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Chip

How To Post on Doomworld and improving your online Netiquette

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15 hours ago, PSXDoomer said:

Thanks for the strategy guide! Lots of good protips in here.

Missed opportunity and one that is missing from Chip's excellento guide:

 

Protip.jpg

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This is some really informative stuff that could probably help a lot of new people here.

I wish I read something like this when I came to Doomworld.

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Good looking out. I haven't been on a proper forum in quite a few years, so it's always nice to have a refresher.

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3 hours ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

This is admittedly a well-created guide, though I feel it is more suitable to Everything Else.

 

Going into Everything Else to start with, is where all the forum troubles start, if you ask me :p People just cant stop attacking each other in there over the smallest opinion differences.

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On 7/29/2021 at 9:31 PM, Chip said:

Behave online the same way you would behave in real life. On Doomworld, there is not a policy against cursing if necessary, but there is no need for your whole post to just be a bunch of crude words jam-packed into one sentence.

Houston, we have a problem here! my irl talk consists mostly of profanity and obscenity, with maybe 15% of other words. now i don't know what to do...

 

Spoiler

great guide, very informative. worth promoting to Teh Official One, i believe.

 

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On 7/30/2021 at 2:31 AM, Chip said:

Behave online the same way you would behave in real life. 

That’s really it, I always double check if I would really say a thing to a person face-to-face not online before posting.

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The guide in the OP is good and I'm glad you shared it.

 

Also, when I was indentured into being asked to be a mod in March, I wrote this informal guide for myself, based on studying Doomworld's recent warning history. This is not "official" and I wouldn't want to write an official set of rules, but hopefully this will be helpful to someone.

 

1) Severe violations.

Spoiler

As a broad guideline, doing something outright shitty or hostile will result in serious punishment. 

 

Examples: bigotry and hate against specific groups (such as women, trans or gay folk, or people of a specific race or ethnicity), whether overt or in the form of subtle dogwhistles; abuse and bullying, harassing people in DMs; deliberately posting shock images or porn. 

 

Listing everything of this nature would result in a huge unwieldly list. So use common sense about what belongs in this category. No one needs a ruleset to know that threatening to sexually assault a member is not allowed, for example. 

 

[This section is generally incomplete, but you really can use common sense. I don't think anyone would be surprised by anything people have been banned for here.] 


2) More common violations and tips to avoid them.  

Spoiler

This section is more extensive, because while very awful behavior tends to be awful everywhere (and in many of those cases, people should know better), different communities can vary greatly on their norms for offenses not quite on that level.

 

I'll regularly say "warning," which is the general penalty for minor or mild violations, but more severe cases can call for temporary or permanent bans -- and racking up heaps and heaps of warnings in a short span can lead to bans regardless of severity. 

 

- Necrobumping

 

You want to have very good reasons to bump old threads. A common reason people are warned is bumping years-old threads just to say things like "thank you" to old posts. 

 

(One exception is the Doom Speed Demos subforums' demo threads. For the sake of organization, you're encouraged to bump relevant threads to submit demos, even if you weren't born the last time it was bumped.) 

 

- Shitposting

 

Shitposting doesn't mean any dumb attempts at humor, which can be perfectly well received (especially if you look at my posting history). It is a warning usually given to posts that contain little but memes, reaction gifs/videos, copypasta, and contentless derails. (In general, avoid using reaction gifs/videos as part of your posting, regardless of context.)

 

- Obscene Content / Warez

 

Be careful that your images aren't accidentally over the line in some way. Something that isn't malicious or overt shock can still run afoul of this by being, say, unusually gross or having obvious cropped porn. This applies both to your posts and to your About Me info, forum avatar, and profile banner.

 

Malicious terrywads can get you the boot, and Doomworld isn't the venue to share infamous wads like the Moonman series or the Harris levels. 

 

Don't post or ask for pirated material on the forums -- not even in a "DM me" sense.

 

- Report System Abuse

 

The report system is very useful, but avoid reporting posts simply because you disagree with the content. Also avoid reporting posts that are merely pointless or low quality unless they violate some other rule -- like necrobumping. And of course, avoid blatantly frivolous reports. The report feature is not a "strong downvote" or "I think this post adds no value" button, which would cast far too wide of a net.  

 

- Ban Evasion / Multi-accounting

 

Ban evasion is using a different account to post while being banned under another one. If discovered, both accounts can be given extended bans.  

