Is it a sad day for the forum that these have come about ?
Cant post without 'agreeing' to them
Regarding copyright. What's the policy regarding avatar images?
Is it a sad day for the forum that these have come about ?
Cant post without 'agreeing' to them
No I think they are reasonable.. as a member of a couple of other forums (and owner / moderator myself of another) the rules are actually very reasonable.
Trust me, Franck and co are actually being quite lenient compared to some other sites out there where the rules are stricter and the moderators much more heavy handed.
Personally, I think that it's the wrong thing to do.
The forum has survived for the last 5(?) years, without infractions, forum rules, split threads for off topic discussions etc. With some times that are maybe best forgotten on the way, admittedly, but generally, in a fairly acceptable way.
There goes the 'pub conversation' analogy. I've not seen any pubs that require the signing of a form before you can go into them to talk.
Franck.
There's an A.P.P. for that!
I don't necessarily object to them, but what I do find a little objectionable is that people who have already paid their money may not want to sign up to these rules.
I think people have had quite a while to set the tone of the forum by their own behaviour and its crossed the line just too many times - hence the need for this action now.
Have to agree i see it as sad day (I see the thread its self isnt in a the main chit chat thread but hidden under a 'technical thread') ?
If your really insulted PM them or ask Franc/Moderator to remove and/or have a word
Now we are going to have infractions and people asking who reported me who said what etc
The forum always had split threads, off topic corrections and warnings, at the time, myself (and later on Emma & Sheena) could manage it all easily.
As the forum has grown hugely, 2 or 3 moderators couldn't handle the load, so more have been recruited, the more of us there are, the clearer the rules and warnings need to be.
I always wanted to have clear rules to refer to, just never had the time to create them.
The Ceroc Scotland Forum was always a 'Members Only' pub, with the right to kick out anyone who didn't play by the rules. Again no real change there, just a clarification of what the rules are.
Franck.
There's an A.P.P. for that!
I dont really mind there being stated rules or not.
I do like the idea of keeping threads 'on topic' though. So many end up going down the same path.
Must be tricky to moderate though.
Well, as I've already posted, the rules are just a clarification (in writing) of existing rules.
Of course if any Silver member wasn't happy with the new rules to the point where they refused to be part of the Forum, I would be happy to arrange a refund (pro rata) of their Silver Membership fee.
Franck.
There's an A.P.P. for that!
Must say the banning of bumping threads seems heavy-handed, not to say a can of worms. I can think of good reasons for bumping a thread, and most of the malevolent ones are covered by other rules (commerciality, name-dropping, rudeness etc.
- Is responding to a joke at the end of a thread, four days after the last post, bumping?
- Is linking a new news story to an interesting debate bumping, if it happens a week after the last post? How about a week and a day?
- What about a poll?
Well the bumping part of the rule states:
7. Participants may not bump threads. Bumping can refer to posting useless information, making corrections or updates in a new post, posting one-liners or any other action to deliberately keep a thread hot or to bring it to the top of its forum. Moderators will use their discretion, depending on the nature of the post, as to whether to take action or not.
None of the example you mention would fall into the 'bumping' rule as stated above because of the 'To deliberately keep a thread hot or to bring it to the top'. Bringing a thread back to life with new information / joke or a vote on a poll is not bumping.
In other borderline cases the moderators' discretion would apply.
Franck.
There's an A.P.P. for that!
Even I wouldn't go that far.
"When to split a thread" is a very difficult judgement call.
It depends on a number of factors including the thread topic, the forum area it's in, whether a valid "new thread" can be created, how many off-topic posts have been added to the thread, and how many people have also contributed to the new topic.
Some threads in "Banter" areas are obviously permanently off-topic - I can't imagine even trying to split the Singleton's Sofa.
However, some "information-rich" threads are much more likely to be pruned if they wander off topic (I'll be keeping a close eye on the "Learning Tango" thread ).
My feeling is that it's much better, more positive and less intrusive, to split a thread than it would be to delete a set of off-topic posts within that thread.
Something I was toying with based on David James concept of sharing old threads that were useful and Beowulf's ressurecting a thread a while back was ressurecting old technical threads I found useful while trawling to see
a) if those who'd originally posted had changed their minds, had new concepts etc
b) what the members who weren't round when it started had to say.
I only really had technical dance threads in mind. Is this "bumping"?
In response to various gripes,
The way I see it...
This is Franck's forum. He's devoted a whole lot of time, effort and resources into making this forum what it is. And he's kindly extended us the privilege of using this forum.
If he feels a need to provide this set of rules, to help keep the forum running in the spirit which he intends, that's up to him. We're all different, and he can't make things to suit all of us - but as the guy who's done such a great job of running the forum for so long, if he reckons a change of any kind is needed, I can't think of any reason not to trust his judgement.
At the end of the day, he has every right to do what he likes with his forum, and we have every right to choose not to use it if we don't like his decisions. The fact that he's devoted so much time and effort to make it suit as many of us as possible is not something to be overlooked (and I'd be surprised if the subscription fees even came close to covering this)
In a nutshell,
Franck's forum.
Franck's rules.
And a huge Thank You to Franck for all his efforts.
Last edited by straycat; 27th-November-2006 at 05:28 PM. Reason: Grammatical and styling issues
Big
Teensy thing: could Forum Rules be made visible to non-members too please? I read this thread without logging on and thought "Where are they ?" - and obv. immediately spotted 'em when I did log on.
If by registering, you indicate that you will abide by the rules, it's only fair to understand what the rules are
EDIT: oh, and maybe change the "By registering &c &c bit to include the 'Franck's forum, Franck's rules, resistance is futile'
Last edited by LMC; 27th-November-2006 at 05:29 PM.
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