Forum Rules / Code of Conduct

What post were you knocked for, Figgy?

 

Mr Moderator Sir,
Am I lucky and grateful to your polite blindness. I just came upon this thread and realise I must have been a REALLY naughty sod.

I will endeavour to keep my sinful ways to Drivel, Jokes or my own thread. Thanks for your patience. I must applaud you on an excellent forum, and having removed my rant at a "webdesigner from Bangalore?" I hope I outlined my appreciation of your efforts effectively.

Thank you very much & Seasons Salutations

 

Apologies if this has been covered before, but I dont have the time to wade through 14 pages.

I have not been around very long, but I have noticed a fair amount of posts by people pushing their own commercial interests, and also employment related posts. Are these posts considered acceptable, or should they be rated negatively?

 

Deepsix,

It kind of depends where they are, I guess. There's a subforum for that sort of thing.

And to everyone else (my "homies"): I'm back! Had to take a time-out. See you soon in all the usual threads

Edit: I forgot – you don't _have_ to give negative nor positive rep-points. It's your choice.

 

Welcome back DB Was wondering where you'd vanished to!

Deepsix,

There is a subforum on here for "marketplace", and for "services & employment". If job requests/postings show up in S&E, or if people post unique or unusual stuff for sale in marketplace, that's fine- I think that's what they're for.

Where I will report things to Jeff and/or dock rep points is when a list of 200 used & cheap cellphones pops up, or when some dealer posts his entire inventory of junk outboard parts on five threads at once. I haven't seen as much of this lately as during the summer, so maybe Jeff's anti-spam filters are improving?

Commercial ventures are a bit iffy, it seems. We do have a lot of people coming on here with some new invention or gizmo, obviously looking for buyers and/or investors. I don't mind this, as long as the poster has done their homework and is prepared to prove their claims and defend their new toy against our crowd of critical, well-informed and inquisitive regulars. The ones who come up with some piece of worthless junk and try to pawn it off for a small fortune.... those I have much less patience for. As do most of us, I think.

 

Thanks DB and Matt -- exactly my feelings on the matter. The Services & Employment and Marketplace forums are the appropriate places for such threads; the only problems in my mind are when someone signs up to the forum only to post items for sale, non-relevant items for sale, or only to blatantly advertise a commercial venture without being willing to discuss it. The services and employment and marketplace forum are primarily for posting things of interest by community members to the community, or for example, to post a project boat, hardware, etc. that might be interesting to the community. But it's not intended to be a free-for-all ebay replacement.

Also I appreciate using the rep system when appropriate (and the "flag for moderator" button if a thread could use my attention ASAP to move, remove, etc.) but remember that everyone is a real person here too; don't use the rep button to take away points unless you feel the person is really rude, out of line, spammy, or otherwise clearly over the line and you'd like to point this out to them; using it wisely helps keep the forum running and for that I appreciate your help (and more so if you grant positive rep points and/or a comment for really great, helpful posts to just say "thanks for your post" for the best posts), but using it too lightly can hurt feelings and the forum.

 

Thanks, I have seen it become a problem on other forums, so I was a little surprised that nobody seems to minds here. It seems that expertise from industry professionals is one of the best aspects of this forum, so it would be silly to risk chasing these valuable contributors away.

 

Absolutely agree with you there; though I like to be as tolerant as possible, if you see a post that you feel will chase away current or future other members of the forum though it's self-serving nature, rudeness, off-topic content, or other, please don't hesitate to click the "flag for moderator" link -- you can type a very quick message or just enter anything and I'll have a look ASAP (or a second look if I didn't look closely enough when I saw the thread earlier.) This is always very much appreciated.

 

Jeff, The "issue" with unsigned negative 'post feedback' has arisin again, and the consensus of respondents leads me to the feeling that the removal of a capacity to post negative feedback would be a good move if it can be done....

A bit of anonymous or poster identified praise by giving points is a good thing. - - Negative responses can be presented by posting a reasoned reply in the same thread as the offending post.... or ticking the alert moderator button against the "offending" post...

