Rules of the forum

Johan,

Your question and concern and entirely legitimate. In regard to the member whose account was deleted, I will only say at this time that this occured for reasons related to things that went on behind the scenes. I will let the other admins decide whether we want to provide a more complete accounting of what went on, and whether that would occur in a public forum post or in a private "anyone whose interested can ask us" basis.

In regards to the protocols for such actions, in general, we only delete users immediately for posters who are obviously not here to talk about board game design, and instead want to use this site as if it were a chat room, who want to sell something (ie, they create an account just to post an advertisement for their product), or who want to talk about something way off topic (like videogames).

Occasionally, the admins decide that a thread has run its course or gotten too emotional, and they suspend discussion on that topic. Continuing the discussion on the topic after this has happened is an example of the kind of thing that would get one ousted. However, two caveats to this are that (a) we don't yet have a good "appeals process" in place for this kind of situation (if, for example, someone wanted to dispute that it was necessary to cease discussion on a given topic), and second, the consequences that one would incur would in general be commensurate with the seriousness of the offense. In general, I think that we give ample opportunity to correct the behavior before someone would be finally deleted.

It's rare that we get a member whose conduct warrants immediate expulsion, but here are some things for which one could expect to be kicked out with no further warning:

-- Racial, ethnic, gender, or religious slurs

-- Threatening violence against another member

-- Slander of a site member

I'm sure there are others, but I think the bottom line is this. One would not be in danger of being ousted if one simply sticks to talking about board and card design, demonstrates courtesy towards other members, and respects the authority of the admins. Note that this last doesn't mean that you have to agree with every decision we make. But rather, just that you keep in mind that we're trying to manage a large, diverse, international community and making the best decisions that we can, so we ask that you all try to give us the benefit of the doubt. Of course, you're free to question us if you honestly disagree with the fairness of one of our decisions.

Thanks for your question; I hope I've answered it, although I know I haven't given the formal set of rules that you're looking for. Perhaps the other admins will chime in if there's anything they want to add.

-Jeff