Hey guys,

I've been getting a LOT of PMs about forum member conduct, and I've thought long and hard about what to do.  In general, I prefer to be fairly hands-off and libertarian as a moderator; although I may personally not care for certain language or types of humor, I am also fiercely anti-censorship, and I'd rather not draw lines too aggressively.

That said, the one thing that I will no longer tolerate is personally motivated attacks, harassment, or trolling.  That is to say that I will be stepping in if I see any member of this forum harass another member of this forum.  Please note that this does only extend to the forums and PMs sent through the forums; I'm a moderator, not your mother, and it's up to you to deal with somebody saying something mean about you at ACME or on Facebook.  

I will generally be applying a three strikes policy, but if you do something particularly egregious I WILL ban you at my discretion.

Because we're all a bunch of hopeless pedants, let's talk about what constitutes a "personal attack" and what is fair game, using actual examples of things similar to what I've seen occur on these and other forums!

"I think that Pump It Up is gay as hell!" - Your use of "gay" as a pejorative makes you look like you're twelve, and I personally don't like it, but you're not actually insulting a specific member directly, so this is fair game. You're not gonna make a lot of friends around here if you post like that, but that's none of my business, though.

"I took a video of an autistic kid tweaking out by the DDR machine! Here, let me post it in a thread!"  - Not only are you personally insulting somebody with a disability, you're also illegally recording somebody who cannot consent to such a recording.  This post will be deleted, you will receive a warning, and I will also highly recommend that you delete the video from every other place you've posted it for your own sake!

"Using the bar is cheating!" - Any sort of GENERAL trolling that covers an umbrella of playstyles is probably old and not funny, but it's not a personal attack so I'll let it be.  If you manage to actually troll like this in a clever way, I might even be impressed.

"You cheated because you used the bar!" - This is where context matters. If two members who are good friends and, say, both use the bar say stuff like this to each other, I'm gonna let it slide because it's obviously a joke. If this sort of thing is in ernest, though, I'm gonna have to draw the line there, because we're getting into personal antagonization territory. I won't ban you for stuff like this, but I will absolutely issue warnings, and if it happens enough eventually your account will be suspended. Basically, don't be afraid to joke around, but if you're not acting in good faith eventually it's gonna catch up to you.

"I'll fucking kill you." - Using these forums to threaten the safety of another member is never allowed. In the past I've just issued warnings for this, but from now on, it will be a bannable offense on the first try. You guys are fucking adults, use your words.

Feel free to ask as many clarifying questions as you want, but keep in mind that if you start rules lawyering this post, I'm gonna start issuing strikes like this was a bowling tournament.