User guidelines

This forum is for general discussion related to Angling. Areas covered would include Media Reports, Conservation Issues and the promotion of the sport.

Moderators: kieran, jd, Tanglerat, teacher

User guidelines

Postby Mods and Admins » Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:37 pm

How To Be A Better Poster

Summary
Post in a forum where the subject is relevant.
Contribute in a constructive way.
Comment on the post not the poster.
Abuse is tantamount to saying "you have beaten me with your argument; I can only resort to name calling".
Respect/manners go a long way
Please post in English
You are not anonymous.
This is a privately owned web site - No freedom of speech.
Enjoy yourself and enjoy the site.
Be Civil -No personal attacks and/or snide comments
Don't post porn
Don't spam your message
Don't advertise your company
Don't abuse people personally
Don't backseat moderate
No racist, homophobic or generally offensive posts
Not reading the rules is against the rules
Discretion of the Moderator -they have discretion
Don't post stuff that is not safe for work [NSFW]
One person - one account
Do NOT share your login account with another person
Do not impersonate other users or access other users' accounts
There are Forbidden topics of discussion
No flaming, trolling , personal abuse or racist posts.
No selling of equipment except in the "Fishing tackle For Sale/Wanted" forum.Access to this forum is restricted to long standing posters
If you have a problem with a post, use the link (eclamation mark) to report it to the moderators
If you have a problem with the mods, PM them.
Remember the moderators give their time freely. Abuse them and you will get a ban.
If you still have a problem, post on the web development board.
If you disagree with angling as a sport, bring it elsewhere.
DO NOT encourage violence towards poachers etc.
Racism will not be tolerated.


Any questions? Just keep reading.






Post in a forum where the subject is relevant.

You should put posts where they belong. A library where people put books in any section they want will soon become unusable. Resist the temptation to say "I'm not going to post in the right forum because more people read THIS forum;” all that will happen is that your topic will immediately go off topic, you will be slated and the moderator will move the post to the right place and probably formally warn you. You may get fewer responses on the correct forum, but they will be far higher "worth". You want Quality, not quantity.

Contribute in a constructive way.

Nobody is interested in your laser sharp ability to cut someone down. Nobody is interested in the funny thing you cat did, unless it’s a thread on funny things cats do (basically, we mean cut down on the LOLCats). The odd humourous comment thrown into a thread is fine but consistently contributing nothing but noise/negativity is not helpful. One word answers aren’t useful. This particularly applies when someone has a query in the Q&A forums. If you don't have something to say that helps the poster, please keep your thoughts to yourself.

Comment on the post not the poster.

Responding to someone's point with personal attacks, regardless of how "witty" you think they are, is not big or clever. It just comes across, at best, as being an ass and at worst a bully .

It’s much better to stay on the topic of their post, not on the person who posted it. People will respect you for that, take your opinion more seriously and you put the ball back in their court to answer your points.

Abuse is tantamount to saying "you have beaten me with your argument; I can only resort to name calling".

If someone abuses you, don’t respond in kind. Report the post and a moderator will swing by to review it. Abusing them back simply drops you to their level and will probably get you both warned and/or banned.

Respect/manners go a long way.

Around these parts, people recognise good contribution. This isn’t YouTube or 4chan (*). Being respectful, mannerly and even occasionally acknowledging that someone has made you consider something in a different light, is going to win friends and influence people a lot more than being yet another rude "anonymous" internet keyboard warrior. No one wants to be around that guy.

* These sites are rife with extremely abusive language and content and that’s not the sort of culture we have or want on SAI

Please post in English

No Text Speak - it is hard to follow and doesn't appeal to everybody. People can search for information on this site, make it easier for them to find the information they need by taking a little bit of time when composing your posts.

You are not anonymous.

This is the greatest myth of the internet. Unless you are fairly technically skilled and go to some lengths, you are by no means anonymous on the internet. If you do something illegal and the police approach us with the correct documentation (usually a court order) we **will** hand them everything we know about you (as we are required to do under Irish Law). This is not a platform for anonymous defamation. YOU are responsible for what YOU say.

No freedom of speech.

This is a private website. There is no "right" to freedom of speech here. We, the Admins and moderators DO want to promote discussion but FREE un-moderated discussion online turns into a screaming match between children. We believe that rules of etiquette should be applied (see below). Shouting about how we have infringed your "freedom of speech" on a privately owned website is silly. You can use blogger.com or set up your own web site to say what YOU like, what you aren’t entitled to is access to the community we have built here without abiding by the community's rules, as decided and enforced by us.

