FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Forum and Wiki

  • Who can Administer a Forum?
  • Where do I find Help in how to use the forums?
  • Where do I find Help on using the Wiki?
  • How exactly do you define "advertising"? Isn't every link, every posting containing a name already advertising? And how can something non-commercial be considered advertising?
  • Why can't I post information concerning a good cause?
  • What about forums for Cities and Guilds? Do these rules apply there as well?
  • What about the policy "not mention names"? Doesn't it sound contradictory to forbid it in the fairness forum and on the other hand allow cities to post their 'Black Lists'?
  • The rules clearly state that "X" is forbidden, but I am allowed to do "Y"?
  • If we can not rely on the "letter of the law", how do I know what I can and cannot do? And does the last sentence pose a logical problem when it is applied to itself?
  • Are all these rules really necessary? Does the law enforce them?
  • What about my right to freedom of expression? Is this not censorship?

Who can Administer a Forum

Die Moderatoren der Foren werden von Nessi verwaltet, am besten eine Nachricht als PM im Forum senden. Änderungswünsche an den verschiedenen Foren werden

  • existing moderators of a respective forum
  • bei Stadtforen vom aktuellen Bürgermeister/Stellvertreter
  • The Guildmaster of a current Guild

are assumed

Where do I find help to use the Forum?

Help on using the forum or designing your postings can be found on the help pages of the forum.

Where do I find help on using the Wiki?

You can find this at Help on the Wiki and participate here also!

How exactly do you define advertising? Isn't every link, every posting containing a name already advertising? And how can something non-commercial be considered advertising?

First of all, advertising is defined by the purpose of the posting. If I want to share a website which I think might be funny or helpful for other users, this is considered normal talk between users and therefore considered as ok. But if I link to a page because it is maintained by a friend and he wants to have a lot of hits, the link is considered advertising and not ok. Advertising is not neccessarily connected to money or commercial uses. If a posting contains advertising is something only the poster knows. We count on the honesty of our users, but we reserve the right to delete postings we consider advertising, even if in a special case this might be an error.

Why can't I post information concerning a good cause?

Opinions differ widely over the question wheter a cause is a good one or not. And when these questions arise, the moderators of the BSW forum would have to check suitability and seriousness of the cause. This is simply too much work.

What about forums for cities and guilds? Do these rules apply there as well?

Generally speaking, yes, they do. Every forum here is part of the BSW forum and therefore subject to the same rules. But we have a certain degree of privacy and right of free decisions for single forums. If you read a forum of a group knowing each other, their tone can be disturbing, maybe it sounds a bit rough to a stranger or something like that. But that is their concern only. Even if they decide not to talk about certain things with outsiders, please respect that. But please keep in mind that everybody can read the whole forum - and when certain limits are pushed too far, someone might address the topic and react (maybe even without warning).

And what about the policy not to mention names? Doesn't it sound contradictory to forbid it in the fairness forum and on the other hand allow cities to post their 'Black Lists'?

We have to balance different interests and this is really a somewhat gray area. First of all nobody should be denounced publically until the Mediators have investigated the matter, verified the complaint and decided that this special case should be made known to the public. But on the other hand, cities can decide freely over their BL and should be granted the right to discuss this topic in their forum. Guilds should be able to discuss about conspicuous players when their game is involved even in a negative or controversial way. But it is important to discuss objectively and not to put people down (who normally do not even know about the thread). Keep the thread a working tool and do not form it into a pillory. Any method of advertising the thread is unwelcome as well.

Die Regeln sagen zwar klar und deutlich ?X? sei verboten, aber ?Y? muss ich doch dürfen?!

Im Prinzip schon, dafür sind es ja die Regeln. Aber: die BSW kann keine umfassenden Regelwerke wie die der wirklichen Gesetzgebung enthalten und das will letztlich auch niemand. Also gelten zu jeder Regel auch logische Erweiterungen ? wenn etwas nicht ins Forum soll, dann soll entsprechendes auch nicht verlinkt werden ? und es gilt im Zweifel das, was die Regel meint, nicht zwingend der genaue Wortlaut. Dazu gehört auch, dass der Versuch, an die äußersten Grenzen des ?erlaubten? zu gehen, schon ein Regelbruch sein kann, weil man dabei etwas tut, was an sich bekanntermaßen nicht erwünscht ist.

If we can not rely on the "letter of the law", how do I know what I can and cannot do? And does the last sentence pose a logical problem when it is applied to itself?

The second question first of all : when you do it on purpose, yes. To explain what we mean by that, it is easier to use an example : when I tell you "please do not smoke in my apartment, I'd be grateful if you would go out on the balcony" and if someone then goes a few millimeters behind the door to the balcony, turns and blows the smoke back into the apartment, he has respected the letter but not the spirit of the request. He will therefore cause me to be annoyed. In general, an incident with a personal attitude of "I defy you and use your own rules against you" is prohibited.

Are all these rules really necessary? Does the law enforce them?

Yes and no. Some elements are really in the spirit of the law. However, some rules are simply there because BSW wanted them - here the important thing is to play and for that we need a cordial atmosphere. For this reason the creators of BSW thought of an idea of how to achieve that. The afore-mentioned rules may appear too numerous, but most of them comprise of normal behavior which everyone should respect in real life. The later rules would be theoretically debatable, but it is not because they "should not" exist that violations of these rules would be considered unimportant.

And what about my right to freedom of expression? Is this not censorship?

First of all : this idea does not apply to the terms : "edit, delete or change in the forums". Censorship is an intervention of a state or an organization which has sufficient influence to be able to completely suppress an opinion. BrettspielWelt cannot influence anything outside of its own site - this has nothing to do with "censorship". But the meaning of the question is clear : no, it is not a limitation of people's rights that the authors had in mind. A forum post can be compared to a letter from a reader - no newspaper is obliged to publish all the opinions. The fact that here an opinion can be posted first and then deleted before it has even been verified, is not relevant. BrettspielWelt is notably open to everyone, for example certain ideas are not tolerated because they would not be wanted or they violate another basic rule - just as anyone can make a rule in his own apartment to decide if something can be discussed or not. In addition, it is necessary to partially edit, because BrettspielWelt must respond to all contributions they know about.