/r/shanghai is a pretty laid back place, but we do have a few general rules for people to consider before posting.
Reddit's sitewide rules (such as no posting of personal information, no begging for votes, no child pornography, etc.) should obviously be adhered to, but we have a few additional guidelines for /r/shanghai that we kindly ask you follow.
These rules are here to make /r/shanghai a better place for everyone. You can feel free to invoke Godwin's Law if it makes you feel better, but this will have no effect on whether or not the rules are enforced.
1. Read/search before posting
Please have a look through the FAQ and search through older threads before posting general questions on /r/shanghai. Questions like "what's good to eat?" and "I'm coming to Shanghai, what should I do?" have been asked on numerous occasions, and there is relevant information on the FAQ as well as in previous threads.
In fact, this very FAQ was set up primarily as a measure to prevent lazy posters from bringing up the same questions again and again because they simply want to be spoon fed answers. This detracts from actual interesting discussion on the subreddit. Given that there are numerous warnings and popups encouraging posters to check the FAQ and search older threads before posting, asking questions about things already covered in the FAQ is likely to annoy other posters and incur downvotes.
If your question is not covered in the FAQ, or it hasn't been asked before (or if it has but it was long enough ago that the answer may have changed), then please feel free to ask away!
2. Observe reddiquette
Reddiquette is described as "an informal expression of the values of many redditors", and pertains to general posting behaviour on the site. This includes things like not downvoting a post simply because you don't agree with it (downvotes should be used only to punish posts that add nothing to the discussion, trolls, or personal attacks).
When commenting on /r/shanghai, please try to be polite and respectful to other posters, even if you disagree with their opinions. And if you can't be polite, at least be original.
Also, please don't complain about downvotes. Downvotes happen, and sometimes people don't deserve them. But if your post actually is contributing something worthy to the discussion, the upvotes will eventually arrive and even out your score. Remember, it's all meaningless internet points anyway. Whining about being downvoted is only likely to invite more of them.
For a full breakdown of reddiquette, see here.
3. No spam
Many of us write blogs or websites about living in the city, or are involved with events happening around Shanghai. Whilst we are happy for people to promote these kinds of things on the subreddit, spamming will not be tolerated. Repeat offenders will be banned and their threads deleted.
If you are organising or performing in an event, feel free to post about it, and make sure to include all relevant information like date and time, location, ticket prices, etc.
If you can ensure some kind of discount or promotion for redditors at your event, then get in touch with the moderators and let us know about it. We will be happy to throw up a small banner in the sidebar or help promote you in the subreddit's announcement bar, but only if it somehow benefits the /r/shanghai community.
We also recommend anybody wishing to promote their events on /r/shanghai that they actually try to engage with the community rather than just submitting the information and disappearing. /r/shanghai is not a promotional platform, it's simply a group of people, and we prefer to be treated as such rather than just have advertisements thrust in our faces. Sometimes there's a fine line between posting about an event that you're involved with and blatant spam, but generally speaking it's fairly easy to tell one from the other.
4. No trolling, circlejerking, or personal attacks
Reddit can be a strange place sometimes, and tends to attract people with far too much time on their hands. Many people use this free time in more constructive ways, but some inevitably turn to trolling. Trolls will appear on /r/shanghai from time to time, and we recommend that you downvote/hide their posts and do not reply to them. Trolls crave attention, and if they do not receive any they will quickly move on.
Circlejerking is a similar issue - many people enjoy it and it certainly has its place on Reddit, but please do not engage in circlejerking on /r/shanghai.
Equally, please be respectful towards other posters (which is part of observing Reddiquette: see rule 2 above). Throwing around a few harmless insults is par for the course on the internet, but targeting individual posters and repeatedly unleashing personal attacks on them will not be tolerated.
Obvious troll/circlejerk/attack posts are likely to be removed, and the users banned. Please find something better to do with your time.
5. No illegal activities
Reddit is not currently banned in China, and we would very much like to keep it that way. Whilst a few threads on our little subreddit about where and how to procure marijuana in Shanghai, for example, would probably not spur the censors into immediate action, websites are routinely banned in China for utterly arbitrary reasons and we would much rather err on the side of caution.
While the moderators of /r/shanghai do not approve of censorship, threads discussing illegal activities will be removed immediately. However, we do not wish to discourage discussion of such matters: for example, if you want to talk about attitudes in Shanghai towards smoking weed then that's fine, but when you start asking people on a public forum where you can buy it in Shanghai or if anybody wants to hang out and get high, that crosses the line.
Nobody is stopping you from forming /r/shanghaitrees or talking about such matters at meets - but please keep such discussion off /r/shanghai.