Posting and Commenting Guidelines, Restrictions, and Responsibilities

[Sharlikran]

Posting and Commenting Guidelines, Restrictions, and Responsibilities

I have not had time to completely outline every concern I have for mod author and user comments. A recent thread Current addon for porting settings? went from request to a unnecessary argument. It gave me something to think about.

Consider this a work in progress.

User responsibility

Users need to take responsibility for their actions. If users can not do so then they need to have posting privileges temporarily or permanently revoked or the user needs to be banned. Here are some examples.

- Users should read the site rules.
- Users need to be civil and avoid rhetorical, provocative, or inflammatory statements.
- Users should not claim mistreatment due to the answers they receive.
- Users should not act entitled to the authors' time, including posting comments in multiple places, bumping posts, or demanding immediate solutions.
- Users should not criticize the mod author if the author cannot reproduce an error and asks for more information.
- Users must accept responsibility for troubleshooting the mods they chose to install.
- Users should not get upset if a request is declined and should avoid posting critical comments about declined requests.
- You are not a lawyer, opinions are not defamation see below.

Rhetoric:

Rhetoric - language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.

There is no place for rhetorical statements in our community. For example, comments like "this is what a helpful comment should look like" or snarky responses defending an entitled request do not benefit the conversation, mod request, or error report. These comments only serve to provoke and escalate tensions.

Users should not expect the community to fix or update mods on demand. Constructive feedback and genuine requests for help are welcome, but demanding behavior and disrespectful comments are not acceptable. Site admins should moderate such rhetoric, reminding users of the site rules.

Defamation

Sometimes conversations can include opinions, and people may be offended and use rhetoric to support their narrative, claiming they are victims of defamation. Users should not present opinions as legal facts, and site admins should not consider such claims valid.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB7dTDIEkdQ

Mod author responsibility:

- Remind users to post issues with relevant information, such as when the issue occurs and what actions were being performed.

Comment Moderation:

- Moderation of comments should be stricter to avoid clutter from issues caused by users not updating mods or installing requirements correctly.

If an issue cannot be reproduced, delete the post. If additional information is provided later, consider it a genuine issue and investigate further. If the issue still cannot be reproduced, inform the user that without a reproducible error, there is limited action that can be taken. Set the expectation that the post may be deleted if the user remains dissatisfied or if no further useful information is provided.

Reason for Deleting Posts:

- Deleting posts is not to be rude or disrespectful. Reproducible errors and their solutions are useful to everyone. Users can easily find and see resolved issues.
- Correctly installing and updating mods, and disabling conflicting ones, would prevent many error posts.
- Posts that do not provide useful information lead to repeated questions and waste users' time.

User Contributions:

- Mod authors can encourage users to create their own mods, look for existing mods with the desired features, or contribute code to the project.
- When a request is declined, users must understand and accept the response. Mod authors should not be verbally abused for declining requests. Users are not entitled to the authors' time.
- Creating a new mod out of spite because a request was declined is not appropriate. Duplicating an existing mod's functionality, even with different code, undermines the original author's work and can lead to unnecessary conflicts. Respect the author's decision and do not create redundant addons.