Honestly Curious

[TwoOfaKind]

Hello Everyone, I wasn't sure where to post this, so I figured here would be the most appropriate place.

I am honestly curious about something, I have been for a long time, but have been fearful to come forward and ask.

First and foremost, I have to say that I absolutely adore this site. It's not only informative, but I love the fact that there are others who care for their animals the way animals should be cared for, like part of the family. I enjoy almost every aspect of this site; But, I am curious as to why some of the rules are so rigid. Admittedly so, it can be stifiling at times, especially when some of them seem rather pointless. To be blunt [in the nicest way possible], I am not five years old, and I believe I have a pretty good head on my shoulders to know what is and is not appropriate behavior.

I truly believe if everyone is here for the same reason, why must there be such restrictions on seemingly insignificant matters? And moreso, getting "demerits" on something that is deemed "unacceptable" ? I honestly don't understand what's so wrong about posting pictures in the wrong forum, or ending a thread with our name? In the grand scheme of things, none of that changes why I'm here.

I am truly and honestly curious as to the rhyme and reason behind the rigidity, and would like to know. I mean no harm, angst, or judgement, but for me, personally, hearing something along the lines of that's just how it is, follow it or don't, well that leaves much to be desired.

With that being said, cavy cages "new look" looks great !
I hope this Friday finds you well.

[kathrynj]

What I love about this site is exactly that! I am certainly far from 5 years old HA and appreciate that the rules of this site are not up for interpretation, what you see is what you get.

This means that you can't push the boundaries, like signing your name, if that is allowed, then the next thing people will debate is adding flourishes to their name, then pictures made from text, then real pictures, then block signatures, etc, etc.

I don't wish to speak on behalf of the forum staff, as that is not my place, just to say that I really appreciate that this site is structured in such a way, you can trust it, you know?

The thing with knowing what is acceptable and what is not acceptable is that that is open to interpretation, everyone has different ideas about what they consider to be acceptable. The forum has a set of acceptable guidelines, that they deem to be acceptable. I find that these very rules, encourage people to develop online maturity and I love that!

I don't know how much sense that made, but I hope it made some!

[Ly&Pigs]

Most of the rules aren't really that rigid, they are common sense. Like no chat speak, proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. This is not a teeny-bopper, fluff filled, cotton candied, do whatever you want to do forum. We have our rules in place because they work for us. We have many members whose first language is not english. Having people post properly not only helps us help you, but it also allows those non-english speaking people to be able to translate posts better.

The owner of this site does not like signatures therefore does not want them on her forum. Since she pays hundreds of dollars per month to host this site, well she gets to determine what she wants or doesn't want on her forum. It is true that if we started allowing a simple name at the end of posts that within time that name will become a name plus pigs names, then it will be filled with smilies then graphics and we like simplicity on the posts, not a bunch of distracting smilies and graphics.

I honestly don't understand what's so wrong about posting pictures in the wrong forum

In case you haven't realized, we moderators don't get paid to moderate these forums. We donate our time to help the members and to move/approve/unapprove/merge/close/etc. threads in both the forums and the galleries. We have both the forum and galleries categorized for a reason. It's to make it easier on people looking for a certain type of photo or a thread on a certain topic. While many of the members probably don't care if there may be 100 pig only photos mixed into the single story cages cages, others will mind. If I was a newbie coming here to find examples of single story cages, I don't want to have to wade through 100 pig photos in the single story cages category to finally find a picture of a single story C&C. If one person posts a thread/photo in a section it doesn't belong in and others see it's there, then they are likely to post their thread/photo in that section too instead of the appropriate forum section.

You may not agree with our rules, but if you are going to be a member here, you either have to follow them or get impacted.

[TwoOfaKind]

Thank you both for clearing that up, I guess the things that are common sense (or things that I would deem common sense) could very well be pushed far beyond their boundaries by some. So, it's better to be overly cautious then mistakenly too lax, especially considering the site costs $$ for upkeep.
Ly, yea I figured the mods didn't get paid. I pretty much singlehandedly run my own forum (non-profit) for a social awareness and activism cause, so I do understand the frustration that can come along. But I have also experienced doing what I felt was in the right, only to come across not a way I have intended. To be quite honest, when I first came here, I was really offended because people were really rude and almost vulgar right off the bat when they found out I got my first GP from a petstore. Thankfully, there were those who said "We were there and we didn't know at that time either, but we learned" - and that helped and eased my anxiety. And it has proven to be true, I have learned as well. But I also think if I would have left like I wanted to, I would never have learned, and would be in the same ignorant mindset I was when I signed up [thankfully I am not and I know better now!]

Anyways, thank you again for clearing things up, I do understand a bit more now that things were explained.

Have a good weekend

[CavySpirit]

Also, frequently, the posters who are a little over the top in their comments to new people about welfare issues are kids or young adults. You need to forgive them their zealousness. I'd rather have it than quench it.

[chexxy]

It is hard to apreciate these rules until you are on a really bad forum. I go on a horse forum, no mods, and the average post is like this-
yeah, i just went rding today cuz i really wnated to myhorses name is harry
I love the fact that also I can trust the facts on here.

[Biscuit]

I agree with the rules, but would rather ones history of coherent posts be factored in and a private warning be considered rather than a public one. It's a little degrading knowing some mostly babbling, arguementative, semi-coherent person gets to snicker that you got slapped on the wrist for posting a sentence fragment in haste. All the while they plod on being offended by every other word. Half their sentences don't make sense, and every post contradicts the next. But hey, they had a period at the end!

There should be generalized stupidity wheeks.

(Mostly kidding!)

[Susan9608]

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, we tried being really nice and letting things go ... things like spelling errors and stuff. We gave people and inch and they stretched it out to about two thousand miles. It got really bad and people really took advantage. So we started having to be real hard again.

It seems silly, but you would not believe how quickly things can go from:

My pigs are doing great today! to pigz ding g8 2dy

And it wasn't just kids, either, which was what surprised me. Even PM and Ly started doing it, which really made VJ and I have to work. You should have seen how many smilies Ly used. And the chat speak PM came up with.

Just kidding, of course. Ha ha.

[Ly&Pigs]

I used 42 smilies in one post. HA.

I did post an almost uninteligible paragraph once so other people would know how we mods feel when we can't really read and understand things that people write with chat speak and horrid grammar, no caps or punctuation either. T thought I had lost my mind.

[WheeksUnlimited]

I love that this site has the rules that it does. It is sooo much easier to interact with the members when there is correct grammar and punctuation. I really appreciate all the work that the mods do behind the scenes.

My biggest pet peeve is with new members who don't research this forum and educate themselves on the rules. They post threads asking questions that they could have found the answers to if they would have just taken the time to read the stickies, utilize the forum search or just read through others' posts on the subject.

However, the flip side is that owning piggies usually does cause such intense passion and excitement that you lose all common sense and become !!

[Percy's Mom]

Susan will not be posting any more because I'm going to whack her in the head with my rubber trout. No seriously, we did make a few rather odd posts to show people how insanely hard it is to read when people don't post properly.

I've personally been on quite a few other forums for all manner of topics, and this one and GL are by far the easiest to read, understand, and find any information because of the strict posting rules.