The following are some gripes with posting habits people have. Some of these are not rules and not paying attention to them won't get your posts deleted. Breaking others will get your posts deleted, and there are a couple we will happily ban you for ignoring. Use common sense, or, failing that, ask us.
Primarily, they're part of how you can make AD a more interesting place to read and post. This thread will be updated regularly, feel free to PM an AD moderator if you have some pet peeves you'd like added to the list. If you feel the need to make public comments, go ahead and make a thread so we can talk about it.
1) Posts directed at one or several mods calling for action. This is in reference to posts within threads calling for action on other posts in that thread. Rather than inflame what you believe to be a bad situation by furthering discussion on it, report the offending posts and let a moderator judge.
2) Lack of spelling and grammar. If you want people to read your posts having a semblance of either helps. Don't come with the 'not my first language' excuse, it just shows you aren't making an effort (though the problem is hardly limited to that subgroup, it often seems closer to the opposite).
3) Posts that are shorter than the proceeding sig. I don't think long sigs are an abomination, if I did I'd turn off sigs. However, when you make a post shorter than your sig, would you please turn it off? It looks really silly when people make one-line 'You're full of shit' replies and then have 10 line sigs. Feel free to make longer posts instead.
4) What happened to X thread or post? Making a thread asking about another thread is pretty dumb. Send a PM to a mod or find them on IRC and they can tell you. 'Why did you delete my post' crap comes under this. Learn to use the PM* buttom.
5) [no longer relevant]
6) PAteam posting stickies without consulting a mod. This goes for closing threads as well (though that's not much of a problem here.) This wounds my fragile ego and makes baby jesus cry.
7) Reporting threads asking for them to be closed, while still posting in them. Are you hoping for the last word or something? Oh, and whining about threads but not reporting them. Equally as terrible.
8) Overuse of animated smilies. I'd rather not get motion sickness while reading AD, thanks.
and
don't make good posts.
9) [no longer relevant]
10) Posts with less than five words. Use IRC for god's sake.
11) Posts claiming you're only here to troll or flame people and don't want to make reasonable posts.
THIS IS AGAINST THE RULES AND WILL RESULT IN YOUR ACCOUNT GETTING BANNED.
12) Using the strategy of claiming someone else is trolling in your posting. If you think a post is a troll, report it to a mod, rather than just extending a flamewar. If their views are inherently stupid, then you should find it fairly easy to counter them with some facts. This rule now applies to accusations on external sites, provided they are related to discussion on this forum.
13) Claiming someone is clueless when not telling them why.
14) Whining about negrep publicly on the forum.
15) Whining about a moderator's posts. What we post doesn't affect how we moderate and if you think otherwise you're
objectively wrong.
16) Whining about planet closures/deletions when they aren't related to whether a specific alliance is cheating/harbouring cheats - we are not a customer service forum, PD is the most obvious destination for this until PA team provide otherwise. Cheat posts will not be accepted unless they contain evidence and generally, multihunters close planets, not AD mods.
17) Whining that you are under heavy criticism and that it's simply unfair without trying to properly defend your position - see also gripe 13.
18) Don't finish your post with "flame away" or any variant of that phrase. This
encourages flaming and as such is a
bad thing. If you do this I'll hunt you down and kill you, your pets, and your extended family.
19) Any alliance trying to win arguments through a coordinated/concerted effort of sheer weight of numbers of posters will be classed as spamming. As such all participants forfeit the right to use the forum, and you will be collectively banned for the duration of that round, except for one spokesman for your alliance who will be a suitable person from your alliance chosen by the AD moderators.
20) [merged into rule 8]
21) Offensive links are now an instaban.
22) Your name is right next to your post; we know who posted it, nobody cares who you're
not representing.
* I'm trying to work for a mod that shows users who deleted their post, with a visible reason. However, anything to do with modding this board is incredibly difficult to get done.