GeneRally International Forum

Hi, i don't know about anyone else, but i'm getting pretty much annoyed by every newcomer that either bumps an old thread or uploads pirated material. When someone registers on GRIF, could there be an automatic pop up that forces newcomers to read the rules and tell them what they can and can't do? And if you simply say: "they'll just skip it LOLOLOLOLOL", then make it send them an automatic PM that says the rules in whatever language they speak. I am getting really tired of these guys and it should help improve the bad record we have for bumping and other stuff.

None of these systems are foolproof, and not everyone here speaks every language in the world. It is very easy to ignore any of these and hit the "I've read and agree" or whatever button without having done so, no matter what you try.

Well, the forum rules are displayed during everybody's registration (a button ''I accept these rules'' or something similar is there). If somebody just skips it without reading, why do you think, that he wouldn't do precisely same with the automatic PM? The effect would be same IMHO. Newbies bumping threads were, are and will be. Actually it was often the first thing, which many of us did, when joined the GR community.

Meh, if they break the rules, give them warnings and ban for couple days :3 that way they'll learn to read them...

That already happens, albeit not quite as severely as you perhaps wish from that wording.

Fortunately these "bumpers" are not that regular as one would think, this means that our system works well enough.

Bumps aren't the worst thing here, so why so much attention to them. If you see bumped thread, mark it read and forget.

Ever knew why i got banned so much?
Because rules feel like an Eula.
That boring 10000000 pages text that some special guy has to read when installing a game.

This counts for most bumpers and not-rule-followers!

Eulas have dozen of pages, our rules maybe 2 (on paper). It's not surprising however, kids usually lack patience, it will come with age.

Yeah but something i suggested doesn't have millions of pages. Just one big slab with a few basic rules in. And i know it isn't exactly a bump but please don't respond 27 days after the last post.

And on top of what TH just said, the reason you got banned is not a matter of one long rule page. The reason was that you don't follow the rules even after us admins repeatedly saying them to you and certainly not in long words so it isn't a matter of tl;dr anymore. And still you keep on posting these unnecessary spam posts, getting you every time one step closer to being banned for good.

@ Alex: we tried to write it as short as possible with skipping everything, what wasn't really necessary. On opposite you could notice several times in past, that some people wanted us to add there some more stuff, which would make them even more casuistic and longer. Hard to find the correct balance. Do you really think, that somebody will read automatic PM with subject including ''forum rules'', if he skipped them 3 min. ago while registration? No, it would be equally useless.

Not 100% sure by it, but AFAIK RSC rules were much much bigger (2x more? - in consequence of wider scope of related issues).

Yeah, I think the RSC rules were longer, you had to scroll to see them completely, over here they fit to one screen. (Well, my screen.) The same goes for many other forums too, which have multiple screens worth of text, stating every little thing clearly and leaving nothing to be guessed.

If someone doesn't want to read the (short) rules when they sign up, then they won't read them even if the whole mailbox was spammed full of rules. Pretty much the only way to directly prevent at least some of the bumping would be to put some soft of an "are you sure" reminder when posting to a thread older than X in the submitting areas. I just don't know if phpBB can do that sort of a thing.
The piracy.. Well... I'd say that is pretty rare too, but one thing that might make the people notice at least that part in the rules would be to colour the "not allowed" parts in red and underline and caps and huge font. That way if the guys even check through the rules a little, they will straight away notice this part.

RSC rules were longer due to the fact they had to cover more things, e.g. converting from different games without permission.

Sorry for bump but dead14vii1640/die996 was perma-banned because he created a sockpuppet account, eveofracing. However, VelroX12 did EXACTLY the same thing with Trenchful DEAD and yet he only got off lightly with his account being merged. Can anyone explain why this difference occured?

Yes, die996 actually made active sock-puppet account twice - he wasn't perma-banned for the first try, but got two weeks for the sock-puppet & abusive joke (about pretending of committing suicide by post of a ''close friend''). He got full ban after the second account (for repeating the infringements). Then he made few more new accounts via proxies, which were simply merged with the main too like the two mentioned above.

Ok, thanks. I had forgotten about marcloop, his first attempt.