Group Rules and Group Adminnin'

[Fifty]

To what extent can group admins have rules about what can and cannot be posted in their group? I mean obviously all the standard CFC rules apply, but can a group admin apply any arbitrary rules he or she wants to group discussions, so long as the new rules do not in any way conflict with the general CFC rules?

 

[Thunderfall]

What kind of arbitrary rules do you have in mind? Can you give an example or two?

 

[Perfection]

For instance in My Mike Rowe Fan group: http://forums.civfanatics.com/group.php?groupid=50, I would like to disallow people from certain types of criticism of Mike Rowe and his work. Such criticism thing would generally be allowed on CFC, but would be contrary to the purpose as a group of Mike Rowe fans. Should I feel free to moderate away posts that I would view as unproductive for my group, and remove users who post them?

 

[Thunderfall]

I don't recommend doing that. A little criticism is not going to hurt anyone.

But if a person does it so much to the point of disrupting the purpose of the group, then you could make a case for it.

 

[Perfection]

I don't recommend doing that.

Are you saying that you don't think it would be good for the group but it's my decision to make, or are you hinting that my suppression of such might be overturned or it could get me infractions?

A little criticism is not going to hurt anyone.

I specifically said certain types for a reason. For instance if one were to say, "the last episode of Dirty Jobs was disappointing", I would be okay with that.

However, if one were "I don't like Mike Rowe at all, I find him obnoxious", then I would feel justified in barring that person from the group. Because the group is for fans of Mike Rowe and that person is not a fan of Mike Rowe.

This si beside the point though, see below.

But if a person does it so much to the point of disrupting the purpose of the group, then you could make a case for it.

Well, my question isn't to describe specific cases, more to talk about what group admins are allowed to do. If we make a rule, do we have to justify it to you or the moderators?

For instance, let's say I announced in my group that all posts henceforth must be in Garamond font and proceeded to delete any offending posts in other fonts, let's say I also kick out members who post in something other than Garamond repeatedly. Wise or not, is this my prerogative as group admin to make such a rule or would I be subject to overrule by moderators?

 

[ainwood]

It is probably best that if you have problems with people in your group, that you PM a mod or an admin.

 

[Birdjaguar]

If the purpose of starting a group is more to invest yourself with admin powers and be controlling than to have discussions that accommodate many members, then I think you are in it for the wrong reasons. If you anticiapte that you will be banning particular people because of the rules you set, then you are probably in the wrong also. See ainwood's post.