 

Multi-accounting is using two or more separate accounts to post on Doomworld. It ranges from a serious offense -- say, if sockpuppeting, or pretending to be multiple fictitious people to drum up hype for your wad -- to something that is generally discouraged. If you have a *very* good reason, like "I'm on vacation and want to post a lot on the internet (which is the ideal way to spend a vacation), but I left my password manager at home," disclose your alternate identity and the reason in your About Me profile.

 

(It's not considered multi-accounting if you forget the email and password of an old account and register a new account for permanent use.)

 

- Rule lawyering and inching close to the line 

 

If it becomes clear to staff that someone is trying to find loopholes or gaps in rules, or consistently edge up to the line of what is acceptable, they will get an infraction for both that and whatever trouble they are causing. That sort of warning can come with a ban more easily than more straightforward offenses. 

 

 - Rudeness / Trolling / Spamming
 
"Rudeness" is a catch-all warning for especially dickish, hostile statements. (The phrasing isn't entirely literal -- you don't have to use an ultra polite tone in your posts to avoid it or anything silly like that.) "Trolling," when it's not a severe violation that will result in a permaban, is similar but tends to be more about deliberately irritating or abrasive actions, verbal or not. "Spamming" is for egregious overposting -- for example you submit the same thread to many different subforums, or you post the letter "a" in five different threads. (If you are reading this, you are very likely NOT a spambot, but misguided self-promotion is the other way to get warned for this. We respect that your custom condom business is thriving, but refrain from sneaking in advertisements all over Doomworld.)

 

Common reasons for rudeness warnings/bans include insulting other members (e.g. paraphrasing a previous such rant: "you people are soft, get the stick out of your ass"), getting in overly heated arguments that result in shitflinging, going on salty rants or tirades against members, or even being exclusionary ("lol HNTR is for babies"). Rudeness and trolling are broad categories with dozens of things that might fit under their umbrella, but the common thread tends to be malice or hostility to other users, whether overt or "subtle." 

 

- Special guidelines for status updates

 

Status updates are the designated no-content section of Doomworld, so things like shitposting in and of themselves no longer a problem. But many of the rules must still be followed there, especially when it comes to obscene content and warez and other objectionable forms of hostility. Actual spamming, like copy-pasting the same status 20 times in a day, is still not allowed. 

 

Try to avoid being off-putting to users here. Avoid harassing people. If you greet forum newcomers with them, and you aren't already friends or something, avoid greeting them in creepy ways like "*violent sniff x3* I smell a new member" (that has actually happened). Generally, don't greet the forum newcomers with them. Don't post "lol salty member" on people's profiles. 

 

(The status updates are actually shockingly well behaved most of the time, so keep doing that.)

 

- If a mod tells people to drop a discussion...

 

Do it. Actively disregarding a mod's verbal caution a common way to go from, well, nothing...to a warning or more. 

 

- If you get a warning or ban...

 

Don't double down by contesting it with an angry forum post or DM to a mod. That is another easy way to get a more severe penalty. Don't go out of your way to start a "just asking questions" DM conversation with a mod -- if you're still bothered by the warning, it might come across as just a veiled attempt to complain. Move on for a bit.

 

- Above all: don't be a dick.

 

There is a reason a lot of communities have a catch-all rule of this sort. Punishing only what is verboten explicitly, and letting everything else off the hook, is exploitable by people who learn the rules well enough to start exploiting loopholes or be nuisances in ways that are "technically" allowed. These users can stick around and aggravate everyone for months. In a way, they are far more toxic than people who implode with an angry rant shortly after joining and get banned quickly.

 

Therefore, users can be banned for a body of work of toxic posting on Doomworld. 

 

A common path to "being a dick" is a regular habit of bad-faith arguing. A lot of us have been around the internet for a while: patterns of sealioning or passive-aggression or disingenuous debate are easy to spot, and are highly unwelcome especially in sensitive topics.

 

(I'll also say, for the benefit of people who often worry that they are pissing everyone off even when they are not, that this is also relatively rare and not meant to affect regular, well-meaning users. Even back when Doomworld had too many of these exploiters, the total count was a handful of people out of hundreds of regular posters. It's very hard for anyone to be accidentally mistaken for this type of user. 

 

A ban won't happen suddenly, with no warning, if you are only being irritating.) 

