mellow sphinx
Short version: Please include--either in the #rules channel, or the channel topic--the location of the specific rules for a channel, so they are easy to find and follow. Thank you.
When I joined, I asked questions in gameplay help. Nowhere was it obvious that the channel was very strictly for questions only, and absolutely no other chat is tolerated. It wasn't until an admin told me to "stop making dum references" that I even questioned that there were rules for the channel. I was not directed to these rules, even after the admin berated me.
I checked the topic title and saw nothing of room rules. I checked the pinned posts. At 1080p, I had to scroll through over 20 screen lengths worth of text and images to even get to the three posts at the very bottom that discuss the channel rules that I did not know existed until that moment. After the first 10 screen-length, gameplay-related novels I assumed that's all there was and almost stopped scrolling.
I can easily see how all of this came to pass over time, and it makes perfect sense. All these norms are known by those who frequent and operate this server. Those people wouldn't even think about this. But as someone who came here, read all the rules in #rules and all the information in #welcome, even if I'm a minority for doing so, I'd have appreciated avoiding the ire of anyone I'd upset by not knowing the rules if they'd mentioned them in #rules.
I don't pretend to know the solution, but having the rules in one place, or mentioning they could be at the very bottom of a long list of pinned messages, or that being in the channel topic, or repinning them periodically so they're at the top of the pin-list might help someone avoid breaking rules they didn't know existed in the future.
At the very least, please ask your admins to inform new members of the rules they're breaking, and where to read them. If a rule is going to be as strict as it is in #gameplay-help, please include that at the start of the channel topic.
Thank you for your time.
upbeat estuary