Chuck wrote:
This board for years has had no defined etiquette rules, including in the FAQ. From my vantage point, Jorge has historically been loathe to ban even the most combative conversation (ChuckysChild, for example) until things were, in my view, beyond acceptable.
I appreciate Nexter, one of two board moderators along with DesertDwarf, attempting to set some boundaries in Jorge's absence, to include "abuse and/or abusive language," as highlighted here, and "any and all nonsense and otherwise frivolous posts," as highlighted here.
Who defines both "abuse and/or abusive language" and ""any and all nonsense and otherwise frivolous posts?" Does this apply to the Off Topic subforum? Where would a board member find said definitions? Granted, active board membership is incredibly small, but the questions are nonetheless valid and, if clarified, would prove useful to both current and prospective members.
I appreciate Nexter, one of two board moderators along with DesertDwarf, attempting to set some boundaries in Jorge's absence, to include "abuse and/or abusive language," as highlighted here, and "any and all nonsense and otherwise frivolous posts," as highlighted here.
Who defines both "abuse and/or abusive language" and ""any and all nonsense and otherwise frivolous posts?" Does this apply to the Off Topic subforum? Where would a board member find said definitions? Granted, active board membership is incredibly small, but the questions are nonetheless valid and, if clarified, would prove useful to both current and prospective members.
Yes, I'm well aware of Jorge's reluctance to impose any sort of firm and fixed rules on the board. That said, this is the only board that I have ever come across that does not have some sort of clearly - more or less, anyway, or sometimes even excessively, such as trying to impose "politically correct" language and behaviour to which my personal reaction is always extremely bolshy - defined forum rules and/or guidelines. I still am on a number of boards, especially Linux ones and non-computer related ones, and every one has - mostly fairly exhaustive - forum rules. I have been drawing up a rough draft of a suitable set of rules which I hope to refine a bit more and then suggest them to Jorge as and when he returns to active duty, as I strongly feel that this board does need some sort of rules.
Given Jorge's continued absence, I have decided to draw up some basic simple rules/guidelines and post these temporarily in the 'Announcements' forum. They will of course apply to all forums on this board. I shall implement this as soon as I can find the time and shall consult on this with fellow moderator DesertDwarf.
Since becoming a moderator here, I've had to deal with a number of posts that used abusive language and/or were totally abusive, usually about the software and/or Jorge. In these cases, I delete the offending post and ban the user. The situation is similar wrt nonsense or frivolous posts, which seem to have been on the increase lately.
Abuse and abusive language as well as nonsense and frivolous are very well defined terms that are not defined by anybody and their meaning should be self-evident - if in doubt, check with the OED.
And yes, those two 'rules' apply across all forums on this board.Alas, I have to agree as I have long come to the same conclusion that active board membership is very small, and equally sadly the majority of new users fall into one of these categories - active spammers/spam bots, spammers who just leave spam in their profiles and/or signatures, potential future spammers (I get very suspicious when I see new users who stay online for only a handful or even less minutes when registering and then aren't seen again - until they finally eventually do post spam) and those who never seem to as much as log in again let alone actually post anything.
Anyway, I hope I've managed to clear things up a little but further discussion is definitely encouraged - we have far too little of that here these days, unlike especially in the old days when Winstep discussions were still mailing list and then group based.
