[Work in Progress] Universal Rules

Tamat·May 30, 2014·34 votes·29,397 views

Good evening!

I wanted to give you a sneak peek at a draft of the Universal Rules that we're planning to roll out in the next week or so. These rules will unilaterally apply to all sub-communities, so we'd really like to hear as much of your feedback as possible.

Here goes...

Universal Board Rules v6

Don’t be an Asshat

We’re aiming for the most sportsmanlike gaming community in the world, in-game and out. Just because you’re anonymous doesn’t give you a license to be a jerk. Posts that walk over the line will be deleted. Repeat offenders may be permanently kicked out.

Moderators should ask themselves the following:

Is the player posting content that would be extremely offensive to others?
Is the player attacking an individual or group in a way that could be considered severe?
Is the player making baseless complaints or contesting a private matter that isn't relevant to this community?

No Mature Content

This one is important for everyone to read carefully. We know that this community tends to be more mature, but there are kids here, too. All of us want this to be a reasonably safe environment for children, and at the same time, we won’t tolerate childish behavior.

With that in mind, many players vary in age, and there are some things that children and young adults shouldn’t see. Violations of this rule will be dealt with swiftly, and seriously. You could lose your in-game account if you mess up here.

Moderators will look for and consider the following as violations of this rule:

Pornographic materials of any kind
Imagery that show gore, death, horrifically violent acts
Overly sexual art

All that being said, even risqué content can fall under these rules, and will be dealt with accordingly. Stay classy.

Spamming

There aren’t a lot of reasons to post the same content in multiple places. Every once in a while it makes sense to cross-post, but if it’s not appropriate, the subsequent posts will be removed. Repeat offenders will be hit with restrictions. Remember, just because you want the whole world to see something doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. If you want visibility on a post, post it in the right place, and make sure the content is solid.

Account, Product, & Services Selling

If you’re trying to sell a product or service, there are other websites for that. If you’re trying to sell a game account or service that violates our TOS, please don’t; however, if you absolutely have to try it here, expect that you’ll be losing access to the boards and possibly your game account. TL;DR: posts attempting to sell anything will be removed. Serious offenders will feel the wrath of the banhammer.

Moderators will be looking for the following:

Advertising for product sales of any kind
Advertising for services offered by individuals or companies
Coupons or discount information that doesn’t contribute anything to the conversation.

Reporting Other Players

Please don't report a potentially misbehaving player in these boards. If you see or hear about another person breaking the rules, send us a ticket directly so we can investigate and take action if necessary. We know that players report publically with the best intentions, but it often leads to a witchhunt, rarely resulting in a positive discussion. We’ll be taking action against players who have violated rules, so please report these players correctly.

Moderators will be looking for the following:

Posts that accuse others of being toxic players in-game
Posts accusing others of malicious activity
Posts that accuse others of cheating or using illegal services
Posts accusing others of trolling in the boards (there’s a report button for that)

Hacks & illegal downloads

Do not share links or information related to obtaining illegal software. To us, this includes cheats or exploits that create an unfair advantage in-game. We’ll be removing all links and posts that give such information. Repeat offenders will lose access to the boards, and in some cases, a lot more.

Moderators will be looking for the following things:

Posts with links to download software that give an unfair advantage in-game
Posts that link to pirated movies, music, software, etc.

Illegal Activity

Criminal masterminds, or aspiring criminal masterminds: please don’t talk about your activities or plans in these boards. Posts about illegal activity will be escalated to law enforcement.

Threats

Making threats on the internet is just bad form. We don’t tolerate it, and neither should you. Threats of any kind will be handled differently depending on severity, but all posts of this kind will be removed. Extreme instances will be escalated to the proper authorities. Be cool, dudes.

Phishing & Scamming

Trying to get a leg up on others through scamming, or forcing an account breach is a serious no-no. This is theft. It’s stealing from your fellow players. It’s pretty shitty. We have a whole team at Riot Games dedicated to battling this crap and they take it seriously.

Moderators will be looking for the following things:

Posts about services claiming to be an RP generator
Links to cleverly disguised phishing sites
Posts designed to bait someone into a trap

The intent of these rules is to maintain the culture that we'd like to create with this new platform, as well as help make it 100% clear what kind of content will be moderated. Are these rules clear? Do they make sense? How do they make you feel? Tell us here!

Edit: Removed some Teemo's

243 Comments

Bad FootwearMay 30, 201488 votes

Tamat, this is all well and good, but the biggest problem your forums have isn't a lack of clarity on the rules, it's a lack of visibility of the moderation.

