Updating the Gameplay Rules

Hey there, Boards.

I want to talk to you all about the Gameplay sub-board for a couple of minutes – tl;dr, we’re presenting some tentative rule changes to get feedback on them.

We’ve had many requests from passionate Gameplay forum-goers to look at improving the health of the Gameplay sub-board. There are many people that have strong opinions about the game, and the Gameplay sub-board ought to be the best place to discuss those. Unfortunately, it often isn't, and feedback is largely focused on suggestions to make it better. We'd like to start talking about how we would, theoretically, bring about positive changes that would transform Gameplay into a more positive and more useful place for League discussions.

Below, you’ll see some rules that we are considering, and we’d like your feedback on them. They may seem simple, but we want to make sure that what we’re proposing is enforceable and helpful, so we’re taking small steps. As a heads up, we’re considering removing downvotes from Gameplay when we roll out changes; they are often used to bury unpopular opinions that contain good analysis, and we don’t think that’s healthy for the sub-board in the long run. Upvotes still allow people to show support for good threads, and that should be good enough.

There are a significant number of complaints concerning the multitude of topics that fall generally under “Gameplay.” Right now we don’t think that’s a bad thing, but perhaps it does require a bit more attention to how we structure and moderate the sub-board. Happy to take some feedback about the issue of “scope.” For example, would tags be a good way to help organize things? Feel free to propose your own ideas on that.

Anyway, here are the proposed rules:

1. Universal Rules apply. Most importantly, keep discussions civil and focused – comments attacking or insulting other posters, or that are generally off-topic, will be removed. On Gameplay, especially, bear in mind that rank shaming is not allowed. Rank discussion should, the vast majority of the time, not be directed at any individual player's rank. Telling people their opinion or experience is wrong because of rank won’t be tolerated.

2. Posts must have a clear, but informative title. Intent is to cut down on clickbait and help people know the real content of your thread before opening it and engaging the content. If your thread is a joke or a misdirection, it belongs in Memes and Games.

3. Posts must provide new content, whether that's a new discussion or new information/analysis on existing discussions. Basically, the intent is that we’ll delete reposts and low effort threads in an attempt to keep Gameplay neat & tidy. If it’s just asking to “Nerf X,” with no additional content, it should go on the rant sub-board. We want to reserve this space for genuine attempts at in-depth discussion. Short posts are fine, but they shouldn't repeat conversations already happening or just be rants about the game.

Let us know what you think. These aren't planned to be rolled in in the next few of days;. I want to emphasize that these are tentative and we want to make sure that we're in open communication with the community before making major changes. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

--KnightsKemplar, on behalf of the Boards Volunteer Team