“Play nice, have fun, be silly, don’t feed the trolls” comprised the original community rules of Cheezland (although trolls have been scarce). Upfi’s commandments should also not be forgotten (although “other sites” aren’t a problem. 
) They’ve rarely needed to be enforced by moderation since Cheezland’s founding as a haven for a displaced community (over 18 months ago as of this writing) which strongly suggests that, at heart, they work.
For those who like to actually see guidelines, however… (This is longer than I like, and I apologize, but please bear with me.)
prysma’s goal
… is to create a safe site where friends can play together without intrusion from the negativity of the greater world, which many people find overwhelming, and where as many people as possible can feel welcome. Everything done as admin is done with the intent of maintaining the peace and positive energy of Cheezland, even if that isn’t immediately obvious.
This is what prysma expects from herself as admin:
Be fair and impartial. Be aware of and respect everyone’s feelings. Put the well-being of Cheezland as a whole over any single opinion, including my own. Be responsive to feedback, direct and indirect, public and private, and to the evolution of the community. Interfere as little as possible as admin in the free flow of interaction on the site. Intervene when I have reason to believe it’s called for, but do so with the minimum possible force. Keep the site streamlined and maintained so it will work on as many devices/systems and internet connections as possible. And, obviously, make sure there are posts for everyone to play in! (If you want to see my guiding philosophy, look here [in progress].)
This is what prysma expects from you:
Treat everyone on the site with respect, including admins and mods. Be sensitive to other people’s feelings.Be careful with sensitive subjects (see below). Co-operate with the admins and mods. Play like kids, consider consequences like adults.
It is almost always true that Cheezpeeps do not intend to cause hurt or be offensive to anyone; letting the other person know politely that you found something uncomfortable will almost always lead to apologies, hugs, and quick resolution. However, since not everyone is comfortable speaking up, and everyone has bad/off days, and it is not definitively impossible for someone on Cheezland to have less than pure intentions – if you’re uncomfortable with anything or it isn’t resolved, please email me at admin@cheezland.org! Response will involve the minimum possible force, with mediation/translation as the first choice; you are not getting someone in dire trouble. Probably others feel the same but aren’t telling me. If you don’t tell me, I don’t know.
Expectations are targets, and no one reaches them all the time. The idea here is to try.
Regarding moderation:
Given the impossibility of codifying what is appropriate and what is not, please don’t take a suggestion to change the subject as a criticism or a reprimand. Just go along with it. That you don’t see a reason doesn’t mean there isn’t one. If you disagree, or would like to know why, email admin@cheezland.org. If I decide that I was wrong (and I’m certainly capable of it since the last time I checked I was human) I’ll quite willingly apologize, publicly if appropriate. If I stand by my decision, I will try to explain, but I will expect you to abide by it. If I see a need to take different action, such as editing or removing a comment, I will email you as quickly as possible to explain why. If you can’t have that much faith in me, my motivations, and my honesty, then Cheezland is probably not a good place for you to be. Causing a public disturbance over an admin request or decision will result in the relevant comments being deleted with no further explanation or discussion. If it persists, you will be banned. Disruptive or abusive behaviour policy is now zero tolerance. If you want a public on-site location to (politely) discuss a site issue or mod ruling, please let me know so I can set up a page that won’t disturb those who aren’t interested.
Okay, about subject matter:
Despite my earlier reference to rules as a lost cause, there are several specific subjects that need to be treated with caution or simply do not belong here. Things are on this list because they are disruptive to the community as a whole or extremely likely to be highly distressing to a substantial number of people, even if they don’t make an obvious and public issue of it.No one wants anyone paranoid and second-guessing everything they say, and no one wants Cheezland to be watered down into bland mush. However, many people come here specifically for respite from the subjects listed. That’s the tricky part of being a considerate adult in a highly diverse community: there are a lot of personal judgement calls. No one, including the admin, gets them all “right,” and “right” is a non-absolute variable in itself. Context is everything: a passing comment or a relevant reference while on another subject is vastly different from a rant, a detailed description, or an ongoing exchange, and the language used can make an equal difference. There’s a great deal of world that falls outside of these boundaries. Focus on it!
The big ones:
– No politics. This includes anything to do with current events or reasonably recent modern history involving controversial or highly charged events, not just advocating or dissing specific parties/systems/whatever. Little can create negative energy as quickly as politics. Therefore, it stays outside. There are abundant places for discussing that where people want to do so. Lols with political humour will not be posted.
– No religion. This is a tricky one, without banning all mention of Ceiling Cat and Basement Cat. Please try to use neutral terminology like “beems” in place of “prayers” and try to avoid anything “preachy,” and obviously any outright put-downs of any belief system (including none) are inappropriate. Lols might be posted that edge into a religious theme, but only with much thought on your admin’s part and, usually, consultation with selected others. This should not be considered license for a free-for-all; the same rules apply. Your admin simply found it too appealing a lol to not share.
– No (realistic, explicit) violence. Not an issue so far, but included for the sake of completeness. Silly or cartoon stuff is clearly fine; detailed discussions, against humans or animals, or related grim subjects are clearly not. Anything in between, take a second to think about what you’re saying, what it will contribute, and how it might affect the mood of the room overall.
– “Adult” subjects tastefully, please. Consider the site roughly PG-13, though mostly it’s adults, but comfort levels vary. No explicit language. Teasing and racy can be a lot of fun; blatant crudity has limited appeal. Be clever and subtle instead of boringly obvious.
Details:
– Beem requests need to be for people or animals directly connected to the community: Cheezpeeps or their loved ones. Mention of catastrophes, once, to send mass beems is perfectly fine and consistent with Cheezpeep empathy. Individuals or animals that no one else knows are not. The same reasoning applies as that involving homeless animals (see below).
– About homeless/in need animals
– Sharing pics and videos and other off-site links. Go for it, assuming the content is appropriate. However, embedding images or videos into comments is disabled. It slows down the page loading time, and doesn’t work well on all devices. A link allows people who so choose to look once, and those who can’t or would rather not can just not click. Please include information of some sort (even if vague or oblique) about what the link is: some people are at work or have other people around, or may look at a pic but not a video.
– Alcohol and drugs: Lols focused on these subjects are not used, other than elliptically in catnip jokes and an occasional hippie-esque one, but mention of alcohol and non-hardcore drugs in the comments aren’t in themselves an issue and have not, to my memory, been so.
– Sharing lols and pics on Facebook, via email, etc: Please include a link back at least to this site, but better still to the post on this site you got it from, so peeps can see who made it and maybe even come join the fun. Making lols takes time; submitting anything takes time and, for some people, courage. They deserve the acknowledgement.
– No racism, sexism, homophobia, etc etc… I really don’t think I need to say this.
These are the same rules that have been in place all along, with a single belated change in the policy on disruptive/abusive behaviour. Keep doing what you’ve been doing, quit reading boring admin stuff, and go have fun!