I was going to just say something like "look up rules and regulations that other forums employ and use that as a starting point, then customize accordingly..."
But instead of just saying that, I have gone and looked up other forum rules and came accross this one. I have made some modifications to the original content and wording in places, but I think this is good place to start:
[bul]Please no foul language.
[bul]No offensive words or Items will be tolerated.
[bul]No Pornograpy or Offensive pictures will be tolerated.
[bul]Please try to post in the right forum and if it is not available please post in general.
[bul]No Warez stuff allowed. Ex: no product keys allowed to be posted in the forums.
[bul]No inflammatory comments or ridicule in a sarcastic manner will be tolerated.
[bul]"Flaming" or any form of personal attack on forum users will not be tolerated.
[bul]This site is (to use a film rating) "PG". There are members of ALL ages. Keep that in mind when making posts.
[bul]Spam or spam-like activity will not be tolerated. We don't want to hear about your new porn site or your plan to make a million in two weeks by scamming people. Your ISP, on the other hand, will be verrrrrry interested to hear about it and glad to respond by cutting off your net access.
[bul]Repeated harassment of other users on the forums or off the forums because of their posts is strictly prohibited and will result in deletion of your account and a report of your behavior being sent to your ISP. All IP addresses are logged and viewable by (moderators) and (site admins).
[bul]Along the same lines as above, expressions of hatred based on race/ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, disability, and religion are strictly prohibited.
[bul]Misuse of HTML Code - Over-use or misuse of HTML code may be held as an offense at moderators' discretion. This would include particularly annoying, large, flashing, or otherwise unnecessary over-use of such special features.
[bul]No commercial advertising.
[bul]RESPECT the Forum Moderators and Administrators.
[bul]If you have any questions please post in the forum or you can contact any of the site admins or the forum moderators.[/bul]
Content taken from (and modified)
http://www.tech-critic.com/modules.php?modname=custompage&name=forumrules
Again - I think this is a good basis, and add/modify from here. Rerezzed Ram has already provided some good examples
Actually, looking through these bulleted items - they're all kind of the "don'ts" part of it. Equally important is the "do's". In fact, there should be a healthy dose of the kind of stuff people are encouraged to do while here at The Sector