While it wasn't decided that a formal "Lurker Code of Conduct" needed to be adopted for the game, this post from Krill (largely the creation of Ruff Hi) in the PB2 forum sums up the expectations the community has of lurkers and how they should behave with regard to the players in the game:
That list is by no means exhaustive. Just try to act in the spirit of those guidelines and as my grandfather would say, post "like you got a damn bit a sense in your head boy."
Quote:To all lurkers in this forum, that read more than one spoiler thread.
This thread is here to outline the expectations of how lurkers will behave in this forum, for this game. Ideally, Realms Beyond is a self policing community that is capable of governing itself by consensus, but there are some unbreakable rules that it is not acceptable to knowingly break; nor is ignorance of the community expectations an acceptable excuse.
This thread is posted so that newcomers to the community can quickly understand the community ideology, which is simple: No Spoilers.
Below is a basic list of what lurkers should and should not do. It is by no means an exhaustive list, and is written to illustrate basic ideas of idealised lurker behaviour. Failure to follow the rules may result in a warning via PM (mistakes happen). Repeated failure to follow accepted behaviour will result in the incident being referred to the site admins.
All posts in this forum are read by multiple posters, players and lurkers alike. If anything untoward is posted, it will be brought up, and commented on.
Ultimate administrative responsibility for PB4 resides with Gold Ergo Sum as game admin, i.e. I keep the game running and sort out out of game issues. If any spoiler issues arise, I am the one that deals with them. If you have any issues about something that you want to post, or that you think someone else has posted it, do 2 things: 1) quote it in the No players thread, and ask for other peoples opinion, or 2) Contact the original poster and myself, and we will take it from there.
GENERAL GUIDELINES:
1) Lurkers may respond to civ4 mechanics questions (eg how many turns for a worker to chop a forest? Why didn't my cottage grow? How does the AP work?)
2) Lurkers may congratulate players on achieving a goal (eg Well done on getting that city spot)
2a) However, don't reveal unnecessary information on your comment (eg Well done on getting that city spot - I really thought that Greece was going to get it)
3) Lurkers may participate in option discussions but only after the player has articulated the options and only to the extent of pointing out additional strengths / weaknesses of options that the player might have missed.
3a) Lurkers should NOT suggest additional options that the play might have missed - do not give strategic or tactical advice that isn't known previously
3b) Lurkers should NOT express opinions about various options - ditto
4) Lurkers may express opinions on player agreed rules, but should also point out that rules agreed by the players should be discussed by the players
5) Lurkers may ask a team to explain their opinion about in game situations and developments, but must do this without writing leading questions, or implying information gained from other spoiler threads. It may be wiser to ask how to phrase such a question in the no players thread already, before posting it in a spoiler thread. Basically, be careful.
6) Lurkers may not ask sequence questions -
7) Lurkers may ask for screenshots.
Lurkers shall not contact players regarding RBPB2 outside this forum by any means.
That list is by no means exhaustive. Just try to act in the spirit of those guidelines and as my grandfather would say, post "like you got a damn bit a sense in your head boy."