Also could you advise of the number of times one can give points praise per month/week of whatever and when can we give to the same person again because of the consistent quality and veracity of their posts..... Basically the rules for posting positive rep?

Thanks...

 

In theory, it would be ideal ("just the facts") In practice I wanted to eliminate the "you idiot" type posts that can derail a thread from the topic at hand and also provide a canary long before ill feelings blow up into something worse. My hope was that a number would provide something noticeable enough so the community could self-police itself, but I do feel bad that the negative feedback can be hurtful too. It should be used for constructive criticism along the lines of "your post isn't helpful" not along the lines of namecalling and if anyone receives a negative feedback that is over-the-top or intentionally mean spirited, send me a PM and I'll look into it and take the necessary action. Reputation comments are subject to the same rules as normal forum posts.

It's currently set for:

• User Spread: (How many different users must you give reputation to before you can hit the same person again?) 25
  (there was a fear early on that the user reputation system would create a problem of cliques so this number was set fairly high to prevent this)
  
• Daily Reputation Clicks Limit: 10
• 
  [*]Minimum Post Count: (How many posts must a user have before his reputation hits count on others?) 50
  (so new users to the forum can basically send you a note of approval or disapproval (over 5 posts needed for any negative) but only members with at least 50 posts will affect your numerical reputation number at all.)

 

Thanks Jeff, may I C&P the "rules settings" - Your last para - , into a couple of threads in the "dungeon" for general info?

 

Sure. Be warned that the settings could change at a future date if someone abuses them, but I think they're about right at this point in time. I have found myself wanting to be able to give a few posters reputation points more frequently for their excellent posts, but I think it's better if the reputation represents that a lot of people find a member helpful rather than that a few people find a given member very helpful, so I plan to leave the required spread as is for now.

 

Agreed. And thanks for enlightening us on the matter

 

So, Jeff, how is that then working when your users like Sean Herron use the forum to start threads insulting other users, starts threads thatg use swearing, and insults just about everyone who disagrees with him.

Mr. Herron's "points" seem to be stable or on a rise, he uses his rude language indiscriminately and when faces opposing opinions hides behind personal insults and attacks.

If I do any of these things, I lose points. When he and many others do these things they gain points.

How is this little despotic site really governed? Obviously not by "standardised" rules that apply equally to all. I imagine that my profile would be blocked if I start a thread calling another user a boffin, or use words such as "****" in the title of the thread.

If you do not punish the people like that, then I'll take the hint and do the same. And will demand to gain points on amount of insults I throw at other users. Not that these points mean anything, really. I like my few points. They show that I have an opinion and that there are "democrats" out there who use your non-funcitonal concept to vent their disaproval of an opinion that is not to their liking.

Which leaves me always wondering about all those who "defend" the idea of "democracy" and "freedom of expression" but only as long as it is in agreement with their "view" on the world. As soon as one starts sharing different views, one is a target for those fakes.

And you sadly support their behaviour, while preaching here some kind of moral justification for the principle that doesn't work.

Well, now you have a chance to start practicing your "principles" and "rules of etiquette".

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/open-discussion/masrapido-cracker-24787.html

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/open-discussion/post-up-some-****-you-24745.html

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/open-discussion/bull-****-artists-21896.html

And what is all this about anyway:

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/open-discussion/you-got-nothing-stupid-24643.html

If you really believe in these "rules and etiquette" you would block all (not only threads from Sean Herron) threads of zero value to the core reason for this site to exist: boat design and building, and all things related to boating.

But you let them flourish and with these your own credibility is diminishing by every post in these threads.

Diego

 

It is always a balancing act, and I do tend to give more latitude for off-topic posts to those who contribute more on topic content. I think it's important to point out that the positive reputation Sean has built here is likely the result of the interesting posts, sketches, and ideas he has contributed to the commuinity, e.g. http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/page/1/ppuser/3673