Community Guidelines

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Stukov
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Community Guidelines

Post by Stukov »

After careful consideration of the words of various members during the community discussion, I have decided to implement a series of Community Guidelines to provide some framework to the manner in which we all post on this forum. This will serve as a guideline for what is expected of everyone and for me (and staff) to enforce.

Rather than swing from one extreme (laissez faire) to another (tyranical), I'm going to try to take steps that hopefully will improve the manner in which discussion takes place, without going so heavy handed it stifles it. You should not be afraid to post what you think on here (exception to what breaks forum rules and UK law), but you should take time to consider if there is a better way to say it.

I will follow up with exact guidelines and try to include examples, as well as provide an area after I reserve some posts to answer any questions and receive feedback on what you think should or shouldn't be included.

To enforce these rules we will provide infractions to offenders, with a detailed explanation why the infraction has occurred, and what you could have said to differently to not have received an infraction. If the forum rules, not the community guidelines, are broken we will continue edit the users posts as we have in the past to remove inflammatory posts (clarifying we don't edit users posts except in cases of illegal/rule breaking material like links to copyright material, hate speech, death threats, child pornography, etc).

However, editing of users posts who have received and infraction for violating community guidelines will be responsible of the user themselves. This gives them an opportunity to practice finding a more acceptable way to convey their ideas. Should members take the time to work on this, with consideration to the number of offenses, the severity of the offense, and showing an interest in wanting to improve themselves and the community, we will remove infractions. I'm not sure on the current fall off for current infractions, but rather than a period of weeks or months, the infraction could be removed within days. The time period in which the infraction is removed, if it all, is a judgement reserved for site staff. You can always ask and secure dialog as to the nature and length of a infraction.

Furthermore, the site staff aren't able to monitor every post in real time, there are times posts can sit and cause issues before we have an opportunity to react. Often from what I've seen is a snowball effect of a downturn of a thread, where by the time I have gotten there the only way for me to fairly punish anyone is to punish everyone. In the past I have avoided giving out infractions when a group of people are being disrespectful to each other (I don't want to play the who started it game); in the future these types of things will receive infractions for violating community guidelines.

However, should community members not involved wish to provide advice to a member on how to change their post or if the allowed editing time has expired, updated a new post rephrasing and apologizing to one another, we will consider the issue resolved and no infractions will be given. I hope these ideas will encourage self-improvement and for the community to resolve issues among themselves, allowing the board and community to flourish.
I am the Watcher.
I am the Wanderer.
I am the Whisper.
I am the Warden.
I am the Weaver.

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Stukov
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Re: Community Guidelines

Post by Stukov »

  • Disruption of Discussion: Joining in a topic thread and with off-topic posts that to not provide any serious dialog or furtherance of discussion, example incoherent rambling, arguing over material not relevant to general thread topic
  • Degenerative language: Use of language to describe or imply other members, even if not directly named, are inferior or below the speaker, including language that elevates the self-importance of the speaker; example being in a disagreement with someone then not directly responding to the individual but to proceed to discuss plebs, sheep, etc or self-aggrandizing their power, ability, position, or authority in the world
  • Out of Context: Taking another members words out of context to convey the opposite meaning of what is intended
  • Frivolous Content: Posts that provide no benefit or betterment to the community and existence serves as a distraction or disruption to the flow and cohesiveness of the community; example posts that may or may not be purposeful flame bait or trolling, but acts within the same manner
  • Out of Bounds: Continual postings in threads where the original poster has set guidelines for the topic being discussed, and the user continues to post contradictions to those guidelines; example when someone asks for help, but not to talk about a certain something only to have users come into the thread and start talking about it, or users coming into other threads to spread generally accept false information every time a topic is barely mentioned
  • Derisiveness: General scorn aimed not at topics but at the community and its members; does not include disagreements, frustration, disappointment, or legitimate issues, but general angst and hate for community
I am the Watcher.
I am the Wanderer.
I am the Whisper.
I am the Warden.
I am the Weaver.

User avatar
Stukov
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 1093
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2011 3:23 pm

Re: Community Guidelines

Post by Stukov »

Reserved
I am the Watcher.
I am the Wanderer.
I am the Whisper.
I am the Warden.
I am the Weaver.

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