Enjoy yourself and enjoy the site.

Don’t take everything too seriously, so someone on the internet disagrees with you. Ok, *shrug*. You don’t have to argue with them until everyone agrees that you are superior to them you know :)

These are guidelines for SAI. People might refer to them as "rules" but it is impossible to create a set of "rules" to govern human interaction. These are broad brushstrokes of what we here at SAI want for the part of the internet we call home.

If these aren’t to your liking there are other websites perhaps better suited to your needs and tastes but we believe these form a reasonable, rational, mature basis for adults to chat natter discuss laugh debate joke banter and interact.

The SAI rules of etiquette are as follows:

Be Civil -No personal attacks and/or snide comments

The internet is full of anonymous keyboard warriors being rude to each other. We don’t want that here. We're not saying you have to be super-nice to everyone and sign each post with a little heart, but we DO require that you are at least CIVIL to the humans on the other end of this intertube. Everyone is tired of the muppets online and if you feel you must be a dick to others, you aren’t welcome here. Personal attacks may be removed without warning and/or explanation by the mods and may lead to a temporary or permanent ban.



Don't post porn

DO want to create an atmosphere which is welcoming to all. If you are unsure if the images will be considered porn, message the moderator of the forum first as they will all have differing views on what the forum will find acceptable. Err on the side of caution.



Don't spam your message

YOU may want lots of people to see your message but they may not want to see it. Pick a forum that is MOST suitable for your message and post it there. Once. If you want it to be seen further afield on the site then consider putting a link in your signature, but leave it as a simple link, don’t make it conspicuous. If it’s truly straddles two forums' remits then ask the moderators of the forums what they recommend.



Don't advertise your company

We strongly protect the conversational feel of this site. Interjecting your commercial message into that conversation is not only rude, counterproductive, against the rules but also a poor way to win customers, build goodwill and will ultimately get you banned.

We have two alternatives for commercial interaction with the community.

We can have targetted ads using google adsense
You may sponsor competitions for the community


Don't abuse people personally

It’s not big and it’s not clever. If you can’t convey your point without abusing someone personally then you don’t have a point to make and perhaps you should close your browser and come back when you are calmer. Not only will you have had the benefit of cooling off if something’s caused your blood to boil, you’re a lot more likely to make a far more incisive, killer point. The great joy of this platform is that you don’t have to answer something immediately; you have time to construct your point and de-construct any arguments against your point.

You either are an adult or you are aspiring to become one. This isn’t a crèche and if we have had to invoke this rule to stop you from abusing someone, and you feel like we are treating you like a child, you might want to consider why that is.

This site is for a wide variety of civil, adult discussion. Personally abusing someone is immature. Grow up.



Don't backseat moderate

Imagine a game of soccer where one player kept running up to the ref and saying "you should have warned that guy" "that was offside" "time is up on this game". Annoying, yes? Sitting back as a user and consistently directing the moderator like a minion is going to get you kicked off the pitch.

The correct way to bring something to our attention is to report the post. You may report a post by clicking the Image button at the bottom right of the post.

If you do not have an account on this site and there is a problem with a post, please email mods@sea-angling-ireland.org with a link to the post and explain the problem.


But do not abuse this feature. Report posts which clearly break the rules not just posts you don’t agree with or from people you don’t like. That’s just being an idiot.


No racist, homophobic or generally offensive posts
If in doubt, don't post it. If you feel a post is any of the above report it (!)





Not reading the rules is against the rules

Claiming that you didn’t read the rules and therefore they don’t apply to you isn't going to work here. Funnily enough, it doesn’t work in a real court of law either. Saying “I didn’t see the 1 Hour Parking sign” won’t stop you getting clamped.



Discretion of the Moderator

If you think these rules bind the moderators hands, think again. The moderators have discretion to react and moderate as they see fit, in the best interests of the forum they take care of. You can challenge a decision using "Website Development, Policies and Helpdesk", but don’t think for a moment you can use the guidelines above to find some semantic loophole to excuse your behaviour (people who do this are known as “rules lawyers” and are seen as a small step above trolls). It’s not going to work. The spirit of the law is more important than the wording of the law on SAI and our guidelines can and will change if and when there’s need.



