The L Word Forum: Board Rules/Code of Conduct

Welcome!

It’s considered good netiquette to read the board rules and FAQ, BEFORE you begin posting when you visit a new forum or message board. So, in a slight change from the previous set-up, from this point forward the moderators of this board will assume that visitors to the forum know what the rules are, and that by posting on TLW board you’ve agreed to abide by them.

There is therefore no need to reply to this thread saying that you’ve read and understood the guidelines. However, if you have any questions regarding the rules, need further clarification on any of the points raised here, or just want to tell us that we’re so strict we make the Gestapo look laid back and free and easy *g*, then please post your comments here.

We want this forum to continue to be a fun, friendly, relaxed and welcoming environment where fans of TLW can gather to appreciate the talented cast and crew of the show, take part in discussions, exchange info and ideas, make friends, have a laugh, and, yes, admire gorgeous women too. *g* Hopefully this reiteration of the rules will help to ensure that this board remains a cool place to hang out.

In addition to the following rules which apply specifically to The L Word forum, there’s also a set of universal forum-wide rules and regulations that apply to all of Media Blvd’s forums. There are many instances in which the two sets of rules overlap, but please take the time to familiarise yourself with both.

Please note that violation of these rules and guidelines can result in warnings, closed topics, edited posts, probations, or even banning.

Please check your Private Messages (PMs). Some users may want to contact you to further discussions that were started on the board and PMs are also how mods usually send out warnings. Check them as often as possible, and ideally enable the option to receive email notifications whenever a PM arrives (My Controls > Options - Email Settings > Send a confirmation email when I receive a new private message) and board pop-up notifications (My Controls > Options – Board Settings > Do you wish to get a board notification when you get a new personal message? > Yes/No).

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Reporting Objectionable Content

Whilst the moderators of this forum make every attempt to be vigilant and to read all the threads, we can’t be online all the time, so, if you object to the content or tone of someone’s posts, feel that a poster is behaving inappropriately or breaking the rules, or you’re offended by anything you see here on the board, please bring it to our attention so that we can deal with the issue promptly. We’re here to help.

The quickest and easiest way to alert the moderating team to objectionable content, is to use the forum’s ‘Report this post to a moderator’ function. There is a ‘! Report’ button located at the left-hand side of the footer that is displayed beneath every post on the board:



Clicking the ‘! Report’ button will enable you to send a link to the particular post of interest and the topic title, along with any comments that you wish to add. The report will be automatically sent to all of the members of the forum’s moderating team.

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So, without further ado, here are the rules, or “The Thirteen Commandments” as we affectionately call them. *g*


Dos and Don’ts - In Brief

• Do… post with respect.
• Do… make your posts easily understandable.
• Do… read at least the last few pages of a thread before you post in it.
• Do… keep discussion of spoilers within the spoiler thread or disguise it in spoiler font.
• Do… comply with Media Blvd’s guidelines for signatures.

• Don’t… use this message board as a chat room.
• Don’t… start a new thread that duplicates an existing topic, that’s off-topic/non-L-related, or to ask a question.
• Don’t… post multiple images in the character and ship threads in place of discussion, or post images with large dimensions and/or file sizes, or quote/re-post images repetitively.
• Don’t… quote entire posts or whole conversations in your posts.
• Don’t… double post. Or triple post. Or quadruple post…
• Don’t… hotlink.
• Don’t… discuss file sharing methods, peer-to-peer software, download sites or any other type of copyright infringement.
• Don't… promote non-Media Blvd related message boards or forums.


Dos and Don’ts - In Detail

Dos

Rule # 1: Do… post with respect.

Please think before you post. Be respectful to your fellow posters, agree to disagree when differences of opinion arise, and never ever make things personal. Rude, aggressive or insulting remarks will NOT be tolerated. Don't patronise or talk down to your fellow posters, don't lecture them, and don't state your opinion as absolute fact.

