ArchBoston Regulations & Code of Conduct

[George_Apley]

As promised, here are regulations and a code of conduct for us to live by. This was created jointly by the mod team and ownership. We believe that this will allow the forum to continue to operate with a relatively light hand, but also hold members accountable for their behavior. As stated within, this can be amended by board staff and feedback is welcome, but this is not up for a vote. These are the rules we live by going forward. Please use this thread ONLY for clarifying questions. This is not the space to debate the merits. If you have feedback or want to request changes, please send a DM to the mod team.

ArchBoston Regulations and Code of Conduct

Registration

• Only one username per person.
• Anything offensive or related to spam etc. is not allowed in a username.
• Overtly commercial usernames, "john@johnrealty.com" for example, are not allowed.
• Avatars and signatures must be in compliance with the overall tone of the forum as determined by the moderators and within the guidelines set out by these regulations.
• The determination of appropriateness will be done by the administrators and moderators. Users not complying with this policy will be told to change their name, avatar or signature. Non compliance will result in an immediate banning.
• Users who want or need to change their usernames should contact site Admin with a replacement.

Posting Guidelines

• New members need to have 20 posts before they can start their own thread. This is physically hardwired into the system to reduce spam.
• Stay on topic. Read the thread subject and previous postings carefully before replying to a topic. There is some room to move around in a thread but keep it to a minimum. We want this to be a forum that provides knowledge to its members rather than a soapbox for people who just want to add to their post counts. We will warn you if we think you’re posting too often about nothing and we may move posts that have value but are off-topic. Don’t take it personally. We just want the content to stay strong and the forum to stay organized.
• Make sure your posts contribute something meaningful to the thread.
• If a post is unintelligible to board staff we will delete it.
• Use the search function before creating a new thread.
• When posting copyrighted material include source, author and a link to the source.
• No sexist, racist or offensive language of any kind will be allowed. Postings of a sexual nature are also prohibited.
• Yelling (YELLING) is not allowed except sparingly for emphasis.
• Swearing in general is not prohibited, but name calling and other such offenses against other forum members will not be tolerated.
• Members are encouraged to notify mods about any of the above behaviors using the 'report' function.

Trolling

• No trolling. Trolling is a post or an ongoing series of posts of an antagonistic and disruptive nature, including borderline pathological attention to certain threads, which add little new perspective or information, and those which will only serve to needlessly and baselessly provoke a particular member or a group of members.
• An occasional harsh but fair comment would not be considered trolling.
• If you believe you see behavior on the board that rises to trolling, use the 'report' function to notify the mods.

Media: Photos, Artwork, Videos, and News-Media

• ArchBoston maintains an unlimited license to reuse all photos, artwork, and videos posted on the site on other sections of the site.
• Copyright remains held by the content creator in perpetuity.
• No one has the right to take media posted on ArchBoston for use elsewhere without the express written consent of the owners of the copyright (photographers etc.)
• Credit to the author of reposted media must be given when the image or video is not the work of the user posting.
• Links should be provided to any news-media posted. Whole articles should not be posted. Stick to links and quoted excerpts.
• Do not immediately repost/quotepost images. Although reposting after a gap of several posts is acceptable, it is preferable not to repost images on the same page as the originating post. It is acceptable to repost an image to single out one for comment from a post containing many images.

Spamming

• No commercial messages or advertisements of any kind are allowed. If you want to legitimately advertise please contact site Admin. If you are unsure whether your post is appropriate, please contact one of the moderators. Inappropriate messages will be deleted without notification.
• Spamming is not allowed on this forum. Posts by spammers will be deleted and the account will be immediately banned.
• If you see posts that are spam use the 'report' function to notify the mods.
• Sending a commercial message using Conversations (PM/DM) without the prior approval of a forum member is considered spam and you can be banned for this.
• Please report any spam DMs you receive in your inbox.

Banning

• The administrators and moderators of this forum make the rules of conduct and are empowered with enforcing them by issuing bans when necessary.
• Reasons to be banned:
  • Spamming
  • Repeatedly breaking the above rules
  • Ignoring moderators' warnings
  • Registering under more than one username
  • Registering under an alias after previously being banned
• Banning will normally come after a series of warnings after which the user will be given the chance to modify their behavior. For behavioral issues, the discipline schedule will be as follows:
  • Mods will issue a warning for problematic behavior. Warnings may be recorded using the formal "warn" mod function, publicly posted in threads, or DM'd from staff.
  • After three (3) mod warnings users will receive a temp ban. After a first ban, mods need not provide more warnings before increasing the length of temp bans should behavior not improve.
    • 1st ban = 1 week
    • 2nd ban = 1 month
    • 3rd ban = final, permaban
• Instances in which users may be immediately permabanned include spam threads or posts, threats, posting personal info about other forum users, posting under a second account or a sockpuppet account, and other extraordinary circumstances.
• If a user wishes to contest a warning or temp ban, these protests should be lodged via DMs with moderators, not publicly on the forum. Public protestations may be met with additional warnings or bans.

Amending the Regulations and Code of Conduct

• Forum Administrators and Moderators may amend these regulations and codes as needed.
• Forum members will be notified of any changes in the appropriate thread before they take effect.
• New forum rules will not be applied retroactively.

So it is written, so let it be done.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Since it's come up lately on explicit mod warnings, can we officially suggest that on the subject of statistics dumps and wiki copypasta that the filter be dutifully and effortably applied for thread relevance on factoid-quoting with not-at-all-relevant extracurricular excised to further-reading links? As well as in-spirit "at least I tried" attention to attempting to format it for readability and topical relevance.

Walls of sourced quote text non-original to the author that serve little purpose except to drive discussions off-topic have been a well-worn bad-behavior attack vector by certain disruptors. And, more generally when it leeches into the aB water supply, seems to fuel the "listicle malaise" phenomenon that seems to afflict some popular Dev Forum threads when there's antsiness over lack of current events in the news.

Photo/charts too. It's a "smell test" difference, but an embedded image should more often than not be more-relevant-than-not to the primary thing being discussed. Purely secondary/tangiental illustrations waste no space being embedded as text link-outs and don't need to be abrasively blown up all over a smartphone screen strung 5 in a row when it's quite obviously driving some sidebar away from topic.

 

[Tension Member]

I will comply with all of your posting guidelines and I am sorry if I broke some of your rules in an earlier post; again, full compliance will be adhered to by me, username Tension Member - yet, I will relieve all tension and stress going forward.

 

[George_Apley]

Yo peeps. There are users who are going to piss you off from time to time. Maybe they even consistently piss you off. You *might* think it's a good idea to shitpost those users because it makes you feel better. Maybe you're annoyed that the mods aren't "doing anything about it" the way you want them to. Let me dissuade you from shitposting. If you think someone is breaking the rules above, report the posts, ignore the user, or DM the mods. Engaging in a pissing match with another user–even if you think it's justified–isn't helpful to anyone. We have a process. Use it, or you're going to end up with warnings yourself. None of you want warnings or bans because you can't help but engage in shitposting against someone who pisses you off. Figure it out.

If you don't like the speed at which the mods work the process either DM us for an update or keep it to yourself. Dragging your negative feelings into discussion threads is trolling/personal attacks that will be warned accordingly.