General

@Burning Well said. We don't have access to the actual numbers related to Basilmarket, but just anecdotal evidence tends to concur with what you posted about the game companies' experiences.
The vast majority of Basilmarket users spend their time posting and reading and never get suspended more than once (if at all).
Then there are the "special" ones, and those are the ones you hear VERY vocally complaining almost daily, making it sound like EVERYONE on Basilmarket is just writhing under the evil bonds of the rules.

Like @0kevqn said, I was suspended a few times before becoming a Moderator, but I learned the limitations of this community and learned to work within them.

@UAPaladin That's not actually true. If you read the comments in this thread you'll find a lot of people don't feel that way. The loud vocal minority that can't seem to figure out how to type without cursing (what a waste of time, having to actually type out curse words, or figure out ways to bypass a filter just to be able to curse) or put their trolling in the section PROVIDED for them to troll in make it sound like there's a lot more people upset about having to follow a list of rules that you'll find on practically any other site on the Internet.

As Pavchka and Burning mentioned, ad serving companies like Google AdSense have their own rules about content on the sites that carry their ads. If a site wants to carry their ads and get paid for it, they can't allow open cursing, software piracy discussions, illegal activities and a whole list of other stuff. A site which wants to be an "official" Maplestory Fan Site has to follow Nexon's rules as well.
The idea of a "wild west" site where "anything goes" is simply impractical in the Internet world of today unless you can afford to foot the bill totally by yourself.

I agree that the rules are strict and would like to loosen them up a great deal, but I'd like to also explain [i]why[/i] they're that strict.

1. Many users are rather hot-headed; if you as much as glance weirdly in their direction, they'll hit you back with a table. And call their buddies to hit you with their tables as well. That's why rule #1 is pretty extreme. Threads are easily derailed by fighting Basilers.

2. Every site that's been acknowledged by whatever thing they're a fansite of, whether it's MapleStory or something else, develops strong spamming/trolling rules because they want to be taken seriously. They're afraid a spamming and trolling community with a zero attention span will make the overall site look unreliable. I've seen this happen on not only Basil, but also on SOMDA (Dutch trainspotters forum) and D5Z (theme park fansite that knows the park is watching). I ended up quitting some sites because of their rigidity.
2.1. If someone does anything "unusual", like mess up their spelling or use a gimmick, people feel the compulsive need to point that out, derailing the thread. That sucks if you're the Thread Starter and you're actually looking for an answer.

3. As an official fansite, we have to observe the ToU as well.

4. Google AdSense's requirements

Ages ago there was a Tumblr sort of thing attached to Basil that was called Profil3 which hardly had any rules. You could swear and spam and stuff. The main differences between Profil3 and Basil were that Profil3 wasn't connected to MapleStory and that it didn't feature ads and thus didn't have to meet AdSense's list of Thou Shallt Nots.
I'd give real money to get Profil3 back for a bunch of reasons.

--------

Thank you for posting this, TrampMonkey. I've been wanting to post a thread like this for quite some time now, but I couldn't.

The rules hold up well in help threads where it's usually obvious if someone is not being civil or has malicious intent.

Those rules are fuzzier when applied to silly discussion controversial topics.

Most of the forum sections revolve around the former obviously pertaining to ways to play Maplestory. It seems most of the problems arise when those who like the sillier side of the community forget their place when posting in serious discussion. There are also posters who are "loud" and can sway public perception, but what they don't realize is that they are a vocal minority.

For outside examples, there are a few cooperative competitive multiplayer games that implement punishment systems. A few of those games' developers shared their findings. Both Valve and Riot Games have noted that the vast majority of their punished players are single instance offenders. It can be reasonably concluded that most people realize their problem in hindsight and take their punishment without sharing the fact to anyone else. Players who are outright vocal about their punishments and critics of rules represent a small minority while also tending to be or become multiple offenders. However, these vocal players do tend to skew the public perception.

