Silver Fern Posting Rules

[Duluth]

These were written by a few of the mods over the last week. The vast majority of people already follow these.

If you want a tldr: don't be a dick and we're primarily here to talk about sport

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1. Play the ball, not the man
   Go hard on the rugby takes, selections, and tactics, not on the people posting them. Personal attacks and cheap shots won’t be tolerated. Your posts will get deleted, and you might get sent to the judiciary.

2. Keep the language reasonable
   We’re all adults, and a bit of swearing is fine, without it becoming gratuitous. Just don’t overdo it — some members browse at work, and we’d like to keep the site out of trouble and accessible for those work-shy bastards-...people.

3. Match threads are for match action
   Live scores, ref reactions, and in-the-moment commentary belong in the designated rugby match threads within the dedicated sub-forum. There’s no need to post running updates across the rest of the forum - we all have access to live scoring, whether it be on TV, apps or news sites, and if someone is interested in said event, they'll already be following it.

4. Respect paywalls and content rights
   Don’t post full articles, screenshots, or copied content from paywalled sources. Short excerpts (two full paragraphs max) and your own summaries of an article for discussion are fine, but you must link back to the original article (even if it's paywalled). Do not post links to sites/pages that offer ways around paywalls.

5. Stay on topic - the forum isn't a glorified DM exchange.
   Threads should stay focused on their original subject. If you want to talk about something else, start a new thread. Off-topic back-and-forths or private banter between a few posters may be removed, and repeat offenders will be off to the sin bin.

6. Contribute something worthwhile
   Aim to add value — insight, well-placed humour, or informed opinion. Low-effort posting, spam, or repeatedly pushing the same take across multiple threads may be trimmed.

7. No Politics
   We tried. It didn't work.

8. AI has its place
   We appreciate that AI will play an increasing role in our day-to-day activities (these rules were even finessed by AI), but there is absolutely no value in in copying and pasting a chapter-and-verse AI strategy on a subject or overly verbose AI missive. People won't read it and excessive scrolling to get past it does no one any favours. Feel free to use it to tidy up your posts before submitting them, or to help you gather your thoughts though.

9. Moderation isn’t up for debate
   Mods will make calls to keep the forum running smoothly. If you have concerns, raise them privately rather than in-thread.

10. Don’t be a fluffybunny
    Banter is welcome; being a dick isn’t. If you wouldn’t say it face-to-face over a beer in the pub after the game, don’t post it here.