Community News: New Forum Guidelines

Hey guys!

We've just released our new Forum Guidelines. It includes some new rules, a rewording of some old rules and new outcomes for breaching the Forum Guidelines.

As I mentioned in a previous Community News Post these changes have been implemented to address the toxicity of some discussions and increase consistency in moderation actions, with the goal of creating a more positive experience for the forum community as a whole.

In addition to these external Forum Guidelines, we've also introduced many new internal policies for how we will be approaching these changes. We believe these will enhance communication among the support team and contribute towards more consistent actions. I've also spoken with each member of the support team personally to discuss the new guidelines and emphasize the desired outcome of these changes.

We understand that the transition between the old forum standards and new forum standards may be difficult. Your patience and feedback, particularly during this beginning phase, is much appreciated! We'll be monitoring everything closely as we change things over and in time we'll review how these changes have gone and make further tweaks if necessary.

To make the transition easier there will be a grace period of one week before the guidelines will be enforced to their full extent. This means that we won't probate players for first offences of any of the new guidelines. We will continue to probate for things we have always probated for as well as second-time offences.

In addition to this, all players will receive a blank slate if they have a previous record of offences on their accounts. Everyone will start from zero offences made. The players currently on probation will complete their probations and then return to a blank slate as well.

Some of you may be worried about what these new guidelines mean in terms of freedom of discussion. We believe it's important that players are able to express disagreements with one another, debate the pros and cons of gameplay and offer dynamic feedback to players and the company. In my training with the team and the way we've written the guidelines, I've emphasized the importance of being able to have such discussions. The limitations of posting should only be placed where content is harmful to an individual or to the community as a whole.

Think of it like a dinner party. Grinding Gear Games is hosting it and you're all invited! Feel free to join in, relax and chat with other guests. Make yourself comfortable. You don't even have to wear pants! However, at any dinner party it's customary that basic table manners should be adhered to.

We look forward to embarking on this new chapter with you all!

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Nicholas_Steel wrote:

Good, clear guidelines. The only thing I'd like to see clarified is how to contact someone to have your thread closed if you want it closed.

You can email support or just post a reply to your thread to state you'd like it closed and the support member on duty will view it and action that for you.

Edit: You can also report a post in your thread and ask for it to be closed that way.

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Hulkcore wrote:

Given recent events, I still feel like

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Promotion or Solicitation Without Authorisation - If you would like to promote or solicit a product or service on the forum please contact support@grindinggear.com to request authorisation. Posts that are made without authorisation are not permitted.

could use clarification.

I'm sure that the intent is to avoid spammy, trojan-laden links and whatnot, which is great, but it might be helpful to clarify that things like posting in Off-Topic about another game is fine.

The recent events you're talking about was a miscommunication which I've since cleared up with the team. The rule doesn't prohibit promoting, it just asks that you check with the support team before doing so.

I'll go mull on the way that's written and think of a way to word it better. Thanks for the suggestion!

It should apply more to people promoting their own products. For example, if you made a Path of Exile fan site and you wanted people to sign up we'd want to check it out first. If you're just saying, "I enjoyed this game, have a look" it's probably okay. There's a tricky line there, you're right. I'll work on defining that further.

If a thread is locked at the request of the OP, it's okay for another player to start the discussion elsewhere (as long as it adheres to the guidelines).

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ahcos wrote:

In general i do like harsh forum rules, but those are clearly over the top. If someone like me who's all about "law and order" in forums thinks this is too much...

These rules are the nail in the coffin for me. It's just not fun to act like a manner robot around idiotic people. I'll be on probation a lot if i decide to stick around. Sad.

Feel free to email support@grindinggear.com with any feedback regarding the new forum guidelines, as we are interested in building the forum community and making it more welcoming to all players.