# Rules questions **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 16, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770 "2021-08-16T04:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/1 "2021-08-16T04:08:39Z")
> [@Terms of Service and FAQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/registration-agreement-rules-and-faq/823562/2): > > The first rule of the Straight Dope Message Board remains, “Don’t be a jerk”. While there are other rules covering posting behavior they derive from that one rule. Moderators in all forums are here to ensure the rules of the board and each forum are followed. Violating any of the board rules as outlined in ATMB and the various forum specific rules may result in various levels of sanctions. Context is critical when interpreting the rules and moderation will take such into account. If you suspect… **Trolls and trolling** _- Do not accuse other posters of trolling or being a troll. If you suspect someone is trolling or is a troll, please report them._ There is no exception for this general rule for the Pit? > [@New Rules for Great Debates and Elections – January 2020](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-rules-for-great-debates-and-elections-january-2020/845726): > > Moderation in Great Debates and Politics and Elections In general, Great Debates and Politics and Elections are the most contentious fora on the SDMB. Because of that, you’ll find that moderation is more active and prone to sanctioning posters. You can compare it to sitting at the holiday dinner next to the crazy uncle who can’t help being unpleasant. Please don’t be that guy. Be aware that most rules are not ‘bright line’. This is intentional on our part as we believe such encourages poor … **Harassing other posters.** _Bringing up a poster’s history in unrelated threads for the purpose of harassing them is not allowed. Following a poster from thread to thread to mock them about older, off-topic posts could be considered harassment and is potentially sanctionable._ Is this a General rule or GD only? **Linking to Insults.** _Do not link to insulting posts or memes either in the BBQ Pit or off the SDMB as a means of getting around the ‘no insults rule’._ Now I know Discourse kinda, sorta does this and we can’t fix that. But I have seen posts like “You are invited _here._” While linking to a new Pit thread for that poster. Is that a violation? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/3 "2021-08-16T05:08:03Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > **Trolls and trolling** _- Do not accuse other posters of trolling or being a troll. If you suspect someone is trolling or is a troll, please report them._ > > There is no exception for this general rule for the Pit? In the rules for the Pit, it is stated that it is where you can complain about other posters. It then goes on to state what isn’t allowed in those complaints; hate speech, wishing harm on another poster, trolling, doxxing, and harassment. It doesn’t contain a restriction about accusing someone of trolling. Most rules about conduct between posters don’t apply there. > **Although _the standards of discourse are looser than in the other forums_, the Pit is NOT a free-for-all - you don’t have to be nice, but you do have to be reasonably civil.** > [@Revised Forum Rules for the BBQ Pit: read this before posting](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-forum-rules-for-the-bbq-pit-read-this-before-posting/487209): > > The BBQ Pit is the forum for rants about the outside world or quarrels between posters - often the first turns into the second. Although the standards of discourse are looser than in the other forums, the Pit is NOT a free-for-all - you don’t have to be nice, but you do have to be reasonably civil. Please observe the following rules when posting in the Pit: Rants should be suitable for the Pit Cutesy, “I Pit puppies for being sooo cute!” non-Pittings are not welcome here. Put them in MPSIMS. R… But the best way to know that there is an exception to the rule there is because people are allowed to do it. Honestly there doesn’t need to be any more than that. It’s really obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/4 "2021-08-16T05:26:03Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > **Harassing other posters.** _Bringing up a poster’s history in unrelated threads for the purpose of harassing them is not allowed. Following a poster from thread to thread to mock them about older, off-topic posts could be considered harassment and is potentially sanctionable._ > > Is this a General rule or GD only? I assume it’s in place everywhere. Harassment is explicitly disallowed in the Pit. Of course, in the Pit what is “unrelated” is going to be pretty loose; if you have a thread that Pits a person, there’s little that is going to be off-topic there if it involves that poster. > [@DrDeth](#): > > **Linking to Insults.** _Do not link to insulting posts or memes either in the BBQ Pit or off the SDMB as a means of getting around the ‘no insults rule’._ > > Now I know Discourse kinda, sorta does this and we can’t fix that. But I have seen posts like “You are invited _here._ ” While linking to a new Pit thread for that poster. Is that a violation? Not only is it not a violation but it’s considered to be a courtesy; generally it’s considered good form to inform the person that they are being Pitted. Though that’s not a rule, just a custom. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/5 "2021-08-16T11:47:56Z")
