Thread 6030

Is there a sitewide policy on the mentioning of user-created communities on 4chan, assuming they are not at the moment being aggressively viraled or actively spawning drama? These can include:

- single-purpose communities (wikis, radio streams, download bot real-time chats, multiplayer matchmaking real-time chats)
- project-based communities (real-time chats or dedicated forums for coordinating particular projects)
- topic-based communities (real-time chats, forums, or imageboards for specific series or topics)
- 4chan-substitute communities (imageboards that attempt to serve as substitutes for existing 4chan boards)

Real-time chats usually being either IRC or discord channels. I think that different boards usually handle these in different ways and would like to know what the policy is.

I would say that discussing or creating any non-4chan community is either off-topic or advertising with a few exceptions.

The exceptions to this would be an "organic" kind of high-effort community. Something like this:
>http://4chanmusic.wikia.com/wiki/Sticky
comprised of people compiling information and advice from the users of 4chan itself, for no personal gain. This kind of community is something to encourage.
You also get collaborative projects, for example /lit/ writing and self-publishing a book with the work taking place outside the site, or /v/'s musicals, or boorus for art from drawthreads, etc.

The distinctive thing about these is that they're productive, project-based communities that identify with the 4chan community. a radio stream would probably be okay, as long as it's composed with the 4chan community in mind and is on-topic to the board. Any new community being discussed should show signs of being project-based and productive to the topic of the board, and NOT just "another place to talk about X topic."
Mods should probably be involved if you're having trouble with any of these project communities, like the /k/ patch salesmen or drama about multiplayer servers or something, (i don't know a lot about these particular topics, just using them as examples)

Also, if a site/community is brought up as a passing recommendation, that's not against the rules as long as its not blatant, you can use your own judgement and knowledge on that.

This isn't /policy/ but it's how I do things and how I see others do them, I hope that helps.

>>6031
I think that any community or project that is creative or has a purpose other than just discussion ("just another place to talk about X topic") should be linkable from 4chan whether or not it is a 4chan creation. 4chan should always err on the side of helping users create or accomplish things, whether or not they are 4chan-branded.

Assuming that the community is "about the topic", I don't think the "off-topic" category should be used except for cases in which people are making truly off-topic posts (such as pointless drama spilling over into 4chan), and I think the advertising category should be be cautiously reserved for blatant / aggressive pushes. The hammer can always be dropped at a later time and I think that users should feel encouraged to try and organize themselves to useful ends as long as they're not being shitheads about it.

>Mods should probably be involved if you're having trouble with any of these project communities.
I am mostly looking for there to be a unified policy because I have seen crackdowns that I disagreed with, as opposed to wanting a crackdown that's not happening. If I wanted to get rid of something I'd just BR it for advertising and BR the fallout too. Of course I would personally prefer that the policy be one of lenience but if word of mod says that the policy should be strict at least I'll have closure on it.

>>6032
naturally we should be lenient. I'm more talking about topic posts than reply posts here. Reply posts should always be given more leeway. I always try to use warns as well unless the posting is flagrantly bad

>I am mostly looking for there to be a unified policy
No two situations are alike and 4chan's rules have always been up to some level of interpretation as things change. "It depends." You can keep asking but I don't think you'll get an answer that will satisfy you.