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Other Chat & Discussions Forum Rules

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Livewire

Livewire

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    Other Chat & Discussions Forum Rules

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    Before posting and/or creating threads in Other Chat & Discussions, please refer to these rules beforehand to avoid any unnecessary issues. Keep up to date with the PokéCommunity Rules, too!


    Off-Topic Board =/= Post random stuff

    Off-topic as it may be, that does NOT mean post whatever you'd like. Other Chat & Discussions is for topics that do not fall under preexisting categories. If you are unsure about posting, or about creating a thread here, contact a staff member for assistance first. Other Chat & Discussions is home to a variety of topics, usually of the more mature & worldly variety, from current newsworthy events, politics, religion, culture, and other scholastic, moral, ethical, and philosophically related topics. Also, stay on topic in threads! If you want to deviate or branch off from the main topic in a thread, feel free to create another thread. (Unless it's already been made)

    Respect Everyone!
    Other Chat & Discussions is home to intelligent and sometimes heated debates, over a variety of topics, so disagreements are bound to happen eventually. Try to keep your arguments at a logical and appropriate level- You can defend your argument all you want, but do so in a professional manner. Do not make any offensive, disrespectful, or annoying posts towards another member. It serves no purpose except to start pointless arguments. Flaming and trolling this forum will result in disciplinary action. Doing so under any circumstances will result in a Warning or Infraction, depending on prior offenses/or lack thereof. If you see offensive posting, quietly report it to the staff via the report button. Do not take matters into your own hands, the problem will be dealt with accordingly.

    Regarding Moderation
    The point of moderation is to not sacrifice threads and/or discussion because of a few bad apples, while maintaining a friendly atmosphere for all to post in. The entire point of Other Chat & Discussions, and by extension, the entire Pokecommunity Forum as a whole, is to discuss matters and debate opinions, and locking every thread that gets a little intense is counter-intuitive to that end. Moderation in this section is fairly strict, so be aware of that when posting here. Therefore, we reserve the right to close any thread or delete any post if we feel it has gotten out of hand or if it's deemed unnecessary or inappropriate in any way, shape, or form.

    Polls belong in OVP, not here!
    When making a thread in Other Chat & Discussions, does the thread title and with a ? Are you asking a question, without much supporting information or material? Is the thread designed to pose an question, and you answer, and then leave the discussion? If so, you should move your thread to Other Voting Polls. However, an OVP thread may be moved back to Other Chat & Discussions, should it generate a significant amount of discussion and evolve from what the OP originally was.

    Be Objective & Balanced
    When making threads in Other Chat & Discussions, you should be making threads with the intent of creating a nice, broad, and long discussion. Basically, you want to make successful and intelligent threads. Use facts, sources and scholarly material when making a discussion where that would be appropriate (In example, use crime rates in threads about crime, Carbon Dioxide Emission figures in a thread about climate change, etc) Given that OC&D deals heavily in politics, DO NOT post politically charged threads solely designed to bash or to defame another political entity. OC&D is not a landfill for your hyper-partisan political views. Keep that to your blog, or more preferably, keep it to yourself.

    Three Strikes Rule
    In order to preserve discussions, and in order to make the Other Chat & Discussions forum friendly for EVERYONE, Other Chat & Discussions will follow a simple rule when it comes to threads. Strikes can be either a deleted post or a warning via PM to stop posting as such. You will receive a strike - tantamount to a warning - should you cause trouble in any particular thread. Once you have accumulated 3 strikes in one thread, you will be BANNED FROM POSTING IN THAT PARTICULAR THREAD. Should you post in a thread you're banned from, you will receive an infraction, and possibly more.

    Regarding the Daily Chit Chat
    The Daily Chit Chat, also known as the DCC, is OC&D's light-hearted general chat & talking\ thread. It's a place to crash and chill out for the night, but that doesn't mean you can spam - try to stay on the topic ant hand. There are 4 editions of the thread per year, that coincide with the seasons.

    New DCC's begin on:

    March 21st
    June 21st
    September 21st
    December 21st


    The right to create a DCC can be raffled off to the lucky, active user of OC&D. Stay active and it could be yours!



    Any further questions? Direct them towards Livewire or a Higher Staff member.

