Some notes on Forum behavior--PLEASE READ

[Cloudbringer]

1.
This is a general reminder that private disagreements and correspondences should not be posted on any of the forums of this board. We've had several instances of this occuring in the last few months and want to make it clear that it shouldn't be done.

Private Messages (pm's) are just that, private. Unless the other party agrees in advance, please don't post OR discuss the contents of your pm's or emails/ IM discussions on the board.

Posting personal info about another member or your relationship with them is also off limits unless the other person has expressly agreed to it.

If you are having a disagreement with someone and take it off the board, please keep it out of your public posts. Ironworks isn't the place to air your dirty laundry.


2.
In addition, please note that while we are currently able to delete our own threads or posts, that doesn't mean it's ok to just delete a thread on a whim, because you dislike a post or someone disagrees with you.

If you happen to post something in the heat of the moment (in a spirited debate for instance) and after cooling off a little you decide it wasn't your smartest move, deleting is understandable and commendable, but deleting a thread because you don't like someone's reply is not.

Deletion of the entire thread is unfair to other members who are participating in the discussion and are interested in the topic. Once a thread takes off it belongs to the whole membership and unless it's full of porn, obscenity or other violations of the ToS, it should be left alone. If you feel it's necessary, requests to delete a thread should go through a mod who will weigh your request carefully.

In most cases only true troll postings, completely obscene or hateful posts and threads would be candidates for deletion. Most threads that degenerate like that or into flame wars are locked down, not deleted. As Mouse so eloquently puts it, "Sometimes even threads that have spiralled well beyond control contain worthwile contributions and to simply delete the whole thing punishes the innocent along with the guilty."

Obvious exceptions to the above paragraph would be sig tests or other 'spam' threads that poster deletes in a timely fashion.

Deletion of a post or parts of a post within a thread can really throw off the discussion and can also make later replies obsolete or even make them look out of line as they appear to address things that were never said.

Whether or not that is your purpose in the alterations, this can be interpreted by other members as deceitful or misleading and should be avoided. Again, if you post something in the heat of the moment without thinking and delete it in a timely fashion, no harm done. But if several people have replied and even quoted your post, perhaps a simple apology post is the better course of action.

The delete/edit feature is a privilege and Ziroc is currently debating whether to curtail the option in some way to avoid the misunderstandings, hurt feelings and disrupted threads that occur when someone misues the feature.

[WillowIX]

Well typed. [img]smile.gif[/img] I hope you saved your post Cloudy. Might be wort to put it up as a FAQ somewhere. Just my opinion of course but the ToS does not mention abuse of the delete function IIRC and therefore a "FAQ" could come in handy. I sincerely hope that it will not be necessary to implement restrictions on the edit/delete function since I sorely need it to correct all my typos. [img]graemlins/blueblink.gif[/img]

Edit: As I predicted, typos. LOL

[ 04-23-2003, 06:16 PM: Message edited by: WillowIX ]

[Cloudbringer]

Yes, Willow, I have a backup copy! LOL And I fully understand about the typos, I do it all the time. Type a quick post, then see a dozen stupid spelling or punctuation errors!

I think that however it goes, there would be a window of opportunity for fixing typos.

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Cloudbringer: Yes, Willow, I have a backup copy! LOL And I fully understand about the typos, I do it all the time. Type a quick post, then see a dozen stupid spelling or punctuation errors! I think that however it goes, there would be a window of opportunity for fixing typos.

Well then I have absolutely no problem with this. I seldom delete my post since most of them contain words of wisdom. If this is a problem then it needs to be fixed. I am sure you (as in Ziroc and the moderators) will find the best way to do this.

While discussing forum rules I have a question about the new smiley restriction. Is this to conserve bandwidth? Or do smileys slow down the loading speed? I am just wondering since I got the new message and was completely stunned. Is this temporary or permanent? [img]smile.gif[/img] (The smileys, not me being stunned ) I have to ask since I am one of the culprits when it comes to excessive use of smileys.

Note: I hope it is OK to ask about the smileys in this thread. Otherwise I will promptly fill your PM inbox with questions Cloudy.

[ 04-23-2003, 06:37 PM: Message edited by: WillowIX ]

[Ladyzekke]

Good post Cloudy! [img]smile.gif[/img] I agree wholeheartedly. When a person creates a thread they unfortunately have the power to also delete the entire thread, including everyone else's replies to said thread. Most of the time I have seen this done was out of spite, kind of like "Ha! I don't like what you are saying so I'm going to delete all you typed, all the time you spent creating a long reply, all for nothing! Hahahahaha!!!" It is basically a rude thing to do to others, and also unfair as well, as said thread deleter is the one who started the topic in the first place, so should deal with whatever replies they may get (any flaming replies can be deleted separately by the flamer or a Mod). This type of behavior also only creates negative feelings all around towards the deleter, which only disrupts the harmony of Ironworks even further.

[Reeka]

Well, couldn't you have the option to edit but not delete? I, obviously don't know what this software is capable of----not the program I am familiar with. I think people should have the right to edit, but quite frankly, I think only admins and mods should be able to delete. Even with the edit function, if you thought better of it, you could go back and edit your post to "clean it up" so to speak.

And Amen to private should remain private unless both people agree to it being made public.

*Does give me ideas about deleting my two erroneous attempts to celebrated Kaltia's birthday and only making myself look dumb*

[ 04-23-2003, 07:22 PM: Message edited by: Reeka ]

[Cloudbringer]

Willow, the smiley limit used to pop up for me once in a while too. I'm not sure it's supposed to, but I'll ask about that. Since Z just upgraded the forum, it may simply be the default.

Reeka, I haven't got the list of options handy right now, but if I remember correctly the time limitation option may be for both edit/delete.

edit: LOL, Reeka, the birthday threads were fun.. and funny!

[ 04-23-2003, 07:59 PM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

[Jorath Calar]

If this is because I made a thread yesterday about fear in the media and removed it then I apologise. I felt that my initial post was very badly written and I ended it in a big hurry because I had to leave the computer I wrote it on. And basicly after I looked at it I saw how terrible it was and felt it didn't belong here anyway.

But I apologise and promise I won't do it again.

[Grojlach]

Maybe it's possible to implement a code modification which makes it impossible to remove a topic once it has a certain number of replies?

[ 04-24-2003, 06:33 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

[Jorath Calar]

On another board I used to visit, you could only edit your posts for about 90 minutes after you posted it.