I expect simple behaviours here. Friendship, and love. Any advice should be from the perspective of the person asking, not the person giving! We have had to make new membership moderated to combat the huge number of spammers who register
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13773
General prohibitions
There are a few things I really object to. I object to them because they are simply bad netiquette and appear impolite.
gratuitous bad language
insults or abuse
knee jerk reaction posts that then need retraction
poor manners - see below for a major example
identification of people here by name when they use a nickname
poor use of case. ALL CAPITALS is shouting, and all lower case is unreadable
use of the board as a "contact centre". This is not a place to do that
spam
critiquing posts by others. I don't mean the occasional "Great news" or similar, but I do mean "marking" posts or deprecating others "in comparison to this one" etc. Disagree with what they say by all means, but don't make them feel small.
I'm not keen on thread hijacking. I don't mean "Never diverge from the topic", but I do mean "Do not grab the thread and take it in a different direction." If you have a wholly new topic, start a new topic.
Nudity is not appropriate on the forum, nor are pictures of people where the 'whole person' is not the topic of the picture. Pictures showing erect penises, clothed or not, or inappropriate clothing, or intended to show minors in some sort of erotic position are subject to summary and unexplained removal.
Threads are no longer permitted when their sole purpose is to display pictures. There are twin reasons for this, copyright and taste. While the picture might be to 'our' taste that are unlikely to be to the taste of the prurient and noisy minorities out there
There are others, and, if necessary, this list will growEdit Function for Posts
Please obey some simple rules when this function is in operation:
Please use it sparingly to correct factual inaccuracies or typos
Please do not use it to blank or remove the sense or spirit of your original post unless in an emergency, and if you have to do this please insert a comment saying why you have done what you have done
Please do not use it in such a way that you render replies ridiculous by your changes
We have had to add a banner at the foot of the forum for age related posts because of COPPA and the EU wishing to raise the "Digital Age of Consent" to 16. So, please read that footer Poor manners
I hoped, until the other day, that everyone here realised the one key tenet of this forum is the encouragement of authors. I select with care every story on the site. I appear to have a reputation for quality. I also select new authors, just setting out on their journeys. I hold the view that, when we like something we should tell the world; when we find fault in it we should tell the author privately. You see that in restaurants, too. It makes sense. There is nothing worse for a new author than being told that their work is in need of improvement in public. In private, delivered well and kindly, the message of how they can improve is almost always well received, though that depends on how it is given!