Don't post stuff that is not safe for work [NSFW]

Most people here read SAI in work. Naughty, but we all do it. Please bear that in mind when you are posting images and videos etc. If you aren't sure then put [NSFW] in the title of the thread to make sure people understand that it might not be safe for work place viewing.

One person - one account

You are not entitled to use multiple accounts. If you do all of your accounts may be disabled.

Do NOT share your login account with another person

You are not entitled to share your account with another user - you are both liable to be permanently banned.

Do not impersonate other users or access other users' accounts
You may not impersonate another board member or create an account specifically for the purpose of provoking other users. Also, accessing or using someone else's account or attempting to access another poster's account is strictly prohibited. If you engage in this type of behavior, you will be barred from the boards permanently.

Forbidden topics of discussion

We unfortunately do sometimes find ourselves with a problem regarding some issues and no amount of warnings or requests to keep things civil in relation to certain issues have worked, so we simply don’t allow discussion or posting pictures of these things. The list below is by no means set in stone, we can add things to this as time goes by, so it may be no harm to check up on it every few months to see if it’s changed.

Pictures or links to pictures of Porn
Pictures or links to pictures showing nipples and/or genitalia
Child abuse/under age/jailbait/Lolita stuff
How to do illegal things (this ranges from software piracy, to swindling the Revenue Commissioners)
Pictures or links to pictures of self harming
Pro anorexia pictures and websites
Trepanning websites
Bestiality
Ordering medications online.
Homophobic sites and videos
Racist sites and videos
Mods and Admins
 

Moderator Guidelines

Postby Mods and Admins » Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:49 am

Moderator Guidelines.
Your first area of responsibility is to the forums you moderate.
If in doubt contact another mod by phone or email. (See sticky of Mod contact details)
Do not assume that another Mod will be along to sort the job. Moderate by moving posts to the scratch board.* They can always be moved back.
*Note: Personal attacks may be removed without warning and/or explanation and may lead to a temporary or permanent ban for the user.


Moving posts from one public forum to another public forum:
Move posts to the relevant forum. Normally this is in the case of poster posting in an incorrect forum.
If the post is being moved to “scomber” it is necessary to PM the poster to tell them the post has been moved as the post is more suitable to another forum.
Where the post is moved to a control/non-public forum state the reasoning behind the move.

Editing Posts
Editing posts to correct spelling mistakes does not require any highlighting.
Where editing is required to remove or add words in a post it is necessary to note that the post has been edited by a Mod. Highlight the area in red text.
Where editing is carried out, other than spelling, a PM should be sent to the poster outlining the changes necessary.
If possible the user shuld be encouraged to edit their own post. This may not be possible where the user in not online and the change is required urgently.

Deleting Posts:
Posts (other than duplicates) should not be deleted but should be split/moved to the scratch board area. The Mod should outline their reasons for moving the thread.
A PM should be sent to the poster outlining the unacceptable nature of their post.
It would be prudent to post the relevant PM in a thread in the Mod forum.
Any replies should be copied to the thread as well.

Reported threads:
Where a thread is reported check out the report in the Mod control panel.
If the report is due to a technicality, deal with it and close the report.
If there is a more personal nature to the report it would be best to move the thread to the scratch board and open a thread in the Mod forum.
In all cases it is important to contact the reporter to let them know that the report is being dealt with.

Banning / Suspension:
Banning users (other than spammers) should be carried out carefully.
There should be some consensus between Mods as to the reasoning behind and length of bans.
Ideally decisions should be made in conjunction with the Admins & moderator of the particular forum where the problem occurs.
If it is not possible to get consensus on a ban, due to time constraints or a highly provocative post by a member, Mods should ban the user for a minimum period. The ban message should outline the gravity of the situation and inform that the matter has been send to the Mod panel for discussion/deliberation.

General:
In all cases moderators should keep the mod team advised of moderator action via the Mod board. Moderators should behave logically and diplomatically. Moderators should attempt to keep personal, club affiliation, organisation affiliation matters out of moderating decisions. If you feel that you cannot or should not moderate a particular area/problem then contact another moderator.
Telephone and off site email should not be used in normal moderating - dealing with members. The events are online and should be kept online via the forum communication tools.
When communicating with members mods should be professional and to the point. Avoid condescending or dictatorial language. The job is mainly to diffuse rather than inflame.
Mostly – enjoy!
Mods and Admins
 

Re: User guidelines

Postby Mods and Admins » Sat Mar 30, 2013 6:07 pm

Just a reminder
Mods and Admins
 


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