Update: The Rude! button is now superseded by the Report button. Please read this post for more details:
Hi everyone,
BLF is known as a friendly and welcoming forum, and my intention is for it to stay that way. Fortunately, the vast majority of our users try their best to cooperate with BLF Rule #1 :
However, lately it seems that a small number of BLF users are flagrantly breaking this all-important rule, causing hurt feelings, fights, major headaches for me, and a generally unpleasant atmosphere for everyone.
I’m willing to give these users the benefit of the doubt by assuming that they are behaving in such a rude manner without understanding how their words are perceived by others.
However, I would like to be very clear that BLF Rule #1 always has been and will continue to be enforced.
To help users get a general feeling of how their posting style is perceived by others, I have made a new Rude! button available on all posts. This button should only be used on posts that are rude, lewd or conflictive . (The spam button continues to function normally, and should only be used for clear cases of spam.) The Rude! button does two things:
## Adds to a “My Rudeness Level” counter for the user that created the post. (The counter goes up immediately, but slowly ticks down every day, provided that the user doesn’t get any more clicks against him/her.) You can see your personal “My Rudeness Level” in a meter below your “User Menu” on the left-hand side. Users can not see other users’ “My Rudeness Level”, but I can, and I will be frequently checking the scores.
## A given post that many different users flag as Rude! will be automatically removed.
Please keep in mind that there are always a certain number of false hits by accident or by somebody that simply doesn’t like you, so there is no need to contact me if your “My Rudeness Level” counter goes up slightly and you’re pretty sure you’ve been acting politely. It will automatically go back down within 24 hours. However, if your counter keeps going up, you probably need to take to make immediate changes to your posting style to avoid me taking appropriate manual action on a case-by-case basis.
If your “Rudness Level” meter goes up, you can see which posts were flagged and how many times:
http://budgetlightforum.com/my-problem-posts
Please also remember that one of the valid reasons to use the Rude! button is when a user is being conflictive. This includes starting, engaging in, or otherwise responding to arguments. The best way to stop an argument or make somebody stop trolling is by completely ignoring the post(s) and using the Rude! button when warranted. Also, please do not quote other users’ rude posts, since doing so only gives additional publicity to their rudeness.
Also, please remember that BLF is not Reddit or Slashshot, and I don’t want it to turn into that either. So please do not use the Rude! button just because you don’t like or don’t agree with the post or the poster. It is intended exclusively for use on rude, lewd, or conflictive posts.
I sincerely hope that this new measure will raise awareness in the BLF community about the seriousness of rude behavior. Thanks to everyone that uses the new button appropriately, and thanks even more to the vast majority of BLF users that do their best to be polite and follow BLF Rule #9 :