Moderator Notices: READ THIS FIRST! Rules of behaviour

[David cgc]

I always thought old threads being bumped was kind of annoying. Reading a thread only to realize you'd already made the response you were going to make, or trying to get into a discussion with someone who hasn't posted in years. And, I suppose, it'd be easy for it to get kind of spammy (some misguided soul deciding to "help" by going to a bunch of old discussions and adding a bit of information that resolves the thread based on an episode that didn't exist at the time, or something like that).

 

[trampledamage]

I don't know what caused the rule, I just know it's standard practice across this board.

 

[trampledamage]

@trampledamage, can a user on here do this?

I was under the impression such "friendly reminders" by a user, not a moderator is classified as an infrastructionable offence regardless of the intent is to be helpful.

Okay, so it's been longer than a couple of hours... (but on the upside I've finally got everything completed for my application to get Canadian citizenship and I posted that off today )

Right, so... friendly reminders, mini-modding, telling people what to do etc.

For me it's a matter of tone. Being a moderator gives me the authority to tell people what to do in this forum "don't post on this subject again", no-one else has that authority. Which means that people shouldn't have to deal with other people telling them what to do. However, a request can be made by other people, "hey, we're getting off topic here and it's making things confusing, please can we stick to discussing Morn's audiobook career?"

I realise that this can seem a pointless difference, if I'm the only one with the authority to tell people what to do, then anything from anybody else should be taken as a request. But it does make a difference to the emotional experience of the reader (yes, I was a fuzzy-wuzzy literature major, I do not have a scientific mind!).

Remember that everyone's here just to have fun discussing the books, so if there's something about what someone's talking about or their writing style that irritates you then just scroll on by and leave them alone. But if it's something that's really getting in the way of your ability to have fun, then you can make the request - or message me and ask me, if you think it's serious enough.

Obviously if someone says something that's against the general rules of society - slurs, for example - then notify me AND tell them to knock if off: because otherwise it remains unremarked on if I don't see the notification right away.

Sorry, I didn't realize this was that big of a deal. It just looked like people were getting kind of close to the line, and I just thought I'd speak up before someone stepped over it. It honestly didn't even occur to me that this could be against the rules.

Story ideas are a special case because they do need to be flagged and dealt with as soon as possible and also it's easy to cross the line into getting too specific in your ideas without realising it. So in the case of story ideas I positively encourage you all to point out to posters when it's possible they've written an idea in too specific terms - but you do need to be gentle, assume it's just a mistake, not that their being stupid.

@JD's post was acceptable in this context.

@Dimesdan I know you had a difficult experience with this when I first took over as moderator for this forum. I can't remember what it was now, but I do remember that I was basing my a lot of reaction on the other BBS moderators expectations and as I discovered, in your case they were incorrect (which made my very embarrassed and annoyed with my self). I hope this explanation gives you a better sense of how things stand now.


I'm open to further discussion, so post here if you have questions

 

[Avro Arrow]

Some of you might have noticed a bit of a change at the top of the forum. I have created an index thread for our pinned reference threads, and then have unpinned the reference threads themselves. Our pinned threads were taking up a lot of space on our first page, so this should help with that.

I know that this was something that trampledamage had wanted to do for a while, and I had sort of planned to carry that on when I took on mod duties for this forum, but then it kind of fell by the wayside. However, a recent report brought it back to top-of-mind, so I wanted to take care of it as soon as I had some extra time available.

I have left the Author Signing Events thread as its own thing for now, but I am open to further consideration on that one if the membership thinks it would be best to include it in the index and unpin it. The Moderator Notices thread (ie - this one!) will continue to be separate, and stay pinned to increase the likelihood that new members will see it.

You may have noticed that I locked the index thread, since it's intended more as a list of links, rather than a discussion. But if anyone has any other threads (past, present or future) they think should be added to the index, let me know. You can PM me, reply to this post, or tag me in the thread you think should be added.

Hopefully this change is a positive one, but if you have any concerns, my virtual door is always open!

(And I also just realized that this is my first post in the Moderator Notices thread as the forum mod, so, um, hi!)

 

[Stevil2001]

I appreciate you doing this!

 

[KRAD]

I think this is an excellent idea, long overdue.

 

[Christopher]

Some of you might have noticed a bit of a change at the top of the forum. I have created an index thread for our pinned reference threads, and then have unpinned the reference threads themselves. Our pinned threads were taking up a lot of space on our first page, so this should help with that.

Only problem is, I keep missing new posts because I'm so much in the habit of skimming past the top few posts in the index. Well, I'll get used to it.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

What are the rules about linking to the GoFundMe for author Peter David? He had a series of strokes and heart attacks and he and his family are having such a hard time.

 

[Avro Arrow]

What are the rules about linking to the GoFundMe for author Peter David? He had a series of strokes and heart attacks and he and his family are having such a hard time.

I'm really sorry to hear that. But posting a link to GoFundMe, or other fundraising sites, is not allowed, sorry.

Please note, however, that unobtrusive links in one's signature are usually ignored, as long as you don't make posts trying to draw people's attention to it.