The Psychiatric Ward

Threads are only to be closed if:
1. the thread or selection of subject is a violation of or deprecated under board rules, or the last post in the thread was made two (2) days or less before introduction of the otherwise infringed rule;
2. it is judged that rules have otherwise been broken too often within the thread to continue with the intended discussion (if the thread led off with flames or pointless spam, you should simply delete the thread);
3. it is judged that posts has gone too astray from the topic of the thread, or the thread title is intended to pander or gain unwarranted attention;
4. it is judged that the thread has become too hard to trawl through due to the number of pages, in which case it should be made accessible by a link in the first post of the thread to replace it;
5. the thread is a pinned regulation thread where replies to which can be sorted out elsewhere (such as the Suggestions and Problems board);
6. the thread’s last post has been made more than thirty (30) days after the previous post and less than five (5) days before moderation, and the board has more than five (5) pages of history;
4 | Moderator Guidelines
7. a post is made on a thread after a new thread with the same topic has been made thirty (30) or more days after the previous post on the thread to be closed; and/or
8. the thread carries on a topic of a thread posted in less than thirty (30) days before, in which case the older thread should be bumped if not on the first page of the roster (if the thread is a duplicate un-der these rules but is judged to have been created as a result of hitting the Back or Refresh button (also known as a POSTDATA error), which can be determined by looking at the timestamps for the leading posts of each thread, the thread may be deleted unless members have posted in it).



Threads should only be deleted if:
1. they lead off with excessive swearing or defamation, or the topic is rooted solely in such;
2. they are the result of a post refresh error (see ‘Closing threads’ 8);
3. the first post is nothing but spam; and/or
4. the topic promotes illegal or immoral activity as defined in ‘Member infractions and consequences’.



Threads should only be pinned if they constitute anything that:
1. should be read first and foremost before posting in the forum, such as forum rules;
2. heralds a forum-wide impersonal announcement, in which it should not be pinned for more than thirty (30) days; and/or
3. consolidates any subject of threads that are smothering the forum, such as favourite character or level, provided that there has been a history of such threads smothering the forum, or constitutes a forum utility, such as rating videogame sports teams or discussion, wrestling ‘brand’ threads, or graphics, music or other competitions.



Posts should be deleted if they:
1. contain inflammatory language;
2. are consolidated into a larger post or message;
3. are out of any posting format prescribed by the forum; and/or
4. otherwise do not contribute anything useful to the topic and the deletion of the post can be ex-plained without quoting anything from the post.