News Posting Code of Conduct

[Jeff]

Recently, we've been thinking about how to improve the quality of news posts on the main site, and have come up with the following rules. Suggestions and comments are welcome. (Note that due to technical reasons, this thread can't be posted directly in the news forum).

News Posting
Code of Conduct

We're grateful for those of you who take the time to post important news and other updates to the TPM main page. Please be aware that you have been granted special permission to do so, however; as such, you are the face of the entire forums. Visitors to the main site will see your posts before anything else and will use your commentary alone to decide whether they want to bother with anything else here. As such, we ask that you please abide by a few simple rules when adding news threads.

Please bear in mind that violating the below rules may result in a suspension or revocation of your news posting privileges.

1. Please keep a professional style. Ideally, we would like the quality of our news posts to be at least on par with a local newspaper. Don't swear, and avoid slang like "WTF" and "w00t." Be sure to carefully proofread before submitting a new thread, as well. (If need be, have someone else edit your posts before clicking that "Submit New Thread" button.)

2. Don't promote any illegal behavior. This includes voicing support for illegal file sharing, bootleg DVDs, online harassment, drug use, or anything else like that. It really doesn't matter what the specific activity in question is. If you wouldn't want to walk into a police station and proclaim it for all to hear, don't put it on the main site, please.

3. Avoid promoting or insulting other websites. We're not trying to start a war with our competitors, nor do we want to advertise them for no reason.

4. If you get information from an outside source, cite that source. (A hyperlink often helps with this.) This is an exception to rule #3, as it's necessary for good reporting. If you don't cite your sources, you're just stealing from them, and that will give TPM a bad reputation for swiping content. We don't want that. Sources lend credibility to your report; not citing them makes your report look shoddy.

5. Don't post rumors. If you're adding a news story, it should be something that we can verify via some kind of "official" source (hence rule #4). We don't want to try to run a big "exclusive" story and then have to backtrack once it's eventually proven false. That makes all of TPM look bad.

6. Use [simg] for images. You can post images with your news story, but use [simg] instead of [img]. This prevents them from breaking the main site's layout.

7. All the other TPM rules still apply, obviously.

[Telume]

Should note in there that there is no maximum or minimum length either.

[mr_pikachu]

I actually disagree with that. Honestly, this is more of a "you're required to do/not do these things" list, so I'd rather not include a note like that if it's not 100% necessary. Otherwise, it might detract from the importance we need to convey with the rest of the list.

[Jeff]

Yeah, if something goes without saying, then it should go without saying.

I should also point out that this doesn't apply to any current posts, just ones that are made from now on.

[Houndoom_Lover]

W00t? I have a mild issue with one. It's the lack of slang. Professionalism is good and whatnot...Hopefully, it won't read like a local paper. In case you haven't noticed, people tend to not read those.

I dunno. It stuck me as odd.

[Jeff]

I think putting a little personality into the articles is fine, even good, so that it doesn't sound too bland, but using too much slang wouldn't do much for our image.

[Heald]

You have to bear in mind slang is usually regional, and with an international audience you may not be aware that some people might not know what you mean, or have a different meaning for that word.

You can still have a personal style without resorting to slang. We're not expecting the Queen's English, just something that is both enjoyable and understandable to read.

[RedStarWarrior]

I'd expect no Queen's English, please.

[Telume]

I dunno about you but I'd prefer British slang over the american one, sounds so much classier.

[Heald]

Except the British call cigarettes 'fags'.

Not that we'd ever need to refer to cigarettes or homosexuals in our news posts. I hope.

[Telume]

That's probably the only one we'd have a problem with, considering quite a big portion of our users are English-speakers.

[Rossymore]

I'm guessing the first rule is very slyly directed at me! xD

Sure, I'll follow these but if it turns out to become a bland article...then it's someone else's fault...

Yeah.

[Heald]

The first rule only explicitly states no swearing and no net/txt/1337 speak. If you can't make your article interesting without swearing or using net speak, you don't really deserve to write.

This isn't directed at you, just that the first rule shouldn't lead to people thinking our articles are now going to be boring.

[homeofmew]

long over due, i remember the bullying days of TPM XD

[Redfire313]

I'd expect no Queen's English, please.

What about the English Queen? Just Joking.

I'll keep this in mind. Thanks for the update.

[Telume]

Rule 3 would mean the same thing for members who post rumors on the boards eh?

Don't cite posts off the forums until the members have a concrete source. In which case you could probably quote them?

[mr_pikachu]

Telume: I assume you mean Rules 4 and 5?. Yes, there really needs to be some kind of source for any information. As much as we'd like to believe otherwise, I rather doubt Satoshi Tajiri is lurking the boards and preparing to leak inside information directly onto the boards. Otherwise, it's a rumor, not a confirmed report, and we don't want to get a reputation for not having our facts straight.

[Telume]

Yeah, that's what I meant.

I actually think we should MARK them on the forums with a tag until they're confirmed.

[Jeff]

OK, I've updated with a new guideline. Some of the images that we've posted have been so big that they've been spilling out onto the right sidebar and covering parts of it up. I was hoping that there would be some way to specify image size in the forum code, but it looks like we can't. So, it looks the best way to keep things tidy is to keep the images themselves small.