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As a result of a couple of isolated incidents in Off Topic along with concerns from a number of a members, I'd like to make a couple of things clear.
Forum Rules - They have a purpose!
At flightsimhq.com, we have 8 forum rules.
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If you see a violation to one of these rules, don't join in an argument with the offending member! Simply click the Report button beside the post, and an alert will be sent to the moderation team. We will review the topic and take the appropriate action.
1. Do not spam the forums or members. This means posting useless information over and over to make your post counter go up, advertising your own site or service (exception below), or sending unsolicited emails or PM's to other members (this includes advertising free services). This is a banning offense in most cases. If you would like other members to visit your site, use your signature (in your profile) or place an ad via our in-house advertising system.
Exception: Advertising your Virtual Airline in the VA Forum is acceptible as long as what you're advertising is free. If it is a commercial enterprise, like offering VA hosting for a fee, please use our ad system instead.
2. If you have a question, use the search function to find the answer before posting a new question. With a community this size it is more than likely that somebody has already asked the same question.
3. Refrain from posting sexually oriented content or using foul language in your posts or signature. This site is family-oriented, and such things don't belong in a Flight Simulator forum anyway. If you need to convey an emotion there are plenty of smilies
4. Make your topic title relevant! Don't use generic topic titles like "Need help" or "Check this out" - if you choose a good title the people who have something important to add will notice your post more quickly.
5. Because of past bad experiences with this, NO GOVERNMENT-RELATED topics! This is a flight simulator forum, and posts like these tend to spawn posts that violate rule #3. If you feel the need to propagate conspiracy theories or political views please do so on another site.
6. Piracy is not tolerated, nor is helping others become pirates. Do not post or request CD keys, no-cd patches or links to sites that offer them.
7. Insulting or otherwise being overtly rude to other members will not be tolerated. If you have nothing useful to say then say nothing at all. This would include the use of the word "owned", or any derivative thereof, in an attempt to embarrass or otherwise put down another member.
8. Derogatory comments regarding site moderation or specific moderators (including their actions or opinions) are unacceptable. These folks have a tough job and how well they do it is best judged by the administration only.
1. Do not spam the forums or members. This means posting useless information over and over to make your post counter go up, advertising your own site or service (exception below), or sending unsolicited emails or PM's to other members (this includes advertising free services). This is a banning offense in most cases. If you would like other members to visit your site, use your signature (in your profile) or place an ad via our in-house advertising system.
Exception: Advertising your Virtual Airline in the VA Forum is acceptible as long as what you're advertising is free. If it is a commercial enterprise, like offering VA hosting for a fee, please use our ad system instead.
2. If you have a question, use the search function to find the answer before posting a new question. With a community this size it is more than likely that somebody has already asked the same question.
3. Refrain from posting sexually oriented content or using foul language in your posts or signature. This site is family-oriented, and such things don't belong in a Flight Simulator forum anyway. If you need to convey an emotion there are plenty of smilies
4. Make your topic title relevant! Don't use generic topic titles like "Need help" or "Check this out" - if you choose a good title the people who have something important to add will notice your post more quickly.
5. Because of past bad experiences with this, NO GOVERNMENT-RELATED topics! This is a flight simulator forum, and posts like these tend to spawn posts that violate rule #3. If you feel the need to propagate conspiracy theories or political views please do so on another site.
6. Piracy is not tolerated, nor is helping others become pirates. Do not post or request CD keys, no-cd patches or links to sites that offer them.
7. Insulting or otherwise being overtly rude to other members will not be tolerated. If you have nothing useful to say then say nothing at all. This would include the use of the word "owned", or any derivative thereof, in an attempt to embarrass or otherwise put down another member.
8. Derogatory comments regarding site moderation or specific moderators (including their actions or opinions) are unacceptable. These folks have a tough job and how well they do it is best judged by the administration only.
Fairly simple rules but not abiding by them often has disastrous consequences, resulting in the topic being closed or removed. As easy it is for us to just close or move threads out of sight, it's not beneficial in the long run as people don't learn their lesson. Further, as nice as it would be to be able to have a friendly chat with a member to explain where they went wrong and kindly ask them to stop doing so, it's not a suitable approach to maintaining law and order on a forum. Things are made worse when more than a handful of members don't really learn their lessons so as a result, teaching a lesson generally has to result in disciplinary action in the fom of suspensions.
Over the last week, any post found to be a clear break of forum rules have resulted in 48 hour suspensions and we will continue to use this approach so long as rules are being broken. Repeat offenses will result in suspensions of higher duration or perhaps even a permenent ban.
Like we always do, we will endeavour to maintain peace on the forum but as I've mentioned before, what we do as moderators aren't even half of the story. The majority of the work is down to you and the rest of the members on the forum to be polite to one another and make everyone's experience here a pleasant one.
So I have a proposition. What if we could make this forum trouble free in just 28 days? All I ask of you all is to do your best to maintain healthy discussions, ignore (but please report!) offensive posts and generally use the same common sense and courtesy that you should be using offline in real life. Following this period of 28 days, I want you all to look around. If it has worked, I want you to ask yourselves how much NICER the forum is now and how great it would be for it to be like this all the time?
This is all up to you guys now. The 28 day period commences tomorrow, Friday 17th April 2009. Good luck!
