Rules To Read Before You Post For The First Time! UPDATED 05/2012

[Brian Cronin]

Here are some rules for the X-Books Forum (with future rules to be added as needed):

1. BE CIVIL
This should be self explanatory, but just in case, on this board, we do not tolerate people acting like jerks for no reason. Treat everyone with civility. This goes for posters as WELL as creators of the titles. If you want to complain about Chris Claremont, go ahead, but do it civilly, or else I will delete. NO flame-baiting, either! Finally, posts that I deem as being extremely crass will also go beyond our standards of civility.

2. PROFANITY
Don't use profanity. In addition, I would REALLY appreciate it if people made it a point to avoid referring to women (fictional or not) as "skanks" or "whores" or "hos."

3. LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
It will occasionally happen that you will want to start a thread that someone else already started. Do a search before you post to make sure that someone else has not already posted your topic. In addition, we have a FAQ section you should first check to see if your question is addressed there.

4. DISCUSS X-BOOKS
This may also seem to be a basic idea, but just for clarification's sake, please keep all topics related to the X-Books. If you want to talk about a movie you saw or what you had for dinner, we have X-Crescence for that.

5. DISCUSSION THREADS
Discussion threads are for DISCUSSIONS. Therefore, there will be no "stakeclaiming" threads like, "Uncanny X-Men #444 - Discuss!" In fact, I would like to go further than that and ask that you at least write a paragraph if you are going to start a discussion thread. Otherwise, just let someone else start the thread.

6. WHEN TO START A DISCUSSION THREAD
If you read an advance copy of an issue, and you want to start a thread, please keep in mind that all discussion threads for comics have to be posted no earlier than 12:00 noon (Eastern time) on the day the book is released in the United States.

7. SIGH AND UHMMM BAN
No posts shall open with the noises "sigh" and/or "uhmmmm." Neither of them add anything to discourse, and they basically work as the internet equivalent of "Screw you!" For example, one person says, "Magneto made his first appearance in X-Men #2." Next person says, "Uhmmm...Magneto made his first appearance in X-Men #1" or "Sigh...Magneto made his first appearance in X-MEn #1." Take away the opening stuff, and the point of the sentence is not changed. So what's the point of saying Sigh or Uhmmm? To me, it is no more than saying, "You might think that, but you're a moron, as the ACTUAL answer is ____" or "I have to pause here to fully grasp how dumb you are." Occasionally, the word actually is used the same way as uhmmm and sigh. I reserve the right to omit "actually" and the :rolleyes: emoticon when I think it is being used like uhmmm or sigh.

8. KEEP SURPRISES SURPRISES!
Don't give away information that would be classified as a "spoiler" IN the thread title. And if the thread has a spoiler in it, put spoilers in the thread title.

9. YOUR OPINION ABOUT SOMETHING IS NOT, IN AND OF ITSELF, WORTHY OF ITS OWN THREAD
I understand that you have opinions, and that you think your opinion is interesting, but we have so many discussions where you can express your opinion. You do not need to (and should not) form your own thread to do so.

10. DON'T POST FULL ARTICLES FROM OTHER SITES, JUST POST THE LINKS
We get into sketchy copyright issues when someone posts an article or column fully in a thread. Just post a link, and cite the parts of the article you want to emphasis.

11. "YOU LACK READING COMPREHENSION" IS AN INSULT
It is against rule #1. Just in case you were curious.

-Brian

[Brian Cronin]

Just dropping a line to note that people are seriously not following Rule #3.

Please try to follow it.

-Brian

[Brian Cronin]

Just to be clear....some modes of discussion that are inappropriate for this forum:

1. Saying stuff like "Why does everyone hate Character X?" Don't do that - just say, "I think Character X is cool." Then if people disagree, simply debate the point using facts and observations rather than resorting to"You're just being negative!"

2. Telling people that "you're just being negative!"

3. Telling people "Why do you read the comic, then?" So long as they are being civil about it, people can criticize a comic over and over and over and over if they want to. You can feel free to ignore them, let their incessant complaining be like white noise to you...but you cannot personally attack them for their pursuits. Tell them that their positions are unfounded. Tell them that they are not backing up their points with any facts at all. Just do not personally rip them.

4. The ol' "Opinion Back and Forth," as in "This is just MY opinion!" "That's just YOUR opinion!" We get it. If you are saying something, it should be understood by everyone that it is your opinion. No need to discuss it further.

5. I will allow a lot of hyberbole go, stuff like "This is the worst comic that I ever read," stuff like that...but let us be reasonable, people. Simply stating "Book X sucks" just is not all that helpful of a contribution to the overall discussion.

SUPER GOLDEN RULE. Keep the discussions about the COMICS, not your fellow posters. If you need to just vent, go do so in X-crescence, that is its reason for existing.

[Brian Cronin]

It's funny, the same problems seem to be popping up, over and over.

The whole creator conflict thing.

And while I am loathe to do something so sweeping (especially as it means more work for me ;)), here it goes:

No creator comparisons.

