Hi all - I have started to draft a charter for the forum, that the moderators (myself, Bulek and dlewis) can use to apply consistent, agreed standards of behaviour. Most importantly, we need to gain majority support from forum members for this charter for it to have any legitimacy!
As I say, this is only a draft. I have jotted down some fairly basic points that I feel will help make the forum a more reasonable and reasoned place to live in. They are off-the-top-of-my-head, so there are bound to be gaps, inconsistencies, and problems. Before we finalise this charter and publish it as a sticky topic, I need to get as much feedback from everyone as possible. Particularly so of the long time members. I will try to get a consensus, or at least majority, position, then republish a v2 we can have a vote on.
Here is the draft. The forum is Topic - Description - Action (if any)
Ethical:
Light Touch - when in doubt, moderators will take no action. They are here to protect the tone and facility of the forums, not censor it. All attempts will be made to avoid applying personal, subjective standards.
Swearing - Swear words are acceptable, this is part of normal everyday discourse. There is no need to get upset over such behaviour. Swearing used to increase the impact of an abusive attack is not acceptable. It is the abuse that is being actioned - See Unnecessarily Abusive Posts.
Free Speech - The forum is not an extension of any putative right to free speech. Cordial behaviour is expected and the charter should be respected. Abuses will be actioned when appropriate.
Discrimination/"isms" - Using the forum to communicate negative stereotypes and concepts relating to race, sex, sexuality, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or other group-identification is not acceptable. - Comments need to be assessed in context, but if found to be inappropriate, will be removed.
General Activities:
Spiralling Forum Thread - Continual posts and reposts, not related to the original subject or any related subjects, without any new posts on the original or related subjects, that are of an adversarial/argumentative/negative nature - Lock the thread.
Unnecessarily Abusive Posts - Repeated, personal, abusive posts that add no information to the original subject or related subjects - Remove the posts, if it continues, lock the thread.
Argumentative Thread - Repeated disagreement, no attempt to find common ground, thus no assistance to other forum members, setting the wrong tone. Should be taken offline - Temporarily lock thread for cool-down.
Trolls - Repeated posts across many threads over a period of time, where the nature of the comments appear to be to be willfully contradictary and contrary irrespective of subject - Warning via PM, if continues, lock the account.
Other:
Blatant, unrelated commercial posts - Posts/threads that seek to advertise or raise sales for product or service completely unrelated to LMCE. This includes hardware that is not known or suspected of being compatible with the system, particularly from unknown/untrusted posters - Delete thread
Spam - UCE, UBE - delete, lock account.
