How to write Rules: The good way!

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Why this article?

First and foremost rules are likely the most important thing to a potential member on your site. The rules set a precedent for how your site is run and how you as an admin will approach a subject that comes up. It seems like it should be simple, that rules are common sense and that people will just obey, however it's not so simple and I hope that this article helps you with finding the correct voice with coming up with your rules.

What to think about!

When you come up with your rules there are things that you should think about and then things to consider once you've written them. I never recommend writing your rules, cleaning up the text and posting them. I always recommend reflecting and having someone review them before they are posted (preferably a person that can be objective about them).

Some of the things that you should consider when writing your rules:

• What sort of admin do I want to portray myself as?
• How do I want the potential members to feel?
• Do I really need this rule?

Once you've figured out some of these (and they will likely change and alter as you read through this) then you've started your journey into having respectable rules.

What the rule means to you doesn't mean that rule means the same thing to me!

Just because the rule makes sense to you doesn't mean it is. Additionally, just because the rule seems funny/smart/clever etc to you doesn't make it so. Write your rules as if you plan for a teacher or parent to read them and you need to get the point across, not as if you are talking to your friend telling them about what you're expecting people to follow.

The Don'ts

Some of these are personal peeves, some of these are just recommendations and some are just things that you should likely avoid. I can tell you, from my experience, that if it hasn't sent me away it has likely sent someone away from your site.

• Don't use the rule "Don't be a dick" or any variation thereof. While Wil Wheaton has said it and god he's so awesome (sarcasm included) it doesn't mean this is a blanket term that you should use in your rules. In fact, including this rule has the affect to immediately set people off and in a bad mood.. My first reaction to such a phrase is "click the X button, this admin is a dick". While the latter is not always true it doesn't negate the negative tone that it immediately puts into the head of the reader. This coincides with rules like "be respectful" "have fun" and others. These rules mean different things to different people so word them better or don't put them in there.
• Don't use "not". I'm using the words don't and not in this article ironically. People hate reading the word "not" or the variations of the word "not" and so avoiding it in your rules is key. Use your awesome vocabulary (or thesaurus for those of us like me that have a terrible vocabulary) and use other words that aren't not. Prohibited, banned, forbidden are some of your best friends when writing rules. Think of your rules like talking to a rebellious teen. The more you tell them not to do it, the more likely they will WANT to do it.
• Don't write your rules as if you're talking to someone. Nothing looks more childish than if you talk to the person on the other end of the screen through your rules. "You're not allowed to do this and if you do we will slap you with a fish." It makes the staff seem inexperienced and, honestly, moronic. You sound like you're standing on a playground telling other kids how they have to use the monkey bars and how if they fall they fell in lava and can't get back on. It's unnecessary.
• Don't waffle. Waffling is the inability to make a decision. Make a decision and stand firm in it. Waffling gives people the impression you don't actually know if what you chose is the right decision and so you are trying to make it seem like it was but wasn't your decision. The most common rule that this is applied to is word count rules "This is a no word count site BUT you must post more than 1 sentence". If you have to put the word "but" in your rule then you don't have a firm rule. Using the word count example either you are "no word count" or you are a "one sentence minimum" site. You can't be both and you don't want to be both. Make a decision and stick to your guns.
• Don't make silly restrictions. From "Usernames must be in all caps" to "no duplicate names" to "your character must have a middle name" to "playbys real age must be within 5 years of your characters age" (note: this last one has an additional note in the "JSYK" section) these are all useless, needless restrictions that are made for no reason other than to micromanage your players. None of these rules have a real purpose and are often used as a control mechanism to see how closely people are paying attention to your rules. These sorts of things members may still join regardless of but they are annoying and frustrating and put an unnecessary hurdle in the way of a new member joining your site. Joining a site should be simple.
• Don't make RP feel like a chore or burdening. Requiring specific chat programs, templates, special codes, etc. These things make RP less of a hobby and more like a daily chore. Require only what is needed to make your members happy and your site flourish. Never sacrifice the happy though.
• Don't be too inclusive. Don't take this the wrong way but being too inclusive can be just as much as a put off as being too exclusive. There are many things that make some people feel included and a part of the site as much as push another demographic away from sites. I will state, while I have no issue with the LGBT+ community I find pronouns to be exclusive to that community which makes me feel excluded from communities that require them. However on the flip side not having those could do the reverse to someone that is LGBT+. These should be your personal preference and not influenced by the community at large.
• Don't threaten your members or potential members. "DO THIS AND YOU WILL BE BANNED!" it feels like living under WW2 Hitler and who wants that? Just provide the rules clearly and then from there you choose the punishments from the administrative side. Your non-staff people don't need to know how you deal with oath breakers. Rules like this often make the staff seem juvenile and inexperienced.
• Don't force ratios. No one likes them, good sites will balance out naturally and really they just piss people off. Restricting a type of character should be plot defining/breaking not annoying to keep numbers within a spectrum. Members that don't want to play the other type of character will fill their ratio and never create another character. The unfortunate part for you is that this player may have given you more active characters but your restriction limited them so they had to stop.
• Don't put silly limits on characters. This goes with the above. Restrictions on character amounts, character types (unless it's setting breaking) is just silly. I know that you're trying to mitigate the fall out if that person leaves but really, there is going to be fallout regardless. Just let them be creative, you'd be surprised at how good of a member some of those chronic character makers are.
• Don't require post templates. They are tedious and annoying to most. People that just want to roleplay will find it daunting and eventually just give up.
• Don't make rules for the possibilities. If you're thinking of all the potentially bad things that could happen if you don't add the rule then you may need to think about how you are portraying your rules to members. Your rules should cater toward the crowd you want, not the crowd that you think you might get.