Debate and discussion are encouraged, and the polite and reasoned expression of negative opinions about the show and the creative team involved in its production are perfectly acceptable, but hateful remarks and attacks against other posters, or members of TLW’s cast and crew, as opposed to the show’s characters, are unacceptable.

Any instances of rival groups of fans from opposing ships arguing with each other over whose favourite character or relationship is better, and generally starting the ship war equivalent of World War III, will receive a warning to moderate their behaviour accordingly and if that advice isn’t heeded, the threads involved in the disagreement will be temporarily locked until everyone calms down and learns how to play nicely with each other.

The general rule of thumb with regard to the discussion of celebrities/people in public life, is that it’s fair game to discuss news items and stories that have been reported in the press, but that discussion of gossip, unsubstantiated rumours and speculation about their private lives or sex lives is not appropriate.

It’s difficult to create a hard and fast rule about what is and isn’t acceptable discussion when it comes to celebrities, but a rough guide would be that if you feel that your remarks, or any images - both original photographs/screencaps and Photoshopped image manipulations, that you post on the board would make the actor in question feel uncomfortable, or would cause them distress if they were to see them, then DON’T post them.

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Rule # 2: Do… make your posts easily understandable.

Please write in English - unless posting in one of the country-specific/foreign language threads - and use sentence case and proper grammar and punctuation. Your keyboard has two ‘SHIFT’ keys. Please use them.

Please DON’T write your posts in all capital letters (CAPITAL LETTERS), a random mixture of upper and lower case letters (I tHiNk bEttE iS bEAuTiFuL), compose them using text message/SMS abbreviations (c u l8r), or use netspeak as if you’re talking in a chat room. And please don’t create posts that consist of nothing but a series of emoticons or smilies, because it’s all kinds of annoying. In fact, unless you specifically want to bug other posters, the overuse of emoticons should be avoided at all costs.

It’s also advisable to throw in the occasional carriage return in longer posts to create paragraph breaks, because large blocks of unbroken text are difficult to read.

Essentially, try to write neat, coherent posts that are easy for other members to read and understand, and remember that you have the option to re-read and edit your posts to make corrections and amendments, and everyone will be happy.

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Rule # 3: Do… read at least the last few pages of a thread before you post in it.

It’s common courtesy to read other posters’ comments before adding your own thoughts to a thread. If you expect other posters to read your posts you should be prepared to do the same in return. Not only is it good manners, but it also prevents unnecessary repetition of thoughts and ideas.

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Rule # 4: Do… keep discussion of spoilers within the spoiler thread or disguise it in spoiler font.

A spoiler is an important piece of information that, if someone wanted to watch the show without knowing what was going to happen, would spoil the show for him or her. Any information that hasn’t been published in the mainstream press, or hasn’t aired in a promo, preview or trailer for the show, is considered a spoiler.

The board has a spoiler thread, which is where discussion of any spoiler info should take place. If you refer to spoiler-related info outside the spoiler thread, you MUST write it in spoiler font. In order to hide the sections of your posts that refer to spoilers you should enclose the text within spoiler tags as follows:


which will be displayed in your post like this:

Have you heard that in season 3, Shane… blah blah blah.

Please note that there isn’t a shortcut or button that you can click which will automatically insert spoiler tags when you’re composing and formatting your posts, so the spoiler tags have to be typed in manually.

This method makes the text completely invisible to everyone reading the thread unless they choose to deliberately highlight the section behind the black bar by clicking and dragging their mouse over it, and will mean that no one will be spoiled by accident.

We’d also request that if it’s at all possible that you endeavour to give some indication prior to the spoiler tagged parts of your posts, about which episode(s) the spoiler information relates to, or a more general indication of the degree of spoilage or which storylines you’re discussing. We realise that it’s not always possible to do this, but as not everyone falls into the discrete categories of being either a full-on spoiler-ho or completely spoiler-phobic, it would allow people to make informed choices about which spoiler-tagged parts of posts they choose to highlight and reveal, and which they’d rather not know about.

