I don't greatly disagree with any of Roo's suggested rules per se. But I agree with virtually everyone else who thinks it better to have any such rules, as far as possible, left unsaid. Two reasons:
1. Anyone inclined to break rules like this will do so irrespective of rules.
2. If one of the first things people see when clicking on a web-site is a long list of rules, most of those people will think "bossy bunch" and go elsewhere. Okay, maybe that's just how I'd react!
The knotting world is inevitably not the most dynamic world. I'm a mere newbie, but my input would be to suggest it is made no more stuffy than it is already.
As for Glenys's point, "...stamp out discourtesy by overwhelming it with greater courtesy, and thereby leading by example?", I couldn't agree more. One place where this could start is when newbies make mistakes, including spelling mistakes - eg "Bitter End" for "Working End", or "Bite" for "Bight". Rather than publicly pointing out their error to them, schoolmarm fashion, it has to be better simply to use the correct term "Working End" or the correct spelling "Bight" several times in our responses to such posts (not too many times though, they don't need a sledge-hammer!). The newbie will get the message, without being humiliated. Humiliated people don't learn, they leave.