What do you want Eagle Time to be?

Ok, well this is probably gonna be one of the more important posts I make, so here goes.

Eagle Time's gonna be an online hangout, pure and simple. It's going to start out for my friends, and then friends of friends. There's no exclusivity about it; I acknowledge that steady growth is a critical part of any successful forum. People are gonna leave; people will have to come in.

If that goes right, it's inevitable that the forum will grow to the point some of us won't be happy with it. That's ok too - I'm at peace with that occurring in due course, provided we can have some fun with the "right"-sized community in the interim.

In terms of content - basically, what I say goes. If your sense of humour offends me, I'll personally ban you. I'm considering instituting bans as punishment - whether it's for an hour to cool off after saying things in the heat of the moment that aren't conducive to teamfriendliness, a day or two to think about what about your attitude I don't like, to a week or more. We don't have infractions in phpBB, and I honestly wouldn't use them anyway. I'm open to other suggestions, though. The modmin team (mods to be elected/promoted with consultation as we need 'em) will keep track of individuals' ban records and take past history into account when figuring how best to deal with people.

As for what modmins enforce: Basically, it's teamfriendliness. If people think bitching and sniping at each other is acceptable conduct, we'll prove them wrong. Public attacks? Making nasty remarks about others? You all know I'm a hateful snarky bitch myself, but I keep it amongst my friends instead of airing it out in public.

I don't like sass. I do like reasoned debate. Figure out which one will make me more amenable to compromise in the event I've stopped quite seeing things eye to eye and don't manage to take the community's best interests to heart. I'll do my best not to, but if we're all civil about it smoothes things over.

We're not going to stake any claim to superiority over MSPAF. This one's important. We're not better; we're different. They're bigger, we're smaller. We've even got similar origins way back when. There are times when a splinter forum is appropriate, and I want no bad blood - especially considering I have all intention of staying on as a moderator there, now that I've got a place similar to what it's lost.

I want this place to be a group of friends. I want newcomers to feel welcome and accepted, but also have a good motivation to fit in with the norms and attitudes of the forum. A twenty-man gaggle coming in and doing their thing is going to raise my hackles so fast you won't know. This is not a disincentive to invite people; merely that it's my perception slow and steady growth is healthiest. I'd like to use this thread to discuss what norms and attitudes we want here, too. Personally, image macros, reaction gifs, and meme-spouting is out. Shenanigans, creativity, and silly in-jokes are in.

That's all I've got to say (for now). I do want to hear what everyone else is planning to get out of this. Thanks, dudes!