We’d also ask that spoiler tags are ONLY used to hide spoiler information. If they’re also used to disguise general comments or language that might for instance be considered a bit risqué, it gets terribly confusing. So, if you wish to make remarks as an aside or reduce their impact, please reduce the font size and/or change the font colour to a less noticeable one, rather than using spoiler tags.

Remember, not everyone who reads the threads and posts on the board wants to know what is going to happen on the show in advance, so please be considerate of the members who wish to remain unspoiled.

Once an episode has aired in America, the details of the events that took place during that episode are no longer considered a spoiler and can be freely discussed throughout the forum. If you live outside the USA and are not able to view the episodes as they air there, and you don’t wish to be spoiled, you should tread with caution as most threads in the forum will contain information that you may not wish to know in advance.

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Rule # 5: Do… comply with Media Blvd’s guidelines for signatures.

Media Blvd allows banners, text and links in members' signatures. However, there are Signature Guidelines in place to make surfing the site more pleasurable for all users. Please be considerate of other members and make sure that your board signature complies with these guidelines, which, in short, state that:

Signature banners should be no larger than 500 pixels wide x 100 pixels high. If text is also used it should be NO MORE than 2 lines of small text.

If you’re unsure how big that is, a height of 100 pixels is equal to six lines of single spaced text in normal-sized font and measures approximately 2.5 cm. .

You can verify the pixel size of your signature by right-clicking on the image after uploading in My Controls -> Menu -> Personal Profile -> Edit Signature, and choosing the Properties (or Image Properties) option from your browser's pop-up menu, where the size in pixels should appear among other information.

Please note that the height restriction applies to both images AND text, separately, and combined. If you include a large block of text in your signature that exceeds four or five lines in normal-sized font, your signature is too big. And if your signature includes both an image and text, the overall height should not exceed a height equivalent to five or six lines of text. (i.e. if you want a lot of text lines, make the image smaller)

If the passage of text that you want to include in your signature goes over this limit, edit it to fit, or reconsider your choice of quote/lyrics/amusing bon mot.

Please don’t include blank lines in your signatures because they take up space unnecessarily, and if your signature is displaying a banner for your website and a URL, please delete the URL and make your banner the link like this:



There are several reasons for the restriction of signature sizes:

• Excessively wide images stretch the page and require users to scroll horizontally to read posts.
• Large pictures and blocks of text in signatures posted repeatedly throughout a thread are distracting and annoying. If you've ever visited a forum or message board that doesn't place any restriction on the size of banners, images and text in members' board signatures, you'll know how distracting it can be trying to read posters' comments when the threads are full of large images.
• Large numbers of images cause the site to load more slowly, which is a big drawback to users with dial-up internet connections.

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Don’ts

Rule # 6: Don’t… use this message board as a chat room.

Please keep your posts on topic. A little off topic conversation here and there in the character or ship threads doesn’t hurt necessarily, particularly during the show’s hiatus when there is less new information to discuss. But please try to avoid lengthy off topic discussions, and posts that aren’t even vaguely related to the subject of the thread that you’re posting in.

Please remember that most of our members visit the board to discuss TLW, and to discover new information about the show. They don’t want to spend time wading through pages of general chat, only to discover that the thread they’re browsing doesn’t contain any conversation relevant to the subject matter.

Any off topic discussions should take place in the ‘Off Topic’ thread, which is usually to be found on the first page of the board’s index. You can also use Media Blvd’s separate General Chat & OT Discussion board. Or alternatively, if you just want to chat, gossip, flirt and have a laugh with other posters, you should take that to Private Messages (PMs), instant messaging (ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger) or a chat room.

Media Blvd has a Chat Room, and if you want to arrange to meet up there, the board has a Live Chat thread, where you can post to let everyone know that you’re available to chat.

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Rule # 7: Don’t… start a new thread that duplicates an existing topic, that’s off-topic/non-L-related, or to ask a question.

Please read through the index of thread titles, check the Thread Guide for Newbies, which can be found in the NEWBIES - Everything you always wanted to know… thread, and perform a key word Search of TLW board before creating a new thread, to ensure that you are not duplicating an existing discussion topic.