 

3) "My post was removed, but I didn't get a warning. What did I do?" 

Spoiler

There are many reasons this can happen, but I'd generally encourage you to not worry about it. You might have responded to a post or discussion that was rulebreaking or totally off-topic and got pruned. A thread you started in a subforum like Everything Else might have had some chance to work out but gone totally downhill this time. 

 

If you did commit some fault, it was deemed quite minor, and the mod in question didn't feel it required a formal punishment and will likely forget it very quickly. 

 

One thing to keep in mind: if you notice a thread or post of yours has been removed, do not repost it. 

 

4) Posting guidelines to avoid common annoying things.

Spoiler

The following is a list of common things known to annoy other users or staff. By "common" I mean that I've seen at least several times in the past year or so. (There are a lot more things I'm sure have annoyed or can annoy people, but an enormous list has diminishing returns, so I decided to stick to the basics.) Not everything here will get a warning, but making a habit of these will make a user stand out in a bad way. 

 

Posting:

- Try to avoid quoting gigantic posts (by vertical space) in their entirety unless you have a very good reason. 

- If you find that you average more than a few posts a day on Doomworld, try to make sure that some of your posts have substance to them. (This is true regardless of your post count, but negative-content posting sticks out far more with a high posting frequency.) The bar for content isn't very high. This is an internet forum, not school, so you don't have to write dissertations or even full paragraphs, but avoiding "mindless Twitter spam"-style posting is quite important. 

- Try to avoid constantly seeking out trollwads to joke-review. Once every now and then? Fine. But do this a lot and you might annoy people. And whatever you think of Graf Zahl, don't bump lilith.pk3 just to drop a "lol the wad that got Graf mad" review. 

- Avoid backseat modding: for example, please don't link to this document in the forums to try to enforce the rules. Provide a link only if someone asks. 

- Avoid bumping a project thread in Wads and Mods only to ask if something is done yet. Except if it's BTSX.

- If a gameplay mod seems to break a wad, ask for help from the mod author, don't pester the mapper. (I know 99.9% of gameplay mod players don't do this, especially since I hang around on ZDF too and can observe that most people know this. We just happen to get at least a few people a year doing this in Doomworld-adjacent spaces.) 

 

Thread Starting:

- Starting threads: make sure titles offer at least a slight indicator of the subject. Titles like "Help" or "Question about something" aren't good. "Help getting Doom to run on a pregnancy test" or "Question about that Cacodemon hole" are far more informative. 

- If you're new to recording demos, don't start a new thread for your demo, especially if it's a e1m1 personal best. Read the Doom Speed Demos forum stickies (or at least one of them). 
- Threads that will be unavoidably toxic or rude to community members are going to be shut down or at least heavily frowned upon. Example "What megawads that everyone seems to love do you think are actually awful?" or "skillsaw is overrated."
- Don't start threads about personal drama from other communities or that Discord server you are active in. 

 

5) How to help with reporting.

Spoiler

If you get harassed in DMs, sent spam or a phishing attempt, or anything of that sort, please report it even if -- especially if -- you are completely unfazed by it. You might help staff track the offender down before they affect someone more vulnerable to it. 

 

On the forums, use reports predominantly to clean up your own mistakes (like accidental double posts), to help nuke spambots, or to direct mod attention to posts that are horrible and malicious (things that are likely banworthy). Feel free to do that, especially the first two which tend to be more "objective," as much as you want. That generally can't be annoying, and in the case of spam, it's actually immensely helpful for spam to be reported quickly and en masse. 

 

For possible minor infractions, reporting is actually unimportant -- mods will find these posts eventually anyway, and Doomworld is big enough that getting dozens of reports for minor things can distract from more urgent cases. 

 

Finally, keep in mind that even with over a dozen staff, there is still no guarantee someone is going to be around and on Doomworld every moment of the day. Also many things, like tidying up off-topic shitflinging in an otherwise fine thread and then making a Moderator Proclamation™, are not automatic and take focus beyond simply "being around" (this is why sometimes a thread will get locked and nothing visible will happen for a while). So be patient and don't double-report just because something doesn't happen instantly. 

 

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On 7/29/2021 at 1:31 PM, Chip said:
  • Crude Humor: I haven’t gotten to shitposting yet, but although these sound similar at first, they are vastly different. Doomworld is fine with a bit of joking, but having over-the-top jokes are forbidden, and it is not good to use them on a forum for a videogame. 

