2014-08-13 [Skydancer]: And yes, I am fully aware of the issues of having a way to check that they have such permissions. A system has evolved on DA that helps a bit in that you are notified when one of your works is used or mentioned. And we as a community watch out for each other a lot. The DA staff as such does not enforce the rules, unless they are contacted with a complaint against a piece or an artist, then they will remove that image if they find that it contains material not allowed or they do not have the permissions to upload such in the first place.

2014-08-14 [Stephen]: It sounds like a good system, but I don't really know how we would carry something like that out on Elftown.

2014-08-14 [Yncke]: Perhaps drop the "Try to write in correct English with proper words, capitalization and grammar. No netspeak, because this is a presentation, not a chat-message! " sentence from the register page? It sounds unfriendly and even aggressive.

(Do applications still have to be approved before you gain entrance to Elftown?)

2014-08-14 [Figgy]: Unfortunately, I think a lot of Elftown's rules and statements can sound unfriendly, snarky, and aggressive :/

The "Don't be an asshole" rule is a GREAT example.
To us oldies, it's not so bad, since we've known this rule for 10+ years. But to a newcomer, I could see it sounding... assholeish. >_>

That is my opinion, of course. I bet a majority of the rules could be rewritten to at least sound more professional and friendly.

2014-08-14 [Yncke]: "Don't be an asshole" feels like a no nonsense rule, in my opinion, it has its charm. But that red text, I'm not sure if I'd be inclined to subscribe to Elftown, today, with that above the application form.

2014-08-14 [Mortified Penguin]: A lot of the things you consider unfriendly sounding and aggressive are part of what made me like Elftown in the first place. It made it seem more down to earth than other sites and not so stuck up and obsessed with formality. [Hedda]'s informal way of wording things made me feel more free to speak my mind and act like myself when I joined Elftown, which in turn made me want to stick around and come here more often.

2014-08-14 [Stephen]:
[Yncke]: Yes, applications do still need approval, although we are more lax in what we do approve than we use to be.

[Figgy]: The "don't be an asshole" rule was modified on other sites to sound a bit less... aggressive in title and it hasn't really seemed to have made an impact. Although I haven't seen the application page in a while, that may be something to check into..

Mort: We're trying to do a balance between what we are, and what we'd need to be in order to continue being a functioning site. Elftown is currently more "alive" than it has been in some time and it's really not that alive tbh. Though most of us senior members like the system, it's not working to ensure members join to replace the ones who stop being active.
We don't want the site to die.

2014-08-14 [Figgy]: I suppose I'm simply always for rewriting and updating things. There's always room for improvement. :)

2014-08-15 [Mortified Penguin]: This is the time of year people briefly become more active. Elftown generally follows the same trends as B's D.

2014-08-15 [Stephen]: July seemed pretty slow this year. :P

Let's keep up the activity. x3

2014-08-27 [Sagacious Turkey]: What is an asshole? (visual approximation: * )

There you go, I helped solve one of Elftown's oldest mysteries.

What do you mean that's not what this is all about?!

2014-08-27 [Sagacious Turkey]: Ha ha, oh, I see now. This is a discussion about how much Elftown rules. Sorry, I can't believe I didn't read this more thoroughly!

Yeah! Elftown RULES!

2014-09-19 [pegasus1000]: I have always enjoyed the rules and how the crew would like elftown run. I would not make many changes but I do have a few suggestions.

Most of the rules pertain to what is and is not allowed in your house.

It would be nice to have a better break down of the rules
General Rules area to specify what is NEVER allowed on elftown as well as things that are expected everywhere on elftown.
Home Rules (and perhaps tell us why these rules are important)
Wiki Rules

G-2. Images in your house must be made by you or for you.

I think that this section can be confusing especially when it comes to fan art. You open yourself up to impatient people who don't want to read to the very bottom of the page. So you get a lot of “Would it be allowed for me to draw a pokemon and display it in my home? Do I need to say its reference? Would it be considered copied?” an so on.

Perhaps if this were at the top of the Copying vs fanart & referencing page as well as on the Rules page.

Copied art: Not allowed unless the original creator is well credited (and not allowed in official Competitions at all).
Referenced art: Allowed and it's welcome to credit the references, though not a must (unless the stock creators have asked to get credited, in that case it is a must).
Fanart: Allowed and it's welcome to credit the references, though it's not a must (unless the stock creators have asked to get credited, in that case it is a must).
Inspired art: Allowed, no crediting required, since you didn't use any reference (or at least you didn't use it very close).
Own art: Allowed.

Rule S-9. ASCII images are not allowed in your house. (ASCII art) is a bit excessive. I understand that they are really annoying but some people like these things and should be up to the home owner to say “I am annoying so look at this ASCII image”

2014-09-30 [Stephen]: [pegasus1000] - those are some very valid points.

Thanks! We'll make sure to take those into consideration.

(Sorry for the delay.)

2014-10-09 [~Valkyrie~]: I would like to point out that it's just as difficult to prove that an image was created by or for the person displaying it as it is to prove that they have permission to display it. It just seems to me to be one of those arbitrary lines that we draw. I mean, this is an artists' site, so you can't say that people can't display their own art, because there is no telling if it's really theirs. But to me, that makes it hard to say that they can't display an image for that very reason.

2015-10-06 [Lothuriel]: I've been away tooo long! 

2015-10-07 [Mortified Penguin]: Me too!

2015-10-11 [Sagacious Turkey]: How about we do the logical thing and get rid of all rules until Elftown recovers at least enough to warrant the existence of rules?

2015-11-16 [Stephen]: I'm not sure how logical that would be. =P

If you do have ideas on how to help out Elftown - that also happen to be within the abilities of the priv-system, feel free to shoot ideas at us, though.

2015-11-18 [~Valkyrie~]: One idea for helping out the site is letting new users in. I have a friend who set up a profile months ago and never got an email and cannot log on. I've messaged a couple council members who have been suggested to me and no one has gotten back to me about helping him.

2015-11-19 [Mortified Penguin]: You could just send them invite links, such as:

http://elftown.eu/i.html?code=mrFV7Pdj
http://elftown.eu/i.html?code=CX8GB28A
http://elftown.eu/i.html?code=2sKy4CCc
http://elftown.eu/i.html?code=cnZWzHD4
http://elftown.eu/i.html?code=XqSqvriX
http://elftown.eu/i.html?code=ZxX4Gewb

^{_{(see Invitations Guide for more information)}}