04-19-2009, 02:31 PM

We've undertaken a massive rewrite of our forum rules to better communicate our values as a community and to be more conversational and personal.

The new rules, now called Community Guidelines, will be in effect starting tomorrow. The main intent of the rules are not changed, just the way we communicate them to you.

I've attached the new guidelines below for you to take a look at before they go live tomorrow.

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Mac-Forums Community Guidelines

The following Community Guidelines are here to help you understand what it means to be a member of Mac-Forums.

Play nice.
Our community is made up of all kinds of different people, and all of them have the right to feel comfortable. Others may not think the way that you think, believe what you believe, know what you know, or see what you see. Always be polite and respectful in your interactions with others.

Post appropriately.
This is a community of all types of people. Don’t use profanity, including masked words, or post anything that’s lewd or inappropriate for a large community. If you wouldn’t see it in a Disney movie, don’t post it here.

Search first, post things in the right place, use descriptive thread titles, and don't crosspost. Those things will help get you more timely responses and help keep our community nice and tidy.

Use the reputation system.
The reputation system helps members rate the effectiveness of fellow members. Don’t abuse the system including things like asking for votes or leaving comments that don’t adhere to our guidelines

Respect copyrights and the law.
Don’t discuss or conduct content theft or any other illegal activity. Period. We follow U.S. law on the forums, so just because something might be legal in your country doesn’t mean it will be allowed here. If you’re ever in doubt, contact one of the moderators before you post.

We want you to share, but don’t link images or files from 3rd-party servers unless you have their permission.

Don’t spam or advertise.
Soliciting, advertising, or anything else deemed “spammy” will not be permitted. If you want to advertise on Mac-Forums, click the link at the bottom of the page. Use the Buy/Sell/Trade forum for all private sales transactions.

Your account and privacy.
One account is enough, don’t create more than one. If you need to make changes to your account, contact a staff member. We will never disclose any personal information about a member for any reason unless required by law.

Signatures.
You can have up to four lines of text in your signature as well as an image. Be tasteful, remember people are here to read posts, not be distracted by your signature. Specifically:

• You can have up to four lines of text and one image up to 480 X 80 and 15k in size.
• Links to other communities or forums are limited to one no larger than font size 1 or an image no larger than 80 X 15.

Contacting us.
You can use our Contact Form or send a PM to any staff member if you need assistance or have questions about these guidelines.

The Small Print™.
All messages posted become the property of Mac-Forums.com. By posting on these forums you are agreeing to all the Community Guidelines. Opinions, advice and all other information expressed by participants in discussions are those of the author, not Mac-Forums.com. All rules can, and probably will be edited/changed in the future.

We understand that some of the rules have shades of grey. Moderators always have final authority in upholding our community standards including enforcement of the guidelines and any behavior that may not be strictly spelled out above.

If you break one of the guidelines, we'll probably send you a note to remind you of this. Multiple rule violations could result in a "time-out" by way of a brief suspension of your membership. And unfortunately, if your violation is severe or your behavior too disruptive, you may be asked to leave permanently.

04-19-2009, 02:55 PM

Looks good to me. States the facts without being mean.

04-19-2009, 02:56 PM

That's all very concise, is there any way to auto link to the rules when new users set up an account?

04-19-2009, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by louishen

That's all very concise, is there any way to auto link to the rules when new users set up an account?

Yep, it's included in the welcome PM/e-mail they receive after activating their account.

04-19-2009, 03:19 PM

Man, I really wish more people used the reputation system...

04-19-2009, 03:29 PM

Half the time I use the Rep button I had already given that user Rep so it will not let me and the other half of the time I forget. Will try and jog my memory more in the future.

It's a good system as long as people don't abuse it.

04-19-2009, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by BlueMac

Man, I really wish more people used the reputation system...

So do we. We're actually looking at ways to make it more intuitive and obvious for people to use.

04-19-2009, 03:33 PM

That is crazy. My last post was in reply to you Schweb and yours was there for a good 2 minutes then I posted and mine is before yours. Strange.

04-19-2009, 11:05 PM

Coolio.

04-19-2009, 11:32 PM

I'd like to make a suggestion about the following section regarding copyrights/laws.

Originally Posted by schweb

Respect copyrights and the law.
Don’t discuss or conduct content theft or any other illegal activity. Period. We follow U.S. law on the forums, so just because something might be legal in your country doesn’t mean it will be allowed here. If you’re ever in doubt, contact one of the moderators before you post.

While I have no problem understanding the logic behind using the laws of one nation as the basis for what is acceptable to talk about but what about people who are unaware of US law? Many people visit from countries where some things are legal that aren't in the US (I think copyright circumvention for example is not illegal in Canada...I think). Perhaps a link to a layman's list of what US copyright law entails pertaining to IT would be nice at the end of this section.

The myriad of approaches to copyright law are bound to confuse people so clearing this up for the new (and current) users would probably help quite a bit. While I don't mind directing people to the DVD ripping thread for example, it might be nice if they are made aware of what is and isn't acceptable in this section so they know as soon as they join. Even an quick summary of the more pertinent points would suffice in deterring many inappropriate threads.

I hope this isn't too late...

04-27-2009, 08:23 AM

Thank you for sharing that, it was wonderful of you.