 

For example; Political jokes, Racist jokes, Homophobic Jokes, Transphobic jokes, really risque humor, etc. 

 

Some people view the forums as an open platform to say whatever you want... when the truth is, the Doomworld forums are really more akin to a shopping mall. Lots of stuff to see, lots of strange people come to do their shopping and generally get to dress and express themselves in any manner they wish... but if you start swearing and making others feel uncomfortable, security is going to ask you to leave and escort you off the premises. You can act like a goofball at the mall, but you can't be explicitly racist at the mall.

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One thing I’d add is that if you play someone else’s level and you find that it really frustrates you and you really don’t enjoy it, I would suggest waiting until the following day before writing a review. Waiting that extra day will help you cool down and frame your feedback in a more constructive manner, rather than writing an incendiary review which could offend the mapper and other members. Some self-reflection also can’t hurt (e.g. maybe I should have played on a lower difficulty? maybe I should have considered a different strategy for that fight?)

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1 hour ago, rd. said:

If you greet forum newcomers with them, and you aren't already friends or something, avoid greeting them in creepy ways like "*violent sniff x3* I smell a new member" (that has actually happened)

oh my god help i can't stop laughing

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8 hours ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

This is admittedly a well-created guide, though I feel it is more suitable to Everything Else.

I posted it here because generally when first visiting the forums, you first visit DOOM General. Also, thank you RD for the helpful guide! 

3 hours ago, rd. said:

Don't double down by contesting it with an angry forum post

Oh god, who would ever do that?

:P I used to be an ass

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13 minutes ago, Chip said:

:P I used to be an ass

honestly, compared to a lot of other people who complain about warnings, you were pretty chill

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40 minutes ago, Chip said:

Oh god, who would ever do that?

:P I used to be an ass

i dunno if thats comparable your post wasnt angry or disrespectable with i think is what he was talking about its was more "i got in trouble and i dont want to keep getting into trouble so help me"

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(I'm not a he)

 

Yeah most offending posts of that sort don't survive long before being deleted, so people might not have a reference, but it is often more like this. 


q6unff1.png

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13 minutes ago, omalefico32x said:

i dunno if thats comparable your post wasnt angry or disrespectable

I think it was more this exchange where I was complaining. Looking back, my OP in that thread was kind of tame. 

 

I see what RD was talking about. I'm going to go add that to the original post on this thread. 

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10 minutes ago, rd. said:

(I'm not a he)

im trying to use non binary pronouns because of stuff like this but sometimes i let it slip sorry i didnt meant to offend you

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I think you did a great job! Hopefully it'll instill into new members a general sense of direction so they don't feel lost in the amazing place that is Doomworld, whilst also making them feel more welcome.

 

Also, where's the part of the strategy guide about circlestrafing? :P

 

On 7/29/2021 at 3:31 PM, Chip said:
  • Respect people’s time to respond. People aren’t on Doomworld all day, so there is no need to get worked up over the amount of time it takes somebody to respond.

 

I was gonna say, maybe explain that posts won't vanish into thin air just because a timely reply doesn't occur. But to be fair, seeing your thread in the subforum listing sink down a page, then another one, then eight, does make you a tad anxious. Maybe Doomworld could have a way to bump a thread without having to post in it, if you feel like it deserves more attention (or any at all) but that it is being overrun by the sands of time too early for that to happen. But alas.

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8 hours ago, Gustavo6046 said:

Maybe Doomworld could have a way to bump a thread without having to post in it, if you feel like it deserves more attention (or any at all) but that it is being overrun by the sands of time too early for that to happen. But alas.

i don't think that mods will take action if the thread with a question or map/mod will be bumped after some time in a polite way. like "sorry for bumping, but i tried this and that, and still didn't found the solution", or "it is hard to judge your own creation, so if you have time, give me some feedback, please", or something like that. just don't do it in a hour after the posting (nor even in a day, wait for a week, for example).

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On 8/1/2021 at 1:32 AM, rd. said:

(I'm not a he)

 

Yeah most offending posts of that sort don't survive long before being deleted, so people might not have a reference, but it is often more like this. 


q6unff1.png

wow you look at that, they still have Post Hell!

 

Spoiler

ok though, that thread make me laugh so goddamn hard

 

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