Please note that if we feel that it’s appropriate, we might edit the title of a thread, so that it reflects the discussion topic more accurately.

Non-L-related threads.

Please DON’T start a thread to discuss a subject that doesn’t directly relate to The L Word.

We already have a few off topic/general discussion threads, such as a lesbian film and TV thread, a politics thread, a lesbian literature thread etc, but there’s a limit to the number of non-L-related discussions that we can have on the board. At the time of writing the board’s index of threads stretches over 52 pages, and the more unnecessary and irrelevant threads that are created, the more difficult it becomes for anyone to find what they’re looking for. If in doubt, DON’T start a thread.

Asking questions.

Please DON’T start a new thread just so that you can ask a question.

If you have a question about the show, or the board, ask it in the FAQ thread, or the relevant character/ship thread, rather than starting a new thread. People do read the FAQ thread regularly, so if anyone knows the answer and can help you out, they’ll reply to your query there.

Newbies and new threads.

If you’re a brand new member of TLW board, please don’t make your first action after signing up, be to create a new thread. Take a little time to read the most popular threads and familiarise yourself with the way things work here and join in with some of the existing conversations, rather than jumping in feet first. Don’t just take our word for it, check out this amusing Flash guide to ‘Posting And You…’, which essentially says the exact same thing, but in a much funnier way than we have. *g*

If you ignore this advice and start a new thread to ask a question, or create a new thread when a similar thread already exists, and your new thread disappears from the index, the most likely explanation is that it will have been merged with an appropriate existing thread by a moderator.

If this happens and you aren't able to find the new location of your post, click on the 'My Assistant' link, which can be found at the righthand side of the header at the top of every page of the forum, and then select the 'My last 10 posts' option from the menu. Or if you’re logged in, click on your username in the lefthand side of the header to view your profile, click on ‘Profile Options’ to open the drop-down menu, and select ‘Find Member’s Posts, which will display a list of your entire post history complete with links to the posts and the threads that they’ve been posted in.

It’s much easier for everyone to read and participate in the forums when they are uncluttered and there aren't multiple threads on the same topic.

Continuing an existing conversation in a new thread.

Accessing the new posts in a thread since your last visit to the forum, and moving between pages of a thread has become much simpler and user-friendly with the move to the Invision software, so the need to regularly close threads and continue the ongoing discussion in new threads has been removed.

Therefore from now on the current threads will remain active until they reach 500 PAGES in length. The number of pages in a thread can be viewed from the main index page. If you create a new thread to continue the discussion, please link back to the previous thread in the newly created one, and link ahead to the new thread from the old one. A moderator will lock the old thread when the new one has been created.


Also, please don’t post in a thread simply to “bump” it to the top of the index, unless you have a valuable contribution to make to the discussion. If a thread has slipped down the index it’s because members aren’t interested in posting there at the moment, or because the conversation has run its course.

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Rule # 8: Don’t… post multiple images in the character and ship threads in place of discussion, or post images with large dimensions and/or file sizes, or quote/re-post images repetitively.

Please remember - and be considerate of the fact - that not everyone who browses this board has broadband/ADSL. There are still quite a few posters/lurkers who access the internet using slow, low bandwidth dial-up connections, and waiting for their browser to download image-heavy pages of the board can sometimes seem like an eternity. We therefore ask that you…

Don’t… post multiple images in the character and ship threads in place of discussion.

Several posters have complained about the quantity, size, and frequency with which images, ie photos, screencaps and animations, are being posted in this forum. As stated above, please remember that not everyone has a fast connection and large images cause the site to load very slowly for some. It's frustrating to finally get a page loaded, only to find that the entire page is full of pictures being posted (or re-posted) with very little discussion taking place.

When starting a new thread, please limit the number of images that you post as introduction. Half a dozen should be sufficient to decorate the new thread. The entire first page of a thread should not consist solely of images. Nor for that matter, should any other page of a thread.

If several photos have already been posted on a page, and you would like to post one too, just post a link to the image, which gives people the option to click on it if they want to view it.

