Books Rules - Updated March 4th 2010

[SecondTalon]

1. Gay, Homosexual, Faggot, and other terms I'm neglecting to mention aren't appropriate descriptions. Such terms will be changed to whatever word happens to pop in my head at the time, regardless of how grammatically correct the new word is. Like aardvark, or phlegm. If I'm feeling nice. I may just delete the whole thing, regardless of any other content.

2A - No links to copyrighted materials. It's on the internet for free. We know. If we cared enough, we'd find it ourselves. Don't try and be clever or coy about it, just don't do it.
2B - No asking for copyrighted materials to be posted or sent. This includes asking for invites to member-only file sharing sites. I don't want to see an invite-swapping thread here.

3. Watch the flamebaiting/Disguised Postcount +1. Don't just say "X Author is terrible" or "X Series is the best ever!". Elaborate. The only thing more annoying than a post saying "X sucks" in the middle of a giant thread discussing it's merits is a giant thread of nothing but "Gee Willikers I love it!" with no other content.

4. Comics go in the new Subforum. Comics include Manga, Webcomics, The Sunday Funnies, Western Superhero Comics, and pretty much every combination of artwork + text.


5. Spoiler Your Plot Elements. Unless the title of the thread has the word Spoilers in it, I fully expect you to use the spoiler tags to hide plot elements. Let's take The Hobbit for example. Naming the Dwarves is fine. Talking about the ring Bilbo picks up should probably be spoiled. Discussing the Battle of Five Armies or Smaug getting taken out needs to be in Spoilers. When in doubt, if it happens in the last half of the book, put it in spoilers.

On the outside chance you don't know how to spoil anything.. you type the word spoiler in between brackets [] followed by the text you want hidden, followed by /spoiler in brackets []

Code: Select all

[spoiler]This is a spoiler of something important[/spoiler]

becomes

Spoiler:

This is a spoiler of something important

And for the record, if you see some post breaking this rule, report the post and say what's wrong with it. Assume that the person responding to the report is completely unfamiliar with the particular book and needs to be told what is and is not a spoiler - going back to the Lord of the Rings bit, stating that Frodo meets Tom Bombadil who later helps Frodo when he comes down with a case of the Barrow Wights is no big deal - happens early enough in the book to not really warrant a spoiler. Talking about Frodo in Shelob's Lair... that would need a spoiler. It's possible that the responding moderator is completely unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings* and has no idea why Tom Bombadil wouldn't need a spoiler, but the events in Shelob's Lair would.

*Alright, that's not bloody likely, but you get the idea, right? I'm just using Lord of the Rings as a stand-in for whatever book you're discussing.

6. Don't Be A Dick. High Culture is a pretty relaxed, free place. I like it like that. A certain amount of banter is to be expected and I'm fine with that. Calling a particular person an idiot... I'd really rather you didn't, and should someone call you an idiot, I'd prefer that you not respond in kind, but generally speaking if it's just a post or two, I'm going to let it slide. We're all relaxed, happy friends here, and I want it to stay that way.

That said, I will not tolerate insulting entire groups of people. I won't tolerate continued insults and belittlement. I won't tolerate constant jackassery...which is fairly ill-defined, I know. I suppose that if a thread is going along fine, someone enters the thread and says something, and an argument breaks out... well, okay. Heated posts for a little bit are one thing. Two pages of arguing are something else. There's a line in there somewhere and like pornography, I can't define it but I know it when I see it.

I have been given the tools to deal with this in a more effective manner, and as I'd much rather spend my moderating time merging like posts and deleting spam rather than being a playground chaperone, I plan on using this tool when I deem it necessary.

This tool doesn't remove you from Gaming, or Food, or Comics. It removes you from High Culture. So, yes, if you're being a jackass in Books it doesn't matter how much you've contributed to Movies - you're gone. I'm tired of dealing with it.

This is your warning.

[endercoaster]

um... shouldn't you spoiler tag plot spoilers in your examples of what should be spoiler tagged? Please don't hurt me, nice Mr. Moddy-man.

[sje46]

1. Gay, Homosexual, Faggot, and other terms I'm neglecting to mention aren't appropriate descriptions. Such terms will be changed to whatever word happens to pop in my head at the time, regardless of how grammatically correct the new word is. Like aardvark, or phlegm. If I'm feeling nice. I may just delete the whole thing, regardless of any other content.