As long as threads are being closed, posts are being deleted, and people are being permabanned, all without any form of visibility for the community as to why it is happening, these rules will remain ineffective.

Bad FootwearMay 30, 201435 votes

There's a hidden message here too, in case anyone from GD can spot it.

PentaKiruMay 31, 20142 votes

[deleted]

Bad FungusMay 31, 201431 votes

Actually, the hidden message had more to do with the name I used for this post, and the extravagant number of upvotes it had.

GD regulars will be able to connect the dots.

JethzkJun 3, 20144 votes

Two things are needed for the moderation to preform better and have an impact on the forums.

The ability to report posts. Let's face it, there's hundreds of thousands of us, and much smaller number of mods. Allow users to report inappropriate comments so that they can be reviewed quicker. Ban, or remove the report button from users that abuse it.
Visible moderation. Team Liquid forums are the best example of this and have very strict posting guidelines. If someone violates a rule, instead of deleting the post, use it as an example by telling people the outcome of the poster. "User was warned/banned for this post". If it's extremely bad, edit out the inappropriate content, leave a tag summarizing what was removed. If the original post was bad, lock the thread and let it sink to the bottom.

Ask yourself this. How often have you been driving down the road, maybe a bit fast, and seen someone a cop pulled over right before you? How likely are you to continue speeding on that road? Visible moderation deters potential offenders and also serves to keep moderators in check.

BrightNooblarJun 3, 20144 votes

I wish I could agree with the report posts, but its been proven that GD (and I assume the rest of the forums) don't understand how to self moderate. The board culture nurtures bad posts, so there is no reason to assume that the new tool will suddenly make people realize how to use the tool. Its like seeing your kid smash all your patio furniture with the hammer from the tool set, and deciding that isn't doing a great job of helping him complete his chore, so you'll get him a saw instead.

Maybe once the community does a better job with basic self moderation we'll be ready for new tools, but right now I just don't think it would solve the underlying issues.

JethzkJun 5, 20142 votes

Report forum post is not a new or novel idea. It's something that has been used successfully by many other gaming companies, some of which probably rival the league of legends community.

What your basically saying is that we shouldn't be able to report players in game because some people might abuse the system. If you can report a player in game, why can't you report a post on the forums?

"We shouldn't change because change because change is bad" is a terrible outlook when trying to solve a problem. People will adapt, some quicker than others, but it's a step in the right direction.

BrightNooblarJun 5, 20142 votes

Not 'Don't do it, some people might abuse it'. But rather 'Don't do it, MOST people misuse the current system'.

Its not an issue of change is bad, either. Its an issue of we need to change the baseline attitudes, THEN change the mechanics. Changing mechanics won't help when the average user still up votes trolls and down votes things simply because they disagree with them.

Rule 34May 30, 20148 votes

I posted this on GD, but I'm going to bring my concern here for the sake of visibility as well.

What are we defining as 'overly sexual art' and how will this matter be handled? This game has numerous splash arts and female champion themes that can be considered overly sexual, such as Ahri, Evelynn, Elise, and Zyra, among numerous others. If posting mere fanart of these champions and skins is grounds for breaking the rules of GD/CB, this is a terrible example to follow. There should be a much more rigid definition of this rather than be done on a case by case basis, because in the event that an image is deemed to break this rule, the ideal scenario is that the image is just deleted and it's left as that, but more often than not bans are thrown out for such a violation even though the intention was never to post lewd content.

This also makes art threads a significant liability to anyone who desires to continue posting in these forums, and as someone who does enjoy partaking in such threads, this is a very important concern of mine.

TamatMay 30, 20145 votes

Art that shows partial or full nudity (by social standards) or is heavily sexually suggestive. The intent of the rules is to spell that out in a way that everyone can understand. I'm not sure if it is right now. What do you guys think?

CynicattMay 30, 20144 votes

Just wondering if anyone actually plans on enforcing that.

Lots of child pornography and furry porn and... well... regular porn gets left just sitting there on GD all the time, and it never gets removed even though the threads with such content are getting bumped constantly.

In the cases of child porn specifically, this is just downright fucking disgusting, and it seems like mods are more concerned about much more minor offenses like closing Riot bashing threads full of asterisks than stuff like Lulu's genitals.

PhailRaptorMay 30, 20144 votes

If you look at several of Tamat's other posts here (and various other posts elsewhere on the CB) Riot has more or less disowned GD.