The exceptions to this rule are the ‘Fan Pictures’ thread and the ‘Fun With Pics’ thread, for obvious reasons.

Don’t… post images with large dimensions and/or file sizes.

Please refrain from posting photos or screencaps that have large dimensions. Any large images that stretch the width of the page, and consequently require members to scroll horizontally in order to be able to read the thread, will be removed by a moderator and replaced with a link. The maximum width allowable before an image will stretch the page is 640 pixels.

Also, please keep the file sizes of any images or animations that you post in threads, or include in your board signature, to a minimum.

Don’t… quote/re-post images repetitively.

It is not necessary to quote any image that was just posted. If you want to thank someone for posting photos, screencaps or animations, either quote their post and edit out all of the image links leaving just the text, or simply refer to them by their screen name when you post your comments. If you want to comment on, or discuss a particular photo/screencap in more detail, edit the quoted post to remove all the other photo links leaving only the relevant image.

Only quote images posted by another member if they are directly relevant to your reply.

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Rule # 9: Don’t… quote entire posts or whole conversations in your posts.

When you want to reply to another poster’s comment(s), hit the ‘Quote’/’Reply’ button, which is located in the bottom right of their post, and then edit the text within the quote tags, so that you only quote the sections of their post that are directly relevant to your reply.

Please DON’T quote entire posts in full, or even worse, quote whole conversations verbatim, and then say something along the lines of, “I completely agree.”

Please don’t create posts that look like this:



The unnecessary repetition of text and pictures in the thread makes the pages take longer to load in the browsers of broadband-challenged members who access the internet using modems and slow dial-up connections. It also makes the threads look untidy and, ironically, it interrupts the flow of the conversation and makes the discussion less easy to follow. Quoting several posters’ previous comments in your reply, as per the above example, will also stretch the width of the page requiring that members scroll horizontally to read posts.

If you’re replying to something the poster immediately above you has said, there’s really no need to even quote them. You can just use their screen name so that everyone knows whose comments you are referring to.

If you’re unsure how the quote tags work, or about how to format your posts in general, your questions should be covered by Media Blvd’s Help Topic on Posting, which you can find among the other Help Topics when clicking on the Help button on the top of the page. You can also ask your questions on the Need Help With Board Features? FAQ thread on the Media Blvd Support board.

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Rule # 10: Don’t… double post. Or triple post. Or quadruple post…

It’s not a hanging offence, but it isn’t considered good netiquette to post twice, or more than twice, in succession. It’s kind of like having a conversation with yourself. It’s best avoided in case casual observers begin to question your sanity and send for the men in white coats. *g*

If you forgot to mention something in your previous post that you’d now like to add, use the ‘Edit’ option, which is located at the bottom right of your post, the second on the left from the ‘Quote’ ('Reply') button, and write ‘Edited to add’ or ‘ETA’ followed by your additional comments. Or simply wait until another post has been added to the thread.

Thankfully the new Invision forum software automatically combines consecutive posts if they’re posted within a short space of time, so it’s much harder to double post. But unlike the old phpBB boards, if you do accidentally double post, it now isn’t possible to delete your second post. Unfortunately only moderators and administrators have the ability to delete posts.

We know the board’s server can sometimes be slow to respond and that it’s somewhat temperamental on occasion, but clicking the ‘Add Reply’ button more than once, or refreshing the ‘Post a reply’ page of your browser, will almost certainly result in your comments being posted several times. Patience is a virtue.

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Rule # 11: Don’t… hotlink.

Hotlinking, or bandwidth theft as it’s also known, is direct linking to a website's files (images, video, etc.). An example would be using an IMG tag to display a JPEG image you found on someone else's web page so it will appear on your own site, journal, weblog, forum posting, etc.

By posting images on the board that are not hosted on your own personal web space, or on an image hosting site such as Photobucket, TinyPic or ImageShack, you are stealing bandwidth from the owners of those sites, and if they pay for server space, contributing to increasing their running costs.

