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Well I'm sure whoever wrote that must be very proud of themselves. They sound big and scary and threatening.

Sarcasm aside, I think this needs to be amended by someone capable of doing so. It simply is not informative nor very helpful. It's also very unfriendly. Is this the atmosphere that should be imposed on visitors and members?

Perhaps these amendments could make the message more informative, friendly, and not pride-ridden.

- Omission of the first bit of information, ending with "Captain Obvious"

- Define Drama, SMS, and "no caps".

- Last lines should be more dispassionate.


Example:

Welcome to the shoutbox. It is asked of all who use the shoutbox to refrain from discussing personal problems. Other things that should be avoided are as follows:

#1: Drama. This can be tied into personal issues, and basically means that someone or a group of people are causing trouble.

#2: Avoid the use of SMS language. Otherwise known as text language. (Ex. b4, sk8, etc.)

#3: Avoid excessive use of capital letters with the intention of expressing emotion. This is considered "screaming" at other people.

The above mentioned are the main rules of the shoutbox. These rules are strictly enforced, and there will be consequences for those found breaking these few and simple rules.

I think it's mostly meant more as a sort of joke, due to the reference to Captain Obvious (and it certainly wouldn't be the first one to be a joke heading). Your suggested one makes the current heading seem tiny, though, and it's a rather small part of the site in any case. It's the mod's choice to decide what the heading is and they can obviously make it a joke one if they want

The first line: It's a joke. If people fail miserably at noticing that and they rather feel offended, then I'm sorry, they need buy a bag of humor. (sorry if this might sound mean, but really)

I don't see much wrong with the next rows. They are short, simple and to the point. Your example is nice. But why adding so much text? People will avoid reading all that. Not to mention it would waste space. So the way it's put right now is fine. Also people always complain about the atmosphere that can be found on the SB. All the dramas, wannabe-trolls, SMS users and such. Well now the rule is right in front of them, so they won't go all "Oh, I forgot to read the rules...".
Apparently a threat? No quite. It's not. It depends how you read it...

The Topic Line is there for a purpose. And it is going to be changed frequently. The mods are doing their best to keep the site clean from all those trouble-makers. But the current topic line was only the beginning...

**EDIT** I think suggestions are pretty much welcome. Personally I think long winded posts should be avoided.

I couldn't agree more, Ghost-unit. I'm a mod myself, but I have no power over what the topic line says.( Slightly off topic, but it still fits into this topic.) Now, I'm not going to say all the mods on Balto source are crabby, but some seem to think that being a mod means that they have to be the big scary monster that has a un-welcoming attitude twords the members. That's not what being a mod means. Take this quote into consideration: "I'm only brave when I have to be." What I'm meaning is, just because your a mod, it doesn't mean you have to be a big show off and act all that about it. Only act when you need to.

Of course you're not going to you're a mod yourself



Yawn, I haven't seen any mod here be unwelcoming, and I'm pretty sure they know what their job means by now.

As long as you take it in good humor I don't see a problem, but some people might get turned off by it's sarcasm. I do think that it's informative as it tells you what you shouldn't say and what will happen to you. I do think that it should go into more reason about why you shouldn't say some things. I like your changes to those and it would be nice if those got replaced with the old and less informative ones.

I concur, thank you for your support.




Thank you.