minecraftforum/rules-archive

ARCHIVED Minecraft Forum Rules

This repository is a collection of the minecraftforum.net rules, both global and sectional.

I chose to use Markdown because Markdown is easy to write, that's what it was designed for. Although BBCode isn't /difficult/ to write it can be annoying, it creates extra stuff in the way of the text when reading. It's much easier to read:

### Title here
This is some text [with a url](http://google.com) 

Than it is:

[size=6][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Title here[/font][/size]
This is some text [url="http://google.com"]with a url[/url]

Full markdown documentation can be found here. There is also a utility for testing markdown available here: http://michelf.ca/projects/php-markdown/dingus/

A brief summary of the relevant markdown:

Links

[title](http://link.com)

Auto link a URL

<http://link.com>

Headings

# Heading

Lists

* list item #1
* list item #2
    * sub-list item #1
        * sub-sub list item #1
* list item #3

Minecraftforum.net rules "system":

A single destination to find all rules that includes sectional rules. When the global rules are updated the message on the forum is updated to tell a user they need to read the updated rules. When a user reads the rules it will update their "last read" value to the latest commit (time, or id?)

When posting a new post if the sectional rules have changed then the changes to the rules will be shown on the screen above the post box with the user required(?) to acknowledge the new rules.

rules.markdown

This is a markdown file that contains the actual rules. The deploy process will convert from markdown to bbcode.

# Section Title

## Sub title

### Sub Sub title

There should only be one "Sectional title" in the document.

PLEASE NOTE: each heading MUST be totally unique. If a heading already exists and you make another it will not be usable for the jump to and linking. For example if someone has already done

### Posting Restrictions

and you do

## Posting Restrictions

it won't work! don't do that! If you have to add an extra word or something, do that!

Style / format guide

• Topics are topics (not threads)
• Address users as members, NO: "Users should always...", YES: "Members should always..."
• Do not use colons in headings, NO: "Restrictions:", YES: "Restrictions"
• List items should not end with a full stop (unless it's the paragraph description of the item)
• Do not address the user, NO: "You cannot bump threads", YES: "Bumping threads is not allowed"
• Refer to minecraftforum.net as "we". NO: "minecraftforun.net staff will..." YES: "We will..."
• Try to use links as rarely as possible. Rules should be easy to read without any need to navigate away. Links are okay as long as they are necessary and provide value that cannot (reasonably) provided within the rules.
• Use 2 hyphens for a dash, NO: -, YES: --
• Positive framing, if a an issue can be presented in a positive way, do that. YES: "Do post in a polite manner", NO: "Don't be a dick!"
• (as above) Explain why an issue is good for the user, NO: "Search because if you don't people will shout at you", YES: "Search, it will get you an answer faster!"
• Plain English, rules should be understandable by anyone of any age (with a passable level of English). If a word can be open to interpretation don't use it!
• List items with a description should have the description as a paragraph and the title in bold (using 2 underscores):

NO:

* Be Nice -- Every member deserves to be treated with respect
* Search -- Search before posting...

YES:

* __Be Nice__

    Every member deserves to be treated with respect

* __Search__

    Search before posting...

• Frequently new line, having long sentences that extend way beyond any reasonable text editors screen size is unreasonable. The Markdown parser will treat double enters as a new line; a single return will not trigger a new line.

* This will all
    show on one line
    instead of across multiple lines

Produces:

• This will all show on one line instead of across multiple lines

This will

show across

multiple lines

Produces:

This will

show across

multiple lines

Format

Each section should have a folder which contains meta.json and rules.markdown.

The folder should be titled as the section is, all lowercase with underscores separating each word. For example show_your_creations, servers, game_modes.

meta.json

{
    "id":"0", // forum id, 
    "position":"0", // position of the rules in the list
    "title":"Global Rules", // title of the section
    "last_updated":"2012-08-23 17:47", // last updated (BST)
    "hidden":"0" // 1 or 0. If 1 rules won't be compiled
}

For example Show Your Creation would be:

{
    "id":"58",
    "position":"1",
    "title":"Show Your Creation",
    "last_updated":"2012-08-23 17:47",
    "hidden":"0"
}

rules-archive's Issues

no rule about titles in avatars

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1780445-profile-picture-reset/#entry22065898

Clarify the "Hosting Discussion" Section

The hosting discussion section is a great idea, but (seeing as about a third of the topics on there are locked, and another third is moved) I think some clarification on what to do on there would be good, not just what to not do.

Link to a specific rule

A link should show next to each heading in the page that allows someone to get a link for the specific rule.

Looking for rules / Minecraft Server Hosting -- "refer to this topic"

The style guide explains that external links are not supposed to be used unless absolutely necessary, under both "Looking for" and "Minecraft server hosting" links are used to further explain the rules.

These need to be removed and the rules added to the rules document.

users should be members

add to style guide and replace all occurrences of users with members

Servers Rules

Small grammer issue in OP section.

In the Other Platform section under the Do not post update threads there is a small grammatical error.

Currently the text reads:
Threads requesting dates on when a certain update is to be released are not allowed. They are considered to be spamming the section as they have discussion value. Such threads will be locked for redundancy.

It should be:
Threads requesting dates on when a certain update is to be released are not allowed. They are considered to be spamming the section as they have no discussion value. Such threads will be locked for redundancy.

Mapping And Modding

"return to minecraftforum.net"

There is no option to return to minecraftforum.net from the rules page. There should be a header with a link back that follows the user down the page.

Replace 'No embedded video (informal)' infraction

Since this infraction has been tossed under the bus with the new auto-embedding, there hasn't much been an issue with no embedded video but people simply posting their youtuble channel. And when I say issue, I mean there can be about one of these threads every few hours. So, I propose an updated infraction (informal) to replace the old one. Possibly:

Channel linking (informal)

The Video and Let's Play subforums are for posting actual videos, not linking to YouTube channels or playlists. If you wish to make a post to discuss videos, please post a video url in the topic so there is content to discuss.

Spelling Mistake

In the Seeds section in the sentence "Posting downloads of un-edited maps is allowed bu the seed must also be provided." but is spelled "bu" instead of but.