Which is absurd, and frankly insulting to those of us who actually use GD responsibly.

CrimsonCzarMay 30, 20144 votes

It's closer to like "Oh look, we left GD alone unmoderated too long and it's a cesspool now, better ignore it and make a new forum and hope it's better"

TamatMay 30, 20145 votes

We're not doing all of this to solve a problem with GD. GD is a popular section of our official forums, but the world does not revolve around it. Our original approach was to give you guys the ability to moderate yourself using the up / down vote feature that we created. Unfortunately that was a failure, so we're changing our approach in the new platform.

CrimsonCzarMay 30, 20147 votes

GD is popular because every other section is dead or almost dead. Reds only replied to the GD sections and ignored all the other ones (not all reads, I'm aware there are some that only hover in other sections) so it's no wonder that GD became popular.

Now as for the self moderation thing. It might have worked in the beginning when Riot's fanbase was small. It's actually very nice and refreshing to see a company that was able to trust it's players to not being dicks and be generally good people or close to it. But as it grew, so too did the playerbase and the consensus of those players changed. As the company and players grew, the moderation should have been changing along with it to help keep people "inline" with ever changing guidelines that felt appropriate. Sadly hindsight isn't retroactive, but this is just my opinion.

On a side note, when designing a new forum, I think you guys should have given GD a few choices on what it would look like instead of choosing the leddit style which many people seem to hate greatly.

PS: I just woke up, so if this post seems a bit on the asshole side or has grammar/spelling issues, that's why.

Rule 34May 30, 201411 votes

I feel like the best way to go about doing that would be re-wording it to make sure that there's as little ambiguity as possible. For example, social norms from the Middle of Nowhere, Oregon, where I live, are going to be fairly radically different from Austin, Texas, as an extreme example.

While people like me, who live in smaller towns with more strict social standards, are a very small percent of GD (at least I'd be willing to bet a decent amount of money that such is the case), having it be more structured and defined would be better.

Just having it say something along the lines of "We don't wanna see no nipples through clothing/cameltoe/<insert other sexual undertones here> in your fan art posts" would be far more clear, because then suddenly there's a well defined, well established boundary that everyone would know instinctively they cannot cross.

Bad FootwearMay 30, 201424 votes

And guess what, here where I live in NYC, it's legal for women to walk around topless!

"By social standards" is probably the most obscure way of defining something I could possibly imagine.

Ser SafirMay 31, 20148 votes

I'd like to ask a red for clarity here.

No Mature Content

** Pornographic materials of any kind Imagery that show gore, death, horrifically violent acts Overly sexual art **

Is it showing a bit of cleavage?

Characters that dress like strippers/playboy bunnies?

Bondage wear?

Poledancers?

Because your game has all of this.

Nid poledances like kat once did, Eve wears a bondage suite, most women have at least one busty skin (save for the yordles and Annie)

Your game MARKETS sexualized imagery, so who are you to tell us not to put them on the forums?

Keikomatsui Jun 2, 20143 votes

dude's kinda got a point

TamatJun 2, 20142 votes

I agree that we need to make it more clear, but I don't want to make definition of the rules mature themed in the process. Hehe!

I've stated this in the thread:

Art that shows partial or full nudity (by social standards) or is heavily sexually suggestive. The intent of the rules is to spell that out in a way that everyone can understand. I'm not sure if it is right now. What do you guys think?

CamoCladJun 3, 20142 votes

Okay between this response and the one about gore, death, over the top horror, and or overtly sexual acts, I gotta say that the extreme lack of any defining line really makes the enforcement rather unfair to Rioters and the gaming public. How are Rioters to go about consistently handing out punishments if what one Rioter considers too much is not the same as the next? The same goes for the posting public, how are they to know what is over the line? I can point out countless threads about some of the skins Riot has released for their champions as being way too overtly sexual and yet they are still okay? Death and Gore, lets not even get into the skulls thing over in China, has a strong presence within the game. Morde raises the Dead, Rengar talks about "trophies", Brand has a Zombie skin, and so forth and so on. If you want to enforce the new rules you gotta be more defined on a global scale or else you will just be inviting in arguments about who's point of view is right.

YvieZileanOddlyMay 30, 20147 votes

Looks like we won't be able to post splash arts of the women in league now because of the "overly sexual art" rule.

