All right, people have asked about my moderating guidelines. Note that these are MY guidelines, and not official Straight Dope rules. Alphagene and John are not bound by them. However, the administration has generally been satisfied by the way I run the Pit.
As a general rule, if you open a thread in the Pit, and it then turns around and bites you on the ass, don’t come whining to ME about it. If you’re gonna start something, be prepared to back it up. I won’t close or delete a thread just because you thought you could dish it out without taking shit in return.
I very, very rarely close threads in the Pit. Most of them will die out on their own in a few days, anyway. If I close them before they naturally expire, people will just start a new thread. I’d rather leave the old one open.
If you post in the Pit, you’re going to get called names. Sometimes this will be affectionately, sometimes it will not. If you don’t want to be called names, don’t post in the Pit. There ARE limits, but being called “cunt” isn’t nearly as bad as I’ve seen. And yes, I hate that term myself, but I usually let it slide.
Posting a malicious site (like one that spawns a gazillion windows) IS cause for a warning. Doing it after being warned might get your posting privileges revoked.
Posting a site that leads to objectionable content (like porn, or a Make Money Fast site, or a warez site) can lead to your post getting deleted and you getting a warn. Continuing to do so will result in your posting privileges being revoked.
Posting spam (commercial sites, ads of any sort) gets your posting privileges revoked. Generally, I don’t even bother to write a letter of explanation. If someone didn’t bother to read the registration agreement, I can’t be bothered to write a letter.
Using multiple usernames will usually result in revoking posting privileges to ALL usernames. If it’s an old troll, no letter goes out. I figure that Concrete and Serlinel, for instance, know very well why they can’t post with their latest usernames.
If your sig is especially nasty, I can, as an administrator, go into your profile and change or delete it. I think I’ve only done this twice. However, it CAN be done. I’d rather not do it. I’d rather warn someone, and let that person change the sig to something. But I can do it if it’s necessary.
There’s probably more, but I never wrote this stuff down. If you have specific questions, it’s better to email me. I don’t spend 24/7 in the Pit, and I check my email a lot more often than I check the board.
Lynn
Queen of the Pit
Somehow, I assumed there would be more guidelines. I was sure I’d seen some before, but maybe I’m wrong.