Some web space providers charge hefty fines, or temporarily block access, if a site exceeds a pre-set bandwidth limit, so by hotlinking and re-posting images in forums such as The L Word board without the permission of the website owner, there is a good chance that you will be costing them money and/or inconveniencing them.

If you want to post photos or screencaps on the board in threads such as the ‘Fun with Pics’ thread, please upload them to your own web space or an image hosting site. And don’t forget to credit the owner/creator of the images, and include the URL of their website wherever possible.

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Rule # 12: Don’t… discuss file sharing methods, peer-to-peer software, download sites or any other type of copyright infringement.

Media Blvd doesn't allow discussion of illegal downloading of films, music files or TV episodes in its forums. Please don't link to any downloads or mention specific URLs or how-tos of downloading in your posts. If you do refer to methods of copyright infringement, the posts will be edited and we'll ask you to take any discussion of that nature away from the public boards to email or private messaging.

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Rule # 13: Don't… promote non-Media Blvd related message boards or forums.

Links to other websites are okay, but please don’t directly link to another message board or discussion forum outside of Media Blvd.

Please note that this rule also applies to links included in your signatures.

If you need to give someone a link to another message board, please pass on the info through PMs. Links to other Media Blvd forums and boards such as the Katherine Moennig board, the Jennifer Beals board or the Laurel Holloman board are permissible.

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That’s all folks!

Thanks for taking the time to read the rules. You can now congratulate yourself on reading this far without slipping into a boredom-induced coma. *g* We’re expecting ProPlus to get in touch about a sponsorship deal, any day now.

Have fun posting. And don’t make us get our out!

Your mods,

acidburn, honeythief and DarknessDescends.


Board rules created: 31 August 2005
Updated: 9 December 2006 by DarknessDescends

Mr. T: I pity the fool who don't read the board rules.

OMG, it's TLW's very own season two jewellery consultant, Mr. T!

Jay, have I ever mentioned that you are one seriously cool dude?

Mr. T means business when he says, “Read the Rules, Fool!”

I bet there would be a lot less rule breaking if Mr. T was on the loose.


Couldn't you just picture Shane with a gold tooth? Or Dana with a dozen fold (aka -fake gold) necklaces on? I hear Mr. T is in need of work. Hint, Showtime.


That's highly debatable, but I'll say thank you.

And thanks for this updated rules thread. Hopefully people will get it now.

ETA: You missed it ht. Someone *points in Mr. T's direction* was in here breakin' the rules. tr beat him up though.

God, I hope Foamy would rant a little about people understanding and keeping the board rules. What is wrong with them?

they dont listen to start with,

May I have a suggestion?
How about having a sticky post on the top
listing all active threads? Then people won't create new threads just because they can't find the one they like through many pages?

Hey starlai.

It's a great suggestion, and one which acidburn thought of and put into action quite some time ago. And I'd like to thank acid once again for the enormous amount of effort that she went to in compiling the list of thread links.

But unfortunately although we've had a list of threads for most of this year, very few new members were actually using it to help them find the most suitable place to post their comments, thoughts and/or questions about the show.

So in an attempt to create just one thread that every new member could visit, which would have all the information they would need in order to know how to use this board correctly, and which includes among other things, links to the rules thread, the FAQ thread and the list of existing threads, we created the NEWBIES - Everything you always wanted to know… thread, which is 'stickied' at the top of the board and is also mentioned in the rules...


And as most new threads are opened so that the newbie can ask a question, we also decided to rename the FAQ thread, "FAQ - Got a question? Ask it here!", to encourage them to ask their questions in the appropriate place.

Whatever methods we try to employ to assist people in finding information, unfortunately a few members will always choose not to take the time to read that info or to perform a key word search of the board and will just go ahead and start a new thread anyway.

Thanks for the suggestion though, new ideas are always very welcome.

And if anyone has any other ideas they'd like to share, please post them here. Thanks guys.

