While it is appropriate to have guidelines, the concept of "rules" that the Administrator has suggested has gotten way out of hand. The definitions of the various parts of the board should say it all. Those of us who are ie. interested in Pictures, should frequent that board. Those of us who enjoy Pictures but also like to keep in touch with "friends" on the board, probably also drop by the Chit Chat Board.
(In fact, there are so many rules for Chit Chat, I don't even know what is "okay" to post anymore........)
The rules (with the exception of deleting vulgar jokes) are ridiculous. And, a polite PM to the poster of the vulgar joke can be made.
Reglulating birthdays to one topic (with a sticky ) is stupid as can be said for pets and anniversaires. You know we do become friends on this board and if I want to wish someone a Happy Birthday, I am probably not going to wade through multiple pages of one size fits all Happy Birthday thread. My friend is important and I'm going to want them to have their own thread so everyone can extend their congratulations. And the same thing goes for pets.
I could go on at length but won't for the sake of brevity.
The other point is that we are all grown-ups and have the ability to not click on subjects that depress us, insults our intelligence or plain just doesn't interest us. This is America and we do have freedom of speech.
Simply put, I just think there are just too many rules proposed. Talk about quilt police, we now have the quilt message board police. Quilt police of any kind are a bad thing.
Too many rules will discourage people from posting (because they're not sure if it "follows" the rules) and discourage people from frequenting or even staying on the board.