TamatMay 30, 20145 votes

Give me examples of art (hyperlinks only please) that you think ride the line, and I'll either moderate it, or tell you that it's fine.

This is open to all, but fair warning, if you post something that is obviously a violation as an attempt to troll, you'll be used as a test subject for the banhammer tool.

Iron Angel 2003May 30, 20144 votes

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=975067&d=1401442262

Hmm, its showing a thumbnail even though its a link.

TamatMay 30, 20146 votes

I think this is fine. It isn't overly sexually suggestive, nor does it show any nudity.

Iron Angel 2003May 30, 20147 votes

Aww man. I was hoping for a more colorful response. You didn't even call me weird for drawing that! Notice me Tamat senpai!

OK but seriously lets get a little closer to the line then.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h170/theIronAngel/Caitlyn1_zps4037cc89.jpg

Is this too far?

EDIT: GAH its still showing a thumbnail even though its a link!

TamatMay 30, 20148 votes

I think this is over the line, but I'm going to leave it up as an example. This would be a minor offense. Repeat offenses like this would become more severe.

Iron Angel 2003May 30, 20149 votes

OK lets try to aim a little lower then.

How about this? Its definitely sexy but not nearly as overtly sexual as Officer Caitlyn up there.

Edit: I CANT EVEN HYPERLINK IT TO A SENTENCE. IT STILL HAS A THUMBNAIL! I'm trying my best!

TamatMay 30, 20146 votes

I think this is fine.

ZertryxMay 31, 20147 votes

What about something like this though?

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3iq082yeO1qg1u69o1_500.jpg

it doesn't show anything revealing but would something like this be considered "overly sexual" in your eyes over at riot?

I just wanna know because overly sexual doesnt always mean just less clothing some find hints at other things overly sexual.

personally me i dont find any of these images "overly sexual" i mean women are allowed to wear bikinis (which are pretty much just undwear) to a PUBLIC beach and no one seems to have a problem with it, Men can wear just bathing shorts which are pretty much just like boxers to a public beach and no one has issues with that.

So i can see why people are having a hard time finding the line of "overly sexual" here

TamatJun 3, 20144 votes

I've seen this one before, and no, this one is not appropriate. It represents a crude sexual act taking place, and despite the lack of nudity, the level of sexual suggestiveness is unacceptable in this case.

MinishmasterJun 3, 20145 votes

It depicts teemo, and that's just not okay.

SavageMinnowMay 31, 20143 votes

If it causes people sitting in Riot'soffice to shift uncomfortably and hide something in their pnts, it's over the line :P

But seriously, it's an extremely difficult thing to put an exact statement on. It's kind of like... a certain number of qualities mixed together can produce a very sexually appealing artwork, but even one less of them, or one replace with another, isn't quite as sexual. It's very, very subjective.

PangrineJun 2, 20145 votes

So many people wasting Tamat's time with BS questions like "What about if I almost break the rules by a teeny-tiny fraction? Is it okay then?"

You're acting like children, or even worse, the average user on Twitch chat. Crying whenever anyone tries to implement order or discipline in what you perceive to be a wild-west setting.

"Threads are being deleted and users are being forum banned? Obviously the Moderators are nazis and are sitting in their dark cabal trying to prevent us from having any sort of free speech!"

This is why we can't have a black/white rule set. We need that gray area because otherwise you get everyone who thinks it's funny to find every conceivable way of crossing the line without technically crossing it.

"Is it okay if I post porn but except for it being straight up porn, I do <insert random minor difference from porn"

or, even better as am seeing in this thread:

"WHY CAN'T I POST PORN IN THE FORUMS! YOU HAVE FEMALE CHAMPIONS WITH BOOBS! THAT OBVIOUSLY MEANS YOU CONDONE PORNOGRAPHY AND HENTAI! STOP CENSORING MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH BY NOT ALLOWING ME TO POST MY ANNIE/TIBBERS HENTAI!"

I would say that common sense should rule the day but we all know how that would go.

Templar4EverJun 4, 20142 votes

Selling my account is illegal, wait what? can you explain plz?

darkdillMay 30, 20141 votes

Funny enough, I recently got forum banned for the third time for breaking that "Asshat" rule, but the guy who was provoking me in the first place didn't even get a slap on the wrist.

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=46857003#post46857003

"GLHF with your internal struggle, you cyst on this forum's community." is what he said (among other things). And somehow his report to Riot Support means he can't be punished as I was?

