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The Education Forum

Revised Forum Rules


Evan Burton

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The Forum rules have been revised; please read them.

Thank you.

The Spirit of the Law

The purpose of all of these rules is to ensure that this forum remains a law-abiding, civil, and congenial place to engage in discussion. That a post complies with that spirit is a greater consideration than whether it can be defended as being within the rules.

Civility and Decorum

Politeness is paramount. Of course, we expect to have spirited debates! That's fine, as long as the people involved extend one another basic respect. Disagreements are inevitable, but even in those situations you must still be civil.

Members are forbidden from questioning the motives of posters, nor should members research abilities be questioned.

At no time may a forum member call another forum member a xxxx, nor accuse them of posting / telling lies. Infraction of this rule will result in the immediate deletion of the offending post and the immediate moderation of the offending poster. The duration of moderation (or possible expulsion of the member) will be determined by consensus amongst moderators and / or administrators.

Attack the ideas, not the person(s) presenting them. If you've got concerns with what someone is saying, feel free to dismantle their arguments, but do not resort to ad hominem or personal attacks. Be mindful and respectful of others' feelings. If you feel that someone has crossed the line and insulted you, please contact one of the moderators, preferably via the reporting mechanism described here, or by PM or email. Don't write scathing posts in the forum to try and humiliate people publicly.

If these guidelines are not followed, the administrators/moderators will take appropriate action, so please behave accordingly.

Language

No cursing. What is defined as cursing is determined by the best judgment of the moderators and may be amended by moderator or admin consensus. No cursing goes along with being polite. This website is read by school children and young adults - consider that at all time and let it be a guide for you. Attempts to express bad words or phrases in messages or screen names, by any means such as (but not limited to): replacing key letters with different characters, misspellings homonyms, sound-alikes, abbreviations, or any other trick obvious enough to be noticed by a moderator will not be tolerated. Same goes with adult topics -- talk about them somewhere else. If you do need to post something risqué, stick with acceptable terminology. Contact a moderator or administrator if you have any doubts.

Avatars and biographies

All members have to provide a biography. A link to this biography should be added to their signature

All members should use a photograph of themselves as an avatar. If you find you have problems with this please contact a moderator and they will help you with this.

References

Wherever possible - especially if an issue or point being made is being disputed - members should attempt to give references or document source material. This will provide assistance to those carry out academic research into the subject matter.

Copyright

Be cautious when posting copyrighted material here. Post small, relevant quotes or sections, and include the URL to the source. Alternatively, if you want to reference material somewhere else on the web, give a brief summary and link to the rest. People can go take a look at what you're talking about and then return to discuss it further. Posting copyrighted material wholesale without attribution or linking to the source can open the Forum to legal action.

Privacy Issues

Posting private information about forum users that is not available otherwise publicly will not be tolerated. Do not post private email you have gained access to without the express permission of the sender. There are legal and copyright reasons for this, not to mention that doing so is very impolite. The same caveat applies to private messages, whether they're from this forum or anywhere else. If you receive rude or abusive private messages on this forum, you can report them via the same mechanism as inappropriate posts.

However, private messages to a moderator about forum administration issues are an exception to this rule. These may be shared with other moderators (but only with other moderators) unless you have a prior agreement with the moderator not to do so. To put it another way, think of the moderator team as a single entity. A PM to one is a PM to all, at least when it comes to official business.

Note that if you do report a private message that you consider inappropriate, you should provide background information regarding any private discussions that preceded that message, since the moderators (unlike with public message posts) cannot establish context without such information. Members who report inappropriate messages without revealing that they sent messages that might have goaded the sender into writing such a message will be dealt with severely.

Advertising, Solicitation, and Spam

Using the forum to promote your own website, blog or forum is quite acceptable but it is not acceptable to promote nor to sell merchandise (except for scholarly works such as books or documentary videos, etc). These offenses will result in the deletion of the offending posts.

Do not submit threads/posts containing identical text in multiple forum categories; that's considered spamming the board, and likewise will be dealt with accordingly.

If you have any doubts that it may break one of these rules, contact a moderator or administrator first.