Making complete lists of threads is almost impossible when you think of the speed some of the threads are growing with. However a bit of the problem could perhaps be avoided if we made one locked thread with information of how to use the search function on the board. I have used it several times, I admit it isn´t perfect but using the search function is far better than looking back several pages to see if a thread already excists.



I for one think that the information threads Honeythief mentions are very informative, I have used them several times whenever I doubted what the appropriate thing to do would be......but it has become clear that several of the members and especially newbies on the board hastn´t taken the time to read them. So I think that all of us who have been around the board for a while needs to continue directing the attention of newbies towards these threads whenever we meet a poster who has made a new thread or violated some of the other few basic rules we have.



Finding the right information is always difficult however I think that making a basic guide to the search function and direct peoples attention toward it could perhaps avoid some of the problems with people creating new threads. Being a librarian and being used to provide people with information of how to use search systems I´ll be happy to assist in making a small basic guide to the search function.

A guide to the search function (and maybe even the edit function) would be greatly appreciated! Please feel free to send compose the appropriate post and we'll try and sticky it or include it in the relevant Newbie Info thread.

As for the vast number of threads in the forum, well without giving too much away, let's just say we have some plans brewing that will get the board more organized. Threads may be merged to help ease finding the relevant threads and other changes like that. Stay tuned!

Great, I´ll make the introduction to the search as well as the edit function this weekend and send it to you, Acidburn or Honeythief so you can read it and perhaps try it before posting it in the newbie thread



Sounds quite exciting, organizing thing is always difficult but rather asap than later because the more you have to organize the more difficult it gets- However a few things can be done to organize the threads and the boards.

1.) Continue to educating newbies and basically teach and tell everyone about the basic rules such as when a new thread is appropriate.

2.) Make sure that people understands that a lot of posts consisting of just an emoticon or pictures that we all have seen several times before will make it much more difficult to find the relevant information you may be searching for.
I for one hate when a thread with app 500 posts have perhaps 200 posts that just consist of an emoticon or a pic I have seen before. I find it annoying especially when I´m working on my laptop (with a slower connection) and not my stationary pc (it has cable) that I sometimes have to view 10 pages without any real content. So personally I would like people to avoid making posts when they don´t have anything to say.

Perhaps I´m just grumpy (I´ve had a shitty day) but with the rate some of the threads are moving it´s difficult to keep yourself up to date with what´s going on unless you spend 24 hrs a day being online at the board - and I for one wouldn´t wanna give up my beautysleep .

That would be awesome. Thanks so much kzhech!




kzhech, I hope you don't think me too forward, but would a proposal of marriage be out of the question? *grins cheekily and gets down on one knee*

That's it exactly! This is a message board and discussion forum, NOT a chat room. Its purpose is for fans of TLW to share information and to discuss the show, not to spend endless hours online every day, posting for the sake of it.

The more off-topic posts there are in a thread, the more difficult it becomes for members who only visit the board infrequently, and who come here solely to talk about the show and to discover new info, to find news and info about the show amongst all the general off-topic chat. Finding on-topic posts in some threads on this board is like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.

If everyone who just wanted to chat with the friends that they've made in this forum, took their conversations to PMs, instant messaging, or to a chat room, it would be so much easier to find information about the actresses and the show, and it wouldn't take forever to catch up on what's been happening on the board.

And don't get me started about the repetitive posting of pictures, and the over-use of emoticons...

I think Jay said it best... *g*



And, yeah, I know I quoted a picture (My bad! ) but I think I can make an exception for Mr. T.

Since the Newbie Thread came along I’ve found this board to be pretty easy to navigate, but too many people don’t bother to read the thread before they start a new one.

The biggest problems are people simply not taking the time to actually read the rules and not understanding or taking the time to learn how to use the board in the most efficient way.

I think we could all help each other out a lot. When greeting a newbie, regardless of whether they’ve started an unnecessary thread or not, maybe we could also gently point them in the direction of the Rules and Newbies threads.

I am not sure because I have signed up some time ago, but maybe you have to read the rules before you can do your first post? I know that there is a "I agree to ..." whatever button, but maybe you should be forced to at least go through the rules page.

