Forum Rules *** UPDATED 06/03/16 ***
Dec 14, 2013 16:03:42 GMT -5
The New Sheriff of Rock Ridge, Ravenchamp, and 1 more like this
Post by Evil Yoda on Dec 14, 2013 16:03:42 GMT -5
Basic Rules
We've established a few rules for the forum. The TL;DR is basically this: treat each other nicely, follow basic netiquette, and avoid a very few kinds of posts. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for violating them. Almost everyone here already follows these rules.
1. Members are advised to read the ProBoards terms of service. The entire page is worth reading, but pay special attention to the sections titled "OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT" and "PROHIBITED USES". A link can be found at the bottom of every page.
2. Don't post racist or sexist comments. Don't post or link to pornographic material. Moderators adjudicate this, and we may disagree with you about the nature of your content. Pictures are welcome, but keep them tasteful. This board is not age-restricted. Keep that in mind when deciding whether your picture is appropriate. If the moderators disagree with your opinion your picture or post may disappear. And you may be warned.
3. Don't be a troll. Troll behavior includes baiting other posters and starting or attempting to start a flame war. Likewise, don't reply to trolling comments. A troll will drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience. And BOTH of you are likely to have posts deleted, at the very least.
4. Do not insult other posters. You may comment about their posts or the philosophy that underlies their posts, but keep personal attacks out of the conversation. This includes insulting a poster's family. Public figures, because of that status, enjoy fewer protections, but they are not defenseless. Take note of "YOUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEFAMATORY COMMENTS" in ProBoards' Terms of Service. You are responsible for defamatory remarks you make.
5. Moderators do not see everything. This is a passively moderated board. If you believe a post violates the rules and the moderators have not acted, report it. If you do not know how to do this, see the section below.
6. No alternate identities. Please use only one account. Too often individuals who create multiple accounts are doing so to circumvent board discipline or for sock puppetry. Both are against the rules here. If we decide this is happening, the account will be banned without any warnings.
7. Refer to posters only by the posting name they have chosen to use here, regardless of what you know or think you know about their identity. Abbreviations are fine unless the poster objects. This is really a special case of "don't insult other posters" - it is common courtesy to call people what they ask to be called. Dealing with sock puppetry is Admin's responsibility. If you suspect a sock puppet, feel free to bring it to our attention, ideally explaining why you believe this. We give posters the benefit of the doubt, so your report may initially generate no action. But rest assured we do read these reports.
8. Don't publicly criticize the moderators. We understand that we are not perfect, but public criticism merely exacerbates problems and makes our job more difficult. If you have a complaint about a moderator, contact that moderator via private message. If you are unhappy with the response, contact Admin. His word is final.
9. Posters who continue to violate the rules will face escalating punishments, including warnings, temporary suspensions, and bans. Attempting to circumvent discipline by creating an alternate identity violates rule 6, above.
10. You may post some material from elsewhere here, but you must be mindful of copyright rules. Obey the source's terms of service. At a minimum, you must link to the original source and excerpt no more than three paragraphs. Posts that do not follow these rules will be edited or deleted.
11. Do not spam these boards. Spamming, defined as posting the same or substantially similar comments in many threads or forums, is a violation of basic netiquette. (Netiquette, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the rules of good conduct for the Internet). Occasionally repeating yourself, especially in response to a substantially similar post, is acceptable. If you're saying the same thing more than three times in one day, you may be spamming. Before posting identical content more than one place, consider where it best fits, and post it there only.
12. There is no rule against lying. If someone writes something you believe to be untrue, then you can ask them to back it up. If they can't, other posters are free to make their own determinations. Moderators do not have the time to do the research necessary to determine who is lying. Some folks might legitimately believe what they write, and some things people regard as lies may simply be differences of opinion. For these reasons, the task of sorting out the truth becomes impossibly difficult without full time moderation, which this board does not have.
