Rules for posting

Webslave · Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:01 pm

Hi folks,

I'm looking to compile a list of rules in one place for the benefit of those new and not so new to the place.

Naturally I'll be running this as a locked thread because comment simply isn't neccesary. Users, and moderators in particular are encouraged to PM me anything I've missed. This list isn't intended to be all-inclusive just yet. Eventually the idea will be that this can be PM'ed to new users.

Railpage Australia™ Forums - Rules

There are boundaries here to what is and what is not allowed in discussions. These rules are in place to ensure the Railpage Australia™ Forums continue to be a friendly place where people can learn and share information on a variety of rail and non-rail oriented topics.

What is not allowed is as follows:

Advertising
- Advertising or soliciting other users to buy, sell or peruse any products or services of a commercial nature through this discussion forum is not permitted. Chain letters and junk mail are also strictly prohibited. Topics/posts that contain this will be edited or deleted and warnings issued accordingly. For more information on this, see here.

Flaming
- Material that is knowingly defamatory, illegal, abusive, threatening or harassing, is strictly prohibited. As with anything, you, as a user, should use good common sense when posting. In other words, you agree not to be a a complete tool. Messages containing personal attacks on another user will be edited/deleted and warnings will be issued accordingly.

Right to Privacy
- You will not violate a person's privacy by publishing against another user's will, information that is private and personal.

Spamming
-Topics/posts that are just complete nonsense will be deleted, at the Railpage Australia™ Moderator's discretion.

Discrimination
- Topics/posts containing such will be edited/deleted accordingly.

Pornography
- Material that is sexually or otherwise obscene is not permitted on these forums. Topics/posts containing such will be deleted on sight.

Cross-posting
- Posting the same question in more than one forum is not allowed. Should this occur, then only the thread in the most relevant forum will be left open; all others will be deleted.

Raising the dead
- The forums have been around for several years now. Don't resurrect old threads (more than a year old) unless you have something substantial to add and the topic has not been discussed since in another thread.

Copyright
- Asking for information on material that is known to be copyrighted is often against the law, and providing it almost always is. Any posts containing such material will be edited or deleted completely.
- For more information on copyright, please see here.

Bandwidth Theft
- Bandwidth Theft from other sites (including fotopic) is frowned upon in the internet community. For your own protection and enjoyment, please don't do it here.
- For more information on Bandwidth Theft see here or see here.

Multiple Aliases
- Having more than one account per-user inconvieniences and annoys others, as well as putting more load on the servers. Unless prior permission is gained, users with more than one account will have any extras deleted, and quite possibly their original account too.

Excessive Posting
- Posting excessively without adding anything valuable to the conversation (eg; "lol") will not be tolerated. Posts such as these will be deleted and the user warned.

Offensive Language
- Offensive language must be kept to a minimum, and if used, must be in context. By failing to do this, you run the risk of having your post edited/deleted and further action taken against the user in extreme or repeat offences.

Private Messaging
- Private messages are treated as standard posts, thus they are subject to the same rules as a normal post.

Signatures
- Images used in signatures should not exceed 468 pixels in combined width and 60 pixels in height. The combined filesize of images used shall not exceed 12kb.

Posts Regarding Illegal Activity
- Posts that advocate or condone illegal activity such as those on the topic of graffiti will be removed, and the law enforcement authorities notified.
- If you are a new user, we suggest you refrain from starting discussions on topics such as grafitti.
- Displaying photographs of grafitti is also strictly prohibited.

Posts Regarding Fatalities or other such Incidents
- When posting on the topic of fatalities, please post only the basic information required and your source. Please then contact a moderator to have the thread locked. Do not post 'condolence' posts unless otherwise encouraged by a staff member.
- In the case of investigations and reports being conducted, please do not post any discussion until both have concluded.
- If in doubt, don't post. We have train crew reading the forums and some may be distressed by such posts.

Threads with Subjects in ALL CAPITALS
- Threads such as this will be deleted upon sighting.

What should I do if I see objectionable material on the forums?
- It is important that users recognise the real-time nature of this forum: the Railpage Australia™ staff cannot always monitor the contents of posted messages, and as such also depend upon you to inform them when participants or their messages are violating our rules as stated here. You must also recognise that they cannot respond immediately to such notices and that some time may pass before any warranted action is taken.

To contact a Railpage Australia™ Moderator, send a private message to the moderator of the forum in which the objectionable material was sighted, or send an e-mail to moderators@railpage.com.au. Please do not contact moderators directly via PM requesting moderation.

What happens if I break the rules?
Your post may be edited or removed by one of the Railpage Australia™ Moderators. You may also be issued a warning. Posting "why was my post edited/deleted?" etc. will only make matters worse so please don't.

Should you have already been issued warnings and continue to break the rules resulting in your warning level reaching 100%, you will be issued a temporary ban - your posting priviledges will be disabled for a peroid defined by majority vote of the moderation team.

For persistant and deliberate rule-breakers your access will be "Nuked". That means you are no longer welcome on these forums and your access will no longer function. If you attempt re-entry, your access to Railpage Australia™ and it's related services may also come under review.

Moderators decision and interpretation of these rules are final, and only reasoned and respectful correspondance will be entered into. Should you wish to lay a complaint about a moderator; private message webslave, davidb or bevans, or send an e-mail to rp2@railpage.com.au (recommended). It would be expected that users would attempt to the best of their ability to resolve disputes before they reach this level.

Suggestions
In an attempt to create a compromise where everyone is happy, the following suggestions are also recommended:

1. Be civil and courteous. This forum is able to be visited by people from all over the world, of different ages and genders, and are each entitled to their own opinion. Also, see Flaming, Right to Privacy, and Racism.

2. Make sure that your message topics fit the topic description of the forum that you are posting in. This is for your own benefit - for example, a question regarding signalling will get a better (and possibly quicker) response in the forum dedicated to Signalling, than it would in the State Forums.

3. Make sure you look through posts before posting, there is no point stirring up an issue that has been dealt with earlier in another thread.

4. Please attempt to the best of your ability to stay on-topic. If you want to discuss something on a tangent, please create a new thread and start there.

5. Make sure you thouroughly proof-read your posts before submission. This includes checking for spelling errors, grammar mistakes and punctuation. Railpage Australia™ suggests first typing your message into a word processing application to check for spelling and grammar errors. Also, aviod using internet shorthand too excessively (eg; "wot iz up guyz? it iz da sky m8") By failing to do this, you run the risk of having your post deleted.

6. Use the quote tool appropriately. Make sure what you are quoting is relevant to your reply. If the original post is long; only keep the relevant parts. If the original post contains images; remove the image tags from the quote to avoid displaying the images multiple times.

DavidB · Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:16 pm