First things first, let me share what sparked this.

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A famous artist was given two strikes against her account because her TOS had a black list of people she will never commission. I have not seen this TOS so I cannot say what content was on there.
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The two strikes was for:
One for linking a not acceptable website.
Another for harassment because of the blacklist on the unacceptable website.

Now, I haven't seen this blacklist, but regardless the poorly written FA rules have gone way to far. For starters, you already notice a problem, the artist got in trouble by an FA rule, content that came from a different website.
The reason why this happened is the admin combined two separate rules into one to justify the means.

The problem with this is rules are really, really poorly written.

So I went through the entire Code of Conduct and listed all the problems with it.
_______________________________________________________________________

1.1
Do not encourage or engage in illegal activity.
This includes, but is not limited to, drug use (excluding marijuana use), piracy, and copyright infringement. While you may openly debate the validity of current laws, you may not promote, encourage, engage in, plan, post or link to content or activities that violate federal US law, or anything that could be used as directions for committing a crime.
In other words...
Do not discuss, promote, or engage in illegal activity.

Makes sense, prevents FA to being a platform for illegal activity. Except marijuana is not legal across the United States, which can create a problem if users want to use FA as a platform to meet and sell drugs. Hell, it’s perfectly fine to make a post that says, “YO! I’m in North Carolina, can anyone meet and hook me up with some pot?” Which won’t bold so well if it spreads. So... I know you guys love pot, but lets just keep it simple with no exceptions.

Also, make sure you state real life illegal activity. Because FA users post vore, gore, rape, public sex, etc, all the time. Hell, sex with animals is illegal (in most/all states?). Real life, kinda need that word.

1.2
Do not discuss violent or sexual crimes.
Do not discuss details or experiences of committing, illegal acts involving sex, violence, or abuse against any creature, living or dead. Recounting and taking responsibility for past history may be permitted at staff discretion provided that harmful or illegal acts are not cast in a positive light.
In other words...
Similar to 1.1, do not discuss or promote acts of violent or sexual crimes.

Why does this need a new rule? If rule 1.1 explicitly states illegal US activity, also known as, crimes, then it’s already covered.

1.3
Do not host or participate in any form of gambling.
Gambling or games of chance are defined as requiring participants to pay an entry fee for a chance to win a prize but are not guaranteed to get a prize. This may include raffles, sweepstakes, or lotteries. Contests where entry is free or where all participants are guaranteed to receive a prize are permitted.
In other words...
Gambling is not permitted on the site. You can run contests, but you can't charge people an entry fee unless they're guaranteed to receive an item.

Makes sense, nothing wrong here.


Other Users And You
2.1
Do not share or try to obtain private information.
This includes posting or through deception attempting to obtain privileged personal information of other individuals, such as social security numbers, unlisted contact information, home addresses, credit card numbers, and personal correspondence (logs, emails, notes, etc).
In other words...
Respect other users' right to privacy. Doxing or trying to post personally identifying information is not allowed.

Makes sense again, moving on.

2.2
Do not threaten anyone.
This includes both physical and financial harm (theft or vandalism), alluded or explicit.
In other words...
Do not threaten others.

Okay now we are getting into the grey area. The problem with this is it can cover way too much or not enough, for example, “Finish my commission this week or I’m never commissioning you again” is a threat. The problem with this is, it can be used to punish in scenarios that is purely going to create a bigger problem. Heck, just recently a person got really frustrated with my artist friend, making threats similar to this, placing an offense is not going to help the situation. To make matters worse, this can escalate in a lot of offenses because this also follows rule 4.2

Remove the grey area. Explicitly physical or financial harm should be a offense, alluded or quid pro quo threats are a non-offense warning.

This is exactly why we need warnings that don’t result in an offense.

Arguments are going to happen and threats are going to come out. This is exactly why people are allowed to get away with such bad behavior. Hell, I believe I did several of alluded threats. There was this one artist walking away with my hundreds of dollars, my behavior was clearly making things worse and if I got a non-offense warning in an saying in summary, “Dude, chill the fuck down, okay?” Would have made a world of difference during the time I was raging.

But I wasn’t in the wrong apparently?

2.3
Do not stalk anyone.
Stalking is the willful and repeated harassment of another user. This harassment may also come in the form of repeated communication, following, and gifts to an unwilling recipient.
In other words...
Respect other users' right to personal space. Do not stalk or harass them.

This gets broken all the time, I actually broken the gifting unwilling recipient part of rule before. Granted, it was a mistake, the artist drew it wrong and it was the guys birthday so there was no time for the artist to redraw it; regardless, I actually broke that.

To make matters worse, I still have the picture on FA, I love the art and the artist worked really hard. I don’t want to remove it, I paid for it, I own it.

The problem is the word repeating, in my case, it was one time. So it’s okay? No. Remove the word repeating, if someone is unwilling then they don’t need to have unwilling multiple times. I should have colored the character different and repost it on FA, but rules say I don’t have to.
Stalking does NOT have to be done multiple times.


