Some notes on Forum behavior(in general)--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.

[Reeka]

Amen!

[Memnoch]

Well said. In fact, so well said that I'll stick it up. [img]smile.gif[/img]