Can you explain this rule? I understand that you don't want people saying things like "Holden is so gay", or to use slurs. But what is wrong with the word homosexual? That generally isn't a slur.
I'm pretty sure you don't have the power to enact word awesomifications in your fora, but I'm not sure. Are you saying that you'd word filter all terms referring to gay people? And even if you're not. . .I assume you're going to change all slurs, not just homophobic ones.

[TaintedDeity]

It can be a slur if I say "Gee Willikers that book is so homosexual"

[Jebobek]

um... shouldn't you spoiler tag plot spoilers in your examples of what should be spoiler tagged? Please don't hurt me, nice Mr. Moddy-man.

Well he had to use *something* as an example, so it might as well be a book thats 50+ years old, giving you plenty of time to catch up. You might not understand what was spoiled anyways unless you were already part of the way through the book.

I assume you're going to change all slurs, not just homophobic ones.

Sje, most likely its just slurs and pejoratives. He's not trying to cover up the discussions about homosexuality.

"I want to talk about the homosexuality of the main character" would be ok

"Man, the author is just a homo/homosexual when it comes to..." would not be ok. (or see TD's example as well)

[sje46]

It can be a slur if I say "Gee Willikers that book is so homosexual"

That's why I said "generally".

Sje, most likely its just slurs and pejoratives. He's not trying to cover up the discussions about homosexuality.

"I want to talk about the homosexuality of the main character" would be ok

"Man, the author is just a homo/homosexual when it comes to..." would not be ok. (or see TD's example as well)

Well, I was asking if he was able to affect word filters for his fora (something that I highly doubt).

[SecondTalon]

um... shouldn't you spoiler tag plot spoilers in your examples of what should be spoiler tagged? Please don't hurt me, nice Mr. Moddy-man.

Lets be honest.. despite the selection I chose being 50+ years old and likely to have been read by everyone here or even at least have a passing knowledge of it...

If you're completely unfamiliar with it, you still have no idea what I'm talking about. The thing explicitly revealed is something that happens before the midway point of the first book. It's.. uh.. not really a spoiler.

1. Gay, Homosexual, Faggot, and other terms I'm neglecting to mention aren't appropriate descriptions. Such terms will be changed to whatever word happens to pop in my head at the time, regardless of how grammatically correct the new word is. Like aardvark, or phlegm. If I'm feeling nice. I may just delete the whole thing, regardless of any other content.

Can you explain this rule? I understand that you don't want people saying things like "Holden is so gay", or to use slurs. But what is wrong with the word homosexual? That generally isn't a slur.
I'm pretty sure you don't have the power to enact word awesomifications in your fora, but I'm not sure. Are you saying that you'd word filter all terms referring to gay people? And even if you're not. . .I assume you're going to change all slurs, not just homophobic ones.

For example.....

"Edward from Twilight? Dude prances around like a homosexual."

Now, you're using the more or less correct term of Homosexual meaning one who prefers to have sex with members of the same sex as opposed to members of the opposite sex. (I say more or less as some prefer gay and lesbian as the appropriate labels, but that's a digression into a semantics argument)....

So, anyway, the word is a proper word, but it's usage is that of a slur in such a way as to describe homosexuals as being undesirables - namely, that they act like Edward from the Twilight series. I'm likely to edit it to something more akin to

"Edward from Twilight? Dude prances around like a Giants fan" - if I notice you mention the Giants as one of your interests.

"Edward from Twilight? Dude knows how to shimmy bomb bimmy dilly bang-tango crash!" - if I'm just fucking around.

"Edward from Twilight? I'm just going to start saying insulting things about him and homosexuals in general, degrading both as I'm not only comparing homosexuals to him, but I'm saying he's an undesirable by comparing him to homosexuals, which is pretty fucked up when you think about it. I mean, lets be honest.. Neil Patrick Harris and Ian McKellen are fucking awesome and I'd have to be off my goddamn rocker to think any less of them because they prefer the company of men, if you catch my meaning. So, clearly.. I'm off my goddamn rocker. Shimmy bomb bimmy dilly bang-tango crash!" - if I can't think of much else to say.


But really, I doubt I'll go that far. Most cases I've seen are along the "Bah, that's so gay" lines, which I usually just change to the first noun that pops in my head.