Jump to content

YOUR INPUT NEEDED- Forum Guidelines


AVENguy

Recommended Posts

There has been a general outcry for a more structured set of guidelines for the forum. A clearer set of rules and a better-defined role for mods and admins. I took the liberty of throwing together a preliminary set of guidelines to get us started. Discuss, add, subtract, and hopefully we'll come to something that just about everyone agrees on...

Forum Guidelines:

• Controversy is fine, getting frustrated and even angry is fine. At their discretion moderators will communicate with users not because those users are in trouble but because they want to keep a situation from getting out of hand.

• Personally insulting other users is strongly discouraged.

• Because many users find sexually explicit material offensive we request that posts which contain sexually explicit material contain a warning in the subject line. Please refrain from using sexually explicit subject lines.

• Posting personal information about another user without their express permission is a serious offense. Such posts are subject to deletion at the request of the exposed party. This extends to posting PMs and IM conversations.

• Making judgments about other users, especially about the validity of their asexuality, is strongly discouraged. We are here to figure ourselves out, not to put each other in boxes.

Mod and Admin Guidelines:

Responsabilities

• Mods are responsible for their respective forums. Admins should become involved in a forum as a mod only when-

o The mod requests their assistance

o The mod is not present and there is a situation which must be dealt with urgently.

• Admins are responsible for coordinating between mods, dealing with forumwide dilemmas, implementing structural changes to the forum and banning users when necessary.

Infractions

• All infractions on the forum should result in a warning. If the infraction is limited to one forum the warning should come from the mod of that forum, if it spreads across several forums it should be issues by an admin.

• If warnings are ignored and infractions continue the user should be banned.

• If the user expresses a desire to discuss their infraction then such discussion should be pursued, and further action should take place at the discretion of the mods and admins involved in said discussion.

Heated Discussions

• Controversy is important to the life of any community, and should not be discouraged. At their discussion mods can act as facilitors for a discussion. If a mod chooses to ACT as a facilitator.

• Facilitators act as referees, allowing discussions to continue without spinning out of control. Good facilitation involves digesting and restating both sides opinions in a way that is no longer inflammatory. Facilitators should post in the appropriate threads and remain in communication with all involved parties through PM or e-mail.

• Facilitators should NOT take sides in a discussion. If a mod feels a need to do so they should request that an admin fill their role as facilitator.

• Personal insults or judgmental statements should be treated appropriately.

• At their discretion facilitators may request that threads be moved to the hot box.

• Threads should be locked only when they degrade entirely to personal insults.

• Threads should be moved to the hot box when they are deemed disruptive to the rest of the forum.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It looks good to me. It mentions sexually explicit language, but do we want to add something about excessive cursing? I don't know how we'd word it, or even if we want to put something in there... just a thought.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Live R Perfect

That all looks good to me. Though I would change:

• Personally insulting other users is strongly discouraged.

To read:

• Personally insulting other users is unacceptable behaviour.

The mod /admin guidelines seem pretty fair, but are dependant on everyone working as a team to work properly. We all need to communicate via PM or have each other's YIM / ICQ / AIM / MSNM names / e-mail addresses in order to notify each other when we need assistance.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree with Liver on the personal insult thing. Other than that it looks great. I also agree that all admins and mods should have one another's contact info.

Cate

Link to post
Share on other sites

It would also be helpful if there was a listing of the Admins/Mods.

Obviously the mod's names are beside their respective forums.

But I'm unaware of anywhere, that the Admins are listed.

This would help bot new and old users alike, should the need to

contact either one, when none are present on the forum, and

are required ( eg: troll clean-up duty :) )

Link to post
Share on other sites
Live R Perfect

It might be an idea to have a page listing AVEN contacts such as:

Webmaster

Admins

Mods

Web Team

Media Team

Ed Team

Meetup Team

...plus a short description of their responsibilities so that people know who to PM / e-mail their comments / complaints / queries to.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It looks good to me, although I agree with Kate and Liver about personal insults being unacceptable.

-Greybird

Link to post
Share on other sites
It might be an idea to have a page listing AVEN contacts such as:

Webmaster

Admins

Mods

Web Team

Media Team

Ed Team

Meetup Team

...plus a short description of their responsibilities so that people know who to PM / e-mail their comments / complaints / queries to.

Yep just what I was thinkin' :)

G.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Agree with others that personal insults should be 'unacceptable behaviour' rather than 'strongly discouraged'; it's the standard in every other forum I've been in. Apart from that, these look very good and sensible, and I'd be happy to see them go up as formal guidelines for AVENites.

Borrible Cal.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I actually don't mind the 'discouraged' part becuase I think slightly looser rules allow for context when a specific situation comes up, but I'm probably outnumbered...

Link to post
Share on other sites

I can see where BOA's coming from (side note- I read something the otherday that said that Shakespear was the Bard of Avon, and I went 'Huh?'), and I think it should be strongly discouraged, but if you put those words down, there is some leniance... and what will happen if a troll comes along and a reg says something insulting to them....

I think I lost my point somewhere.

:roll:

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

Clear outline and a good call - I'd also like to see a list of admin people though.

I ran headon into a moderator who really couldnt get my point in one forum: I objected to ver warning, and somehow, in an obscurely immature sense, have looked askance at all this person's postings since. The point of this being? Perhaps there should be some resolution/mediatory facility around the site?

Cheers, kis ora, Islander9 8)

Link to post
Share on other sites

The admins are: AVENGuy, Liver and Cate Perfect. At least until the elections.

Cate

Link to post
Share on other sites

He's been de-adminned, since I got my computer back. I asked him if he wanted to remain an admin and he said it was cool to be de-adminned.

Cate

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...