So here’s the deal. PMs have become a problem. As such I’m going to write up some guidelines for how to behave on PMs for everyone to follow.
PMs are defined as a “private message” or “personal message” between two or more people. Obviously, as a personal message the expectation is for the message to be confidential between the users.
I’ll be upfront, admins can read your PMs.
Before your heart sinks into your stomach and you fear being punished for any wrong doings you may have committed on a PM I wish to make it very clear that we as staff do not actively monitor PMs. We wish to respect the sanctity of confidence expected by our users when writing a PMs; reading a message not intended to be seen by you is an invasion of privacy and we take this very seriously.
With that said, because staff members do not actively monitor PMs the rules do not apply; which is both a good thing and a bad thing. You are allowed much more freedom in PM conversations, however you’re also opening yourself up to seeing content that you may or may not want to see; this is a necessary sacrifice to keep PM conversations confidential.
With that said, there are a few basic guidelines that will be followed from this point on. Any instances where these guidelines aren’t followed should be reported/flagged by users.
Harassment of any kind is not tolerated
This means bullying, insulting, or spamming. Obviously context is important; we at TTV insult each other all the time and we don’t take issue with it because that’s merely a part of our relationship with each other. This instance should only be reported if the user has committed these acts with the intent to cause harm or grief to the targeted individual or if the targeted individual finds the remarks offensive.
Spamming in this situation is defined as re-posting links, images, gifs, or videos in an attempt to annoy, confuse, or antagonize another individual.
Do not add people to new PMs everyday
It’s annoying. Seriously.
If you’ve asked a user to stop adding you to PM conversations and the user can’t seem to take the hint, report/flag the person and we will deal with it personally.
Staff members reserve the right of authority to PM conversations they are added to
This means that staff members can use their right as staff to uphold the rules of the boards within any PM conversation they are in, if they so desire. Don’t want staff lurking in your conversation? Don’t add them to the conversation.
Avoid overuse/abuse of a single PM conversation
When a PM has reached 5,000 messages, it’s starting to see some wear and tear. If a PM has broken 10,000 messages? That’s just ridiculous.
Please try to keep PM conversations to a maximum of 8,000 messages. After this point, a new conversation should be started to take it’s place.
Overuse of a single conversation is extremely taxing on the boards and can cause the entire site to perform sluggishly and harm image uploads.
Dooooooooon’t fiiiiiiight
No but really, try not to fight. Debate’s that are being handled civilly are one thing, but try to avoid arguing as much as possible. These will be broken up by staff if flagged.
Also to make things clear when people get into heated debates on the forums, mods often advise them to take the discussion to a pm. They don’t mean you are now free to “duke it out with each other outside.” That’s just to keep the original discussion on topic. You are given less restriction to a degree without direct supervision but the staff is still trusting you to use common sense.
No inappropriate material is allowed
Violent, pornographic, or otherwise.
Once again, this is something we can’t really control unless it’s flagged. If you don’t want to see this make sure you report it to staff so it can be dealt with. Otherwise we won’t be able to remove it.
