Fan Forum - Board Rules Clarification: PLEASE READ AND RESPOND ALL POSTERS!

Dear posters of the Glee board,

It's come to the attention of the mods that some of the rules of this board need to be addressed to avoid further conflict. We've seen some problems in a multiple number of threads so we thought we would make a general statement to address these problems.

First, we have a no bashing policy on this board, which is why we don't allow anti-threads. The glee fandom is a big place, full of fighting and ship wars, but we want to keep this board free of any conflict. We want this board to be a safe haven all Glee fans can come to without the fear of having to see their favourite characters or ships bashed constantly. Thus, no bashing is allowed in any of the threads, including shipper threads or episode discussion threads. Additionally, bashing of actors or writers will not be tolerated at all, since it is a general rule of Fan Forum. Now, not to be alarmed, we're not saying you cannot talk about storylines, characters, or ships and point out confusion and problems with them - that's all allowed. Also, we're not discouraging discussion, but merely putting a limit on how far you can go with hate towards the storylines, characters or ships.

So here's a list of things that are not allowed:

Wishing death, physical violence or otherwise expressing extreme hate (bashing) on characters
Insulting real people including fanbases, writers and actors/actresses

Things that are allowed:

Criticizing and questioning the storylines/writing
Criticizing and questioning the actions/sayings/motives/storylines of a character
Criticizing and questioning how a pairing is being written
Stating civil reasons of preferring one pairing over another without bashing the other pairing
Expressing opinions on a song/performance, without forwardly insulting the actors/actresses.
Expressing concern about some actors/actresses not getting enough solos, while others have many.

Please try to discuss the show in a civil manner.

Secondly, spoilers can not be posted in any form on this board, seeing that it is a Fan Forum rule. Please post spoilers in the Glee thread on the Spoilers board, or on the S&S threads in respective Glee actors/actresses boards. Spoilers can not even be posted in sp tags other than in the 'What Glee song are you listening to?' thread where you can and should put a song spoiler in sp tags. Interviews can be posted from actors/actresses but any spoiler parts of the interviews should be in sp tags, or it would be wiser to link the interview. The same formula applies to tweets that have some spoilers within them, but are not entirely a spoiler.

What is considered a spoiler:

Promotional pictures
Sneak peaks
Anything from Glee wiki
Behind the scenes
Songs from the upcoming episode or albums (Note: They can be discussed once released on Itunes [which is usually the night before an episode] but not before then, and their performances (if seen in a sneak peak) cannot be discussed)
Storylines about upcoming guest stars.
Storylines of upcoming episodes unless shown in a promo.
Tweets from the actors about shooting specific scenes and/or recording specific songs.

What is not considered a spoiler:

Promos that have been shown on TV
Mentioning a certain guest-star is returning or coming on Glee (Note: You can not discuss their storylines, however)
Pictures of the actors/actresses on set if it is not a picture of their characters but of the actors or not suggesting any spoilers. If you are unsure, just link the photo instead of posting it.

Third, there's way too many characters/ships on this show, so to lessen the number of threads, we have certain guidelines for opening threads.

For shipping threads:

Must have romantic scenes - a kiss, a date, any kind of 'romantic' interaction from both parties where it's been implied there may be a future romance

For friendship threads:

Must have multiple scenes
Both or all characters must be regulars

All other friendships and ships can be discussed in the UC thread. Guest stars must be discussed in the guest star thread or the glee project thread (for TGP winners), they can't get their own thread unless they're major characters like Sam, Jesse, etc. If we find out TGP winners will be staying on Glee for Season 4, we will make threads for them then.

Thank you for reading this super long post, please respond that you've read and understood. We love all our posters here and we want everyone to feel welcomed without fear of having to enter another place where all they will see is hate and fighting amongst the fandom. We want to provide posters with that safe bubble they usually seek.