Ephemeral wrote:
In an effort to help clear the waters and lay out clear expectations for how people should act in-game, on the forums and elsewhere.
This rework was started to improve public understanding of what is "punishable" or not allowed in osu! as it was obvious certain things were unlisted, and instead hidden in FAQ's or word of mouth.
This current version takes that whole ideal and puts it down the drain and actually makes that issue more prevalent. Instead of clarifying and making the rule set and every little detail more public and explained, things are now even more generalized and potentially confusing.
It's not fun to get in trouble for something you didn't know was initially against the rules. Normally 90% of these things can be prevented with some ounce of common sense, but undoubtedly certain things in osu! are "unique". As for any other online community. I personally don't understand the point in generalizing the rules and being more "encouraging". They are rules, things set to prevent people from ruining others days, and implemented to keep everything running smoothly.
Rules aren't added to ruin fun, but rather to uphold it, and keep everything accessible and friendly to everyone. Each rule has valid purpose and reasoning behind it, and should be completely publicly accessible for transparency and "self moderation". If users had a full complete list of what EXACTLY is or isn't against the rules, this allows them to self moderate or report more accurately. GMT aren't always around 100% so I feel it's very necessary to have users who know exactly what's allowed and what isn't, so they can alert fellow users to that, or redirect them to the rule page where they can read for themselves.
Ephemeral wrote:
Some situations are not explicitly covered in the rules, but are encompassed by other rules
This was literally the thing we needed to remove, so I don't understand the logic of continuing doing this.
I know a long list of rules can be a bit daunting, and you may not like it. But it's effective. It's clear, concise. and contains all the info anyone may ever need, so questions don't have to be asked, they don't have to be learned through experience. Users should be able to know everything from the start. Laws aren't generalized and Encouraging because that wouldn't make sense.
As for a "General" Community Guideline I can understand the generalization to be more encouraging. But as it stands the list is 15 different ways of saying "Be Nice please" which is something common sense should have in place by default. I just do not believe in the effectiveness and approach these rules have. While it's a bit more friendly, encouraging, and maybe honestly. A bit nicer to look at. I feel it's not nearly effective as keeping the community clean and safe, and can just be confusing with how open ended and non-concrete the rules are.
I feel this is a step in the wrong direction.