Suggested Forum Rules

Messages from the Administrators and instructions on how to use the forum
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masch
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Suggested Forum Rules

Post by masch » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:43 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Dear All,

Below I am attaching a propose set of "Forum Rules", adapted from a few other forums (if you hang around the Ubuntu Forums, you may recognise a lot of them...). They seem to be working relatively well over there and have been developed over a reasonable time period.

Sorry for the strange formating in places.

Let me know what you think. I open the floor for suggestions...

Marc


Section I - General Policy:

By registering and participating in UKLFPG Forum discussions you agree to the following policy. If you should not agree you have the right to no longer participate in forum discussions at your own discretion.

This is YOUR community. Most people have a common sense feel for what is and what is not appropriate in our forums and you folks generally do a great job of policing yourselves. We do, however, need to have a few set policies for everyone to refer to when the need arises.

While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible where acceptable, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or web-master (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately, permanently or temporarily being banned (and your service provider being informed).

If the user continues to break policy the said users account will be reviewed by the forum resolution team and removed if need be. It is at the sole discretion of the resolution team to remove violating accounts.
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or post at any time should they see fit under the guidelines specified below. You agree that the web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to send a private message with a warning and or censor any forum user who is in violation of forum policy.

1.Respect the Forum Volunteers. We provide a service in our free time to keep the forum running efficiently. We will occasionally ask for input, but in some cases we will not, please respect our decisions. Also, we do edit for content, if you have an issue with our moderation, please PM one of the Moderators.

2.Profanity: Mild profanity/swearing is allowed in the context of general speech. Explicit profanity/swearing is not allowed, and under no circumstances will we allow any profanity to be directed toward another person. Be considerate, and respectful.

3.Forum Threads and Flaming:
Flaming And Condescending Messages: Messages personally attacking, calling names, or otherwise harassing or being condescending to another forum member or any ethnic or religious group will be removed based on the moderators decision.
If the thread is flame-bait, it will be locked or removed without notice. Individual flame-bait may be deleted or edited at the moderators' discretion. Certain users who continue to post flame-bait or engage in other questionable practices (such as trolling) may be subject to more serious sanctions.
If the thread turns into pure flaming, it will be locked or removed without notice. Sometimes a moderator may split the thread or delete certain portions in order to keep the discussion going.

4.If a thread is spam it will be removed or edited.

5.Adult Content/Violence/Illegal Activity: Messages containing sexually
oriented/violent/illegal dialogue, images, content, or links to such will be deleted. Messages with links to or suggesting illegal activity will also be deleted. These actions could very likely result in a ban at the moderators discretion.

6.Thread Drifting/Steering: Please keep discussions on topic.

7.Please remember that these forums are inclusive of ALL people, and we strive to maintain accessibility to everyone.

8.Please strive to communicate with other users as effectively as possible:
Please try to write your posts in English. We may have users from different countries that visit here.
When writing a post, please space paragraphs with a blank line in between them for better readability.
Please do not write posts in all uppercase letters, as it looks as if you are screaming at the people reading your post.
Please refrain from using "leet" speak or slang. These forums are a tool for communication, which will be obfuscated by those types of writing.
Please do not shorten your words to acronyms or abbreviations. It is very difficult to read and understand.
Please use font properties for highlighting portions of your text, and not for all of the text in your post.
Typos and other errors can cause miscommunication between users on the forums, please preview your text before posting.

9.If you have found a post that you feel is inappropriate or that violates forum policies, please contact the moderators.

10.Please be prudent in your use of images. Please remember that not everyone has the same bandwidth, so please keep your image to less than 200kb.

11.Forum signatures have a few rules they are as follows: No Images, limited to three lines of text, 10pt maximum font size. Signatures are also not a place for inappropriate material such as flaming, slandering, harassment or religious remarks.

12.The web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum will preserve forum content when possible. However editing, locking and deleting content may be necessary at the sole discretion of the web-master, administrators and moderators when policy has been violated.



Section II - Forum Moderator Policies and Expectations:

MODs and ADMINs operate based upon the following:

1.Dealing with Profanity:
Mild profanity/swearing is allowed in the context of general speech. Explicit profanity/swearing is not allowed, and under no circumstances will we allow any profanity to be directed toward another person. If you feel a user is out of line please contact the administrator with the details, they will issue a warning to the user.

2.Dealing with spam posts:
If its a user trying to advertise something (except photographic related items/services in the “Classifieds” section), you are authorised to delete the post. Once the post is removed please send a Private Message to the user letting them know we have removed their post. Posts that are used to flame, harass or harm another person should be reported to an administrator asap. Please avoid partaking in conversation in these types of situations and the administration will handle the issue.

3.Editing of posts:
When a post breaks guidelines and requires editing in order to bring it back under compliance with the rules, the moderator shall first copy the un-edited post to a PM to the administrator and then edit the original post. The moderator should also PM the author and specify which guideline(s) the post did not follow.

4.Thread Closing:
If a thread has become a situation where people are simply too personally involved in the issue a thread may be closed and / or deleted. If a thread is a duplicate of another thread, it may be closed (please provide a link to another open thread on the same topic.)

5.Deleting of posts/thread:
If a post/thread would require over half to be edited in order to bring it under compliance, or if editing the violations would result in a nearly blank post/thread, the post/thread should be deleted instead.

6.No images or advertising in the signatures unless the advertising is directly related to the photographic background of the forum and/or its participants in some way, you can make the informed decision. If you see a signature that needs moderating, contact an administrator they can edit it and contact the user via private message. Avatars should be kept clean and inclusive of all people. No porn, racist images, or similar types of images. If the user has one of these private message them and ask them to remove the avatar. If the user does not voluntarily remove their avatar contact an administrator to have the avatar removed.

7.Adult Content/Violence/Illegal Activity:
Messages and links containing offensive / sexually oriented / violent / illegal dialog, images, content, or links to such will be removed. Use your best judgement. Messages with links to or suggesting illegal activity will be deleted by an administrator. These actions could result in a ban for the user.

8.Thread Steering:
It may become necessary to steer threads away from becoming damaging towards the poster and other users. Our policy is that we do not allow threads to veer too far off topic, even in community chat, to areas where it would be very easy to get ugly fast; for example, "I hate Linux" threads. Please do your best to keep posters from getting too personal during heated debates.

9.Keeping an open mind:
Sometimes you will be faced with a thread you might not agree with it's imperative you keep an open mind towards all inclusive people, and keep a neutral focus when replying. It is our duty to steer the conversations back into a positive nature without engaging in negative behaviour.

10.Signatures:
While we do not have guidelines for volunteer signatures, please try to keep them moderate and within reason.
It should be noted that, like all things, these rules will continue to change and evolve with constructive feedback from users and from experience. It is our hope that these policies will create open, honest, and civil discussion. As always, we welcome feedback about any concerns that you may have so feel free to post in the forum discussion section of the forums. It is the users responsibility to check forum policy for updates.



It should also be noted that this is a privately owned and operated site, although we do ask for donations on the various workshops to help with bandwidth charges, etc.; therefore posting here is a privilege rather than a constitutional 'right' to free speech and freedom of expression, we ask that the forum rules are followed at all times.

Public forum data is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This Forum policy is based on the Ubuntu Forum Policy found at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/index.php?page=policy


Sensible behaviour in a nutshell:
Respect
Consideration
Helpfulness
When you disagree, do so in a respectful manner.
When unsure, ask.
Real Photographers use METAL cameras.....
...and break their backs in the process... :)
http://homepage.mac.com/mjjs/Photography/

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