same user will result in a permanent ban
  • This rule does not apply to information/photos that the staff have posted publicly on Sythe about themselves (or reposting of the same provided the original thread still exists)
  • For the sake of clarity, an acquaintance of a staff member is a family member or close friend who is only associated with Sythe through a staff member, if at all

Again I am 95% sure A LARGE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE will actually agree that this rule should be cut and pasted into the 1 month ban. I've seen a lot of people unhappy with this rule. I will update more rules when and where I see them necessary and fit.

 

[Dieze]

I personally believe the opposite should be done. Even staff often don't know the rules because so little is covered in there. Leaving all of the "special cases" (which are not as uncommon as the name may suggest) up to staff discretion has turned out horribly in a lot of instances.

But if you insist on removing stuff.. isn't bumping more than every 8 hours impossible now? I'm fairly sure there's a message saying you can't post for x amount of time, so I guess you could get rid of that

Not impossible, if someone else replies eg a vouch in a market thread, the op is able to post before the 8 hours is up.

 

[S]

I haven't read all the preceding posts, however, one thing I've always stood by, is that minimising intervention regarding all things market/trading is something we should aim to encourage, and set in stone. We should allow for the market to run its own course, and not constantly nit-pick, due concern for other users. We aren't here to babysit them, and constant intervention and patrolling of the market just results in an overly saturated market place, and discourages healthy growth.

Another issue/rule I oppose is - disallowing services/certain niche markets solely based on the fact that it may be harmful to an individual due to the lingering aspect that it allows for users to potentially be scammed. This is a silly ideology and stance IMO. We aren't here to babysit every individual. We aren't their monitors, and we should by now, accept that people are going to get scammed, no matter what we do. Basing our market and rules on those users is a terrible business ideology to maintain. I understand erring on the side of caution, but disallowing the aforementioned due to potential harm is unjustified. It's far better to allow whatever users have to offer/sell, and let the customers decide if they wish to opt into said service.

The fact that we are a black market site per se, but frown upon actual black market services/trades is silly.

@Sythe

 

[Sythe]

Consequences deter toxicity. Me wanting my personal information protected should not be put into question based on the niche of a website.

Privacy is not a right that creates obligations on others. It is something you do for yourself by not publishing details into a public forum.

 

[Wonderland]

Privacy is not a right that creates obligations on others. It is something you do for yourself by not publishing details into a public forum.

You're implying that only way to get my info is for me to post it, but that's not the case. Privacy is not a right on the internet, but it is something many look for. Anonymity is something many try to uphold for obvious reasons. Taking that away will only make this website less appealing than it already is, unless of course this is your end goal.

 

[mumble]

• Using excessive profanity, insults, or derogatory comments towards another user
• Partaking in behaviour intended to disturb or upset another user, creating bounty threads on another user
• Deceiving members or staff for fun, humor, or to cause drama
• Posting purposely to anger or to elicit a negative response from others for fun, humor, or to cause drama

Into

Posts that are created for the sole purpose of upsetting another user / making another user uncomfortable will not be tolerated.

 

[Sythe]

You're implying that only way to get my info is for me to post it, but that's not the case. Privacy is not a right on the internet, but it is something many look for. Anonymity is something many try to uphold for obvious reasons. Taking that away will only make this website less appealing than it already is, unless of course this is your end goal.

For someone who has only negative things to say about this website you sure are here a lot.

 

[Wonderland]

For someone who has only negative things to say about this website you sure are here a lot.

Let's attack me instead of responding to my points. I'm trying to make this website a better place. Look at my suggestions/feedback threads that go unanswered.