I have belonged to a very popular forum message board for a number of years. Because of the size of the community and the type of board it is, they had to set up a number of rules.
As the years went on, and the board became even more "infamous", they had to go as far as implementing a warning system for posters (that only the individual and the mods can see). It's a tough site, and they really enforce the rules. At the same time, because of this, it has been a very successful board for such a huge community. It has it's drawbacks, but if you understand the philosophy and the rules of the site, you do fine.
They have a FAQ on the things that have been mentioned in this thread. And it's really easy to see why these help the threads run smoothly.
Many in this thread mention that a pet peeve is people not reading the prior posts in the thread. At this other site that's the 15/15 rule. You need to read 15 pages of a thread, (some of their threads have 60 pages for one topic). They set up this rule because they feel everyone's time is valuable, and no one is more important than the others. Of course, people still can skim, and some probably don't read it, but they do give warnings to people who ask a question that has been answered 52 times prior to their post. Or announce, "I haven't read the other posts but..." Actually, they will go as far to delete such a post.
Another peeve I see mentioned here is the off-topic or clique type posts. They prevent this with the "No boards on boards rule" and the "No meta rule". They are strict in adhering to the topic at hand.
Also mentioned here is the multiple topics on the same thing. TPTB at the other site insist that you search all topics in the drop down window or by using the "Show All Topics" link. Then if there is no topic, you can start a new one. It's a totally different set up there, so it's not as overwhelming as I'm making it sound.
They have some other interesting things in the FAQ, like the "Don't um...me" rule, as well as "It's not a personal thing, so don't take it that way" rule. Also, the "Just because someone disagrees with you, it doesn't make them a troll" is a fun read.
Anyway, it's not a sight for everyone, but I have enjoyed it. And it seems to help eliminate the problems that are being listed here.
I try to adhere to what I've learned there.
