04 Sep 2009, 9:46 am
I think it might be a good idea to have explanations to go along with the WP rules.. I've noticed sometimes people will just quote rules as though they've been pulled out of thin air, even when there are really good rationales for those rules. There have been at least several posts where people complained about not being able to delete accounts or change names, but usually the response is just "No, that's against site policy." Then what Merle said in the "I hate this site" thread about trust and being able to recognize people really made sense. I guess especially since aspies have problems recognizing people and intentions, it's more important here than it is most other places.
I guess maybe since I haven't been on WP all that long, I may have come in in the middle of some issues, so if I see someone being told something and it seems harsh to me because it's the first time I've seen them told that, but it's actually the fifth time they've been told and have been given a good explanation the first several times, it would be hard for me to recognize what was actually going on. I always find it disturbing to see rules that seem arbitrary or pointless, it makes me wonder if something is going to get turned against me.. But the more I look around I'm seeing that the things that have at some points seemed arbitrary just looked that way because someone who wanted to get around the rules was trying to make them look that way, or because a moderator was getting impatient telling someone the same thing for the bazillionth time. (or both)
I guess part of it is my fault that I don't tend to read message board rules, but part of that is just because usually they're the same from place to place. Sometimes something saying "Attention-- A Few Slightly Unusual Rules" or something like that will be more likely to get my attention so I understand the what and why of things that differ from the usual "don't spam, don't flame, don't post huge pictures right into the thread" that you see on every forum.
I hope that makes sense.. 
