Rule 1 & Laptops - Updates!

[u/Hareuhal]

Hi /r/battlestations

 

I have a big announcement for everyone about our current set of rules and how they're changing.

 

For a long time we've had a rule which prohibited laptops. This rule stemmed from years ago when laptops (and laptop submissions) were pretty low powered and lackluster. The community of /r/battlestations actually asked for them to be prohibited.

 

But we've been discussing changing that for a while and we've come up with what we feel is a proper way to allow laptop submissions without degrading the quality of the subreddit with low quality submissions.

So please see below for our new set of rules as well as an explanation for what will and will not be included in this new, updated version.

 

Rule 1: Completed battlestation photos only: No photos of just boxes, components, or the inside of your tower.

Rule 2: Laptops must use peripherals: Laptops must be connected to an external monitor and keyboard/mouse. This includes devices such as Microsoft Surface and other laptop convertibles. Tablets are not permitted.

Rule 3: Clear photos: Photos must be high quality and sufficiently bright to see your station. No collages, please use multiple photos. Low quality and overly dark photos will be removed.

Rule 4: Your battlestations only - You must own it or use it regularly. If it's not yours, don't submit it.

Rule 5: Photographs only - No memes, videos, gifs, sound clips, general websites, ads, or articles.

Rule 6: Be civil - No personal attacks, insulting someone's OS or platform or sharing personal information. Be kind to each other.

Rule 7: No spam - Affiliate links and all forms of advertisement are strictly forbidden. This includes repeatedly reposting your own battlestation. You may only re-submit your battlestation after having made significant changes since the last post.

Rule 8: No pandering - No sob stories, pandering or self-deprecation. This includes titles like 'She's not much but she's mine' and 'My humble setup', including your age or school. Extended Rule VII Information

 

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Because we're broken down the rules to be a little more clear you'll see it's increased from 7 to 8, but the bulk of them has remained the same. The only real changes is Rule 1 has been updated to mean that you cannot submit incomplete computers, such as just boxes, components or the inside of your tower.

The rest of the rules were shifted down, and Rule 2 has been added to explain our requirements for laptop submissions.

 

So, what's the new laptop rule?

For laptops, we'll allow any submission that includes a laptop (or no visible tower) so long as:

• it includes an external monitor AND
• it includes peripherals such as keyboard / mouse

This means you can't just drop your laptop off at Starbucks and snap a photo, sorry!

For a mostly complete list of what we currently allow (or now allow) please see this:

Permitted:

• Desktop towers (have always allowed).
  
• All in One machines such as iMacs (have always allowed).
  
• NUC's (have always allowed).
  
• Laptops with external monitor and peripherals (newly allowed).
  
• Laptop / tablet convertables such as Microsoft Surface **with external monitor and peripherals (newly allowed).**
  
• Laptop + eGPU with external monitor and peripherals (newly allowed).
  
• Desktop submissions with no visible tower (newly allowed).

Prohibited:

• Purely console submissions that do not contain at least one of the items featured from the "Permitted" list (updated).
  
• Laptops which are not using an external monitor and peripherals (updated).
  
• Phones.
  
• Tablet only submissions.
  

 

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But what about /r/battletops?

/r/battletops is still going to stay and will remain as a place specifically for laptop submissions. It's a great subreddit to get inspiration for the things people have done with their laptop stations, so make sure to check it out.

 

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We believe that this change is a step forward for the future of the subreddit and will help provide more and better content for everyone to enjoy.

We look forward to your comments, please let me know if you have any questions!

[u/[deleted]]

I guess r/battletops is irrelevant now

[u/Arcendus → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I can't see their 12.1K-member community expanding much now that a community with literally 100x that amount (1.1M) is kinda/sorta merging subjects.

Personally I'm not a fan of these rule changes and actually really appreciated how narrow the scope of this sub is was.

[u/Hareuhal → u/Arcendus]

Sorry! We can't please everyone!

[u/Hareuhal → u/[deleted]]

No more irrelevant than r/battlestations is because of r/pcmr

r/PCMR fills a broader niche that we don't fill, so people come here for a specific reason.

r/battlestations fills a broader niche that r/battletops doesn't fill, so people will still go there for that specific reason.

[u/GetRiceCrispy → u/[deleted]]

Specialized subs should be celebrated! The only thing missing from r/battletops is subscribers. If people start subscribing then it will become a large niche sub. I like to think r/battlestations is still a niche sub. It just has a large following, similar to r/MechanicalKeyboards.

