The Definitive, Handy Dandy Beginner's Guide to the SDG Forums

Just keep in mind backseat moderating. When the community sets standards and someone breaks those standards, user seem to take action for themselves instead using the report function to send to staff instead. It’s a slippery slope.

Also not sure if ‘Site Feedback’ would be the place for this. :wink:

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Gotta say, might even be better than the original “rules” page. Probably because it’s in the shape of a post, but regardless. Hope the newcomers would use this as their guide

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You are a true champ

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@GreatHeroJ

I agree that this post is nice from the standpoint that it blatantly states how a majority of the “veteran contributors’ handle the site” and could encourage others to “step up their game,” but I feel like the FAQ/rules page already covers the actual issues.

Specifically, this part:


Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

  • Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
  • Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
  • Don’t post no-content replies.
  • Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
  • Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.
  • Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Just as on the wiki, I’m not that against necroposting (or reposts) although I typically don’t chastise those that call others out for it either. Dates are a thing, and I do feel people should probably read them once-in-a-while, especially if they don’t actually have anything “useful” or relevant to add on to the discussion with.

That being said, people can always disable notifications for a thread via the circle next to the bottom of the thread’s scrollbar. I also would enjoy more posts in older threads anyways, just so it can be like a melting pot of ideas, rather than a dozen separate threads of varying quality. A single good thread can go a long ways.

(Those aside, having the tutorial being posted about again is nice.)

Personally, I think the “best community guideline” is one over all the threads and suggestions and stuff posted in a board, with “community-picks” for recommended threads to comment on & read. This discourages active reposting, keeps “good” threads active and engaging, and helps people find information relevant to them.


I’d totally consider this #site-feedback though, I feel like the description of the category fits well-enough, even if this isn’t specifically a suggestion towards the site. The only alternative is Uncategorized, which it kinda fits.

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Yes, I agree. The FAQ/rules page covers that part a bit better, but I feel like I had to give it another angle as well.

Also, I put this into #site-feedback because part of the category description says that anything talking about the site itself belongs here. I’m not trying to create an entirely new set of rules, or any new rules at all - I’m just encouraging discussion that’s higher quality overall.

The problems with trying to keep one long thread for each topic, is that some posts are about more overarching changes, and need to explore multiple the effects on multiple topics, and that the threads would take a long time to scroll through. Maybe posts could be tagged as pertaining to particular topics or themes, to make them more organized.

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And that’s perfectly fine imo. What’s not as fine is when people (as they currently do) make one-sentence posts because putting it as a reply to a specific older thread gains negative critique. I’d rather the post go there than into a new thread that won’t garner any useful feedback over a small out-of-context post.

Typically, forums either encourage replying to an already existing “good” thread, making a new major thread, or cross-linking between threads (when relevant). As it is right now, there’s a handful of “bad” tiny threads with little context being posted.

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Get this man a :cookie:

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I’d like to revisit this topic and the “community standards” of Necroposting.

I’d like to make on thing clear is that no one is allowed to take justice in their own hands and attack a user over it. Everyone’s definition length of a necropost is different. Some say three days, some say a few weeks, etc. I don’t care how long the post is; Do not attack the user.

If it’s spam, please flag it for me or any other staff to check on. If it’s a post that’s on the topic but you don’t want to post on it anymore, just set the notifications of the thread to ‘Mute’ or ‘Normal’.

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Seems fairly common that people want to take matters into their own hands everywhere. Doesn’t really matter the forum, always the same slippery slope. One can only hope that people use the functions given.

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thanks captain

Thank you very much for making this and sorry for necroposting earlier this week. Now I know better :smile:

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Don’t feel bad about it, not only did you not know but we’ve all been overreacting about necroposts lately.

As long as it adds something new and useful to the discussion, it’s fine

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Yeah it seems like everyone did overreact when I did it :laughing: in that other post. That argument exploded really fast

Necro posters and police both stink anyway

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Yep, as soon as I realized that, I’ve drastically altered my views on necroposts and encourage others to do the same.

PSA: if you see a new user out and about, or your friend decides to join the party, it would be a good idea to PM them a link to this guide.

For their convenience this guide also contains links to the user tutorials as well as the official rules page.

I am aware how long this thread has been inactive for, but I feel like it is necessary for me to say this to those of you who already know about the guide.

I think this should be the first page to be seen by new users, I really hate seeing 637484 posts a month about the same topic.

Eh. It’s already pinned, and it’s just community-made. If some people don’t read the official FAQ, then I don’t think this would deter them either.