I used to post to a board that had vague rules and it seemed like it made a lot more work for the moderators-- they had to explain things over and over, for one thing. I asked why they didn’t make more specific rules and they said it was too much work.
I’m sure there’s a cliche for that.
I think the forum for the Order of the Stick webcomic has a pretty good set of rules, maybe because they were written by gamers. I was wondering if there are better ones.
A cannabis board I visit has one rule: don’t narc. Kinda like “don’t be a jerk” but specific for the matter at hand.
Sounds hard to enforce… and should you really be talking about cannabis board?
I think such an approach might work on a board that covers a very limited range of topics, such as the ones mentioned so far. Are there any more general interest boards where this approach is successful?
OK, by “don’t narc” they mean not to reveal a poster’s IRL ID. Some people carelessly post pictures that allow identification.Some posters know one another IRL.
And why not mention cannabis boards? AFAIK they are legal.
I frequent an Excel board that has a few very specific rules that are easy to interpret consistently and are strictly enforced. This is for good reason.
The board you linked has a metric shitload of rules. In general (not just on message boards) I have found that the more rules there are, the harder it is for everyone to remember them all and therefore follow them all and the more enforcement is necessary.
I think many of those infractions would be also flagged on SDMB but they are not spelled out in quite so much detail. This board has broader rules that are subject to judgment of the mods, kind of like sports referees. Yeah, there are rules, but the mods have a lot of latitude. I think that works pretty well for a general-purpose board.
It is the parable of the woodsman who takes a very long time to saw down each tree because he can’t afford the time to stop and sharpen his saw. Popularized as one of Steven Covey’s Seven Habits (“Sharpen your saw”).
I think the ultimate set of board rules would consist of a (probably somewhat lengthy) catalog of specific messages you are allowed to post, all carefully worded and vetted by the mods and the admins and their lawyers and their lawyers’ lawyers, all carefully grouped by category and numbered.
Then board participants would simply post by referencing a message number. Something like this:
. . . and so forth.
Only mod-pre-approved jokes, snarks, and innuendos, etc., would be possible.
ETA: Over in ATMB, our very own SDMB mods have promised to have this ready very soon now, within the next few days perhaps. 
Some stupid car-related board I was visiting had a “No Profanity” rule.
I stopped going there ‘cause it was no fuckin’ fun.