How to Report a Post
Click the 'gear' icon at the top right corner of the post, and select "Report this post" from the menu that appears. Reporting a post may not generate any action; moderators may disagree with you that it violates our terms of service. You may be tempted to report posts because you dislike the author or disagree with the post. (Some here do this.) If you do not clearly know which numbered rule above the post violates, you may be about to do this. Please don't. A report may generate more action than you anticipate; moderators may decide nearby posts or the entire thread are part of the problem. In particular, posts that quote the offending comment will usually be deleted, as this is much easier for us than trying to edit each post.
Anchors and Locks
A falling thread has an anchor icon next to it. It will not move to the top of the forum even if someone posts to it. This is a move just short of locking the thread, to give posters a chance to bring the thread back on topic. A locked thread has a lock icon next to it and does not accept posts. It remains for reference only. Duplicate threads or threads that contain many posts which violate the rules may disappear entirely.
Missing a Post?
Posts that violate rules are deleted when we discover them (see rule #5 if you're not sure why an insulting post has not been deleted). Posts that quote rule breaking posts will generally also be deleted. If you lose a post and you're sure it did not violate any rules, consider whether you might have quoted a post that did. And consider whether you *should* quote a post like that. See also "How to Report a Post" above.
Warning Levels
The moderators and you can see your warning level, which runs from 0 - 100. At 100, we ban you. If you come back with a new account and we catch you at it, we ban you again regardless of your warning level. Warnings for most offenses are 5%. Particularly egregious offenses result in larger increases, or even temporary bans (usually one week). We do not discuss disciplinary actions with anyone except the poster involved. We ask that you also refrain from public discussions of this nature; these serve little purpose and too often evolve into flame wars.
Lowering Warning Levels
There is no automatic mechanism for lowering warning levels. Therefore, we moderators must do this manually. We do not have the time to survey the hundreds of accounts to see who has behaved and who has not, so we have established this rule: if you go 90 days without receiving any warnings, send any moderator a message asking for your warning level to be lowered. We will verify you have no recent warnings and if that's true we will lower your warning level 10%. For each additional month that you maintain a good record, you can send us a message again. If you have warnings within the 90 day period your request will be ignored. If that happens do not keep sending us messages! Wait at least a month before trying again.
We've established a few rules for the forum. The TL;DR is basically this: treat each other nicely, follow basic netiquette, and avoid a very few kinds of posts. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for violating them. Almost everyone here already follows these rules.
1. Members are advised to read the ProBoards terms of service. The entire page is worth reading, but pay special attention to the sections titled "OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT" and "PROHIBITED USES". A link can be found at the bottom of every page.
2. Don't post racist or sexist comments. Don't post or link to pornographic material. Moderators adjudicate this, and we may disagree with you about the nature of your content. Pictures are welcome, but keep them tasteful. This board is not age-restricted. Keep that in mind when deciding whether your picture is appropriate. If the moderators disagree with your opinion your picture or post may disappear. And you may be warned.
3. Don't be a troll. Troll behavior includes baiting other posters and starting or attempting to start a flame war. Likewise, don't reply to trolling comments. A troll will drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience. And BOTH of you are likely to have posts deleted, at the very least.
4. Do not insult other posters. You may comment about their posts or the philosophy that underlies their posts, but keep personal attacks out of the conversation. This includes insulting a poster's family. Public figures, because of that status, enjoy fewer protections, but they are not defenseless. Take note of "YOUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEFAMATORY COMMENTS" in ProBoards' Terms of Service. You are responsible for defamatory remarks you make.
5. Moderators do not see everything. This is a passively moderated board. If you believe a post violates the rules and the moderators have not acted, report it. If you do not know how to do this, see the section below.
6. No alternate identities. Please use only one account. Too often individuals who create multiple accounts are doing so to circumvent board discipline or for sock puppetry. Both are against the rules here. If we decide this is happening, the account will be banned without any warnings.
