What I'm saying is that having some rules that not everyone agrees with is much better than a 'flexible judgement system' that doesn't define any boundaries beyond the individual mod's opinion.
It wasn't about having issues with some rules; it's a foregone conclusion that no rule will ever be universally popular and individual rules can always be addressed if a feeling that they are problematic is widespread.
It was about people edging around the very letter of the rules, leading to huge headaches for us. For instance: in response people trolling around emoting all the terrible things they did to their slaves we put up a role against abusing people on camera. They insisted it wasn't abuse, so we just changed it to 'no slaves on camera. In response started emoting all the terrible things they did to their slaves... just off camera. The question of how we were supposed to know what was going on off camera aside, the issue remained that they were actively trying to circumvent the spirit of the law by toeing around the exact letter. Similarly, a rule against nudity because people popping on while naked inevitably derailed the channel lead to a spate of people popping on while naked... but in the bath and under soap bubbles, which derailed things just as badly. We eventually had to politely ask people to stop showing up in the tub, please.
Which brings us to...
As for the rules-lawyering:with all due respect, if someone is 'gaming the system' by quibbbling over semantics...well, I have to question the wisdom of appointing someone who's so easily pushed around by those he's supposed to be governing.
As shown in the above situation, being "pushed around" had nothing to do with it. Rather, it was people circumventing the existing rules leading to us having to establish new ones, which they would circumvent, ad infinitum.
When we just got fed up and "pushed back" against the people who did this sort of thing as you suggest above, there was just lots of rabble that we were unfairly applying rules and/or singling out individuals that we didn't like. Catch-22 ahoy.
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Topic: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation (Read 19598 times)