Posting Rules and Expectations

Started by Orchid, April 30, 2016, 02:20:20 PM

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Orchid

This policy has been created as an adjunct to our registration and user policy agreements. Its purpose is to provide you with information about what you can expect as a forum user, what is expected of you, and to answer some questions relating to forum moderation that you may have during your use of the forum.  The Royal Insight Forum operates with the intention of offering a warm and friendly atmosphere for its community. In order to cultivate and maintain propriety and a sense of community, all users should read this policy. By continuing to use our features and participating in discussions, users are affirming their understanding of, and willingness to comply with, these terms.

1. Respect All Users
Royal Insight Forum operates with the purpose of sharing news and providing a platform for the exchange of diverse opinions. Occasionally there will be conflicts that arise when people voice opinions. Our Forum users are expected to be courteous and flexible when disagreeing with others.

2. Understand What Constitutes a Personal Attack
Posts that are designed, or have the ability, to personally insult, berate or dismiss another forum user is considered a Personal Attack. Posts of this nature are not conducive to a strong community spirit and will not be tolerated. The well being of users and the strength of our community is our utmost priority.

3. Understand What Constitutes Trolling
Trolling constitutes a post that is deliberately designed to insult, debase or anger fellow users, inciting retaliation or an emotive response. Posts of this nature are abusive and disruptive to the community and will not be tolerated.

4. Understand What Constitutes 'Ranting'
A rant is a post that is often filled with angry and emotionally charged comments. Ranting disrupts the free exchange of opinions, inciting negative behaviour in others. A free and flexible exchange of opinions is necessary for cultivating a strong sense of community and essential for letting topics develop to their full potential. Please post your thoughts in a constructive, thoughtful and friendly manner.

5. Understand What Constitutes Spamming
Spamming is deemed to be any type of repetitive posting or behaviour which is designed to disrupt or annoy the community. This includes repeatedly posting the same topic or posting the same post | opinion with the design to incite, annoy or be obstinate. Spam will be defined as posts which fail to contribute any discernible value to a topic or discussion.

6. Prohibiting Rumor Mongering and the Act of Defamation
Topics and posts which are founded on Rumours and do not originate from an identifiable news source may be deleted. Rumour mongering, particularly using social media sites as a source of information, generally lead to instances of defamation. Both have proven to be detrimental to the well being of the community and tend to create unnecessary hostility among users. Monitoring and managing such topics and posts also increases the workload of our moderators and as such we request members refrain from content of this nature.

7. Racism and discrimination are prohibited.
Any form of posting which negatively discriminates against or stereotypes another person may result in immediate posting suspensions. Users are expected to refrain from wilfully posting anything which constitutes racism, sexism, religion, hate speech or gender-stereotyping.

8. Use of profanity is prohibited.
The posting of profanities are prohibited on the public boards. This includes any attempt to mask letters, either partially or in full, in any format including the use of numbers or characters, or any attempts to bypass our censoring filters.

9. Post constructively.
Royal Insight openly invites constructive feedback, be it positive or negative. We understand that member feedback is essential to the improvement and development of the community and we're always ready to listen to our members. However, we ask that all feedback be presented in a factual, honest and civil manner. Posts, reports or private messages which are not constructive or willfully insult, breach the rules or aim to injure the reputation of the Forum will be deleted.

10. Discussion of warnings and bans is prohibited.
Any and all communications linked to warnings and bans are deemed to be private between staff and the involved user. Staff will always convey details of such actions privately, via the forum's private messaging system, and users are expected to uphold privacy in this respect. Royal Insight respects and upholds our member's privacy and as such all details of warnings and bans should not be posted on the public boards.

11. Discussion of forum moderation is prohibited.
The discussion of formal moderation actions on the public boards is prohibited. Publicizing moderating actions generally incites negative behaviour on the boards and can lead to trolling of moderators. For this reason all questions and queries associated with such actions must be directed via the private messaging system.

12. Managing Transgressions For The Community
In order to fairly and effectively manage the Royal Insight community, RI staff operate a tiered warning system. Transgressions [of the forum's rules and policies] are tied to a number of points culminating in set actions once a user reaches pre-set thresholds.
The table below demonstrates the structure of our warning and suspension policy. However, please be advised that if a transgression is severe enough, the policy may be bypassed in favour of instant revocation of a user's account privileges or access.

Points:
5: Spamming; Profanities
10: Ranting;
15: Personal Attacks; Trolling; Racism and Discrimination
20: Defamation; Advertising; Publicizing Moderation Actions and/or PM's.

Complaints
Should any member have an issue they wish to take up with a member of the team, or indeed have cause to complain regarding the conduct of a member of the team, you are invited to approach an Administrator via the private messaging system. Please do not breach our forum policy and rules by posting complaints on the public boards.  All complaints received will be taken seriously and investigated objectively with a view to offering the fairest outcome.
"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."
-Winston Churchil