New Rules to Prevent Arguments on the Forum

[tashi]

Mark put this in general chat dated 14-06-2009, 08:54 AM please read and inwardly digest, may I also say that I am not the only one that does any banning on here, they are also NOT taken lightly and are discussed between us mods before it happens

New Rules to Prevent Arguments on the Forum

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Hi All,

Recently we have noticed certain people who often start petty arguments on threads and take the threads off topic which ruins the thread and ends up getting it closed.

Please note that this will not be tolerated from now on and any arguments started on the open forum will be dealt with quickly to prevent it from happening again. For anyone who starts the argument and takes the thread off topic, they will firstly be given an infraction, if they continue, they will be given a 1 day ban as a cooling off period. After this ban, if they continue they will be given a 2 week ban and then a permanent ban from using the forum.

When a member is banned, any pm's from users to mods or admin regarding the ban will be ignored and any threads started as to why a member is banned will result in an infraction and then a ban for the thread starter and the thread will be deleted. Any decisions made to ban a user by admin or a mod should be respected.

Also, when a mod has made a decision to remove a thread for any reason, which is usually cause it is argumentative or detrimental to the forum, could we please not create a new thread about why the old thread was deleted. It would have been deleted for a good reason. If you have any questions about it, then pm a mod.

Please note that these rules have been created to stop the petty arguments that have been hapenning on the forum which get out of control and put our visitors off joining this forum.

Many Thanks for your understanding
Mark

[hobbs2004]

I do appreciate that rules are needed to keep forum life in line and ticking along nicely but personally I think these near "Orwellian" rules come close to gagging orders and create nothing but bad blood if one is not allowed to discuss why people one knows get banned.

I guess the current solution is to take all these discussions to pm, which keeps the forum "clean" but I think that is such a back-handed way of dealing with things. And the pf community is not dealing with it but it all becomes secret whispers. Is it worth all this to keep a "clean" forum?

Surely if you want us to deny the existence of banned member then maybe all their posts should be wiped out as well

[westie~ma]

The plain fact is that the forum is losing members, hence the reasoning behind posting these rules.

It would take far too long to delete all posts of banned members, especially as most bannings are temporary.

[momentofmadness]

Guys as you can see these rules were originally put up by Mark.... We only follow them through..

Now surely if you have issues with the rules, you need to PM Mark.. (petforum)..

[hobbs2004]

However, the plain fact also is that pre-existing members are getting ticked off because history is being rewritten (a tad polemic I know but hey) when threads get moved into the moderating ether; not just simply locked, and when one isn't even allowed to discuss why certain members have been banned (albeit most often only temporarily). I cannot see the relevance of either of those to keeping (new) members.

[tashi]

The rule is there, something that Mark set up to try to help us out.

Can I just point out that moderating this forum is not an easy task, we dont get paid a penny - we dont get much thanks off the membership - we try to keep things without getting too harsh with the moderating and we do try to get it right. Obviously we do miss things on times, we are also human so yes on times we get it wrong. We also have lives outside the forum

[hobbs2004]

So do we "normal" posters. We also don't get paid to put our knowledge or advice on here for others to benefit.

I think its a great idea to refresh peoples memories old members and new!

As a forum we should all post buy the rules, they are there for a reason, it keeps threads on topic & hopefully continues to build new members on the forum (rather than scaring them all off)

All the recent bannings have been a long time coming in my opinion.
(MOD please remove if inapropriate)

[hobbs2004]

Originally Posted by momentofmadness

Guys as you can see these rules were originally put up by Mark.... We only follow them through..

Now surely if you have issues with the rules, you need to PM Mark.. (petforum)..

But the rules make it clear that any pms to you guys or to Mark about people being banned will not be answered. So, what is the point. I am actually surprised this thread is still going and hasn't been moderated and locked.