I could play Gramar Nazi, but I'm too tired :x

An Explanation of the Philosophy Used to Moderate These Boards

The board guidelines are driven by a general philosophy about how to moderate, what makes a healthy board, and how members should be treated. Like any policy of "enforcement" it sounds awfully grim when you read it. We feel that it's important to understand not only the raw basics of the system, but also the thoughts and philosophies behind that enforcement policy. Like any human endeavor, board posting and moderation is full of grey areas and disagreements of opinion. This makes a clear mutual understanding of the philosophy of the boards not just a "nice to have" but a pretty crucial part of people feeling comfortable and happy with the atmosphere around here.

Board moderation is an art, not a science. Ultimately, it's a task that depends as much on the members of the board as it does on any ideas that the moderators have about how things should be handled. Every board's moderation must be orchestrated to embrace the culture of the bulk of its participants. That means that the level of moderation varies from group to group. In some groups, for instance, there is a looser standard towards "trash talking" and joking around because many members seem to enjoy it rather than get angry over it.

Cultivating a healthy and happy message board is a pretty dynamic and squishy process. The posters who stir up issues are also often the guys who have made significant contributions to the discussions over a long period of time. In the meantime, a fair percentage of the board seems to enjoy bantering with them in their little off-topic diatribes.

We could ban everyone that violates the general rules of conduct in a flare-up that lasts 24 hours, ignoring whatever positive contributions they have had over an extended period of time, but eventually this would result in a less healthy board. We prefer instead to work through a series of actions to check their behavior - that can ultimately lead to banning if that is required.

We will from time to time handle board members in violation of the general rules of conduct through a process that includes warnings and some acknowledgement of their overall contribution to the boards rather than quick and heavy banning. It can and has resulted in bannings, but infrequently. The result of this measured approach is, in our experience, a more vibrant community.

It's certainly not a perfect community. Some people don't like each other and show it and sometimes the posting gets out of hand and has to be corrected. These are, in our opinion, the hazards of maintaining an open community.

The bottom line is this: what we're trying to create is an open and friendly atmosphere that allows everyone to speak their mind, but keeps things on a level where as many people as possible are having a good time.

Moderation is tougher than it looks. All we can say is that we try to do our best. If all of you try to do YOUR best to meet these ideals BEFORE you hit the post button, things will go smoothly.

The following behaviors may result in action taken by board moderators This is not an exhaustive list, it is only intended to be a series of examples to help clarify what is meant.


* Physical threats

* Excessively graphic sexual references and/or images, particularly when used in an insulting manner toward other members, but also in general

* Strong profanity, primarily when used in an insulting manner toward other members

* Masking of strong profanity - finding ways to defeat the profanity filters put in place, primarily when used in an insulting manner toward other members. (i.e. typing "@ss" instead of the real word in order to circumvent the filters

* Harrasment of another member through unwanted and repeated arguing and conflict - particularly when exemplified by "following" that person from thread to thread

* Particularly excessive off-topic posting

* Hi-jacking of other people's threads in a way that stifles the originally intended topic against the objections of the thread creator

* Inappropriate user names.

* Posting of any information which encourages or enables illegal or fraudulent behavior by others, particularly in regards to the hobbies covered here.

* Spamming the boards with repeated or similar posts

* Racist or "hate crime" type comments

* Inappropriate references (analogies, etc.) to significantly emotional topics such as Nazis, slavery, etc.. If you have to wonder whether someone with a personal involvement in the topic would find your comment strongly offensive, you probably shouldn't make it.

* Threads started explicitly to bash other members

* Pork Barreling - placing small inappropriate statements within longer posts whose content is mainly legitimate. These post will get pulled and you will lose the positive with the negative.

* Creating shill accounts, accounts created as anonymous identities to push specific agendas.