The Rules (of posting)

1. Criticise constructively.  While I encourage comments about other people’s work, don’t be a crabbypants about it.  If you don’t like a story, say why; tell the writer how he or she could improve it, instead of just being a big meany.
2. Write often!  Otherwise the site has no point to it.
3. Use proper English, or as proper as you can.  Not everyone speaks English as a first language.  Reading “omg i av nvr luvd u soooo much!±1″ is much harder than “Oh my God, I have never loved you so much!” for a non-native speaker.  This isn’t a text message, an instant messenger or a chatroom, it’s an exercise in creativity and mastery of the English language.  Plus, I hate it.  
4. Keep swearing to a minimum.  I have no objection to the odd f-word every now and again, as long as it’s natural (not just thrown in for good measure).  If you have more than one instance of “vulgar” language, please add “Warning: profanity” to the top of your post. Keep swearing out of the first couple of sentences, please, so people don’t read “Warning: profanity” immediately followed by “sh*itb**bs”. I don’t mind you starring things out, just please apply common sense.
5. Be patient. The first time you post, your comment/story is held back until I tell the site you’re not a spammer.  Sometimes I’ll do in a minute, sometimes a day.  I have a life, too.
6. Keep it fiction(ish).  If your friend Kayleigh annoys you, don’t write a story named “Kayleigh is a Cowbag”. It’s rude. By all means write about your life, but disguise it in such a way that your boss/mother/friend won’t read it and know it’s them. Again, apply common sense.
7. Don’t be a prick.  Any discrimination based on race, creed, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, affectional orientation, gender, employment status, cultural identity, ability, disability, intelligence, level of written English, marital status and so on will incur the wrath of… me.  While this is probably not as scary as the wrath of God, I can still ban your IP address, and will announce that I have done so (without mentioning any private information) to make an example of you. If it’s a character being racist (for example), that’s probably okay if it’s part of the story. If I think it’s you speaking through the mouth of a character, the whole wrath thing may come into play. See Rule 6.

I’m not going to be a maniac about applying them, as most of them are common sense and good manners.  The only ones that’ll really get your botty smacked are 3, because I have a linguistics degree and am really anal about things like that; and 6, because I will not tolerate that kind of stupidity.