Is there a limit to the number of threads a poster can create to pick at minutiae? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/6 "2021-08-16T11:56:01Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > **Linking to Insults.** _Do not link to insulting posts or memes either in the BBQ Pit or off the SDMB as a means of getting around the ‘no insults rule’._ > > Now I know Discourse kinda, sorta does this and we can’t fix that. But I have seen posts like “You are invited _here._ ” While linking to a new Pit thread for that poster. Is that a violation? We had a long discussion about how the software makes it hard to strictly follow this. And that the solution we are going with is to require “bland” names of pit threads about posters. Did you somehow miss that entire discussion? I realize that it’s human nature to ask the same question multiple times when you don’t like the answer. But this has been answered very recently. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/7 "2021-08-16T12:57:30Z")
Here it is, **DrDeth** was a participant and last poster. > [@Masking posts linked to the Pit](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masking-posts-linked-to-the-pit/944471): > > A while back, I created this thread: [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posts-linked-to-pit-threads](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posts-linked-to-pit-threads) It didn’t get much traction, but I think this is still an issue, and it has been raised multiple times in the thread about whether we should keep the Pit at all. Nothing changed, and you can still link to a GD thread in a Pit thread, which can cause the GD post to have an insulting thread title at the bottom. This still seems unacceptable to me – basically, it allows posters to call other poste… ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/8 "2021-08-16T13:49:02Z")
And that’s why this rule, _Bringing up a poster’s history in unrelated threads for the purpose of harassing them is not allowed. Following a poster from thread to thread to mock them about older, off-topic posts could be considered harassment and is potentially sanctionable._ doesn’t mean what I think other posters want it to. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/9 "2021-08-16T14:31:00Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > We had a long discussion about how the software makes it hard to strictly follow this. And that the solution we are going with is to require “bland” names of pit threads about posters. > > Did you somehow miss that entire discussion? > > I realize that it’s human nature to ask the same question multiple times when you don’t like the answer. But this has been answered very recently. He’s asking about direct links to Pit threads, not the link-backs. I always assumed they were allowed, since the mods… allowed them. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/10 "2021-08-16T14:33:48Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > I always assumed they were allowed, since the mods… allowed them. Good answer. Though more than 1 or 2 links outside the pit to a pitting could be viewed as stalking. Up to the moderators to figure that out and what to do with it. We try to stay away from Bright Line rules and we try to look at body of work rather than just one post in many cases. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/11 "2021-08-16T14:41:55Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Bringing up a poster’s history in unrelated threads for the purpose of harassing them is not allowed. Following a poster from thread to thread to mock them about older, off-topic posts could be considered harassment and is potentially sanctionable. Presumably this rule would still apply in unrelated Pit threads? ---
**Author:** ![Enjoy\_Slurm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enjoy_slurm/32/3937_2.png) [@Enjoy\_Slurm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enjoy_Slurm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/12 "2021-08-16T15:48:12Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Is there a limit to the number of threads a poster can create to pick at minutiae? Well there was this post from ECG from DrDeth’s last Pit thread. > [@Odd Dichotomy here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-dichotomy-here/948607/6): > > It was. We’re not getting rid of the Pit. We have already had multiple threads on the subject. Starting another one isn’t helpful. Instructions to all: Do not start more threads on why we need to get rid of the Pit. Do not post that we should get rid of the Pit in unrelated threads. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/13 "2021-08-16T15:50:21Z")
Thanks! I was sure I remembered something like that. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/14 "2021-08-16T16:01:14Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Not only is it not a violation but it’s considered to be a courtesy; generally it’s considered good form to inform the person that they are being Pitted. Though that’s not a rule, just a custom. I believe it is a violation and just the opposite of a “courtesy.” ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/15 "2021-08-16T16:21:00Z")
Since all you want to do is complain about the Pit, this is closed. If you cannot contain your complaints about the Pit to one thread, you will be topic banned from discussing the Pit. This is your final notice. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-questions/948770/16 "2021-08-16T16:21:05Z")