New Forum Rules

[del1962]

The Big Rules
If you break these rules, you're eligible for an instant and possibly permanent ban.

• Using racist, sexist, homophobic or hateful language.
• Posting pornographic or NSFW (Not Safe For Work) material.
• Using the forum primarily to drive traffic to another website.
• Users may only have ONE account. Opening multiple accounts will result in a ban.
• Posting any member's real life information without permission.
• Impersonating Administrators, Moderators, or other forum users.
• Once you have received a short term ban, this will be taken into consideration when further sanctions are required and considered. Multiple short term bans may make you eligible for a long term ban
• Attempting to smartass your way around these rules.

The Other Rules
If you break these rules, you're risking being banned. Think before you post.

• Remaking or complaining about a locked or deleted thread by creating a new thread.
• Complaining or boasting about any ban, including comments in signature text and/or avatars.
• Hijacking topic without a good reason and/or new information.
• Chasing / harassing / flaming other users, regardless of who instigated it.
• Harassing other users by having a continuous negative or bitter attitude towards them.
• Harassing the moderators or administrators. Cooperation with moderators is expected. If you have a complaint about a moderator, write directly to a different moderator.
• Trolling
• Cruising the boards looking for a fight.
• Please use the complaint system responsibly. Abuse of the system may result in a ban.


Guidelines for Posting
Post, not the poster. If you don't like what a post says, counter the post. Do not attack the poster. Personal comments, such as "Your mother wears army boots", are considered personal attacks, and thus fall under the "looking for a fight" rule. If you are using the word "you", you are probably engaging in a personal attack.

Humor. Humor is difficult to use in writing, and is subject to personal interpretation. If another poster or a moderator finds your "humor" not to be humorous? Then it is up to the mods.
Trolling: trolling is a difficult term, with far-ranging definitions. The bottom line is this question: "is it destructive". If a post, or a poster, is destructive to a thread or the forum, by driving away conversation or other posters, they can be considered for warnings/bans. It can be considered destructive if the intent of the poster is nothing more than to provoke or "make fun of" other posters. Some spirited conversations - for instance, in the politics threads - will easily fall into this category. You have to have a thick skin to hold a discussion in the politics threads. But the moderators are aware of this, and it is taken into account.
Proof of point, opinions, and common knowledge: you can't just say "we know Bobby the Bod is doping". You have to provide some proof using linked sources or verifiable material. Or, you can just state "in my opinion". If, on the other hand, it is in the realm of "common knowledge", then it is acceptable to make an unverified statement. Be careful - common knowledge would apply, for instance, at the time of this posting, to Lance Armstrong. But allegations of current doping, and current riders, would not be "common knowledge" at this point. To be common knowledge, the "fact" has to have been published, widely read, and widely agreed with. This point is particularly applicable in The Clinic.

We want an open forum, available to all opinions, with freely ranging topics. Sometimes this means the conversations get contentious. Avoid fights, and respect other posters.

I have no problems with these rules, and as the moderators thread is closed (feel free to move this post there), however I don't think these rules fully address the distinction between the clinic and other forums, especially wrt new users.

 

[gregod]

TL;DR

too many rules.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Rules aren't the issue. Some of the mods are.

There isn't any accountability. I mean, sure, a mod may get the occasional slap on the wrist behind the scenes, but they get to stay on board regardless of how many times they screw up. The fact that the site owner doesn't do anything about that is the real issue.

But good luck with those new rules.

 

[Daniel Benson]

Hey all,

We're not kicking off another moderation thread. If you have major issues with the rules and the moderation feel free to email me and I'll share the feedback with the moderation team.

Thanks

Dan