Storm 8 Rules

[maxkodan]

I feel the need to give you guys a little bit of a hint here...

Your rules page is god-awful. I mean, seriously, it's unreadable. I know you're trying to cover all your bases, but every single one of your rules, save one or two, start with this long stream of unnecessary words that only serve to jam up the page and make it hard to read.

"Posts and/or private messages that allude to and/or contain language, comments, references, links, symbols, terms and/or imagery about, in any manner whether directly or indirectly,-"

That needs to go. Your rules page is meant to be read. Wouldn't it be much easier to post something short and simple? For example,

"• Posting Cheats, Hacks, Trojan Horses, or Malicious Programs
Posts and/or private messages that allude to, contain language, comments, references, links, symbols, terms and/or imagery about and/or promote and/or otherwise support, in any manner whether directly or indirectly, cheats, hacks, cracks and/or malicious viruses/programs (e.g., keyloggers, Trojan horses, websites or files that take control of another person’s computer, etc.) "

Could instead be

"• Posting Cheats, Hacks, Trojan Horses, or Malicious Programs
Discussing any form of cheating, or any sort of malicious programming (i.e. Viruses, Trojan Horses, or hacking programs) or the use of any of the above is strictly forbidden."

Your rules page is written like a legal document, and it shouldn't be. It doesn't NEED to be. You own this forum, and you can decide who can and cannot post here. No one can sue you for kicking them off of a forum. And even if they did, this sort of rules page wouldn't help your case. For example, a minor squabble in one of the threads in the Pets Live section touched on swearing. Is it against the rules? Well, I went to look and...I still don't know.

"• Strongly Obscene/Vulgar/Inappropriate Objectionable Material
Posts and/or private messages that allude to, contain language, comments, references, links, symbols, terms and/or imagery about and/or promote and/or otherwise support, in any manner whether directly or indirectly, strongly obscene, vulgar, inappropriate and/or otherwise objectionable material. "

And

"• Mildly Obscene/Vulgar/Inappropriate Objectionable Material
Posts and/or private messages that allude to, contain language, comments, references, links, symbols, terms and/or imagery about and/or promote and/or otherwise support, in any manner whether directly or indirectly, mildly obscene, vulgar, inappropriate and/or otherwise objectionable material. "

Could both cover it, as the big F could be seen as a term relating to inappropriate material, but it doesn't say anything about swearing in the rules directly, I'd have to assume one way or another. Also, as someone may or may not note, there's one other problem with here. Those two rules are EXACTLY THE SAME THING. The only difference is that "Strongly" is changed to "Mildly" Get rid of the "Strongly" and "Mildly", and make it one rule banning obscene, vulgar, and inappropriate material. Watch:

"• Obscene/Vulgar/Inappropriate Material
Posting or discussing any form of obscene, vulgar, or inappropriate material is forbidden."

That would even wipe out the rule 3 or 4 above it, which pertains specifically to pornography, which is a word that is ironically censored in the rule itself. Essentially what I'm saying is this: That rules page needs to be clear and concise, not muddled the way it is now. If it's plainly obvious what is and is not against the rules, then no one will be able to (or have to) raise questions like "Is swearing allowed?" It either will be or will not be. Anyway, I hope this isn't swept under the rug here...because I really think it would help you guys out.

Thanks for reading, anyway.

[HydeVamp]

More then likely Storm8's LEGAL department informed them of how to phrase everything to cover Storm8's butt. In the event that a player does something they shouldn't. By phrasing things they way they did protects them from a law suite as well as protecting the people that play their games. I understand that for many it seems unnecessary to list it the way that it currently is, But I also see it from S8's point of view as well.