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Recently there has been some confusion regarding the spam rule. This confusion is understandable. After all, PZC’s rules changed in June, and things changed quite a bit as far as what is and isn’t spam. So I’m hoping to clear things up regarding the rule to avoid any further confusion.
First of all, let’s take a look at the rule.
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3. SPAM tastes terrible.
SPAM can be considered Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages. If your post has no substance, it will be considered SPAM. If it is actually a reply to something and can mean something, then you're fine.
Agreeing with an opinion with a post like "I agree with that" is just fine. "adfjlfs BWADKSFJGDgghfjniw" is not.
SPAM can be considered Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages. If your post has no substance, it will be considered SPAM. If it is actually a reply to something and can mean something, then you're fine.
Agreeing with an opinion with a post like "I agree with that" is just fine. "adfjlfs BWADKSFJGDgghfjniw" is not.
There’s a lot of interpretation there, I’ll admit. But basically, spam is basically any message that contributes no thought or any meaning at all to a topic. Note that this doesn’t mean that the post has to progress a topic, it just needs to be related to it. So, it’s fine if people want to make a joke or reply to someone’s comment that may not strictly be with the original topic. However, any posts that have absolutely no meaning are not allowed.
So what about getting off topic? Well, let’s look at the rule for that too!
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11. Keep things at least vaguely on topic.
If a discussion naturally evolves into a different discussion that has a thread of relation that is traceable, then that is an acceptable topic to discuss as long as you remember what the topic was originally intended for somewhere and the topic creator doesn't object. Yes, this means that people are free to respond to additional topic threads within a topic.
But if you just wildly switch topics to something completely off the wall without a thread of logic to go with it, you will probably be told to get back on topic. If the thread ends up completely shifting focus for a significant amount of time, the staff will probably insist that things get back on topic.
If a discussion naturally evolves into a different discussion that has a thread of relation that is traceable, then that is an acceptable topic to discuss as long as you remember what the topic was originally intended for somewhere and the topic creator doesn't object. Yes, this means that people are free to respond to additional topic threads within a topic.
But if you just wildly switch topics to something completely off the wall without a thread of logic to go with it, you will probably be told to get back on topic. If the thread ends up completely shifting focus for a significant amount of time, the staff will probably insist that things get back on topic.
This basically repeats what I said before. One-off posts are fine as long as they’re somewhat related to the topic or some other post in the thread. However, if a topic gets off track for a long period of time, then it’s a problem. Along with this, if a post has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at all, it's against the rules. Topic creators also have the option of asking people to keep pretty close to the original topic. This needs to be mentioned in the first post. If you’re posting in a topic like that, please respect the wishes of the topic creator.
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I hope that explains the current rules regarding spam better. We made these changes to try to foster a more open, friendly environment for people to enjoy topics more. Hopefully those rules have made an impact on that.
If you are confused about any of the rules, please let the staff know either by PM, or more preferably, the dropbox. Thanks.