[url=http://blog.dota2.com/2013/05/communication-reports/]DOTA 2[/url]
-[i]...Less than the 1% of the active player base (players who have played Dota 2 in the last month) are currently banned.[/i]
[i]60% of players who receive bans go on to modify their behavior and don't receive further bans...[/i]

[url=http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2011/12/loltribunal.jpg]League of Legends #1[/url]
-[i]1.4% of all players have been punished by the Tribunal[/i]
[i]Over 50% of all punished players never reoffend![/i]

[url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/239318/More_carrot_less_stick_Jeffrey_Lin_on_tweaking_League_of_Legends_player_behavior.php]League of Legends #2[/url]
-[i]Even though a small minority is truly negative, they can control your community's perception by themselves. It just takes - and this is really interesting - 11 percent of negative posters on a forum discussion to just change the direction of the forum discussion.[/i]

Do I think there is a problem with Basilmarket's rules?
I do think they are fine for the most part, but the enforcement is inconsistent and I feel that's because moderators aren't always checking the context of the thread a report is coming from. I'm actually in support for looser regulation of silly discussion.

As for drugs, sexual content, and software piracy. Well I know Google withholds payments from its advertisements if its system detects those kinds of questionable content.

[quote=sparkshooter]I just remembered who you are. Aren't you that ex-moderator?[/quote]
...perhaps...

[quote=xDracius]This site is designed to be safe for children, etc; which is why we can't curse, and a lot of random memes that have occurred on this site have been blocked as well (If Roblox is any indication, kids love to spew cool internet memes). Now you have 7 year olds with iPhones, 10 year olds screaming about screwing some stranger's mother over CoD on various voice chats, etc.

We're not sheltering them by preventing people from cursing and insulting and whatnot; we're only deluding ourselves by thinking there's anything left to shelter these children on the Internet from. Blah blah if we're perpetuating what is already a bad thing by having a lenient filter, they should get out and go to Tumblr to circlejerk about being triggered and oppressed by this foul language.

MapleStory is far past its prime. There are less and less people joining the game, and the community now consists of older teens who are playing for that nostalgic feeling. Those who have been using Basil are definitely old enough to handle a swear every now and again too. We're not a bunch of impressionable little kids, and at this rate, there's not going to be any impressionable little kids joining this site (Official Nexon forums, still holding my breath).[/quote]
I can agree with this to an extent. Maple is always gonna cater to a wide age range. The issue is that the game has changed and, along with that, Basil's primary service of auctions is well past its usefulness. It'd probably be better to transition Basil into a straight-up forum (something I was not a fan of in the past, go figure). Times have changed, and I no longer think it's practical to be speaking to one another like we're 10.

[quote=UAPaladin]I'm pretty sure that mostly everybody agrees that the rules are too strict. Mr. B needs to recognize that basically everybody on this site is above 16 years old and the average age is like 18-22 I think.[/quote]
Maybe not everybody, but it should be a requirement to be at least 14 or something. From there, we could loosen up some of the current restrictions. Unfortunately, that's not up to us. =/

[quote=Quasar]@Xiscis: You too for quoting someone that breaks the rules, but then again one my comics had the word badass and it was accepted and I never got suspended for it.[/quote]

Idc if i get banned or Perm banned.
The mods will ban just because you did a little bad
Like that is having a police arrest you for Jay Walking
Like 315million/317million of the people in the US jay walk, do it everyday feel like a badass

@Xiscis: You too for quoting someone that breaks the rules, but then again said ass multiple times (without directly attacking someone) and never got suspended for it.

I'm pretty sure that mostly everybody agrees that the rules are too strict. Mr. B needs to recognize that basically everybody on this site is above 16 years old and the average age is like 18-22 I think.

[quote=Quasar]The rules are only strict if you wanna be a jerkass.[/quote]

You said ass
Sorry vulgar language is not allowed
I hope mods put the ban hammer on your butt
I said hell last time and got a 3 day

The rules are only strict if you wanna be a jerkass.

