Regarding Bold Red Text

[Squigsquasher]

Now, I know that bold red text like this is usually prohibited for non-mods (presumably to avoid posts being mistaken for mod posts) but I was wondering if there were ever any exceptions.

For example, in my now infamous CYOA, when Shinji is bellowing with righteous fury and huge amounts of GAR, the text was made bold and red, simply for effect. Is using it purely in-universe (like in the CYOA) acceptable?

Thanks!

[The Eva Monkey]

The main point of the rule initially is that we didn't people using custom formatting for each of their posts. Some people can and will post in small, blue, italic text if allowed to, and we do not. The rule was expanded to explicitly ban posting in bold red because that's what mods would post with, however we've added a bit more to the mod posts so that it's less of an issue.

OKAY: Using formatting to achieve a desired effect.

NOT OKAY: Formatting your entire post as bold red text which is kind of annoying and looks like a mod post.

The above can be an example of how to use formatting properly. If you're doing an RP, rather than a discussion thread, you have a bit more leeway with what you can do.

[The Eva Monkey]

This is what mod posts used to look like.

[The Eva Monkey]

And this is what they look like now. The difference is fairly easy to see. We just don't want people to start doing it unless it's for a very specific reason, like to denote strong anger in an RP, for example.

[Squigsquasher]

OK, thank you for clearing that up!

[Ornette]

The bold red text is additionally used when editing a user's post to indicate that the user didn't write the part that's in bold red and that a mod had edited it. Most of the time, it's just a matter of thread pruning and a note is left, other times there was some drastic editing of a post (like removing an illegal link) and a mod note was left in the user's post. This way, other people who happen to see the note will know that a moderator added it and that it wasn't part of the user's original post.