2.4
Do not harass anyone.
In this context, harassment includes remarks which discuss personal grievances, quarrels, malicious rumors, or negative statements about other individuals. This does not include civil discussions about topics of public interest such as celebrities or government officials, but does include 'bewares' and similar content.
Any attempt to address a user who has blocked you or whom you have blocked is considered a form of deliberate harassment. This also includes soliciting other users to pass on messages or otherwise make contact on your behalf.
If a particular type of content does not appeal to you, then do not seek it out to make disparaging comments. Users with a pattern of this behavior may be cited for harassment.
In other words...
Respect other users. Don't spread rumors, misinformation, flame, or attempt to troll. If a user has blocked you respect that block and move on. Keep any and all discussion civil and polite.

So this is where FA fucks up super hard. I know many people that either broke this rule and goes unpunished or unrightfully got punished for not breaking this rule. For me, it’s both! The problem is the word personal, why is personal a problem? Because FA admins never, ever, see it!

Harassing is on a personal level, insulting someone of who they are and what they have.

It’s so simple, here is how you write a no harassment policy.
“Do not make remarks to other persons with malicious intentions. Any public information being claimed not true by the other individual(s) is prohibited, spreading rumors to other Fur Affinity users is also prohibited. You cannot create bewares about other users, please contact an admin instead. These rules does not include civil discussions about topics of public interest such as celebrities or government officials. Rude remarks will result in a non-offense warning, being intentionally malicious and repeated violations will result in a offense.”

Once again, FA needs a warning system that doesn’t result in a offense.

Seriously, on Dragoneers journal, the head(?) of the site, on his journal. I slyly called another user really stupid. Apparently that was NOT a negative statement?

This is exactly why we need non-offense warnings that do not accumulated offenses, a message saying, “Stop, you two being rude.” Can go a really long way.

2.5
Do not promote, glorify, instruct, or encourage anyone to hurt themselves.
Do not encourage other users to engage in harmful behaviors, including suicide, eating disorders, or other forms of self harm. Do not give other users medical or veterinary advice that could result in harm coming to them or their pets. This does not apply to fictional works when used as part of a narrative.
In other words...
Never encourage others to harm themselves.

Er, most of this rule is covered in harassment. Except the medical or veterinary advice, which is, once again, a very grey area. I know multiple artists that post about their sick pet asking for advice, so does that mean you can post stuff that lures people into trouble?

People are not doctors or vets, I understand that. There is no need for this rule, advice is advice. Everyone understands that information is not/not always coming from professionals. If they don't understand that, it's their fault.

Everything else, covered by 2.4. Encouraging people to kill themselves is unmistakably harassment.

2.6
Do not engage in malicious speech.
Do not make pejorative use of slurs nor disparaging remarks about others' race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or similar, or make maliciously misleading statements about cultures, religions, etc. This does not apply to fictional works when used as part of a narrative.
In other words...
Fur Affinity is a diverse community. Respect the differences of others and keep all discussion civil regardless of differences.

Once again, this gets broken, ALL THE TIME! I’ve broken this rule and gone unpunished because it’s so... worthless. And once again, this rule follows under harassment rules in 2.4. You kinda have two rules for the same problem FA. If you followed one rule properly, you won’t need more.

2.7
Do not identify with or promote hate groups and their ideologies
A hate group is one that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a designated sector of society (e.g. Nazism, KKK, ISIS). Symbols specifically associated with these groups will not be permitted in user avatars, non-fictional content, or content intended solely to disrupt the community.
Users who identify with or promote hate groups and their ideologies may be permanently banned from Fur Affinity without warning.
In other words...
Do not promote hate while on the site.

Promoting hate is not a good thing, but once again, you have rule 2.4, which covers this! You have 3 rules for basically the same thing FurAffinity. Do. Not. Have. That.
Also you are referencing rule 4.3 in this rule, why? I swear it’s like this rule was written by a freshman college kid instead of an adult professional.

Follow your rules and stop making rules, when other rules get broken.

Fur Affinity And You
3.1
Do not disrespect site staff or abuse the ticket system.
Our staff is currently made up of volunteers who perform duties that are difficult and time consuming. Please refrain from needless harassment, insults, and arguing as it interferes with the ability for staff to perform their duties. Keep contact with staff concerning issues with Fur Affinity to the ticket system. Do not misrepresent site policies or staff actions, suggest that you have special privilege with staff, or retaliate against other users over staff action.
Trouble ticket abuse includes opening multiple tickets for the same problem, using the prospect of a report as leverage against another user, and encouraging other users to create additional reports for the same violation. If you disagree with a staff member's ruling you may ask to have an issue escalated but may not re-open the escalated ticket after a ruling is made.
In other words...
Treat site staff with respect. Do not contact staff outside of the Trouble Ticket system. If you disagree with a decision made by staff you have the right to appeal the decision via the Trouble Ticket system.

