Why are ground rules essential to any type of online community?

We have as a year group being discussing this in detail over the entire first semester at Leeds Met. During the discussions we have given our own views into what rules we thought to be most important and why they should exist.

For example in my virtual airline we lay down a MIS (management info structure) which helps set up a communication chain between different levels. We also provide rules to fellow members for them to follow. If any member does not understand a rule or all of them, then they are instructed to ask their ‘carer’ (in this context, it would be their hub manager).

In the flight simulator community that I am a part of (full time you could say) we also have rules which are to be followed by each member that joins. These can be found here:

http://forum.justflight.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15849

On the COOL forum we had a major discussion. We were asked:

Which rules do you think are most important for our community?
Are there any not covered that could usefully be added?
What, if any, sanctions might be taken if people don't adhere to the guidelines?

Here is how I responded:

Message no. 277
Author: Peter
Date: Friday,
October 6, 2006 23:28
I personally think that all rules listed so far are
equally high importance to the success of a community that is controlled by
these. I think as long as everyone understands them clearly, then I doubt that
there will be problems or worse, consultations between fellow
students.

If I was to choose one that I found to be the most
important one overall, I would choose ‘Be Active’. This is because without being
active on the forum then by logic the other rules are not relevant. At least
that is my personal view. Anyways I’ll have to cut short there as I need to get
other posts done before this deadline … I’m not the one to be ‘late’ in handing
in assignments or other work which has time limits. :( So I will appologise here
now for being late on these.