Friends,
The following are the forum rules. They are transparent and cover both mods and users - any questions or comments can be directed to me personally.
THE RULES
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[li]No racist, sexist, homophobic posts are permitted. Ever. If you are unsure if a post is in breach of this, please use the report icon in the bottom left corner of the post. Mods will then make a group based decision on each posts suitability for FOA. REMEMBER THAT FOA HAS A DIVERSE MEMBER GROUP, IT’S NOT JUST YOU AND YOUR MATES!
[/li][li]No personal attacks (joking with mates is ok, within reason).
[/li][li]No posting of other members’ personal/business information to discredit or damage.
[/li][li]ANY POSTING OF PORN, SPAM OR ILLEGAL MATERIAL WILL BE DELETED AND THE OFFENDING MEMBER BANNED. NO EXCEPTIONS.
[/li][li]Any advertising material posted by a company or business that is not a site sponsor will be deleted and a request sent with information on how to become an advertiser on FOA.
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User guidelines:
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[li]Users should not belittle, tease or make fun of members. Any user that feels genuinely offended by another user may report the offending post to a mod using the report feature in the bottom left corner of each post. Please note, all effort should be made to resolve any minor issues independently of the mod team.
[/li][li]Users should make every effort to seek information for themselves, not rely on other users to tell them things. Seek information for yourself, it’s good for you!
[/li][li]Users should minimise contact with mods unless it is of genuine concern. If you are upset with another user, try and resolve this privately first (via pm, not on the forum boards).
[/li][li]Users will start threads in the relevant section of FOA. If no section exists, use the “Pub” section. Any irrelevant/inappropriate threads will be removed and a reason left below the offending thread. PM’s will not be sent to users to explain every thread lock or deletion. If you have a query about this, contact the relevant mod politely.
[/li][li]Users should not bait the mods. If something has been deleted and you are upset by this, please contact the relevant mod/s to discuss. Baiting of the mods on FOA will result in a ban.
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Moderator guidelines:
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[li]Moderating content should be a quiet, background task wherever possible. If a thread is to be locked, this should be done with no “last word” or snide remark to the offending member/s.
[/li][li]No obvious misuse of “power”.
[/li][li]Mods should not belittle, tease or make fun of members.
[/li][li]Mods should encourage new members to seek information politely via the FOA search function or Google. (ie. search term site:fixed.org.au)
[/li][li]Mods should never send abusive private messages (pm) to forum members, no matter how much they may personally disagree with the member. Communication should always be polite and reasoned (remember the person you are pm’ing is always able to post this pm in the public eye).
[/li][li]If mods have a disagreement amongst themselves that cannot be resolved, this is to be directed to nickj to deal with in a transparent manner.
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REMEMBER: Ultimately, FoA is a place to grow and get better - if users (mods included) show an attitude which goes against becoming a bigger and better place, then they need to go elsewhere.