Picking favorites is being an "Asshat", Riot. I'll accept the forum ban, but I expect him to get the same punishment or at least something similar. (Oh, and I did talk to Riot Support about this, but they won't lift a finger. Favoritism indeed.)

TamatMay 30, 20148 votes

The asshat rule isn't in currently in place for the old forums. I'm guessing you did something much more serious. If you feel like you didn't please feel free to submit a support ticket.

darkdillMay 30, 20142 votes

Oh, I've given up on GD. Too much of a cesspool of "Asshats", along with a few (who will not be named) who actually want to kill me. (I say to them, "Come at me, bro.")

All I want is for someone to look up the guy I linked above and see that he is VERY deserving of a permanent ban.

But as for why I was banned? Posting a link to a video of a guy with maggots in his gums to try and disturb a pair of "Asshats" who were trolling one of my concept topics. Turns out that counts as a "Threat". (The post has since been deleted.)

TamatMay 30, 201416 votes

My personal stance on GD: Having a place for a wide variety of discussions is good, but the culture of the current GD is bad.

PhailRaptorMay 30, 20149 votes

Not sure what you were expecting, with the consistency of moderation it had up until this point (or rather, lack there of). Threads that were more or less benign would get randomly closed and deleted, while things that are blatant porn will sit there for hours, sometimes days, before getting removed. Threads get moved around to forums where they don't belong all the time, too.

I'm happy you guys are finally drawing the line, but I have to wonder why it took so long to happen, and why you are surprised that GD is the way it is.

Also, complete side note... Will Adjudcators, Council Members, and Emissaries get special forum icons, or have we lost all meaning to Riot at this point? Legitimate question.

TamatMay 30, 201412 votes

I want to do something cool for you guys, and put a lot more power in the hands of volunteers and trusted members. Can't share the plans with you yet, but I hope not to disappoint ya'll.

PhailRaptorMay 30, 20144 votes

Well, you know, all 3 of the groups I mentioned have their own private forums that the general populace of the forums can't access.

Adjudicators
Emissaries
The Council

You could... you know... visit them sometime.

Bubble Butt LuluMay 30, 20143 votes

I tried getting Council access to the blue forums since we are just a vintage group now, but it was pretty hellish for not even getting a response. lml Mike attempted to do something, but he only has power on the EU side of things, I think.

Edit:: and I did get them to give us badges here, so there is that. :p

IS1582236d61f8f793c67a6May 31, 20148 votes

Hi, my name is "Humpelstilzche" (seems like someone took my name in NA) and i am one of the senior emissaries in europe. It would be really cool if you contacted the european volunteers and talked with ous about this plan. Beeing affected by this plans strongly, the urge to take part in planning this is quite understandable, i guess, right? Since we lost our Volunteer Program Coordinator, i see no other way to contact you. Plz include us in your plans if they affect us! Plz talk to your european colleagues (K. Touborg maybe?) or contact us directly in the european volunteer forums. Thx and greetings from Europe, Humpelstilzche

HumpelstilzcheMay 31, 20147 votes

I just realized i seem to be able to post with my euw account here too. So i just want to confirm that the IS15.... is indeed me.

Ashes BoobsMay 30, 20147 votes

If you feel like you didn't please feel free to submit a support ticket.

The biggest joke of all time when it comes to trying to get an unjust forum ban lifted.

Only Play NidJun 7, 20141 votes

Wait, TAMAT is the one posting about not being an asshat?!

"If you'd prefer not to participate in this weekend, that's totally fine! Just let me know by complaining in this thread and I'll remove the bonus from your account before it begins tomorrow."

Never forget.

BrightNooblarJun 7, 20143 votes

People were upset about the free bonus. He was a little terse about how he made his point, but he made it pretty well.

Only Play NidJun 7, 20141 votes

The community was upset because we were promised something awesome, then we were told it was going to be a picture of league characters which we already have pictures of. We complained. They said, ok, free IP boost. But the boost was only for the weekend which a large portion of the community couldn´t participate in. When this complaint was voiced, Tamat decided to threaten to remove the boost anyone who posted in the forum about it, then deleted the post when backlash hit. Didn´t make the point well, he acted like an asshat because the community didn´t suck his dick for an IP boost a lot of people couldn´t even use. He is the maximum level of asshat.

BrightNooblarJun 7, 20142 votes

And they were within their rights to be angry. But people were saying they would rather have nothing than anything, which is a really stupid way to ask for something nicer. Riot was silly to sink to their level but it was a portion of the community that got there first.