Forum Open

Let’s give this forum thing a shot.

I put together two forums. One uses PHPBB. The other uses Simple Machines. These are forum programs. I picked them because they were free, and because I was able to set them up using Fantastico. The SMF (Simple Machines) forum was much better looking and easier to operate, so that’s the one I plan to go with.

I’m going to run it for at least a week and see how it goes. Because I have limited time to administer it, I had to make horrible draconian rules, which I posted in the “Say Hi Here” subforum. I’ll repeat them here. I’m not making these rules to be a pain in the ass; I have to minimize the time I spend babysitting, and this is the only way to do it, for the time being. I can’t play around, adjudicating trivial disputes, so I’ll have to ban or suspend people. Shouldn’t be a problem for anyone except dedicated troublemakers.

RULES:

1. No heavy-duty profanity. Only the mildest three of George Carlin’s ten deadly words, please. You should be able to figure out what they are. Also banned: the A.H. word. If your username is dirty, you’ll have to change it. Don’t say anything here you can’t say at 9 p.m. on national TV.
2. Try to be polite.
3. Don’t get involved in repetitious, endless arguments that bore everyone to death. Take it to email.
4. Don’t post anyone’s personal or private information, or anything about another person that isn’t true.
5. No spam.
6. No dirty pictures. If in doubt, keep it to yourself.
7. Expect to be held to the broad disclaimer language you agreed to when you signed up. If you didn’t read it, that’s your problem.
8. I may add to these rules. You have to keep up with new rules, without being informed.
9. No photos of salad or tofu.

This isn’t a court of appeals, so you have no rights. I try to be fair, but I may screw up, and I or my moderators may ban people or alter or delete their posts unfairly. That’s life, and you consent to it by being here. It’s not that I’m a jerk, although that is probably the case. It’s that I only have so much time to fool with the board, so I can’t get dragged into lengthy arguments over whether I did the right thing.

Have fun, if that is still possible.

Here’s the URL: FORUM.

Tell me what you think.