Gross, why do you have an avatar now?

It's extremely pathetic but I don't like being suspended so I learned the limits so I know what will and wont get me suspended

This site is designed to be safe for children, etc; which is why we can't curse, and a lot of random memes that have occurred on this site have been blocked as well (If Roblox is any indication, kids love to spew cool internet memes). Now you have 7 year olds with iPhones, 10 year olds screaming about screwing some stranger's mother over CoD on various voice chats, etc.

We're not sheltering them by preventing people from cursing and insulting and whatnot; we're only deluding ourselves by thinking there's anything left to shelter these children on the Internet from. Blah blah if we're perpetuating what is already a bad thing by having a lenient filter, they should get out and go to Tumblr to circlejerk about being triggered and oppressed by this foul language.

MapleStory is far past its prime. There are less and less people joining the game, and the community now consists of older teens who are playing for that nostalgic feeling. Those who have been using Basil are definitely old enough to handle a swear every now and again too. We're not a bunch of impressionable little kids, and at this rate, there's not going to be any impressionable little kids joining this site (Official Nexon forums, still holding my breath).

I just remembered who you are. Aren't you that ex-moderator?

[quote=AbsymalTorment]The site needs to update the rules to fit into todays society.[/quote]
Care to elaborate? I'm not sure I understand where you're coming from.

[quote=SirKibbleX2]I just don't see why masking letters for inappropriate words is suspend-able, the game itself masks letters, and those who already know the word can see through it, those that can't won't be able to know (and if they somehow find out, they are at much risk for knowing on this forum as in the game itself). Overusing the masking letters like a buncha bleeps I'd consider as spam though.

The fun chat is a field, and rule 2 are land mines placed in said field. Where does it end? It ain't limited.
Sometimes when you are " Bored" and "Feeling random" you might accidentally step on a mine. I wouldn't be surprised if @Killeem and @Bowls get suspended commonly for how they type.
Sometimes you didn't even want to go to that field, mr bot puts you there and maybe he places you right on a mine.[/quote]
I'm in agreement with the censors. From what I can recall, mrbasil commonly states that MapleStory is a game with a young audience, so we have to speak assuming we're talking to the youngest possible player. I understand his premise, but it's probably not safe for a person 10 or under to be posting on online forums...

As for Fun, I believe that threads that make some sort of game, like "funniest joke wins" or whatever are [i]technically[/i] supposed to be posted in Fun and not Chat. But if you ask me, having Fun is redundant and all that stuff should be allowed in Chat.

@CharlieAQ: Gonna argue semantics here and say that unless you know for sure that mrbasil and the mods are, indeed, suffering from a mental illness, it's probably not true lol. Not to mention that's a rather insensitive word that no one should be using in any situation.

@Xiscis: Saw this comment after I posted. It's a rather bothersome technicality, but if you quote a bad post, chances are you'll be hit with something, too. I usually just tag a person (like what I'm doing to you) without the quoted text to stay safe. Annoying and unnecessary? Probably. But then again, is it really harming you in any way to be replying to someone in a different manner?

EDIT 2: Apologies, I'm sort of coming off as a know-it-all here. I guess I kind of want to let people know if there's something they can do to avoid harsh suspensions, while at the same time genuinely trying to figure out if current complaints are any different from the past.

[quote=CharlieAQ]I get suspended if I call the mods retarded or Mr basil extra retarded.

So strict, they need to man up and stop crying cause they get called stuff that is true, geez[/quote]

Cya in two days
Well i will porb get a 3 days for this too
Mods are straight power hungry
This is how Tyrants rise to power.
Abuse it more mods, sooner or later we will

[quote=CharlieAQ]I get suspended if I call the mods retarded or Mr basil extra retarded.

So strict, they need to man up and stop crying cause they get called stuff that is true, geez[/quote]
You're not allowed to call other Basilers retarded either, it doesn't just apply to moderators.

The site needs to update the rules to fit into todays society.