LAST EDITED ON 11-29-05 AT 08:38 PM (EST)

These are all actual questions that have been in my inbox the past week. If you'd like for a question to be addressed in an upcoming Moderator Mailbag, please email or PM me - DO NOT POST IT ON THIS THREAD. I will not promise to respond to questions posted in this thread.

I'm also including links to some other useful threads:

Community Guidelines
A Word From a Moderator
From the Moderator Mailbag

Q: Are game threads permitted here?

A: Yup! If you want to post something funny that popped into your head based on the show, by all means do so. If you look at some of our other forums, you’ll see that there are plenty of games that take place quite regularly on these forums.

Q: How are people sending me emails and PMs attacking me for comments made on this site?

A: The email and PM icons are on the top right-hand corner of every post in unlocked threads, and other posters can use them to send emails and PMs through the site. No one has access to your email address unless you provide it to them – the messages are sent through survivorblows.com. Emails and PMs are subject to the same guidelines as message forum posts. If someone sends you an email or PM that violates the guidelines, then please forward a copy to the moderators so that we can address this. Abuse of the email or PM system has led to bannings in the past – we take that sort of abuse quite seriously.

Q: I had to create a new ID because my other one gave me an inactive user ID error. Could you please fix it so that I can log in?

A: In almost all cases, the reason that you’ve gotten this error is because you’ve been banned for guidelines violations. So, no. Oh, and don’t get attached to the new ID that you created to email in the question, because that one’s going to be deactivated too.

Q: I know I did some things I shouldn’t have, but I’ll be really really good from now on. Will you please reactivate my ID?

A: No.You had your chance to follow the guidelines. Besides, we don’t believe you that you’ve reformed. After all, one of the easiest ways to identify duplicate IDs is to look at who’s violating the guidelines. Typically, the folks who got banned and try to sneak back in fall back into the same behavior way too quickly.

Edited to clarify: I've gotten asked about how a poster can prove they've reformed so that he or she can come back. You can't. Once you're gone, you're gone. Go violate the guidelines on someone else's message forum - you wore out your welcome here.

Q: Why do you make such a big deal about duplicate threads? I don’t have time to read through what everyone else is saying.

A: Because of attitudes like yours. Sorry to burst your bubble, but your time is no more valuable than the time of the other posters on these forums. By making comments like that, you’re implying that people should be paying attention to your comments, but you’re dismissing the comments and existing discussions as if they are unworthy of anyone’s attention. If all you want is to post your comments and read the responses to your comments, I’d suggest starting a blog (www.blogger.com is an easy-to-use site). But if you’re going to post here, you’re going to follow the rules, out of courtesy to your fellow posters.

Q: Why do you permit bashing of contestants? Is it because it’s too hard to moderate or because you actually encourage it around here?

A: Tour around the site and see if you can figure out the answer. The names of the associated web sites in the top right-hand corner of the screen are a big hint.

Q: Why are you so mean?

A: Because even though many posters are making honest efforts to comply with the community guidelines, there are some incredibly rude and ungrateful posters on these forums.

Folks, the man who created the RTVW forums didn’t do it because it was his job, or because someone paid him to do it. He did it because he wanted to have a place to discuss reality television. Even though you see some ads on the site, for many years, he was putting his own money into this site so that folks would have a place to play. There are a number of long-time posters here who have made a similar commitment to this place, either volunteering their time and /or donating their money to defray some of those costs. All the webmaster asked for in return was adherence to a few basic rules. While most posters are willing to follow these rules, some posters have been extremely disrespectful of his efforts and feel like it’s their place to tear down what he’s put together and tear down the people who post here. That is extremely rude.

Just because BMP decided to divert people to this site, that doesn’t change what the intent of this site is and will not change its identity. There are over 70 forums discussing a variety of shows here, and the posters in each and every one of those forums are expected to follow the same rules. SO is not the center of the RTVW universe, and it never will be. Since the webmaster is the one paying the bills, he’s the one who defines what he wants this place to be, not you. If you want to play in his playground, you play by his rules. Simple enough.

So if I’m a bitch, it’s because I think certain posters should get off their high horses and show some gratitude for his efforts by respecting the rules of the forum. If you don’t want to follow them, then do all of us a favor and just go away. There are plenty of other places on the Internet to discuss reality television. Stop wasting everybody’s time if you don’t really want to be here. And even you really want to be here, show it by following the rules.