Ha ha ha ha. I broke this many times, and the admins know why. *cough* Admins not following rules and they know it. *cough*
Still, funny how this goes ignored.

3.2
Do not engage in Mature/Adult Rated activity in General Rated or public areas, such as profiles, journals, and shouts.
Prohibited content includes erotic role-play, but excludes discussion of adult themes, provided they aren't explicit. You may review content ratings by accessing the AUP under section 1.1.
In other words...
If your comments are publicly viewable keep them safe for all audiences to read.

So we cannot do erotic role play, but we can discuss how much I love being humped with a two foot horse breeder. As long as it’s not... explicit? What do you mean by explicit?!
I can understand why this would be a problem, but I don’t understand how this has to be a rule.

This rule reminds me of always online DRM, it hurts the legit users and law breakers easily find a way around.

FA, hear me out, do not have rules that compare to always online DRM. Delete this shame.

3.3
Do not post links to content prohibited by Fur Affinity's policies.
If you are not permitted to upload or discuss the content on Fur Affinity, then do not link to it. Violating this rule may also result in citation under the site rule the content violates.
Mature/Adult links are prohibited on General-rated or public areas unless the content requires a login or age verification. This includes advertisements visible on the target URL.
Exemptions: AUP 2.8, 2.9, 4.1, 4.2, and others by staff discretion.
In other words...
Do not post comments or content which violate site rules. If it's against the rules it can not be linked, except in instances noted.

I broke this rule, heck, I have this rule broken. So here is a huge problem with this, “If it's against the rules it can not be linked”
This is so extremely vague, for example, because I cannot upload full youtube videos to FA, does that mean they are not allowed to be linked? What about posts of adult WIP from websites like twitter or more commonly Trello?
Just stop at the first sentence. By adding more to this rule you basically have it set you cannot link anything outside FA what-so-ever.

3.4
Do not spam.
This includes registering accounts or posting content automatically, messaging users en masse with unsolicited ads or information (e.g. beware content), posting content that is nonsensical and/or unnecessarily long or page breaking, or making incessant comments at others.
In other words...
Do not spam.

I broke this rule by spamming bewares. I wasn’t punished, or warned of my actions? Granted, an artist 'friend' walked away with my two hundred dollars is probably why the admins did nothing.
I still broke the rule though.

Still, if there was just some… system, that can let the users know to stop being a stupid hot head and calm down.
Hmmm.

Violations and Consequences
4.1
Failure to abide by the content of this document may result in the following penalties. ("You" refers to you and all accounts you own/operate):
In other words...
If you don't follow the rules we may take action against your main account and any others you have.
1st Level Offense: You will receive a Warning Notice.
2nd Level Offense: You will be Temporarily Suspended for 1 day.
3rd Level Offense: You will be Temporarily Suspended for 1 week.
4th Level Offense: You will be Temporarily Suspended for 1 month and will receive a Final Warning to cease violating the relevant section.
5th Level Offense: You will be Permanently Banned from using Fur Affinity's services. Any future accounts you create will also be Permanently Banned.

Add a non-offense warning, it’s not an offense and you can technically accumulate as many as you want. That doesn’t mean they won’t escalate, but sometimes a slap on the nose is enough to get a ravaging dog to whimper like a puppy.

4.2
Only violations of the same section stack when concerning penalties. e.g. If you violate section 1.10 and then subsequently section 1.11, you will receive warnings both times. Deliberate violations of any section may also be escalated to a higher offense level.
In other words...
If your submission or content violates multiple rules each rule can be held against you. Intentionally violating a rule may lead to harsher penalties.

Makes sense, moving on.

4.3
Violations of the following sections may be escalated immediately to the 4th Offense Level: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, and 2.7. These sections have been highlighted for your convenience.
In other words...
Violating rules 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, and 2.7 may result in instant suspension.

What about 3.4? You telling me you can't ban ad bots until they spam enough to be striked 5 times? Shit.

4.4
While you are Temporarily Suspended, you are not permitted to access or create accounts on Fur Affinity. Doing so may result in the length of your current suspension being extended or a changed to a Permanent Ban.
In other words...
If you're suspended you may not create a new account or continue to use FA until the suspension is over. If you're caught your suspension will be upgraded to a permanent ban.

So artists trying to contact your customers who paid you money. You are fucked. This rule is clearly to stop people to creating accounts to harass or stalk other uses over and over.
You know, this could be covered by doing, I don't know... Rule 2.3 and 2.4!

Oh and this rule is already in your Terms of Service.

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Now, we can blame the admins but the rules are clearly just bad.
Like really, really baaaad.
- Poorly worded.
- Repetitive.
- Overly specific.
- Not specific enough.
- Unnecessary rules.
- Missing necessary rules.

Just my thoughts I wanted to share as my internet is currently being extremely faulty.