The way I like to do things, is make the rule very clearly good-natured.
Something along the lines of “be nice” or “don’t be a dick”. Very broad, but really just a kinder way to say “use your common sense” and “don’t piss me off”.
The particular rule should almost never be cited in favor of clearer rules when applicable, but it gives you an out when you need to take action to deal with someone who is being difficult.
I also think it signals to people that your rules represent an ideal, rather than just their literal meaning. That people should read between the lines a little, in order to judge what will and won’t fly. Basically, making it a “don’t violate the overrall spirit of the rules” clause.
As an example, “no cringe” is a rule on my northstar game servers. Once, I cited it when banning a trio of players who’d log onto one of my servers, and then hog it by votekicking anyone who joined afterwards. This prevented other players from joining, as they could never outnumber them by enough to no longer make 3 votes a majority.
They didn’t break some explicit rule, but I host my servers for all to use. If they wanted to have a private game, they could do the same. My servers weren’t theirs to hog, and they stopped dozens of others who wanted to get a larger game going from doing so.
Endmaker@ani.social 6 days ago
Here’s my 2 cents (it’s political, but politics is everywhere🤷):
You may want to take a look at The Narrow Corridor, or at least read the first few chapters.
One point that struck me was that you need someone with enough power to keep everyone else in check, like what @MentalEdge@ani.social does.
Otherwise, the more powerful players would simply oppress everyone else.
When it comes to examples,
off-topic; politics
you don’t even have to turn to history. Just look at what is going on in USA now. Without a strong government to keep the rich and powerful in check, they can simply bring the government under their control instead. Now, they have even more power to oppress weak players.
Ideally, you’d want to share power - usually through democracy - so that the people can prevent the state from going rogue, even after you are long gone. But if you do so prematurely, you may find yourself in the above situation.
I know ani.social is just an inconsequential weeb community, but these principles of governance applies here too.
IMO you and other mods are doing well. Until the time is right (perhaps when Lemmy becomes mainstream?), I’d say: just be a BDFL - Benevolent dictator for life
hitagi@ani.social 6 days ago
Thanks! Interesting book. My sister read “Why Nations Fail” from the same author so maybe I should read this one. But yeah, I’ll update the policy to include the clause and just try to word it nicely.