Rules!
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For every forum you click on, the rules of the forum should flash up at the bottom right or left of your screen. I.e., where the wasted grey areas are. Say, the feedback thread posts up what NOT to post and what is rejected and will forrever be rejected. Too many people keep posting things that will never come to be because they don't manually find the rules. It's annoying seeing new threads, yet they always post the same "additions" over and over again.
I work on a gaming website and have it so the rules flash up in the bottom right next to our arrowchat. It works... if only sometimes.
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Maybe if it had the text above the typing field, as recommended above, and in that text it had links to rejected ideas, rules etc.? Otherwise it might end up with a pretty big rule box in some cases.
But yeah whatever form it may take, I think it's a good idea -
Something like this would only need to be in the new thread UI. It might be nice, maybe it would prevent a few threads but I don't really see that much of a problem. It definitely makes sense to do what boxmein said and put it above the textbox instead of on the edges of the screen.
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I like the idea @boxmein proposed. To solve the problem @coryman mentioned, the small notice/note above the text area should only summarise the most important things and have a link leading to the main rules thread for more details. It's like how we have a huge thread explaining save reporting rules, and a much smaller notice above the report dialog summarising all that.
It could also be made so that the user can stop those notices from showing again, pretty much like what a lot of programs do.
It would also be nice if the notice had different information depending on what the user is doing, so for example, if a user was making a new thread in the feedback section, the notice could list things not to suggest, and also mention how to suggest properly. If a user was making a new post for the first time, it could mention that new posts can only be made after 24 hours and that offensive or useless posts shouldn't be made. If a user was posting in a very old thread, a warning would appear asking to reconsider before making the post, since it could be considered as a necro and lead to a ban.