Second & Third Party Posting

Do not post on behalf of other people. In other words, if someone you know has something to say relevant to the discussion in a thread, have them register and post it. Think of them as a copyrighted source: you can quote them in short amounts, but if there is something substantial they want to add, they must do it themselves. The exception to this is if new memberships are temporarily suspended and you have confirmed with the administrators that the third party posting is acceptable. Posting on behalf of a moderated, suspended or banned member is strictly forbidden.

Hotlinking and large images

Try to avoid putting in links to images directly from someone elses website. This can add a lot to their bandwidth, and then the host has to pay for it. In other words, if you see an image you like on another site, put in a link to that site, but don't use the tags so the image loads into your post from their site directly unless you believe it is central to a post you are making. If you really want an image in your post, the preferred option is to put the image in a public site someplace (e.g. Photobucket) and link to it from there. One exception would be from government sites, large corporate sites or universities, where bandwidth is not such an issue. If you own the image, then you can upload it to the board yourself.

Additionally, don't embed a huge image (meaning an image that's over 100k or extends beyond the right-hand edge of a typical display) inline using the tag but link to it instead. We still have dialup users and others with limited bandwidth for whom downloading a large image would be a significant annoyance.

If you have images which may be considered offensive by some but you feel they are central to an argument or issue you are making, the Forum has a website which can be used to host such restricted images. contact a moderator for further information.

"Hit & Run"

The technique of posting a single provocative statement (or, commonly, a URL to a controversial website) and then never posting again in that thread is greatly frowned upon. This is only a step above trolling. Barely.

Editing & Revisionism

Edit your posts with care. There's no problem with editing a post later to change the tone or to correct spelling and the like. But changing content is not allowed! This is a slippery path that can be seen as revisionism. Also, when quoting other posters, trimming down the text to brief snippets to address something in particular is encouraged, but do not misquote others or alter their content to suggest they've stated things which they haven't.

Alternative Concepts

If you have some idea which goes against commonly-held theory, then you are welcome to argue it here. If you do not wish your credibility to be questioned, you should be prepared to defend your arguments. Direct questions should be answered in a timely manner.

People will attack your arguments with glee and fervor here. If you cannot handle that sort of attack, then maybe you need to rethink your theory, too. Those that are strong will survive, and be stronger for the process.

Disruptive Behavior

The moderators and administrators reserve the right to take action against a poster who is disrupting the normal flow of the board. This includes violations listed in the other rules (trolling, use of ad hominems, etc.), but may also include behavior we have not yet foreseen. Since this rule is perforce general, we will attempt to correct the problem by warning the violator (via PM, email, or posting in the thread) and giving him/her a chance to explain his/her behavior, and we will take further action only if proven necessary.

Reporting Bad Posts

If you feel a post breaks one of these rules, please report it by clicking the 'report' button. Do not talk about bad posts, start threads complaining about posts or anything else you consider to be inappropriate user behavior in the forum itself nor suggest, speculate on, or threaten what the moderator response should be. All reported posts are reviewed by moderators or administrators, and are treated very seriously (so do not report frivolously). If you have concerns, please PM a moderator or administrator.

Moderator Actions

If there is a rule violation, then a moderator will take action they believe is required. This may include: the deletion of a word or phrase (if it breaks the rules), the removal of an entire post (if it is beyond redemption, or if it's a spam, etc.), the merging of a new thread with an existing one on the same topic, the closing of a thread if it wanders too far off-topic or gets too heated, a gentle warning to a user or users, a not-so-gentle-warning, placing a member on moderation and as a last resort, the banning of a user. This banning may be temporary or permanent, as outlined above. Banning of a member will only be taken by collective collaboration of moderators and at least one administrator. If a moderator gives you advice, we recommend you to heed it.

If you disagree with a moderator action, then PM or email the moderator, a different moderator, or an administrator. If it's a post by a moderator that you disagree with, you can report the post using the usual mechanism. We will review the case and take action as needed. Complaints can be made in the relevant complaints thread (if one exists) if required but do not start thread complaining about the actions taken about a moderator. Such threads will be deleted without warning.

Rule Additions & Revisions

The administrators reserve the right to modify existing rules and/or add additional rules as they see fit. In many ways, this board is like a living thing, subject to change. Situations sometimes arise which cannot be anticipated, and thus, rules must be added to accommodate them.

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I think so. I also have argued in the past that there should be a stated desire to move towards a gender equality in the moderating team over time.

Affirmative action if you will.

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