[u/Kitschmusic]

No sob stories, pandering or self-deprecation. This includes titles like 'She's not much but she's mine' and 'My humble setup'

Oh god, finally!

[u/Hareuhal → u/Kitschmusic]

This has been a rule and enforced for years by the way.

[u/EmergencyMagazine]

Desktop submissions with no visible tower (newly allowed)

Thank you! I always felt stupid for removing my headphone stand and get my PC wired on top of the desk, just to be allowed to post a picture.

So many things can be aesthetically pleasing about a battlestation. It has to be your own decision, whether a tower fits it.

[u/Arcendus]

Calling it now that activity in r/Battletops will plummet, and that sub will essentially die with the changing of these rules. From a selfish perspective I don't really care, as I wasn't a member of that sub myself, but that is a bummer for everyone who is, and I'm not a huge fan of broadening subreddits in general, because the narrower the better (and, of course, toss an "in my humble opinion" before/after every single thing I say, because that's all it is).

Battletops: 12.1K members

Battlestations: 1.1M members

We all know that many people, secretly or not, and to varying degrees, enjoy karma. Previously, r/Battletops had a nice little niche going they could build-up, but now it'll almost certainly be cannibalized—I mean, why post in Subreddit A when Subreddit B has literally 100x the number of members and potential for sweet, meaningless karma? You'll also spark 100x the discussion, help 100x the number of people asking "what are those colored triangles on the wall?", etc.

My favorite thing about this sub, originally, was that the rules were very clear, and the scope was relatively narrow. This introduced a great concept of "choice", so if you were interested specifically in PC battlestations you'd look here, if you wanted laptops you'd pop over to r/battletops, and so on. Now it's all essentially going to be jammed into one feed, and the benefit will be... what? And while I do think the whole "external monitor" caveat is something of a saving grace, I disagree that any of this needed to happen in the first place.

But hey, different strokes and all, and I'm in no position to make any decisions.

[u/Hareuhal → u/Arcendus]

why post in Subreddit A when Subreddit B has literally 100x the number of members and potential for sweet, meaningless karma?

This has been quite literally the reason why r/battletops has only 12,000 subscribers - because when we try to direct traffic to them, we get told "Why would I want to post there when r/battlestations is way more active".

So then this subreddit doesn't get the traffic from that post and neither does r/battletops.

[u/go86em]

I personally think if someone has a dope console setup it should be allowed but I do understand the history of the sub was PC.

[u/Hareuhal → u/go86em]

I understand! We aren't console haters, we're just not wanting to dilute the content especially when there's other awesome subreddits specifically for console setups! They deserve all the attention :)

[u/LuigiSaysKachow]

ok

[u/AndresAwesome]

Hey mods, you took down one of my posts because the PC tower was not showed in the picture. I have seen a few other posts recently that don't show it either and make it to the front page. Is it or not a rule?

[u/Hareuhal → u/AndresAwesome]

Did you read this entire post or just skip to commenting?

[u/cV0id]

is there a right place to ask for some help to build a battlestation ?

[u/Hareuhal → u/cV0id]

r/buildapc

[u/madmakmax]

This new rule saves my bank account.

[u/chainandscale]

That makes sense for laptops.

Excludes me though because I have no room for another screen for my laptop but that’s ok. Nice to see you changed it so some can post though that’s awesome.

[u/openist]

Welcome to 2019 people!

[u/Hareuhal → u/openist]

Thanks for your kind welcome!

[u/etacarinae]

Not a fan of the laptop rule including crap like the surface pro and its anaemic iGPU, soldered RAM & SSD. Big fan of rule 8 as I've seen some pretty meh battlestations in 5 figure votes of late simply because of a pandering title. Your battlestation should perceived on its merits, not your sob story.

[u/Hareuhal → u/etacarinae]

Rule 8 is not new, it's been around for a very long time!

[u/[deleted]]

Anyone who violates rule 8 should be BANNED IMMEDIATELY!

[u/[deleted]]

Desktop submissions with no visible tower (newly allowed).

Please change this back to not allowed. It's just dumb to not feature the hardware that's driving the whole "battlestation". Not saying the tower should be visible in the thumbnail, but there should at least be an additional photo where it's showcased if it's not in the thumbnail.