Forum Rules & Guidelines + ongoing Strike System announcement

[Martin318is]

It is suggested that all members read this post about forum etiquette. When in doubt, let common sense be your guide, but some people wonder about specifics, so here is a general list of rules or guidelines.

1. No foul language, nor circumventing forum "censors" in order to do so.

2. No spam. This includes spam in signatures, even if cycling related.

3. Illegal, libelous, or slanderous posts or threads will not be tolerated, and result in infractions or bans.

4. Impersonating others, be they famous or not, will not be tolerated. Nor will creating user names of well known people, unless as an obvious parody.

5. No links to pornography, or posting of pornographic images. This includes exceedingly graphic or jarring images of violence, etc as well.

6. No personal attacks.
. . .a) No insulting other members. This includes counter-insults ("he started it").
. . .b) No caustic insults or humiliation of individuals in public outside of this forum. Most public figures may be considered fair game for criticism or lampooning, but again, use common sense.
. . .c) No discriminatory remarks of any kind. Bringing up someone's race, religion, creed or similar for anything other than reference will not be tolerated.
. . .d) Blatant lying, baiting, or teasing other members will not be tolerated.

7. Remarks, references or comparisons to infamous individuals (Hitler, Stalin, Nazis, etc) will not be tolerated.

8. No posting of personal information of other members.

9. Issuing claims of information or quotes without listing sources or links will result in warnings or infractions.

10. Re-registering after a ban under a new name will result in a potential lifetime ban.

11. Creating threads or posts on the subject of doping in a forum other than The Clinic will result in warnings, or stiff infractions.

12. Posting off-topic in threads, or "hijacking" threads will result in warnings or infractions.

13. Creating new threads about topics already being covered in other threads will result in the thread being deleted or merged, and a warning. It's up to you to be familiar with at least the first page of each forum, and how the search feature works.

14. Copying bodies of text or images from copyrighted sources and posting them here breaches the author/owner's copyright. Post links to the legal host of such items instead. Violations will result in deletion of the items in question, warnings and/or infractions.

15. Posting messages in the open forum that have been passed on from members currently serving a suspension is unacceptable as it is considered assiting someone to circumvent a ban. Assisting a banned member in this manner will potentially result in a suspension of a similar length.

16. Signatures: contain information that you want to include at the bottom of all your posts. This might include pictures, links to your site(s), quotes, etc. Personal blogs or websites are acceptable. For-profit, or any type of company or organization where money is being exchanged is NOT acceptable. If you wish to advertise on this web site, please contact
advertising@cyclingnews.com

Violating any of these rules will result in warnings or infractions and the post or thread being removed. Egregious violations of these rules will result in bans ranging from one week, to months, or even lifetime bans.

Moderators are generally pleased to let discussion flow and not interfere but they have the ability to warn and potentially remove members from the forums if they're acting in an inappropriate manner. If anything concerns you and appears to be either offensive or libelous please notify us by clicking on the red and white triangle above each post. You may also contact moderators or administrators via PM directly.

If you have any questions about the forum, or any of these guidelines, do not hesitate to ask a moderator or administrator, or post them in the About The Forum section.

Martin318is; 08-16-11 at 21:01. Reason: Added 19 - Signatures
hiero2; 26 Feb 2013, Reason: Condensed personal attack rules under one rule.

 

[Martin318is]

TDF Rules

To keep things under control, we are introducing a new system to make sure the forum discussion stay polite and interesting. It is called Three Strikes and You're Out.

Basically, for the first violation, you get a warning.

For the second violation, you automatically get a 24 hour ban.

For the third violation, you automatically get a one-month ban.

No exceptions!

What are violations? This covers the “minor crimes” of a forum, so to speak, and things which really are more or less common sense:
obscenities, including trying to avoid the forum filter; insults; other offensive statements; going off-topic after a mod has said to stop; generally doing anything a mod has said not to. .... and this list is not all-inclusive.

NOTE: This also includes the use of doping 'nicknames' to describe riders eg Pharmstrong, Clentador, Albuterol, etc. Where this occurs outside of The Clinic it will be considered doping discussion and moderated accordingly as a strike.

Sock puppets, spammers, and trolls will be dealt with as usual.

Anyone who receives a sanction (first, second or third) will of course be notified of the action taken.

We simply want to insure that the Cyclingnews forum remains a pleasant place for everyone to virtually sit down together for a pleasant chat about our favourite sport!

Thanks for your co-operation and let's all enjoy the Tour!

 

[Martin318is]

Doping based nicknames for riders

Clearly there is potential entertainment in attempting to see who can be the most clever regarding creating joke names for people based upon allegations of doping, etc. Recent well known examples are, "Pharmstrong", "Albuterol", "Clentador", "Mr 60%", etc.

From the perspective of CyclingNews, these nicknames are clearly doping related. The rules of the site state that doping conversation is banned everywhere other than the Clinic. Therefore, members using or referring to these names outside the Clinic should expect to be contacted by the moderators. During the Tour de France, this contact will be in the form of a Strike as per the currently enforced Strikes system.

 

[Daniel Benson]

Ongoing Strikes system announcement

All,
Following the success of the Tour de France strikes system in managing the forum, it has been decided to keep it on as the ongoing moderation process to make sure the forum discussion stay polite and interesting. It is called Three Strikes and You're Out.

Basically,

All infractions will be given a 1 month expiry period.

Someone with no current infractions will receive a warning which is considered to be strike one.

A second active infraction will result in a 24 hour suspension (second strike)

A third active infraction will result in a 1 month suspension. (strike three).


When returning from a 1 month ban, the member will still carry 2 strikes for the month, meaning any further poor behaviour that month will earn a new 1 month suspension.

At moderator discretion, certain offences will bypass this system completely, such as spamming, threats of violence, returning while suspended, etc. The cases can result in anything up to and including a permanent ban.
No exceptions!

All strikes causing 1 month suspensions are reviewed automatically by the moderation team to ensure the penalty is appropriate.

What are violations? This covers the listed rules of the forum, and things which really are more or less common sense:

obscenities, including trying to avoid the forum filter; insults; other offensive statements; going off-topic after a mod has said to stop; generally doing anything a mod has said not to. .... and this list is not all-inclusive.

Situations not covered in this system such as: Sock puppets, spammers, severe trolling, abuse, threats, etc will be dealt with as usual and may receive anything from a short to permanent ban from the forum.

Anyone who receives a sanction (first, second or third) will of course be notified of the action taken in the infraction email.

All infractions have a 1 month expiry. Therefore it is possible to get a warning each month without being suspended, however once you HAVE been warned, any further actions that month will result in some form of suspension.

We simply want to insure that the Cyclingnews forum remains a place for everyone to virtually sit down together for a pleasant chat about our favourite sport!

regards,
Daniel Benson

 

[hiero2]

"No personal attacks. Attack the message, not the messenger."
I found two posts, on another forum, that are very well written, probably better than I could do. For guidance, or learning about personal attacks, and using sarcasm online, these are suggested reading:

What's the difference between a "personal attack" and "fair criticism"?

Use of Sarcasm -- "Most people think they know what sarcasm is and could recognize it if they heard it. Most people would be wrong..."

I also introduce those sources to clearly show that these questions are not new, they have been dealt with before, and clearly.


Also, note especially the section, on this page, that includes "ad hominem" arguments.
A List of Fallacious Arguments.