7. Refer to posters only by the posting name they have chosen to use here, regardless of what you know or think you know about their identity. Abbreviations are fine unless the poster objects. This is really a special case of "don't insult other posters" - it is common courtesy to call people what they ask to be called. Dealing with sock puppetry is Admin's responsibility. If you suspect a sock puppet, feel free to bring it to our attention, ideally explaining why you believe this. We give posters the benefit of the doubt, so your report may initially generate no action. But rest assured we do read these reports.
8. Don't publicly criticize the moderators. We understand that we are not perfect, but public criticism merely exacerbates problems and makes our job more difficult. If you have a complaint about a moderator, contact that moderator via private message. If you are unhappy with the response, contact Admin. His word is final.
9. Posters who continue to violate the rules will face escalating punishments, including warnings, temporary suspensions, and bans. Attempting to circumvent discipline by creating an alternate identity violates rule 6, above.
10. You may post some material from elsewhere here, but you must be mindful of copyright rules. Obey the source's terms of service. At a minimum, you must link to the original source and excerpt no more than three paragraphs. Posts that do not follow these rules will be edited or deleted.
11. Do not spam these boards. Spamming, defined as posting the same or substantially similar comments in many threads or forums, is a violation of basic netiquette. (Netiquette, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the rules of good conduct for the Internet). Occasionally repeating yourself, especially in response to a substantially similar post, is acceptable. If you're saying the same thing more than three times in one day, you may be spamming. Before posting identical content more than one place, consider where it best fits, and post it there only.
12. There is no rule against lying. If someone writes something you believe to be untrue, then you can ask them to back it up. If they can't, other posters are free to make their own determinations. Moderators do not have the time to do the research necessary to determine who is lying. Some folks might legitimately believe what they write, and some things people regard as lies may simply be differences of opinion. For these reasons, the task of sorting out the truth becomes impossibly difficult without full time moderation, which this board does not have.
How to Report a Post
Click the 'gear' icon at the top right corner of the post, and select "Report this post" from the menu that appears. Reporting a post may not generate any action; moderators may disagree with you that it violates our terms of service. You may be tempted to report posts because you dislike the author or disagree with the post. (Some here do this.) If you do not clearly know which numbered rule above the post violates, you may be about to do this. Please don't. A report may generate more action than you anticipate; moderators may decide nearby posts or the entire thread are part of the problem. In particular, posts that quote the offending comment will usually be deleted, as this is much easier for us than trying to edit each post.
Anchors and Locks
A falling thread has an anchor icon next to it. It will not move to the top of the forum even if someone posts to it. This is a move just short of locking the thread, to give posters a chance to bring the thread back on topic. A locked thread has a lock icon next to it and does not accept posts. It remains for reference only. Duplicate threads or threads that contain many posts which violate the rules may disappear entirely.
Missing a Post?
Posts that violate rules are deleted when we discover them (see rule #5 if you're not sure why an insulting post has not been deleted). Posts that quote rule breaking posts will generally also be deleted. If you lose a post and you're sure it did not violate any rules, consider whether you might have quoted a post that did. And consider whether you *should* quote a post like that. See also "How to Report a Post" above.
Warning Levels
The moderators and you can see your warning level, which runs from 0 - 100. At 100, we ban you. If you come back with a new account and we catch you at it, we ban you again regardless of your warning level. Warnings for most offenses are 5%. Particularly egregious offenses result in larger increases, or even temporary bans (usually one week). We do not discuss disciplinary actions with anyone except the poster involved. We ask that you also refrain from public discussions of this nature; these serve little purpose and too often evolve into flame wars.
Lowering Warning Levels
There is no automatic mechanism for lowering warning levels. Therefore, we moderators must do this manually. We do not have the time to survey the hundreds of accounts to see who has behaved and who has not, so we have established this rule: if you go 90 days without receiving any warnings, send any moderator a message asking for your warning level to be lowered. We will verify you have no recent warnings and if that's true we will lower your warning level 10%. For each additional month that you maintain a good record, you can send us a message again. If you have warnings within the 90 day period your request will be ignored. If that happens do not keep sending us messages! Wait at least a month before trying again.