FanPost Guidelines

In light of Cornshoe Hammaker's latest FanPost (technically SFW, very very very inadvisable for work), we figured now's a good time as any to go over our ground rules. It's not that we think the section is getting out of control or anything; in fact, it's been incredible lately, and we cherish probably 95% of the posts that go up there, even if we can't fit them onto the front page all the time. But lest you think that our rare edits, warnings, or deletions are capricious, here are some simple, easy, nearly-impossible-to-get-wrong guidelines.

1) Don't spam. You won't get very many hits out of it anyway, and it's annoying as fuck. None of our regulars do this, thankfully, but we've made a couple deletions along the way.

2) No nudity. And we're not just talking cracks and nipples, but anything that you can't show on network television, we can't show here. And besides, if you can't figure out where to see girls taking their tops off on the internet, well, you have the severest of retardations.

3) Other than that, almost all pictures are okay. No poop, no pee, no gruesome violence unless it's really really fake... Same standards as before, really; keep it SFNTV (Safe For Network Television).

4) YouTubes with profanity are fine, just mark them NSFW. Audio's a lot easier to conceal than visual misconduct, but there are still some folks who have speakers and co-workers who don't enjoy an immediate bombardment of profanity (like this!).

5) You have to try really, really hard to write something that we find distasteful. We have had literally no problems with this so far, so don't spend any time wondering if a FanPost you had written has violated this rule. It hasn't. But as long as we're rehashing the ground rules, this should be made crystal-clear: BHGP will not be a home for statements of racism*, sexism, or homophobia. There are usually plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike somebody; resorting to hating their race, gender, or sexual orientation is the domain of the feeble-minded and foolish, and it won't fly here. Other than that, if you feel like rattling off some Helen Keller jokes or questioning which side of the body Chuck Weis' butt is on, go for it. I mean, you really don't even need a point; just don't be some bigoted asshole. Again, no problems thus far, so let's keep it that way.

6) Use good judgment. This is sort of the catchall for anything that wasn't specifically mentioned above, but let's be reasonable. If it's something you can't say in public because it's "so un-PC" or otherwise obviously socially stigmatized, let it go, man. If there's any ambiguity in your mind, though, you can always ask us ahead of time; our emails are conspicuously posted on the main page, and we're usually pretty good about answering them.

This was longer than I thought it would be, especially just to say "don't be hateful or retarded and don't get anyone fired," but if the obvious never needed to be stated, 75% of corporate lawyers would be out of a job. Keep up the good work, all.

*JoePa, of course, is (for lack of a better term) grandfathered in as an exception.