You can continue to knock/praise whichever creator whose work you hate/love, but what you cannot do is to express your disapproval/approval in the form of a comparison to another creator.

So basically, if I suddenly see Chris Claremont being debated in an Astonishing X-Men thread, or Grant Morrison in an Excalibur thread, those posts are getting deleted.

This is harsh, I will admit, but the last time I tried an experiment like this (the Claremont thread awhile back), I think we would all agree that the discussion was aided by the strictness of the rules.

This experiment will see if it works beyond just one thread.

This experiment is now just gonna go on indefinitely.

-Brian

[Home made ectoplasm]

Please be aware CBR has a rule that requests that you don't post more than three pages of any issue.

Also, please do not request scans for scenes from newly released comics. Requests for scans in review threads or requests for scans of new issues in appreciation threads will be deleted.

[Home made ectoplasm]

No new review threads before mid-day on the day of release please.

However - in a change to the current rules - if there is a holiday in America and the books come out in Canada or somewhere else first - Me and Cayman don't have a problem with one of our non-US members starting a thread.

Also, try and keep the summary as to what has happened short and to the point, don't type out every plot point and bit of dialogue.

Also, please don't ask for scans in the review threads - if you are curious enough to see what happens, make a trip to your LCS, - even if it is just to look at the issue on the stands, they could do with the custom.

[Home made ectoplasm]

Although there hasn't been anything specifically covering it in the rules, I remember quite a few threads being closed that were along the lines of "Emma vs Jean" - or when an OP picked two mutants and asked peoples opinions on who was better.

Although a poll like this may not seem to be a problem in itself, I'm going to ask that posters don't create these kind of threads because if we get into the habit of doing them, before we know it there are going to be 20 versus polls on the front page every time you log in.

[Cayman]

Threads about Black Panther and what he's doing in his new ongoing belong on the Marvel board.

If T'Challa appears or is referenced in a new issue of an X-Title, his appearance can be discussed as part of the discussion of that title. The debate over his marriage to Storm can continue in the appropriate threads as long as the discussion remains civil and avoids baiting.

BP threads that sprout up here will either be moved to the Marvel board or locked/deleted depending on content.

[Home made ectoplasm]

If you are posting fan art from Deviant art or elsewhere on the net, could you credit the artist? It only seems fair.

Rather than just hotlinking the picture, can you also put a link back to where you found it? That way the artist themselves can actually get page views and tell that their work is being appreciated, and the people that like their work get to check out other stuff the artist has done.

Thanks in advance.

[Home made ectoplasm]

Every writer and artist has fans on here, and people that are not so keen on them, that goes without saying. So a post that says “oh so and so is the writer for this? He sucks, I’m not picking this up” or “his art is horrible” really doesn’t have much information or relevance – why should anyone care what your biases are? There isn’t anything to engage with in that post. From now on, if you make that sort of post, be aware that it will probably get deleted.

Everyone has opinions, so at least try to make your opinions interesting or take time to express why you think this, which will at least give people that disagree with you a chance to argue an opposing view. You aren’t expected to like everything, but keep it civil towards the people that create the comics. Some of them read CBR too. If you can’t be civil, you could end up facing time off.

You’re more than welcome to post about why you don’t like a comic, but from now on we’re going to be expecting a higher standard of discussion for negative posts than we would for positive ones. Personally I don’t really feel that quoting somebody’s post and saying “I agree completely” or “this is a great comic” really adds much to the discussion either, but I can appreciate people not wanting to make long posts and theses sort of posts don’t really cause any problems.

Now if you hate Cyclops or Wolverine or any other character – they’re fictional so you get a bit more leeway. But again a post like “I hate Emma Frost” is kinda boring – we don’t know you, why should we care? Step up your game a bit and try and explain where you are coming from – “I’ve always hated Emma Frost since she killed Firestar’s pony” at least gives us an insight into your thought process.

The reason the X-Board is the best there is at what we do is because we ask our posters to prove that you can form an actual opinion and articulate an argument. If you can’t be bothered doing that why should anyone be bothered reading your post?

[Home made ectoplasm]

- Announcing that someone is on your ignore list is flame-baiting. Please don't do it.

- Please don't announce that you're reporting a post. It further brings conversation to a halt, you may look ineffective if nothing is ever done with the original post, and it may honk off the other guy, inspiring things to really get out of hand. Just quietly report and wait for results.

[Jack Flash]

Lately we've seen a lot of posters use the term Psyroc for Psylocke. The racial undertones of the nickname are offensive to other posters and aren't ultimately appropriate.

Hate the character. Love the character. Feel free to have a dialogue about how her race change is racist. But don't use the nickname.

[RoguishGurl]

Pimping out your blogs is not allowed. Now, it is acceptable to share certain things that actually have relevance and may be interesting to other posters. For example, if you have done an interview with a creator, then feel free to share that! But don't post links to your blog if it's only your thoughts on the current state of the X-Books.