#1) Leave comments enabled, unfrozen and unscreened on all posts. Do not delete or screen comments that don't belong to you. Let people comment on your posts, or don't post here at all. To further clarify: You may delete your own comments, and your own post. You are not allowed to delete or screen comments from others. If there is a problem, then notify a moderator with a link to the comment. Private messages can usually be sent through an LJ user’s profile through the “send message” feature.
#2) No flame-baiting. The point of this community is to rant about how pissed off you are, not to piss people off. Please refrain from using icons featuring explicit pornography or shock images. This will allow people to view this community while avoiding work.
#3) No off-topic posts. The post must relate to bad service in some fashion. Advertising related communities is off-topic without moderator permission (see rule #0). “Good-bye” posts will score you a permanent good-bye from the moderators and the community. Complaints about LJ and other LJ communities are off-topic outside of mod-posts. Also, name-dropping any moderators or LJ staff by the Original Poster within the post or the comments will result in the post being considered off-topic and subject to deletion. (Getting permission from a mod for special circumstances is not named-dropping.)
#4) No grudge posts. If you hate a particular store to the point that there's nothing they could ever do to be right by you, quit going to that store. This doesn't apply if you just happened to get screwed by store twice in a row, or are forced to eat at the only late-nite diner near your work. It does apply if you can avoid a store and don't.
#5) No personal (ad hominem) attacks, please. Attack the argument, not the poster. Also, refrain from bringing up issues in reply that isn’t part of the post to begin with. If Andrea Yates posts here about bad service, don’t bring up her kids. Flame wars and behaviour detrimental to the community will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Mod-posts are generally made to address topics that may be of interest to the community, and in some (hopefully rare) cases, major events related to LiveJournal or the world in general. This is not meant to construe major disasters or attacks as “bad service”; such posts are merely provided as a courtesy to the membership. It’s okay to disagree with the mod.
Many apologies for this taking so long. :( Feel free to comment on the new rules; I've reworded a few of the previewed rules, added one completely new one, and knocked off the one that the LJ Terms of Service probably covers anyhow. Tonight's dinner was succotash and chili-fried rice.
eta:
A proposed update for rule #1 is here.
A proposed update for rule #4 is here
eta2: The proposed updates have been implemented and are found in the community info as well. Also, today (Aug 21) is
bad_service's sixth "birthday".The new rules are
acceptable
142(95.9%)
needs more work
6(4.1%)
bashou is
a slow mod
0(0.0%)
a busy mod
33(22.1%)
a slooow mod (please don't ban me)
1(0.7%)
ooh, shiny!
115(77.2%)