Forum Guidlines

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Forum Guidlines

Postby phish » Fri May 26, 2006 12:51 pm

Given the recent issues re copyright and general internet ettiquet, perhaps the mods should set up some "forum guidlines" for the users. As people subscribe to the forum they could be directed to the guidlines. It would also give mods a "yardstick" by which to moderate certain types of posts.

It may seem anal, but the aim is to make the forums an enjoyable experience and preempt unpleasant situations.

As an example here are the guidlines we use at a site i run:


1. General

1. This site is an X themed site , content and motivation first and foremost are for the community it caters for.
2. Flaming will not be tolerated.
3. Trolling will not be tolerated.
4. Do NOT list your e-mail address in posts. Following each of your posts will be a set of links that allow people to contact you by e-mail or via Private Messaging.
5. If you make an off-site reference (link), please mention where it goes, what the site is about and the relevance of the link. Also please state whether it may contain material not suitable for viewing from an office environment.
6. Post any post only once in the most appropriate forum available. If you post a topic about a movie, for instance, in the Chit-Chat forum, it will be moved to the movies forum. This makes extra work for the moderators and administrators, so please help out and post in the most appropriate forum.
7. Never mention someone's real name. You may mention your own and if someone decides to do so, please still refer to that person by their nickname.
8. Please remember that anything you post becomes public domain. Your, or anyone else' posts will not be removed at your request.
9. Please use the functionality of the forums and not custom methods to do stuff. (i.e. Use the bbCode Quote or the Quote button to quote from another person's post in stead of the old e-mail way of quoting by adding ">" characters at the beginning of other persons' lines).
10. Please do not use "fancy" quotation marks such as is found in Microsoft Word. (i.e. Wrong: “Don’t say: ‘Hello’”. Right: "Don't say 'Hello'"). As you see, also use straight apostrophes.
11. Do not use hard spaces that break forum layout. &  is a hard space. Your posts will be deleted.
12. Do not point people to Google, Wikipedia etc. Rather mention the URL where you found an answer or reply but also add the relevant information directly in your post. Preferably in your own words and derived from more than one source. Internet search one-upmanship is not a nice thing. Discussing your point of view on a subject is.
13. Please respect copyright. Do not post links to copyrighted material (ED2K links etc.) Depending on how law enforcement regarding such sites turn out, we may even host such links on X in future, but for the moment, the legality of them are still undetermined. Feel free to criticize copyright if you feel like it.
14. Do not link to images other than those in X's own photo pages directly, save them, then use the attachment system to reference them in your posts. Direct linking affects the load time of X pages, steals the bandwidth of other 'Web sites and may break if the original image is deleted.
15. Do not dominate a discussion. If you post in reply to one other person and swap replies with that person one-on-one within the same day, you are dominating a discussion. Many such topical matter are often also better suited to Private Messaging.


2. Language

1. Do not POST IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, not even for the title of a topic. People read by the shapes of words, not letter by letter. When was the last time you sounded out D-O-G while reading? Ascenders and descenders are what makes it easy to quickly identify the shape of a word. When you use all capitals, you have no ascenders or descenders. The shape of almost every word becomes a rectangle, and it's harder to read. Similarly, ignoring necessary uppercase letters (ie at the beginning of sentences and for the pronoun 'I') leads to unintelligible posts. So avoid dropping all caps and never resort to SMS-speak.

2. Please post very clear and descriptive subject lines for new topics. This helps future people identify topics of interest to them. Please also be especially neat in your subject lines; Also in capitalization.


3. Please do not use short-hand ("Ur" does not mean "your")or l33t, especially in titles. Also do not use inappropriate camel caps in titles

4. Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts.


3. Spam

1. Posting a new thread about a topic that is already being discussed is considered spam. This is more true for commercial/promotional threads such as those in the Out and About forums regarding events.


2. Trolling in any form is not allowed. Do not register twice. If you cannot get into your old account, please post in the support forum where you do not have to be registered logged in to post.




4. Specific forums

1. Quizzes forum

1. Please do not post any Quizzes or Lists of Questions related topics in any other forums.

2. Jokes forum

1. Please do not post any Jokes related topics in any other forums.

3. Afrikaans forum

1. Please do not post any Afrikaans or Afrikaans related topics in any other forums.





5. Private Messages

1. Your Private Messages service will be revoked if you solicit, preach or spam via the system.


6. Tag lines / footers / sigs

1. No hot links in the sigs please
2. No graphic elements in the sigs please
3. Please keep your sig in text and not graphically interruptive to the board. A little colour is acceptable, loads of bold type or big text is not.


7. User names & Profile

1. User names will not be changed on request only unless:

1. the user is very new and have made fewer than 5 posts.
2. the user name in some way interferes with the site software.

2. Please try to start your user name with a capital letter.
3. Do not use all capital letters in your user name.
4. Do not use embellishments on in your user name. (i.e. "{W}eI..r + d - o")
5. You are welcome to request your own private avatar, it will be accepted only if it fits with the general nature of existing avatars. Face shots and tacky avatars will also be rejected.
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phish
SA Reptiles Member
 
Posts: 292
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:12 pm
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

Postby Bushbaby » Fri May 26, 2006 12:55 pm

We have already set up guidelines, but possibly there should be some changes / additions to these.

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13
http://www.snakebiteassist.co.za
http://www.reptileexpo.co.za
http://www.boaconstrictors.co.za
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Bushbaby
SA Reptiles Admin
 
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 8:04 am
Location: Pretoria


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