And another suggestion: maybe we can "force" people to just post thumbnail pictures instead of the a few hundred kb big originals, or the link... as many other people I have a laptop and so my internet connection is not the most stable one, and though I love to see pictures, sometimes I have already seen them a gazillion times or I am just not interested in seeing them in the first place. Thumbnails could ensure that it doesn't take too long to load a site, and if you want to see the picture in a better quality, you can always click on the thumbnail ...
I have found a good tutorial if one of our webmasters is interested?

narcolepsy_slides, it would be great if that were possible, but there are Media Blvd rules and then there are L Word Forum rules. When you join as a member you’re joining Media Blvd, not The L Word Forum and I don’t know if Media Blvd is willing to totally restructure itself because 1 out of a couple of hundred forums is having problems with following the rules.

Sadly, in all likelihood, we’re just gonna have to keep policing ourselves and gently point out the rules and Rules Thread to newbies and people who simply do not follow or know the rules (whatever their reasons may be).

It is going a lot better than it was, I agree, but sometimes it isn't even newbies who are ignoring the rules. I've lost track of how many members I've seen of 1000 posts or more who have huge signature files in every post well in excess of the board's rules. And Mods shouldn't have to spend so much time telling people the same things over and over again. It goes back to having to scroll through pages of crap to get to the good stuff... sig files add significantly to page lengths and download lag times, and people just don't get it.

~N

*wry smile* Oh, but the repetition is so much fun!

With regard to members' signature banners... I agree that there's been a proliferation of images far in excess of Media Blvd's rules recently, and that it's often veteran posters who are guilty of the infraction, rather than newbies. I've stumbled across some absolute whoppers in the last few days, with banners that are triple the allowable height.

And I'm afraid that I have to confess that lately I haven't been quite as conscientious in chasing up posters with massive sigs, as I probably should have been. But once I've revised the rules to take into account the changeover to the new forum software, I promise that I'll be making full use of the new carbon copy feature of PMs, and I'll be sending out sig-change-request messages en masse.

So folks, if your banner is taller than 60 pixels and you've got a mini-essay beneath it that makes my posts on the board look like the epitome of succinctness, please do everyone a favour and resize and/or edit your sig before acid and I have to ask you to do it.

And if the signature situation still remains a problem for posters on dial-up, who use a lap-top, or who simply just want to read comments about the show without having to wade through a mass of pictures, the good news is that the new forums give members the ability to disable viewing of signatures.

Go to My Controls > Options - Board Settings > Board Display Settings > Do you wish to view members signatures when reading topics? Yes/No


Oh and on the old subject of the thread guide for newbies...

The vastly improved features of the new forum (Have I mentioned that me and my inner-geek love this software? ) will allow us to deal with duplicate and unnecessary threads much more easily than we could on the old phpBB board.

Once we've merged all the older discussion threads (I've reduced the number of index pages from 66 to the grand total of 63 so far, so don't hold your breath. *g*), and reduced the overall size of the index, we'll be able to list, and link to, every discussion topic - no matter how obscure or how far down the index it's buried - in the thread guide. And when new threads are started in error, we'll be able to merge them with suitable existing threads so that the front page of the index isn't cluttered up with redundant discussion topics. And merging, rather than quoting, copying and pasting as we had to do on the old board, will enable the topic starter to find their relocated posts via their profile rather than us having to send them an explanatory PM every time.

It would still make the board a more pleasant place to post if everyone read the rules and posted according to them, and checked the thread guide and performed a search before starting a new thread, but at least now we have more advanced moderating tools at our disposal to deal with it.

Hallelujah! OMG this is the best board software ever. Thanks for the heads up.

~N

Hi guys,
It is a great forum. But maybe it is usefull to check the topics. Because when you making rules, you should also check them. There is a lot of rubbish on the forum, like (how late is it, or your favorite this or that f.e. in newcomers center) certain topic starters have a childness habbit.
It was just a remark, mostly it is fenominal, this forum site.