Now these aren't hard and fast rules to live by. If you have a don't in your rules but you like it, have at it. It's your site for a reason.

The Dos

Now dos are really subjective and there aren't as many because really if you avoid the don'ts then you are often in a good position with your rules. These all depend on the community you want to pull in and how you want to portray yourself to your members and your potential members.  Not all of these dos will apply to every circumstance but they are a good rule of thumb.

• Make sure your rules are clear. Not every rule needs an explanation if it's stated correctly and elaborating too much often causes confusion.
• Make sure that you include the basics. While your ad may say "no word count" it doesn't mean that's how someone got to your site. Make sure you always include things like your word count, rating, your OOC account restrictions, whether you are an APP or APC site, whether you allow art for playbys etc. These things are immediate go or no-gos for potential members hiding them or making them difficult to find is a turn off.
• Make sure the voice in your rules is the voice you want people to hear. If you sound like a dictator people will think you're a dictator. If you sound professional people will think your professional. This is all in the wording of your rules and how you portray you and your staff.
• Make sure your fears of the worst are kept away from the rules. When you put your fears and start banning things without having a reason to this often can mean that you are paranoid. Paranoid staff members don't make for good staff members as they always look for what someone is doing wrong and is highly likely to push members away. When something you fear comes up, deal with it then, not in the rules.
• Ask for someone to read over your rules. This is important because when you write your rules you are normally happy with them, however some things may be unclear. Having a second or third set of eyes look them over will help you figure out the holes in your rules.

I hope this helps you get more members and stop pushing away potentials through poorly written/conveyed rules.

If you have a suggestion for a do or don't feel free to post a comment below and I will review it.

JSYK

Playbys can span many different ages, especially in the age of television and media. Many Playbys have been acting for most of their life so forcing a rule that disallows the use of a younger version of a playby is silly. Lets take some people that span ages:

• Michelle Trachtenburg (Harriette the Spy)
• Drew Barrymore (ET)
• Chloe Grace Moretz (The Amityville Horror)
• Leonardo Decaprio (Growing Pains)
• Seth Green (Big Business or My Step Mother is an Alien)
• Elijah Wood (The Good Son)
• Sean Astin (The Goonies)
• Sean Connery (Pretty sure he's a vampire and hasn't aged in a century since he was turned)

And these are just a few actors/actresses that have went from young ages to adults in their span of acting. It should be perfectly fine to play them from any era of their life as long as the character matches the age. This sort of rule also negates classic playbys from movies older than the 80s where the actors are in their 80s-90s but their acting career was in their 30s.