Forum Guidelines updated on July 31st 2017
Blind Sniper
Moderator
Hey guys!
We updated the Forum Guidelines today. The general gist is the same as before, but we updated the guidelines with some new additions and trimmed down some of the fat elsewhere to make other stuff more concise and come off as less strict than it had meant to be.
If you're already familiar with the rules, I'll quickly summarize some of the notable new stuff:
No politics/religion/other inflammatory discussions. - Countless other official game forums do not allow political/religion based discussions either. This new rule is not exclusive to the Telltale forums. Other forums are available on the internet for discussing politics.
"Be respectful of personal boundaries towards Telltale Staff" - This rule applies to all staff members - past and present - regardless of whether or not they have a presence on the forums. "...Keep discussions focused on the content, not the creator. Do not post social media content from staff members that is not related to official and intentional game promotion."
Have issues with Forum Moderation? Contact a Volunteer Moderator or Community Manager via PM - This was an informal thing in the past, but we now added it as a written guideline. "Please do not derail public discussions to talk about Forum Moderation; if you have issues or questions in regards to Forum Moderation, contact a Volunteer Moderator or one of the Community Managers from Telltale Staff." We added this to prevent unrelated threads from being derailed.
"Within a reasonable amount, try to communicate clearly" - This one just makes it easier for people to follow conversations and clearly read posts. "Your posts don't have to be perfect but it's better if you avoid posting in "txt" speak, ALL CAPS, a single long wall of text with no paragraphs, etc. (It's okay if you have disabilities or other valid reasons to not post clearly)." This is not meant to be one of the more strict guidelines or anything, just try to be clear within reason. It is extremely common for other forums to also have this guideline, it isn't anything oppressive.
Comments
I'd like to request further clarification of the rule about the social media of Telltale staff (current and former).
There are times when their social media is wide open, and they post things they obviously want to share, such as pictures from a craft project that would be of interest to some Telltale forum users, not necessarily an official company statement or about a specific Telltale game, though. Is it OK to link to these or show the image on the forums?
I'm not talking about sharing when they post where they're going to have dinner this evening or what movie they're going to. I mean actual stuff that I think would be of interest, and not to harass the staff member.
Thanks.
Even though it's not technically/directly written into the rule, yeah that's fine, if it's something they would want to be deliberately shared/viewed for a larger audience.
For example, @mostlypoptarts will sometimes post pictures of dogs from the office. Stuff like that is okay to share.
We added that rule because some posts in the Walking Dead forums had revolved around non-constructive discussion, such as scrutinizing staff members (during Season 2 of Walking Dead) for tweeting about stuff like exercising or going to a bar instead of working on Walking Dead Season 2.
Basically, an unofficial rule of thumb you can use is if it leads to civil, constructive, and positive discussion, it is usually okay to post. However, if you are posting social media that is not related to official/direct game promotion because you want to rile up other fans to lash out at staff for what they said on social media (or tweeting about non-work related stuff when "they should be working on the game"), that is the kind of discussion we are looking to stop.
All dog discussion allowed. All dogs are good boys.
Cats are better tho
Da fuq? People did this? For having a life outside of game development?
Sadly, yes, a vocal minority of people did this.
Man, love is a battlefield.
I like you, you know that?
I'd like to have a form of clarification on the last point. Does it lead to a ban in cases of not obliging by that rule? I know it's not oppressive in any way, it's just that some people (like me) have the tendency to type out a chunk and forgets to paragraph it properly - It has become a habit for some people when they are writing - especially on the internet as you don't feel obliged to paragraph it properly as on paper (as we are used to it in school).
That's more of a request or polite heads up than a strict rule so don't worry. We'd be talking about the suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper long walls of text here and not just normal, slightly long walls of text.
So, you'll be fine if you do it on accident or whatever - it's just good to avoid is all.
Why was my comment removed? That seems to happen to me a lot lately.
Your comment was being rude and derailing the thread to talk about past moderation (see above about one of the new rules).
You are welcome to ask questions or give feedback about the new guidelines, but please don't derail discussion to complain about previous moderation choices.
So I can't make any more kenny is our lord and savior jokes?
I don't see what would stop you from doing that, unless you were spamming/trolling the forums in doing so.
I'm #TeamKenny myself, and I do appreciate a magnificent 'stache for what it's worth.
Good to know
How dare people have outside lives!!!! It messes with OUR INSIDE LIVES!!!!
Forgot another rule ^
TWO SCOOPS
PRAISE ZOIDBERG
But staff one I agree attacking staff over having lifes outside telltale wtf
Working telltale is not disneyland sure hard find time to even sleep with the workload and crunch hours.
I have utmost respect for staff at telltale they deserve every break in fact reading about the work conditions there they need more breaks and healthy working hours to more spend time with family
Like them all except first one sounds like no more serious discussions
Inflammatory sounds vague so ban anything deemed little edgy
Just hope doesn't turn this section boring hard enough seeing new interesting threads here
Now be PG Mod filter even tho telltale have adult games too.
Then again this forum is for promoting and selling games by telltale like all game companies.
So have to accept this approach with all minecraft kids around now edgy or mature threads scare away customers.
Tbh I hardly post anymore so whatever
Permaban when people post naughty words to they are scary and trigger users :,(
When I wake up tomorrow this forum better be club penguin dammit
We did allow fun
And this thread right here is where allowing fun got us
I have to agree with @Cocoa2736 Cats are better than dogs.
Because it is not true.
Most of these are perfectly acceptable.
I see how it is
Oh so you finally see that cats are the objectively superior pet and overall species, glad to hear it!
I actually really like dogs tho no hate on them.