    [PokeCommunity.com] Other Chat & Discussions Forum Rules
     
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    Other Chat & Discussions Thread Making Guide

    Please read this post before you make a thread. While Other Chat & Discussions is a fairly relaxed section with regards to what you post in a thread and how you present your post (as covered earlier under the "Moderation" section), it's important that relevant threads which will generate discussion appropriate for this section are posted. After dealing with the issue of a large proportion of threads in this section being either misplaced or inappropriate, Livewire and I decided that it'd be best to just make a discrete guide for making threads in this section. So, if you're about to post a thread, you should stop and read this first or don't be surprised if your thread gets locked.

    Thread Types​

    moral or ethical discussion threads

    Example - "Is everybody equal?"
    Pretty self-explanitory. These threads are based around a thought-provoking topic such as equality in this case. The first post of this sort of thread should provide some questions and background to get the thread started without making a gigantic tl;dr that'll put people off. Feel free to include your own opinion if you'd like to (although I tend not to so that the thread gets off to an unbiased start), but don't be surprised if somebody is quick to debate it with you!

    issue and law discussion threads


    Example - "Homeschooling."
    When I say "issue", I don't mean to imply that anything brought up in this type of thread is a problem, but simply a matter which could give rise to debate. Potentially controversial issues which people may be able to discuss through the use of sources or personal experience, such as homeschooling, tend to work well here. An interesting way to start these threads is to highlight common arguments related to the issue and possibly provide your own experiences if you have any. Once again, it's your choice if you want to provide an opinion or not.

    religion and sexuality discussion threads


    Example - "Homosexuality."
    These pop up quite a lot so they're getting their own section in here. Generally, these threads end up fairly tightly moderated in comparison to the rest of the threads in OC&D because they have a tendency to get somewhat heated and somewhat insulting if they get out of hand. However, with an open-minded start, these threads do tend to end up as fairly civil and polite discussion. Post these if you want to, but if you aren't confident, I strongly advise you first send a private message to either myself or Livewire for direction.

    news threads


    Example - "Evolution removed from South Korean textbooks."
    There's not too much use in breaking this down into different types of thread as I did earlier because I'd be here for weeks. News stories about a whole load of things can be posted in this section and it's really up to your own discretion to decide if your news story is interesting and thought-provoking enough to do well as a thread. As with the threads mentioned in the last section, PM one of us if in doubt. As for posting, the general method of posting is to link to a full news article, quote in your thread a passage or concise version, and then raise a few questions for discussion along with an opinion if you'd like to. Be aware that if you don't source you news article then it might not generate much positive discussion and could end up closed depending on circumstances.

    -

    ​

    So, with those key types of threads out of the way, it's time for the nasty stuff. That being the stuff which you should take caution when posting or simply avoid altogether.

    poll threads


    Example - Everything here.
    These are just a no, and they're the type of threads we have to deal with most often here in OC&D. They're threads which ask very simple-to-answer and non-discussion things such as "How old are you?" or "What's your favourite colour?". They invariably do badly here because they're closed or moved pretty quickly. Other Chat & Discussions is made for, well, discussions. If you'd like to post threads like this then that's allowed only in Other Voting Polls, a section made for this sort of thing.

    chat threads


    Example - "The Daily Chit-Chat."
    On occasion, we see people making threads for general chat, sometimes about a subject (such as school or food) and sometimes for general everything. Please send a PM to myself or Livewire before you make one of these because there's a very strong chance that it'll be covered elsewhere already, either by the DCC linked above or by another section on the forum.

    question threads


    Self-explanitory. Threads which ask a single, simple question, such as "When is the next Pokémon game released?" or "How do I do this homework?" are not permitted here. You've got the whole of the internet at your fingertips on Google. Please use it. Additionally, please refrain for posting threads asking for advice such as "Should I break up with my boyfriend?" or whatever. These are personal issues which should be discussed with a close friend or relative offline, not with a Pokémon community online.

    pokémon and emulation threads


    While we all love Pokémon, we have a huge number of sections for its discussion and this is definitely not one of them. So please don't post about Pokémon here. Same with emulation - we have a huge section already for ROM hacks and the like and it's called Emulation and it's right over here. Please use it.

    video and blogging threads


    Threads which tell us about something nice which happened in your life today might be interesting but aren't discussion-worthy. Use a blogging service (either PC's own one or an external one such as tumblr or livejournal) for this kind of thing. The same goes for video threads - we have a thread in Computers & Technology for YouTube videos and, interesting as they are, this is not the place for them.

    Riiiiiight, I think that should just about do it. Anything you feel I've missed and need to add, or any areas where I wasn't clear, please PM me with. And, as always, if you're unsure if the thread that you're about to make is ok, then PM Livewire or myself. Thanks for reading.
     
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